A Doctor’s Struggle

Last week I disclosed my not-so-secret addiction to unhealthy food, and desire to improve my health as part of an effort to increase my accountability.

This week I am going to give some of the data.

This is Part II in a three-part series.  Read Part I and Part III.

The Beauty of Smartphones

Smartphones are not a panacea, but they have benefits.  Not only does it make information easily available, it has made it much easier to store phone numbers.  While the downside of this is I only can remember 3 phone numbers, the upside is it’s easy to record information.

I’ve been using the MyFitnessPal app for over six years to record my weight.  This timeframe roughly corresponds to my first efforts to get into shape after being very out of shape.

I tried to be consistent in the measurements; when I weigh myself it’s always first thing in the morning, before eating/drinking, and <ahem> ensuring my body is as light as possible.  While I’ve weighed myself in other circumstances, I almost never recorded those numbers.

Sometimes I’ve gone a few months without recording weight, and sometimes I weighed myself a few times a week (usually when going through a focused period of trying to be healthier).

Let’s See the Data

The free version of the MyFitnessPal app does not let you export data.  They offer a premium version that costs $9.99/month or $50/year, but they also offer a one month free trial.  Thanks to that free trial I was able to download all the data for 6+ years in Excel format.

It took 30 seconds to download the data and make a chart. In the future if I want to update the graph I will just manually plug data it into the existing Excel file.

The graph covers from spring 2012 to summer 2018, and multiple attempts at eating better and/or exercising more.

 

Depending on your perspective these numbers may be underwhelming.  As I mentioned last week, I am not morbidly obese.

Some people may notice a little bit of “dad bod” through my shirt depending on how out-of-shape I am, but at close to 6’1″, it’s not until my weight hits 190+ that my BMI is technically overweight.

The Danger in Numbers

My weight does not meet official criteria for obesity, and I don’t want to minimize the struggle of those whose weight issues are far worse than mine and have gone to drastic measures such as surgery to lose weight.

But the struggle to be healthy is real, and vacillating weight, poor eating, and lack of exercise is something to which almost anyone can relate.

My “resting” weight (i.e. when not exercising and eating less than great but not awful) is around 180 pounds.  Compared to when I am at my healthiest, I can feel a difference in my energy (lower), in my clothing (tighter), and in my overall demeanor (more annoyed with myself).

When I hit the nadir of my health (the zenith of my weight), I head up over 185 and can go over 190+ pounds.  That’s when I’m eating donuts in the morning, cookies at lunch, candy in between, and not paying attention to portion size at meals.

I’ve actually spent more time at 185-190+ pounds than this chart shows — there have been a few times I was too embarrassed or annoyed to  record the number.  This is even though I didn’t know anyone else would see it, as this wasn’t data I had planned to share.

The Worst

While I’ve managed to avoid eclipsing 200 pounds due to some level of self-regulation — whenever I hit 190 panic sets in — as I age that will be harder to do, and this becomes even more important.

Whenever you see my weight climbing past 175 it’s almost entirely due to unhealthy living.  While I do lift weights to build muscle when exercising, I don’t pack on pounds of muscle and have never been confused for a body builder.

Most of the extra pounds on the scale is from fat, and it almost always goes straight to the mid-section.  In its worst form it is what’s called “abdominal obesity.”

It’s the “worst” kind of fat, significantly raising the chance of cardiovascular disease and heart attacks.

As someone of South Asian heritage, I already have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease than the general Caucasian population.  Some of this data came from the wonderfully named MASALA study.

Some of that is due to cultural effects (we like fried foods, but who doesn’t like samosas?), but some of it is genetic.

The genetic component manifests as harder to manage cholesterol levels.  Even at my “healthiest” my total and LDL cholesterol numbers have not dropped as low as one would expect.

I have had some success in being healthy though — there is a two-year period on the graph above where I was the healthiest of my adult life.

From fall 2014 to summer 2016 my weight was always below 180, for extended periods was below 175, and was even briefly below 170 (in a good way and not due to starving myself).

It was followed by a period where I hit my nadir — my highest weight, my worst fitness level, and just general health ickiness.

Next week I am going to discuss this “healthy period” and give some insight into what went right, as well as what went wrong afterwards.  I’ll finish up with a discussion of attempts to recapture my former glory.

This is Part II in a three-part series.  Read Part I and Part III.