And so it begins

239lbs


I bought a digital scale today so that I can accurately record my weight loss. I got a baseline reading of 239lbs. I'm not willing to chalk up the discrepancy from my previous estimate of 243 to the diet as it is more likely due to the differences in the scales.

I will say, though, that a digital scale is a MUST. Especially one that shows your weight into a decimal amount. Seeing 239.0 lbs one day and 238.6 lbs the next is way more encouraging than seeing 239 for 2 days and 238 on the 3rd day.

I've established two weight benchmarks to monitor my progress. The first is my morning weight after voiding, which I will consider my absolute weight, and is the one that will count toward my overall goal. The second is my night time weight after voiding. I will consider this a measure of that days diet effectiveness. If I show a large weight gain during the day, and little comes off during the night, I will know that the foods I ate that day are sticking with me more than those I ate on a day when a lot of the weight came off during the night.

Today I experienced a lot of hunger again, but was thankfully able to just snack on celery and carrots as much as I wanted between meals. Also, pickles have been a life saver. They provide a nice salty snack that I don't get sick of.

Regarding Salt/Sodium intake: Lots of diets will tell you to severely limit your salt intake. This is because they assume that salt will cause you to retain water, which is true to an extent, thus causing you to retain water weight. We need to remember, however, that these diets are commercially driven, and depend on showing excellent results to generate revenue. The fact of the matter is that unless you have congestive heart failure or kidney failure, water retention is inconsequential, especially considering the benefits experienced by losing body mass, ie: FAT. Additionally, water weight is easily shed by anyone with functioning kidneys. Therefore: If a food is salty, and low in calories, and satiates your hunger, then EAT IT. Lose your FAT first, then worry about the retained water.