cycleobsidian

A very balanced way to live your life; you seem like you would be a fun person to be around.

1986raleigh

So you are one of the one percent who do commit and proud of it good for you whatever floats your boat.

Sounds to me like for years you were overweight and hated yourself you finally turned it around, lost the weight you wanted and maintaining where you want to be enjoy your new lifestyle, just understand not everyone agrees with obsession you seem to exude.

trekmogul 

Yes actually i was a 265lb obese overweight lathargic fellow whom ate anything and everything. Drank lots of beer and custom cut 2 1/4inch thick cut porterhouse steaks from the local butcher shop. Loved fried chick and fried pork cutlets, loved baby back ribs and lots of french cut lamb chops. At 54.5 years old one day I decided enough was enough and without saying a word, i started my new gig. Yes matter a fact it does float my boat and what others do, i could careless. I am just sharing my story and i am sure there is others just like me. What ever it may be called is exactly what i am 110% content with. Those 44 trousers like mighty big on my now when i try them on just for kicks as the 31's are what i wear now for the last 5 or so years..

howellhandmade

Maintaining a healthy weight (or even an unhealthy one) is a matter of calories, leavened with proper attention to nutritional requirements. There's a saying that is often applied to personal economics: "You can have ANYTHING you want. You can't have EVERYTHING you want." For each individual, maintaining X weight requires a balance between Y intake and Z expenditure. Only in America does it count as an achievement NOT to eat as much as you can hold. There is room in a healthy, weight-maintaining diet for almost anything you could want, and there is CERTAINLY room for enjoyment of what you eat. You just can't eat as much as you might like of everything you want. You have to make choices. You CAN have a steak, you just can't have it any more than every so often. And you might have to eat a bit less of other things to compensate. This might be different for people with food addiction issues -- like how an alcoholic can't take that first drink -- but for most of us the best route is moderation.

Frankly, trekmogul, you should race. At least TT. The kind of asceticism and deprivation you seem to need is a racer's ethos, of paring every ounce from his frame that isn't used in powering the bicycle. And then the question isn't well-being, it's speed. Among racers, there is less concern for a rich, balanced life, and more admiration for being willing to do "whatever it takes."

I-Like-To-Bike

I think for these fellows, the catch phrase is "Pain IS Gain."

Null66

"I like grapes."

trekmogul 

There is no reason what so ever i can not have a steak or a piece of fried chicken or a slab of baby back ribs at all, however i just flat out refuse to ever touch any meat again for no paticular reason but the challenge of not touching it. I have gone from one extreme to another and dont know moderation of anything.. Once in a great while i will sin and splurge a 1000 calorie meal, however those 1000 calories are not nasty deep fried calories etc. If I happen to do this, then i compensate and adjust the next days intake to balance it out. Is any of this really important..? Mabe not but it floats my little boat..

trekmogul 

i love sri lankan food..

OldsCOOL

My favorite vegetable. The cream cheese frosting provides protein, another essential food group.

trekmogul 

I use to love cream cheese on every thing myself along with lots of rasberry jelly..Yum...!

RideMyWheel

I am not giving these up.



I am at 25.1, shooting for 24.4 by the end of the year.

bruce19

At 5'9" and 180 lbs my BMI is 27 and overweight. At 21% body fat I am considered "healthy." FWIW I weighed 185 lbs playing college football and 178 lbs at the end of Basic Training in 1969.

GravelMN

No offense was intended nor were the pictures meant to be a statement about you personally, so there is no reason for you to be insulted. I posted the pictures to illustrate that low body fat alone does not guarantee health or fitness, a point sadly missed in our culture of "no such thing as too thin" or "thin at all costs".

The answer to your original question

is still, not necessarily, because BMI alone provides far too little information about the individuals in question, not to mention that BMI is a tool used because it is fast, easy and cheap, rather than being an accurate indicator of individual fitness.

Consider two individuals of the same height and weight: One is an avid cyclist who also cross trains with weights three days a week, eats a quality diet, and has a bodyfat percentage of 15. The other hasn't done any serious exercise in a decade, lives on cola and snack foods, smokes and has a bodyfat percentage of 21. The BMI table ranks these two individuals exactly equal because their height and weight are the same.

Now consider two other individuals of the same height but differing weights: The first lives on cigarettes and energy drinks, rarely sleeps more than an hour or two, and his exercise is limited to spending all night in clubs where he shows off his "six pack" abs despite that fact that he weighs only 135 pounds and has arms like broom handles. The second eats a diet rich in lean proteins, vegetables, and healthy fats though he overeats a bit, he commutes 20 miles a day by bicycle and has a physically demanding job, his recreation is being an active outdoorsman hiking and rock climbing, and he sleeps an average of 8+ hours a night. Though muscular, he struggles a bit to maintain a healthy weight at 175 pounds. Obviously with the lower body weight per given height the first individual has a significantly lower BMI but not too many would argue that the second individual had the healthier lifestyle.

Again, kudos on your healthy lifestyle and BMI, but a simple yes or no answer to your original question would be inaccurate and misleading to others reading your post. No offense was ever implied, you may infer as you wish.

To everyone else: I'm all for Healthy, Fit, and Lean in that order.

BigAura

Whose being misleading here? The OP posted his own real-life experience and his own numbers. You, on the other hand, are posting fictional characters that you created to boost your argument.

BTW: The BMI scale includes both underweight and overweight as potentially unhealthy.

bruce19

Yeah, he should have used my post.....5'9" (originally 5'10") and 180 lbs. Only 2 lbs heavier than '69 after Basic Training and 5 lbs less than my college football weight. BTW I was not a lineman....QB & CB and the fastest guy on the freshman team. These day at age 68 I ride 100 hilly miles a week, BP is 120/78 and resting heart rate is 50-55 bpm. Wear 34" jeans. According to BMI I am overweight. As almost everyone has said BMI is limited.

trekmogul 

Thanks Big..It was and IS still a big deal that i have been able to continue this on without falling off of the wagon ever. Everytime there might be a time i crave some of that crap i use to eat, i just say to myself "remember how hard this was". I eat extremely well and matter a fact it is quite expensive the way i do eat actually..

Terrierman

For real?