Here are my photos

You've got the bobblehead look - where your head almost looks superimposed
on your body, because your body is so thin.

You might be right. My head is large anyway, I always need the largest size
helmets for stuff. Thanks for the observation.

BCJ wrote:

You've got the bobblehead look - where your head almost looks superimposed
on your body, because your body is so thin.


You might be right. My head is large anyway, I always need the largest size
helmets for stuff. Thanks for the observation.

I went back to your original post and picked it apart and have a couple
of huge questions not regarding criticism of your looks.

First of all, what motivated you originally to desire to go from slender
to very low fat?

What is your family situation currently? You said you're "taken" but
what does that mean in a day to day sort of way?

What things do you aspire to do with your body: do you train with an
ultra-marathon club, do you play a sport, do you run in 5K or 10K or
marathon races? What do you need your body to be able to do for you?

Delenn

You look much better than I expected, however, I would change your
haircut. I cannot say that you look sickly, in my subjective
opinion. If you, say, gain 7 lbs of muscle and 3 lbs of fat, you would
look near perfect!

Thx Ig. I've had short hair all my life similar to yours. I've only grown
it long in the last year so I'll hang on to it for a while yet.

Yes, muscle, I definately need some muscle. 7 lbs you reckon? How long would
that take? not that i'm in a hurry.

BCJ wrote:

You look much better than I expected, however, I would change your

haircut. I cannot say that you look sickly, in my subjective
opinion. If you, say, gain 7 lbs of muscle and 3 lbs of fat, you would
look near perfect!

Thx Ig. I've had short hair all my life similar to yours. I've only grown
it long in the last year so I'll hang on to it for a while yet.

Do you have me kill-filed? Everyone else wants to make silly personal
remarks about your individual appearance. I'm asking you lifestyle
questions about goals and needs.

Is your entire focus on looks?

Yes, muscle, I definately need some muscle. 7 lbs you reckon? How long would
that take? not that i'm in a hurry.

Let's see, you do full body weightlifting 5 days a week, you run 6 days
a week, you walk most evenings, you eat at a reduced calorie level...
I'm trying to calculate how long it'll take you to put on 7 pounds of
muscle. Still working on it. I'll let you know when the number comes
to me.

Delenn

First of all, what motivated you originally to desire to go from slender
to very low fat?

I admire the athletic-type body. Those people look good because they really
are strong and healthy. With a few exceptions (eg. golf), most athletes have
body fat well below the average population. If you pinch their stomachs it's
gonna feel more like skin than flab. Of course athlete's bodies vary a lot.
I like the body of a boxer, though I wouldn't want big pecs like them.
Swimmers have good bodies. Sprinters also - muscular but at the same time
they need to be flexible for swiftness. I don't like marathon runner's
bodies which is probably what I'm close to now, but hey, it's a starting
point. If I can start building up muscle I'll probably put on fat too but
I'm ok with that.

What is your family situation currently? You said you're "taken" but
what does that mean in a day to day sort of way?

Well I made it a point to say I wasn't available (tongue in cheek) because
my GF is nervous enough me posting pics like this of myself on the web.
Let's keep it on subject, huh!

What things do you aspire to do with your body: do you train with an
ultra-marathon club, do you play a sport, do you run in 5K or 10K or
marathon races? What do you need your body to be able to do for you?

I run for pleasure, about 4K daily. I would never go in a race. I don't play
any other sport. I want to keep my body active and healthy for as long as
possible and not let it fall into disuse as I get older. I want to be one of
those guys you see jogging when they're 80!

I would never kill-file you Delenn

See my answer to your post above.

A year! Really!! For a measly 7 lbs?!!

Okay i've got time.

/goes out to pump iron

BCJ wrote:

First of all, what motivated you originally to desire to go from slender

to very low fat?

I admire the athletic-type body. Those people look good because they really
are strong and healthy. With a few exceptions (eg. golf), most athletes have
body fat well below the average population. If you pinch their stomachs it's
gonna feel more like skin than flab. Of course athlete's bodies vary a lot.
I like the body of a boxer, though I wouldn't want big pecs like them.
Swimmers have good bodies. Sprinters also - muscular but at the same time
they need to be flexible for swiftness. I don't like marathon runner's
bodies which is probably what I'm close to now, but hey, it's a starting
point. If I can start building up muscle I'll probably put on fat too but
I'm ok with that.

