02813: One Weight-Loss Hurdle Passed


In August 2018 I weighed 111 kilos during my annual physical. I made some initial efforts to reduce red meat consumption and focus on Quorn as a relatively healthier meat substitute versus what I had been eating until that point. In September 2018 my sister got me started on keto and despite my initial skepticism I went with it to see how it would go. But in December 2018 I had my repeat blood test as a follow-up to my August tests and the results were actually pretty great. So I continued on with keto.

In November 2018 I got a Fitbit to start counting my steps. It also became a venue to consolidate my liquid intake tracking efforts (which I was previously doing on Twitter). The bigger question was being asked to set a weight-loss goal, something I've admittedly shied away from for years because of one reason or another. But I set a nominal number of 90kg or about 200lbs as it sounded like a nice round number.

At the start of the year it started to feel like I was actually going to achieve my 90kg goal. But as is the way of weight-loss I frustrating went back and forth like a floating object managing to dodge a slow drain. The last few weeks had me dancing between 91kg and 92kg for a frustrating period of time despite my continued adherence to my diet and hitting my 10,000 steps per day goal regularly.

So this morning was awesome. Even if this particular weight may be temporary and I know there's a big chance that I'll be back at 90.1kg again (like I was on Monday) or something, at least today I hit my goal. And as has been my experience with the ketogenic diet thus far, it means that I'll continue to lose weight despite these extended plateaus provided I continue to follow it and occasionally mess around with my sister with changing the food mix or spiking my physical activity.

So I'm still sticking to keto and I've set my next weight-loss milestone at 85kg. Realistically I should set for 80kg but at least this feels a bit more achievable in the medium term. In the long-term I think I'd be happy to just get to 70kg, which is about 150lbs. It's still technically in the overweight range with respect to BMI but I'm sure it'll feel a lot healthier than my current level of obesity. And I'm already feeling pretty good these days.

Beyond the quantifiable weight numbers, I feel like I've been sleeping a lot better than before and yet I don't end up oversleeping as much as before. I haven't needed to use my asthma inhaler all that much between December and today despite it being the cold season, which is my usual asthma trigger. Everything just seems to be falling into place but I know I still have a long journey ahead before I really get to a more comfortable place in terms of my weight and in turn my general health.

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