To Lose Weight

How often do you hear the expression, "I'm on a diet to lose weight?" We all know the answer to that question and that expression is rarely true. The answer is so obvious, "eat less."
However there has to be a state of mind that most who verbally say they are on a diet don't really mean it. First, leading up to one real answer I am reminded of years ago in my veterinary practice when asked how to reduce an over weight dog or cat or any animal. I would ask the client to add up all the food the animal is eating and then to restrict the diet to just half that amount and to return in a week and weigh the creature on our large platform scale to see the results. For some time I thought someone was feeding the animals, "under the table" or that some food must have been available not accounted for as all the reweighed overweight animals had not lost a pound or an ounce. Why? I answered that by the fact that the overweight animals had been eating over twice as much food as was needed for the energy expended. That means that the overweight animal was passing half of the food eaten as unadsorbed nourishment. That meant to reduce the fat pet it was necessary to reduce the food eaten by more than 50%. When I know that everybody knows the answer to the statement, "I'm on a diet to lose weight" when about 95% of them have to know in spite of the statement they are not serious about it. I did not plan it but when at 80 years of age I became a runner the weight situation became important to me. At 5 feet 10 inches the charts indicated I was in a healthy weight bracket with my 183 pounds. In running I began to think of my running with a 10 pound bag of say potatoes on my back. I decided to reduce the 10 pounds and did. Then having improved my running times I wondered about another 10 pounds and leveled off at 150 pounds. After the expected age related slowing in 5 years I began to seriously consider losing another 10 pounds.I'll tell all about how I lose weight whenever I want to shortly. At age 85 began an unplanned for experiment. When about 10 years of age my father brought home a house guest who was visiting Yale University from England. J. B. S. Haldane was famous for many discoveries in science and often had used himself as an experimental animal. With my reducing I decided to do the same. The experiment seemed interesting because I can find no evidence that anybody has ever reported about it. How much weight can I lose and still be healthy? If any reader of this has an answer for me please let me know. Perhaps it was unfortunate that I realized what I had in mind when I told my four children about my experiment because it was like something hit the fan. Were they ever upset! Enough said and now how to lose weight by taking in less energy than required for a days need. I believe a breakfast of bacon and eggs, toast and coffee with a little marmolade on the toast and every couch potaato has taken in all the calories needed for a day. For me a day consists of a 5k run around town and reading and writing. I decided for the most important meal of the day, breakfast, one glass of orange juice starts my day before a 5k organized race or training. For lunch I eat one small yogurt of 100 calories and for supper I eat most anything and as much as I want. Being my own chef since my love died I find I over due the amount of foods I prepare and put the excess in my freezer for a long hard winter here in Brattleboro. I do enjoy chocolate and ice cream so, as far as chocolate and cookies and chips and other finger food I eat it all and savor it before I spit it out thereby enjoying the flavors and consistency of each goodie. I swallow the ice cream. However if my scale does not indicate the loss of weight I desire I do an extra 5k that day and watch the weight fade away and I still feel great. I hope I will be able to report when I pass the tipping point but I must confess I feel so great you may have to read about the results in the Obits.