fat

The good news is I gained some muscle!

The bad news is everything else.

I started the year at 166.8 pounds. It should have been trivially easy to lose weight by year’s end, even just a little. Instead, I gained 2.1 pounds over the past 12 months and 1.8 of them in the past seven days.

BMI is up, body fat is up. These are not good things.

It all came crashing down in the final week of this month, when I began experiencing abdominal aches that made me think my kidney infection had returned (all clear there, fortunately). I sought comfort in food of all sorts, and suddenly my weight began taking great leaps upward and onward.

It’s disappointing. I resolve to do better, but temper my expectations with what I have failed to achieve.

On the plus side, gaining 2.1 pounds over the course of a year is not exactly a ton and if I behave I could shed it and get going on real, actual weight loss soon™. I gotta believe!

Stats:

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 168.7 pounds
Year to date: Up 2.1 pounds

December 1: 166.9 pounds
December 31: 168.7 pounds (up 1.8 pounds)

Body fat: 
December 1: 24.5%
December 31: 25.7 (up 1.2%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
December 1: 29.7 kg
December 31: 29.9 kg (up 0.2 kg)

BMI:
December 1: 23.9
December 31: 24.2 (up 0.3)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

The good news, such as it is, is that my weight didn’t budge from the beginning of the month to the end.

The bad news, of course, is that I was up over 3 pounds the previous month, which means I am still effectively up. I was trending back down for the first half of November, but I sought retreat in the comfort of food (mmm, food) in the second half, as stress took its toll on me, and a kind of ennui crept in. I think I’ve shaken most of it off now, but looking ahead, December is not historically known as a slimming month.

And I really want some shortbread cookies.

Still, despite standing still, some encouraging signs:

• Body fat actually declined
• BMI (a stat some view as a bit dubious, admittedly) did not change
• Muscle mass climbed a tiny bit, which is fine, because I don’t expect it to ever move much, but up is always better than down

For December, I vow to remain donut-free, but my (lofty?) goal of hitting 150 pounds this year is not going to happen unless I spontaneously have liposuction and plenty of it. But if I can at least be down in weight for the year, I will build on that in 2026, The Year That Has To Be Better Than 2025.

Stats:

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 166.2 pounds
Year to date: Down 0.6 pounds

November 1: 166.2 pounds
November 30: 166.2 pounds (unchanged)

Body fat: 
November 1: 24.7%
November 30: 23.4 (down 1.3%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
November 1: 29.6 kg
November 30: 29.6 kg (up 0.3 kg)

BMI:
November 1: 23.8
November 30: 23.8 (unchanged)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Yes, it looks bad, like I’ve been secretly eating donuts. But I have remained donut-free.

What happened is: Bodies are weird, and I gained two pounds in the last two days. Has my diet (as in eating regime, not a fad diet) gone off the rails? No, but these things happen, anyway.

Bad: Body fat is over 25% again (I have not remained 100% snack-free)

Good: Muscle mass is up! Probably entirely in my calves, my very sexy calves.

I think I can still get below 160 pounds before the end of the year. I won’t have long to find out!

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 165.8 pounds
Year to date: Down 1.0 pounds

October 1: 162.7 pounds
October 31: 165.8 pounds (up 3.1 pounds)

Body fat: 
October 1: 24.5%
October 31: 25.3% (up 0.8%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
October 1: 29.2 kg
October 31: 29.5 kg (up 0.3 kg)

BMI:
October 1: 23.3
October 31: 23.7 (up 0.4)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Except for muscle mass, which has dipped slightly, all the stats are improved this month, yay, with my weight dropping a nice 2.1 pounds. I was down to as low as 162.9 at one point, but alas, ran out of days before I could get back there.

September was easily one of my most active months of the year, with only a few runs missed, and plenty of walking. I think the exercise helped, if not in terms of actually losing weight, then perhaps in terms of keeping from gaining. I did snack a bit (including cursed Pop Tarts) but never strayed far off the track when it came to the occasional indulgence.

I feel like I am in a good position to finally get below 160 pounds in October, and officially be less than 10 pounds from my intended goal of 150. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, no donuts!

(I did have one donut this year.)

Stats:

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 163.4 pounds
Year to date: Down 3.4 pounds

September 1: 165.5 pounds
September 30: 163.4 pounds (down 2.1 pounds)

Body fat: 
September 1: 24.9%
September 30: 24.6% (down 0.3%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
September 1: 29.5 kg
September 30: 29.3 kg (down 0.2 kg)

BMI:
September 1: 23.7
September 30: 23.4 (down 0.3)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Yes, I was actually kind of good this month, food-wise! I was also very active, running and walking all hither and yon.

I may have sweated off some weight due to the humidity, too. In any event, I am down 1.8 pounds for the month, and the same amount for the year, too, which looks worse that way, but I’m down, so it’s a win as per me.

