Welcome to Obese Class I. Population: Me

Yes, the title says it all - - today I reached Obese Class I, with a BMI of 34.9.  For some people, that would be a terrible thing, full of tears, recriminations, and a high risk of developing health problems.  I, too, have a high risk of developing health problems, but this is a huge improvement from where I used to be - - Obese Class III, with its "extremely high" risk of developing health problems.

Yep, it's true.  My 2.5 pound weight loss this week puts me at a BMI of 34.9, which is the lowest category of obesity there is.  Another 30-ish pounds down from here, and I will only be overweight. 

I have to confess that I am sooooo close to hitting the 100 pounds lost mark that I upped my program this week to try and keep the weight loss going.  I took the elliptical up to 55 minutes and a crossramp of 6 (up from 5) with a tension of 5 (down from 8), and a stride rate of 130+ strides per minute (up from 100-120).  The new workout music mix, combined with the lower resistance, makes it much easier for me to hit the 130+ strides per minute rate, and I can certainly see my calorie burn has increased.

My steps per day have also increased with the new workouts:

Looking at the steps taken as recorded by my Fitbit over time, you can see that I started off averaging around 2,000 steps per day.  The steps started to increase in the summer when I got the elliptical to around 5,000 - 6,000 steps per day.  Now that I have increased my stride rate and lengthened my workouts, I am regularly exceeding 10,000 steps per day on weekdays.  I call that progress for someone who still has essentially a sedentary desk job.

I also took the free weights up to 4 sets of 12 reps at 6 pounds for the various dumbbell exercises that I do 3x per week.  I am definitely feeling it in my arms, so that's probably doing good things.

I noticed an ever-so-slight hint of clavicles this week, which makes me very happy.  Eventually I will have actual visible clavicles, and I will jump for joy.  It's still a long way away yet, but I am prepared to be patient and keep plugging away.

So far I have lost 97.5 pounds, which is almost 100, no matter how you count it.  I have to be prepared not to be disappointed if I do not hit 100 pounds down next week, because it's not reasonable to expect to keep these 2+ pound losses every week.  Overall I am averaging about 1.5-1.7 pounds down per week, which means that I should hit 100 pounds down in a couple of weeks.  Assuming that I stay on plan.

Fingers crossed!