Week 2 - The Journey Continues

Weekly weigh in time this morning.  As I guess a lot of people must experience, my enthusiasm remains high in these early days for any number of reasons.  That's a big positive of course, but, whether it is the pesemist in me I don't know, invariably, I always prepare myself for the worst on Thursday mornings.

This week however I was very pleased with the results.  Despite a big week 1 loss, I managed a 1.4kg drop.  This brings my two week total to just over 5kg.  Whilst those sort of results will not continue, it is a good mental lift to be encouraged on the scales as a result of working in the kitchen as well as the huffy puffy stuff. This battle will most definitely be won and lost in the kitchen.  At least as far as my efforts are concerned.

The B.M.I. Chart

Something that is never far from my mind when it comes to getting healthy and losing weight is something I mentioned back in my first post, the Body Mass Index, or B.M.I.  Now here's the thing, every time I have asked a doctor about my weight, whether it be for confirmation of my approach to weight loss or even affirmation of my opinions of my current situation, they invariably either ask my weight and height or measure both and race for the B.M.I chart.  That's all well and good if you were born in the mid 1800s and trust their science and methodology to this day...Despite it forming part of my goals in this endeavour, it does tend to leave me somewhat cold.

Picture my most recent visit to the doctor prior to me starting this process I am working my way through now.  It went pretty much as I just described, except this time my doctor had the wherewithal to say out loud that I fit into the obese range of the scale.  Not many of them will actually come out and say it.  Whilst that bugs me to be classified in that way in so much as it is entirely my own doing, the truth of it is, I know that realistically, I am probably not what most people would call obese to look at.  Small comfort to go with the label, but it is what it is.

I read a post on the blog of George st Pierre (GSP), an athlete and MMA fighter that I admire greatly.  It speaks of the inherent conflicts of using the B.M.I. as a reference to your healthy weight.  GSP is an amazing athlete and nothing like what anyone would consider to be overweight.  Yet, according to the B.M.I. he is exactly that.  It also states that the dimensions of the current UFC heavyweight champion place him squarely in the obese category with me!  He has cardio for days and is certainly not obese by my definition.

"Obese" UFC Heavyweight Champ Cain Valasquez

In my own experience, the fittest I have ever and no doubt will ever be was towards the end of one particular pre-season for Rugby.  Being young and with little responsibilities, I had exposure to excellent coaching and a lot of time to train.  The result was excellent fitness and much lower body fat than probably any other time in my life.  Yet, I was high in the overweight range of the B.M.I..  Actually, I was 3kg shy of obese.

So what context does that bring to me now?  As stated, the magic number in my head is 93kg.  That puts me at the very top of the healthy range of the B.M.I.  Somewhat humorously, having told me I was obese, the doctor then proceeded to tell me that I should aim to sit at around 104kg as an ideal weight target.  That of course is 11kg into the overweight range for someone my height.  So I find it hard to imagine that the B.M.I. is held in great esteem even with doctors.  Ironically, the common sense part of my thinking dismisses the B.M.I. as a useful reference for finding myself a healthy weight goal.  The emotional part of me desperately seeks my own internal approval by attaining that healthy range, even if only for a single day, before settling into a more sustainable weight for my body type for the rest of my days.  Perhaps the most poignant part of that concept is the burning motivation that it brings to my diet and training.  So for now, the B.M.I. is one tool in my arsenal, used to drive the change that I am seeking.