Onward from here!

Stats:

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 165.0 pounds
Year to date: Down 1.8 pounds

August 1: 166.8 pounds
August 31: 165.0 pounds (down 1.8 pounds)

Body fat: 
August 1: 25.1%
August 31: 24.8% (down 0.3%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
August 1: 29.7 kg
August 31: 29.5 kg (down 0.2 kg)

BMI:
August 1: 23.9
August 31: 23.6 (down 0.3)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

It’s not as bad as it looks!

If my scale isn’t a total lying liar, I gained 1.5 pounds this month, but also:

• Body fat decreased
• Muscle mass increased

And it only ended up leaving me up 0.8 pounds for the year, an amount small enough that it could be wiped out in one weigh-in.

The key work is: could.

July was a stressful month and I fell back on snacking too often, but I also ran pretty steadily, too, which helped to keep things in balance.

I will keep running in August and try to find other ways to alleviate stress that do not involve shoving food into my mouth. We’ll see how it goes!

Stats:

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 167.6 pounds
Year to date: Up 0.8 pounds

July 1: 166.1 pounds
July 31: 167.6 pounds (up 1.5 pounds)

Body fat: 
July 1: 25.6%
July 31: 25.4% (down 0.2%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
July 1: 29.6 kg
July 31: 29.8 kg (up 0.2 kg)

BMI:
July 1: 23.8
July 31: 24.0 (up 0.2)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

The good news is 1.1 pounds is probably too high to be a rounding error. The other good news is down is better than up. The less good news is 1.1 pounds is not a lot. But bonus adjacent-to-good news is I was down more and then toward the end of the month hit a five-day skid in which I gained, gained, gained. Maybe it was all muscle? Let’s find out!

(BTW, the low this month was 165.9 pounds, which would have put me down for the year. But alas.)

As you can see, there was little movement across any of the stats, which makes sense with the modest weight loss.

Halfway through the year, it’s becoming clear to me that my body is not shedding weight because I am taking in too many calories. This likely means (apart from snacking) that I am underestimating my calories, so I may try to be more precise on some of the usual stuff I eat and see what happens.

And less snacking, of course.

Stats:

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 167.3 pounds
Year to date: Up 0.5 pounds

June 1: 168.4 pounds
June 30: 167.3 pounds (down 1.1 pounds)

Body fat: 
June 1: 25.8%
June 30: 25.6% (down 0.2%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
June 1: 29.8 kg
June 30: 29.7 (down 0.1 kg)

BMI:
June 1: 24.1
June 30: 24.0 (down 0.1)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

After gaining a whopping 4.6 pounds last month, this month I am happy to report a loss of an even greater 6.0 pounds even!

Now, it’s true there were extenuating circumstances, namely the evening of May 20, when I got a stomach bug that caused me to violently eject everything from my stomach. I dropped 4.9 pounds overnight as a result.

But I ended up gaining back only 0.1 pounds over the next 11 days, which is not how these situations typically go. What was different this time?

• It took multiple days for my appetite to come back
• I resisted buying a lot of heavily processed snacks, for fear of heaving them
• The above reinforced my reduced snacking for the month
• I ran as regularly this month as I could, before and after The Heaving

Basically, I behaved.

Now, extrapolating from even a month is tricky. My body fat percentage is allegedly only down 0.1%–pretty much the same–despite losing six pounds. But my muscle mass is up 0.5% from the running and whatever, and muscle is heavier than fat. So…I dunno!

The important thing is all the bad stats are down, the good stats are up, and I’m heading in the right direction. After suddenly being way up for the year to date, I am now up a mere 0.2 pounds, an amount I shed just last night.

Here’s to June being all slim ‘n sexy.

Stats:

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 167.0 pounds
Year to date: Up 0.2 pounds

May1: 173.0 pounds
May 31: 167.0 pounds (down 6.0 pounds)

Body fat: 
May 1: 26.1%
May 31: 26.0% (down 0.1%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
May 1: 29.9 kg
May 31: 30.4 kg (up 0.5 kg)

BMI:
May 1: 24.8
May 31: 23.9 (down 0.9)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Let me explain.

It’s all muscle!

No?

OK, maybe it was something more like this:

April, particularly the first two-thirds of the month, was very stressful. I started out with modest weight loss that would have continued through the month if my eating habits had remained unchanged. They obviously did not, as I ate food to cope with stress. I ate all the food.

By the end of the month, things had settled down, but my weight didn’t, it was still tracking a couple of pounds up. In the final week, I decided I had to change my eating habits and do so in a drastic way.

That starts tomorrow, on May 1st.

But rather than ease my way into this new snack-free regime by cutting back, I did the opposite. I ate snacks. I ate a lot of snacks. I wanted to make myself sick of snacks.

