New MFPer at 51

Dirkus

Hello. I am a new MFP user at the age of 51. I am a man and I am also a software engineer. As you might imagine my job leads to a pretty seditary life. When I turned 50, I was shown some of the pictures from my birthday party and was grossed out by how I looked. Did I do anything about it? No.

I am now 51 and my weight has gone up another 5 to 8 lbs. This is not good. My starting weight for my MFP change is 281 lbs and my BMI is over 40. I am taking a fistful of medications to control my blood pressure and still not doing so well. My goal is to get my weight below 200 lbs. My ultimate target would to be at 180 lbs for a BMI of 25. It would also be nice if I could get off of the hypertension medications as well.

I have just started tracking my food intake. Now that I am eating within my calorie budget, I can only imagine what kind of extra food that I was eating every day. What is amazing is not that I was over weight, but that I ONLY weighed 280 lbs. With the kind of calories I was putting away I should be heavier.

Anyway, I am into my journey just five days. I am just starting to see the scale move down. My cravings for food are still pretty high, but I am learning to eat in a different manner. I am learning to avoid calorie dense foods and eating more fruits and vegetables. The choice between a fun size candy bar and a bowl of watermelon is pretty easy to figure out once you see the difference layed out in front of you.

I hope that by my 52nd birthday that I am at least 50 lbs lighter and on my way to my ultimate goal.

Thanks for listening.

Dirkus