My weight history
Thursday, August 21st, 2003 02:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanaleh
[One in an occasional series of ruminative essays on personal topics. I briefly considered locking or filtering this one, then decided I didn't need to.]
Some months back,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ablock and I went to donate platelets at MGH (in response to a plea that went out on the Suspects list). I give blood regularly at the MIT Red Cross drives, but this was the first time I'd done plateletpheresis (where they filter out your platelets in real-time and return the filtered blood back to you through the other arm, so it takes about 90 minutes instead of 20).
But that's not the point of this entry. The point was that I had put down my actual, truthful weight on the intake form -- and then as the nurse was hooking me up, she asked me "Is that your correct weight?" and I chuckled to myself and said "Yes, yes it is." And felt proud about it. Not the number, I mean -- about the fact that I'd told the truth to begin with, without really batting an eyelash.
At just under 5'10", I weigh 185 pounds. This is, at most, 5 pounds over what I weighed in high school. I remember this because when I got my first driver's license, senior year of high school back in Indiana, I put down 165 pounds, and that was already a tactful understatement. (I'm interested to note that my current Massachusetts driver's license doesn't even list weight, only height. Did they decide there was no point because no one tells the truth anyway?) There have been times in the interim when I weighed as much as 195, or as little as 175, but neither of those has been anytime lately. And my weight does tend to fluctuate within about a 3-pound range, but it seems to have become remarkably stable inside that.
I generally wear a size 14. This is also about what I've worn since high school (in fact, probably, grade school), although the fit of specific garments has changed as things have shifted around. It's not a bad size to be; as long as I can find clothes in mainstream stores, I'm pretty satisfied. (This in fact seems to be getting even easier, thanks in part to size inflation, not to mention the way the national average is catching up with me. But I'm not sure either of those is at all a good trend.)
It also helps my body image, I think, that I am relatively small-breasted and carry most of my weight in my hips and thighs (conversely, I can leg-press a respectable percentage of my body weight). It means that I don't think of my breasts as particularly shapely or interesting -- yet on the other hand, if they were larger, I would probably feel fatter, possibly in such a way as to trouble me more.
The part that interests me in all this is how I've basically given up on worrying about what and how I eat (in the sense of restricting it), and focus more on getting what I need out of it. I don't eat a whole lot of greasy foods anymore, but when I do want it, I try to appreciate it as providing something that I apparently need at the moment. At some point a few years ago I gave up consuming artificial sweeteners altogether (except for sugarless gum, for which there's just no better alternative) -- and has my weight gone up as a result? Not a pound. And God save us from artificially low-fat foods (in which the fats are merely replaced with sugars and other overprocessed ingredients designed to temporarily fool your body. It's not nice to fool Mother Nature).
Back in high school, we once got our body compositions tested in P.E. class (the caliper-test kind, with whatever extrapolations they made from your current fat percentage to your projected ideal weight). I actually didn't hate it, because they did it in private, and as I recall, they calculated my personal ideal weight at something like 162.5. Which was somewhat vindicating: no, really, I'm not supposed to weigh 135.
A couple weeks ago I had my yearly physical (Pap smear, blood workup, all that good stuff), and the doctor put me on the scale. Yep, 185. "Oh," she said, "even for 5'10" that's a little high. You should be down around 150." "Oh?" I said skeptically. (This was my first appointment with a new doctor. Over the years, some of my docs have merely reminded me that I like everyone would benefit from an exercise regimen, which I certainly do believe, and some have been a bit more pointed in their recommendations.) "Well, you should really have a Body Mass Index under 25," and she fiddled with the calculator a bit and then allowed that perhaps 160 or so was more appropriate.
Now, I'm not actually sure I buy into the whole new BMI principle, as it seems to me just as one-proportion-fits-all as the old-fashioned height-weight tables used to be, and I insist on believing that body composition (muscle vs. bone vs. fat) makes a difference. Still, the NIH BMI calculator sez:
Your Body Mass Index
The Height you entered is 5 feet, 9.5 inches.
The Weight you entered is 185 pounds.
Your Calculated BMI is: 26.9
Whereas 165 pounds yields a BMI of 24.0, which is comfortably within the "Normal Weight" range. Not a bad goal. And it would no doubt make my aching knees happier. Hmmm.
Some months back,
ablock and I went to donate platelets at MGH (in response to a plea that went out on the Suspects list). I give blood regularly at the MIT Red Cross drives, but this was the first time I'd done plateletpheresis (where they filter out your platelets in real-time and return the filtered blood back to you through the other arm, so it takes about 90 minutes instead of 20). But that's not the point of this entry. The point was that I had put down my actual, truthful weight on the intake form -- and then as the nurse was hooking me up, she asked me "Is that your correct weight?" and I chuckled to myself and said "Yes, yes it is." And felt proud about it. Not the number, I mean -- about the fact that I'd told the truth to begin with, without really batting an eyelash.
