It’s been a while since I’ve written about my weight loss program, so I thought an update was in order. I am now about four months into my Zepbound journey and just finish bed my 10mg dose allotment. That means I an two thirds of the way through what they say is a 22% average weight loss program. I am currently 12% down in weight, so a bit further than half way there. While on a chart I have put together, my weight loss seems very linear, it never feels that way. Last week I hit a new low, but I seem to have hit somewhat of a lull in the loss program with many days bouncing around by a pound or two. I have continued to record my daily weight, my caloric intake (as best I can estimate it) and list both my number of daily steps and what I have done for exercise that day. I also have a supplemental spreadsheet that details my exercise program so I know which of the weight training exercises I have done on what days of the week, so that I can keep things in some semblance of rotation.
From a consumption standpoint, my diet is appreciably better than its ever been in my whole life. I drink a protein shake in the morning (160 calories) and am usually quite anxious for lunch by noon. I have gotten into a pattern of keeping a variety of raw crudite vegetables cut and ready in the fridge as well as pre-made salads (250 calories) and cold sliced chicken (170 calorie portions). A normal lunch for me is either a salad or a crudite platter with chicken. I engulfed myself with about 100 calories of dressing to make it all a bit tastier. My alternative lunch is something I find that I really crave, which is a microwaveable spicy ramen bowl that runs 360 calories. So, a normal lunch for me runs somewhere around 500 calories, which is right on target. After my midday meal I will be somewhere between 650-850 in calorie count and that will determine if I have another protein shake as a snack in the mid-afternoon. I also make a point of tracking my protein consumption to try to keep that up and I seem to range from 120-170 grams/day and find it hard to keep it much above that.
An interesting phenomenon, which I tend to attribute to Zepbound is that I very much crave savory foods rather than sweet foods. I’m sure it has something to do with my own particular metabolism and preferences, but it still has an unusual aspect to it that I notice with the ramen soup and a few other meals. I find the savory soup of the ramen almost more enticing than the ramen noodles. I know the noodles are a carbohydrate indulgence, but I’m always surprised how much I enjoy the reddish broth that is nothing more than a mixture of hot water and packet spices. This tracks with my tastes at dinner as I notice that when I eat Kim’s chili, its the chili broth that really turns me on as much as the meat and beans.
If I am in my groove and not eating out, our normal dinners are some form of pre-packaged protein like curried chicken or beef bigogli over rice. The normal caloric range for dinner is 450-550 calories. Our dinner indulgence tends to be something like an appetizer of Trader Joe’s noodle and cabbage salad, which Kim spruces up with some Thai dressing. That adds about 200 calories to the menu. I seem to want a desert of some sort, so we with have a 130 calories pre-packaged pudding or 130 calories of my favorite (of the moment) cookies. My daily caloric range is therefore between 1500-1800 with my worst day being about 2000. What the math tells me is that my caloric maintenance level is about 3000 calories is I do a normal amount of exercise. I think in the last month to six weeks I have ratcheted that up quite a bit with my daily walks and gym workouts, so I’m betting that is the least amount of caloric usage I should have. I believe I have moved my metabolic rate up a reasonable amount with the exercise program and even with whatever my body has done to adjust its metabolism down to reflect my reduced consumption, I should still be showing a daily deficit of somewhere around 1000 calories per day or 7000 per week. This should represent about a 2 pound per week loss rate, which is down from the initial 3 pound per week loss rate I started at. This all makes sense numerically, even accounting for underestimation of caloric consumption (easy to do with today’s processed foods) and any overestimation of caloric utilization (equally easy to do as I huff and puff for 1-2 hours per day).
In sixteen weeks I have lost more or less 40 pounds or an average of 2.5 pounds per week, so pretty much right on the money for what my math would have predicted and pretty close to what Zepbound estimates. I still can’t tell how much of this id driven by Zepbound or just my own will power, so I continue to suggest it is a 50/50 deal. I do not think about food less than I used to, but rather think about it more…just in a better and healthier way. I am very focused on what I eat moreso than ever before and that has led to a better quality of eating, but I also very much look forward to both lunch and dinner and certainly still have cravings…particularly of the savory nature. I’ve of the ads that is currently driving me crazy is a Dominos Pizza add that keeps showing me crispy pepperoni on a cheese-laden pie. The good news is that I don’t particularly find the heavy cheese that enticing, but I would pretty much kill for some of that crispy-edged pepperoni. So, Zepbound hasn’t eliminated my appetite, but what it has done is make me less driven to eat a lot when I do start in on my meal. I am much more likely to get full and not eat my whole meal and often find myself deducting 100 calories or more from my dinner menu by virtue of noncompletion.
There is no doubt that I am much healthier than I’ve been in years. I feel it every day when I am out walking or exercising and it feel great. I look slimmer than I have in my adult lifetime. I am wearing 2x shirts from L.L. Bean and wearing 42 inch waist pants from Duluth Trading. Kim tells me I look great and I feel great. But I am not so stupid as to let all that go to my head and pat myself on the back for having green myself to my goal. I am still a good 50-60 pounds away from where I need to be to be completely healthy. I know that we all tend to lapse on these programs and find ourselves thinking we are on a good track when, in actuality, some bad habits have crept into the program. In my case, the bad habits are fairly easy to identify, but its harder to figure out how to adjust them and still keep a sustainable and workable program going that pushes me further down the weight chart. Lunch is about being sure I only have ramen a few times per week and not every day. I need the roughage of the vegetables more than the noodles…but I do love that broth. Maybe I can just buy broth packets or only eat half the noodles… I also need to be judicious about the dressing and the chicken strips, but I know that. At dinner, the only thing I need to do is keep the cookies in check. I also have to admit that I keep some baked Ritz crackers for occasional snacks, and I need to be sure to control those.
I think I am just in a January lull at the moment and the program will continue its downward trend, but I remain vigilant and thinking of how I can best stay on the track I am committed to following. My 72nd birthday is on Friday and I want to be sure that by my 72.5 mid-year birthday, I am at my proposed goal weight. Let’s see if I can break out of this lull. Happy birthday to me.