No longer baby-elephant sized
Posted by erin at January 16, 2003 07:47 PMMy mom joined Weight Watchers a few months back. Or, more accurately, someone else in her office joined and then photocopied all the material for everyone else in the office. My mom has lost something like 35 or 40 pounds, and spoke highly of the system when I was home.
About a month back I realized I'd gained another 5 pounds, making me like, 206. I thought maybe it was all muscle - but before Christmas I tried one of those body fat percentage thingies and I was still at 36%. That's really bad. Although I'd gotten in shape, and could bench 95 pounds, I still felt like a fucking fat-ass. It didn't help to learn that my mom, at her "fat" weight, was only maybe 185. I look MUCH thinner than her.
Anyway, the point here is that I joined Weight Watchers at work. A 12-week session costs tons less than a personal trainer (less than two visits with Lindy, anyway), and it worked for my mom, and my doctor recommended it.
I realize it seems totally lame, but actually its kind of amusing. The camp value is totally free.
The way it works is just fancy calorie counting. They give you a little sliding-card thingy where you calculate fat grams, fiber grams, and calories to find the weight watchers "points" for what you eat. You're supposed to eat within a certain range of points per day, depending on your current weight. You can eat whatever you want, but you're supposed to also try and get in two servings of milk, 6 servings of fruits/vegetables and 6 cups of water.
You can eat whatever you want, which is appealing to people like my mom, but you see, they trick you, because where a Snickers bar is 12 points (and a typically day is maybe 25 points), vegetables are all 0 points. So you're forced to eat healthy if you don't want to go hungry. I've been eating waaay more vegetables than normal.
And so I lost 6 pounds this week. In my "group" only one other person lost that much, other people mostly lost one pound. The recommended weight loss is like, 2 pounds per week.
I'm still going to the gym and all, I'm not an idiot. The recommended maximum weight for an adult of my height is a skinny-ass 155 pounds. I cannot imagine weighing 155 - I would probably be totally ripped with muscles. The last time I weighed 155 was probably 8th grade. My cross country weight was like, 175.
What gets to me is that I don't have a big chest, really. Not for someone of my weight, anyway. At 155, I would not have any breasts at all. I think I would be happy with 165. But if I do reach 155, I'll get a refund from Weight Watchers.
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January 16, 2003 08:04 PM, Maggie said:
Tell more of this plan. Are you gonna photocopy all the materials and share with your friends too (e.g. me)? What's this deal with "if you go down to a certain weight, you get a refund"?
On this happy note, I'm going grocery shopping... Mhm...
January 16, 2003 08:20 PM, Erin said:
Yeah, I'll photocopy the stuff for you, but it's not like you'd really stick to it.
Saaay... how about scp-ing this background image to binterong or erinfinnegan.com or something? Because it's not working:
http://www.angelfire.com/mi/erinkicksass/images/utena.jpg
January 16, 2003 08:33 PM, Agnieszka said:
I would have never guessed that as your weight. Also, I have seen many people who are your height and weigh less and look really fat. Wheras you do not look fat. This means you must have lead in your bones.
January 16, 2003 08:55 PM, Kerry said:
I`m kind of with AK on this one. I mean, 206? That is as much as I weigh. Do you have another, secret butt somewhere? Perhaps you were part of a Canadian experiment that replaced your bones with metal? Note that this is not being mean, I am just surprised because you do not look that heavy at all.
January 16, 2003 09:48 PM, Erin said:
I frequently shock people with my weight/density. I think it's because most fat people are in really bad shape, whereas I've got some muscle.Also, the ademantium skelton does weigh a lot.
January 17, 2003 03:04 AM, Maggie said:
Binturong is in storage somewhere. Why can't you upload the image yourself? It should work through jerksquad gui.
Photocopy the things for me - I'll pick them up when I visit :)
January 17, 2003 12:59 PM, ET said:
Don't muscles weight more than fat? My mom was trying to pressure me into joining WW and even offered to pay for it, but I rejected it on account of the stupid meetings. Anyway, I'd like to see the literature. I like veggies, so it may not be a completely absurd plan.
January 18, 2003 02:15 AM, thomas said:
Muscle does weigh more than fat, and therefore a pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat. Weight is one of the most meaningless measurements of health and fitness. Bodyfat is better, but bodyfat percentages can change from hour to hour, depending on the method used. The only truly accurate method is water displacement, but you need some kinesiology students for that.
January 18, 2003 11:22 PM, Halifax said:
Six servings of vegetables? What, a month? Good god! Are pickle sandwiches a vagentable, because I've had five pickle sandwiches in the last two days.
January 19, 2003 01:31 AM, Agnieszka said:
Hey Halifax! I heard that pickle and peanut butter sandwiches taste really good. I've never had pickles and peanut butter in the house at the same time, so I don't know, but it seems like the kind of thing you'd go for. So try it and tell me.
January 19, 2003 07:36 PM, Kerry said:
Water displacement is easy to measure if you have some patience and a bathtub. Agreed about the weight/fat thing, but 200 lbs is just crazy. Must be the adamantium.
January 20, 2003 10:48 PM, Halifax said:
Pickles and peanut butter? I'm not *pregnant*.
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