At just under 5'10", I weigh 185 pounds. This is, at most, 5 pounds over what I weighed in high school. I remember this because when I got my first driver's license, senior year of high school back in Indiana, I put down 165 pounds, and that was already a tactful understatement. (I'm interested to note that my current Massachusetts driver's license doesn't even list weight, only height. Did they decide there was no point because no one tells the truth anyway?) There have been times in the interim when I weighed as much as 195, or as little as 175, but neither of those has been anytime lately. And my weight does tend to fluctuate within about a 3-pound range, but it seems to have become remarkably stable inside that.
I generally wear a size 14. This is also about what I've worn since high school (in fact, probably, grade school), although the fit of specific garments has changed as things have shifted around. It's not a bad size to be; as long as I can find clothes in mainstream stores, I'm pretty satisfied. (This in fact seems to be getting even easier, thanks in part to size inflation, not to mention the way the national average is catching up with me. But I'm not sure either of those is at all a good trend.)
It also helps my body image, I think, that I am relatively small-breasted and carry most of my weight in my hips and thighs (conversely, I can leg-press a respectable percentage of my body weight). It means that I don't think of my breasts as particularly shapely or interesting -- yet on the other hand, if they were larger, I would probably feel fatter, possibly in such a way as to trouble me more.
The part that interests me in all this is how I've basically given up on worrying about what and how I eat (in the sense of restricting it), and focus more on getting what I need out of it. I don't eat a whole lot of greasy foods anymore, but when I do want it, I try to appreciate it as providing something that I apparently need at the moment. At some point a few years ago I gave up consuming artificial sweeteners altogether (except for sugarless gum, for which there's just no better alternative) -- and has my weight gone up as a result? Not a pound. And God save us from artificially low-fat foods (in which the fats are merely replaced with sugars and other overprocessed ingredients designed to temporarily fool your body. It's not nice to fool Mother Nature).
Back in high school, we once got our body compositions tested in P.E. class (the caliper-test kind, with whatever extrapolations they made from your current fat percentage to your projected ideal weight). I actually didn't hate it, because they did it in private, and as I recall, they calculated my personal ideal weight at something like 162.5. Which was somewhat vindicating: no, really, I'm not supposed to weigh 135.
A couple weeks ago I had my yearly physical (Pap smear, blood workup, all that good stuff), and the doctor put me on the scale. Yep, 185. "Oh," she said, "even for 5'10" that's a little high. You should be down around 150." "Oh?" I said skeptically. (This was my first appointment with a new doctor. Over the years, some of my docs have merely reminded me that I like everyone would benefit from an exercise regimen, which I certainly do believe, and some have been a bit more pointed in their recommendations.) "Well, you should really have a Body Mass Index under 25," and she fiddled with the calculator a bit and then allowed that perhaps 160 or so was more appropriate.
Now, I'm not actually sure I buy into the whole new BMI principle, as it seems to me just as one-proportion-fits-all as the old-fashioned height-weight tables used to be, and I insist on believing that body composition (muscle vs. bone vs. fat) makes a difference. Still, the NIH BMI calculator sez:
Your Body Mass Index
The Height you entered is 5 feet, 9.5 inches.
The Weight you entered is 185 pounds.
Your Calculated BMI is: 26.9
Whereas 165 pounds yields a BMI of 24.0, which is comfortably within the "Normal Weight" range. Not a bad goal. And it would no doubt make my aching knees happier. Hmmm.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Thursday, August 21st, 2003 12:21 pm (UTC)I think that as long as your a relativly happy and healthy then a little extra weight shouldn't matter at all. I decided it was time to loose weight when my knees told me they couldn't deal anymore.
no subject
Date: Thursday, August 21st, 2003 12:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, August 21st, 2003 12:41 pm (UTC)Where you are...
Date: Thursday, August 21st, 2003 12:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, August 21st, 2003 01:20 pm (UTC)Best way I've heard to measure BMI is weighing, then submerging in a pool of water to figure out displacement. Mebbe you could ask your doctor about it if you're interested (I'm mildly interested and might ask my new doctor when I get one).
no subject
Date: Thursday, August 21st, 2003 02:19 pm (UTC)On a side note, when I'm in trithlon training I keep track of such things, and the last time I was there, I asked how breast milk rates, (as I was full of it at the time). I think they had heart attacks at the question. *grin*
no subject
Date: Thursday, August 21st, 2003 04:02 pm (UTC)BMI is actually an okay formula for the average, largely sedentary American, but it's crap if one is getting even as much activity on a regular basis as NIH and other groups recommend, to say nothing of those of us who are moderately athletic
no subject
Date: Thursday, August 21st, 2003 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, August 21st, 2003 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, August 21st, 2003 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, August 21st, 2003 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, August 21st, 2003 09:00 pm (UTC)