Day 17: Old Weight, Old Habits

In a way, the path I've been on has been easy, despite the abrupt shift from the overeating to eating about 850 calories/day and needing to gorge on water from time to time. Because the weight I reached at the start of the diet was abnormally high for me, I didn't have any well-engrained habits to fight off during the start of my diet.

Now that my body's beginning to look as it did when I was borderline-obese, despite my weight still being a little more than fifteen pounds over my norm for years past, those old habits are beginning to surface again.

Like many people, I ate when hungry. I had fallen into a habit of eating a large breakfast in the morning and a huge dinner, with no lunch in between. This habit, with a heavy ration of junk food once per week, kept my weight at about 220-225 lbs. unclothed, although it might have gotten higher at times.

Now, when I look at myself, I'm down to what I looked like back then. The sight of me at borderline obesity, for a man my height and build, has gotten me rehabituated to the same old eating pattern. So, I have to resist going back to my normal style of eating now that I've changed my look from unusually fat to normally chubby.

I believe this is more common than is realized. The dieter who starts off by "turning into the skid" - starting a diet after binge eating up to a new all-time high in poundage - may very well have a better chance than the dieter who starts from a normal weight for him/her, because the unusually high eating capacity isn't habitual. The latter kind of dieter feels the tug of old habit from day 1 of the diet, while the former kind doesn't. I've found this out, not only over the past 2 1/2 weeks, but particularly over the last day.


Last night, I went a little over 850 calories, in large part because I got bored with the food I had. My intake was below 900, but it's still over the limit I set for myself. I decided that this kind of overage is best treated by stocking the larder with more foods, for more variety.

Also, I've decided to set up a tabular sliding scale for myself now that I've lost almost twenty pounds. I'm sure this idea is not original, even if I'm of the opinion that the crash phase has to be endured before bringing this scaling into play. I've decided on this plan:

• More than 240 pounds: same ration of 850 calories/day.
• 231-240 lbs. unclothed: 1,000 calories/day.
• 221-230 lbs. unclothed: 1,250 calories/day.
• 211-220 lbs. unclothed: 1,500 calories/day.
• 201-210 lbs. unclothed: 1,750 calories/day.
• 200 pounds and below: I can eat what I want, as I've met my goal. (Normal intake for a man my size and build is about 2,500 calories/day.)

This kind of plan makes intuitive sense, as the diet gets tailed down as the ideal weight is approached. Also, it hooks any hunger pangs to an incentive plan. The drawback is that it takes some self-discipline, so I'd suggest not using this technique unless you're already acclimatized to dieting, as shown by one of these two means:

1. Successfully going off the diet and going back on without any second derailments, or:
2. Staying on the hard part of the diet for at least three weeks, so as to acclimatize yourself to the new habit.

Until one of these two points are reached, I'd suggest sticking to a fixed goal and enduring, as I have done. Taking it day by day in the early part is challenging enough.

Weight as of approx. 6 PM today: a flat 241 pounds.