Calories, Pounds, and Scales
January 29, 2009 (Thursday)
I have gained a little weight. O.K., a lot of weight. I didn’t move my bathroom scale to Houston, which I now know was a mistake. I just didn’t think much about weight until I tried to fasten that last button around my waist each morning. I finally decided to do something about my heaviness when I absolutely could not get my suit on. I was no longer overweight; I was fat, I admitted to myself. But it took shortness of breath, weakness of knees, and a slight chest discomfort to help me decide to take firm action to lose weight.
I finally decided, after investigating different types of weight loss plans, that the formula is simple: burn more calories than you eat (am I smart, or what?). I started two weeks ago, writing down the calorie count of every item on my plate. I looked up the number of calories a man of my age and height needs to maintain a steady weight, then decided to eat less than that amount each day. After three days, I realized I needed to weigh (such intelligence!), so I bought a cheap scale and started weighing myself every day. After nearly two weeks, I decided that the cheap scale might not be acting just right, so I bought a better one. Ugh! The cheapy had been lying to me. I actually weigh nine pounds more than it had reported. I felt like yelling at it, “Liar, Liar, pants on fire!” The new scale tells me the truth, I think. The truth hurts.
I am determined to lose the weight, but it’s not easy because my metabolism knows it’s only less than 3 years away from being 80 years old, and has slowed down considerably.
Yes, I do walk three times a week, but I think I’m going to have to increase that schedule. But did you know you have to walk 8 hours on a treadmill to burn 3500 calories, which equals one pound of fat? Between sitting here at the computer and sitting in the recliner watching T.V., where’s a busy man like me going to find the time?