Thanks. So it's not a matter of fine-tuning for your sport, it's more a
matter of asthetics. I was sort of getting that feeling from your whole
starvation/control thing. You're into looking a specific way that is
really obvious as a goal to you but not evident to others. I know that
scenario. I recall watching a friend obsessively curl her hair "just
so" for half an hour when absolutely no one else could tell what was
wrong with her hair the way it was and we all wanted to just get going
but she had to stay and get the hair to flip in a certain elusive way.

The problem with this sort of obsessive/control thing is that it
prevents you from enjoying life.

What is your family situation currently? You said you're "taken" but
what does that mean in a day to day sort of way?

Well I made it a point to say I wasn't available (tongue in cheek) because
my GF is nervous enough me posting pics like this of myself on the web.
Let's keep it on subject, huh!

I'm wondering if you share grocery shopping, family meals, active
pursuits with someone. Do you run alone? Sleep alone? Control your
menu alone?

What things do you aspire to do with your body: do you train with an

ultra-marathon club, do you play a sport, do you run in 5K or 10K or
marathon races? What do you need your body to be able to do for you?

I run for pleasure, about 4K daily. I would never go in a race. I don't play
any other sport. I want to keep my body active and healthy for as long as
possible and not let it fall into disuse as I get older. I want to be one of
those guys you see jogging when they're 80!

You see a lot of 80 year olds jogging? Jogging is a bad sport to carry
you into old age. You should consider cross-training for health and
well-being. I took up swimming after my last ankle injury and I'm
delighted with it. I call it a stealthy ass-whooping. I also run about
4K a couple of times a week, but I also swim twice a week and cycle
twice a week and weightlift twice a week.

Your questions are good ones: how to build muscle and how to maintain
fat loss. They just don't go together. I can answer them both, though.
I already said in another post how to gain muscle: lay off running,
reduce weightlifting sessions (but lift heavier) and eat eat eat.

The question of how to maintain a crash-diet weight is harder. The
answer is that you've got to learn to eat again and repair your
metabolism and that means you eat at your projected maintenance level.
Try 14x your weight in calories. Practice staying at that level. You
wont' blow up into a giant at 14x your weight in calories with your
activity level. Choose healthy foods designed to fuel your body. Do
healthy activities designed to maintain your body. Practice this over
and over again until the day you die. Some days you'll feast, but
that's okay to do on Feast Days. Just practice going back to
maintenance as soon as you can.

People who lose weight by practicing maintenance take a long time to
lose the pounds, but then when they do it they already know how to be
slender. People who crash diet have to do all the same work as the
slow-loss people do, but this time they gain weight when they slip up
rather than just not losing that week.

Think about it: if you eat like you're a 200 pound person and you weigh
200 pounds then you won't lose weight that week. But if you already
crash-dieted down to 100 and eat like a 200 pound person you'll gain
weight that week.

I suspect that weight loss might take about the same for slow-loss
versus crash diet, it's just that crash diet takes the form of yo-yoing
whereas slow-loss takes the form of lose-plateau.

Anyway, that's what it takes to maintain: you've got to make healthy
habits permanent.

My weight loss plan is 5 steps.

0. Fix your head
1. Eat less
2. Exercise more
3. Repeat
4. Forever.

The step you're on is #0. You've got to examine your relationshp with
food and control and punishment. You're not looking at food as neutral
energy for your body, you've got it wrapped up in some anorexia crap.
Get the crap out of your head. Seriously.

Delenn

I don't disagree with anything you say. I have a lot to learn. Thx for the
long post. There is a lot of food for thought there.

I'm collecting up a series of questions I have about maintenance and WOL
stuff that I'll post a bit later. I hope you will help me with them. I value
your input.

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 23:46:51 -0500, Delenn
choked out these words:

BCJ wrote:

You look much better than I expected, however, I would change your

haircut. I cannot say that you look sickly, in my subjective
opinion. If you, say, gain 7 lbs of muscle and 3 lbs of fat, you would
look near perfect!

Thx Ig. I've had short hair all my life similar to yours. I've only grown
it long in the last year so I'll hang on to it for a while yet.

Do you have me kill-filed? Everyone else wants to make silly personal
remarks about your individual appearance. I'm asking you lifestyle
questions about goals and needs.

heh. he's responded to just about everything you've posted.
maybe you should ask yourself if you have expectations. i don't
expect everyone (or anyone, for that matter) to answer the
questions i ask them online. if they do, that's great. you
sound like you're getting worked up over him not providing you
with the answers you want. :|

david