Example: Yesterday I ate three candy bars (and more). The calorie total was more than double my entire breakfast.

I gained another half-pound overnight, to finish the month up a whopping 4.6 pounds. I broke the 173 pound mark for the first time this year. (Almost) all the stats are going in the wrong direction (see below for more, including the exception). I’ll likely be up again tomorrow.

But tomorrow, May 1st, is when the new plan begins. No snacks, unless it’s fruit or veggies. Calorie-rich dinners like pizza will be exceptions. Salads? More.

But we’ll see. In the meantime: FatVille, Population: Me. But hopefully the road leads to SlimVille or at least NormalWeightVille.

One plus side: Probably thanks to the running, I added 0.5 kg of muscle (about 1.1 pounds) this month, so woo on that. My total body fat only increased 0.2% as well. Maybe I’m just big-boned¹lolz.

Stats:

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 173.2 pounds
Year to date: Up 6.4 pounds

April 1: 168.6 pounds
April 30: 173.2 pounds (up 4.6 pounds)

Body fat: 
April 1: 26.5%
April 30: 26.7% (up 0.2%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
April 1: 29.9 kg
April 30: 30.4 kg (up 0.5 kg)

BMI:
April 1: 24.1
April 30: 24.8 (up 0.7)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

It’s totally a diet.

But what I am planing on doing is what I did way back in June 2008 when I stepped on my scale and, over its piercing screams of horror, saw that I weighed 187.5 pounds (it could only show half pound increments, which seems like an odd limitation for something that only does one thing).

Today I weighed in at 171.9 pounds (thanks, modern-day precision!), which even a non-math expert like me can see is only about 16ish pounds short of my roly-poly former self.

(At this point I was going to share a screenshot taken on my iPhone 5 in 2012 showing my weight in MyFitnessPal as being something like 143 pounds, except I cannot find the shot now. So just imagine it here.)

The point here is my approach to getting to my desired goal of 150 pounds is not working.

It didn’t work in the early 2000s, either. In order to actually lose weight back in 2008, I had to redo my entire food plan and stick to it. I did and lost over 40 pounds. I don’t need to lose 40 pounds this time, so I already have a head start!

Here is my plan, which I will start on May 1, 2025:

• No snacks, except for fruit or veggies. And no cheating by counting something like “strawberry shortcake” as fruit.
• I will wean myself off non-sugar soda over the space of a month or so. This is to avoid nasty caffeine headaches from withdrawal, which has happened before.
• Switch to drinking water.
• Keep breakfast and lunch as is.
• Be more mindful of calorie-rich dinners.
• Continue to exercise regularly.

We’ll see how it goes.

This one was weird.

Yesterday, I had a 1.8 pound jump in weight to a monthly high of 171.6, which would have put me up for the month.

But this morning, I was down a massive 2.7 pounds, which is my lowest for the month.

It also means for the month I’m down 1.8 pounds, undoing some of the February bloating.

I am running more and trying to eat better. I will continue to do both.

The bad news is I’m still up for the year, the good news is, I’m trending in the right direction again.

Stats:

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 168.9 pounds
Year to date: Up 2.1 pounds

March 1: 170.7 pounds
March 31: 168.9 pounds (down 1.8 pounds)

Body fat: 
March 1: 25.9%
March 28: 26.1% (up 0.2%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
March 1: 30.2 kg
March 28: 29.9 kg (down 0.3 kg)

BMI:
March 1: 24.5
March 28: 24.2 (down 0.3)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Also known as The Pop Tart Month.

February was the month I spent recovering from battling a kidney infection for much of December and January and I clearly sought solace in food, specifically:

• Frosted Strawberry Pop Tarts
• Cookies, cookies, cookies
• Potato chips
• Crackers
• Cheese
• Crackers with cheese
• Anything with cheese
• Basically, if it was edible and tasty, I ate it

This resulted in a rapid gaining of weight, which I could not shed. I course-corrected near the end of the month, steering my metaphorical ship about from the fatberg, but it was too late to make a difference. It didn’t help that I also jumped up another 0.5 pounds on the final day of the month (today). I started the month at 167.3 pounds, which should have been an easy target to beat, and instead ended at 170.7 pounds. Sigh.

Despite this setback, I do think I will begin losing weight again. I am back to running and my health seems at least OK for the moment. Also, my muscle mass increased by 0.4 kg (0.88 pounds), so it wasn’t ALL fat. Just mostly fat.

Stats:

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 170.7 pounds
Year to date: Up 3.9 pounds

February 1: 167.3 pounds
February 28: 170.7 pounds (up 3.4 pounds)

Body fat: 
February 1: 25.8%
February 28: 26.3% (up 0.5%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
February 1: 29.8 kg
February 28: 30.2 kg (up 0.4 kg)

BMI:
February 1: 23.9
February 28: 24.4 (up 0.5)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds