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Fatter

'Thin­ner,' the old Gyp­sy man with the rot­ting nose whis­per­s...

—Richard Bach­man (Stephen King)

I was not al­ways fat. I used to be re­al­ly, re­al­ly thin. So thin that when I was 16, my moth­er­forced me to eat. I was 1.75 and weight­ed about 65 ki­los when I fin­ished high­school. So thin I used M sized shirts un­til I was 25.

That has, as those who know me can agree with, changed quite a bit. I broke the 100kg ba­reer 10 years ago or so, and reached 123.5Kg ear­li­er this week. Al­so, I am not 3.5 me­ters tal­l, so I am close to hav­ing dou­bled my weight and body mass in these 25 years.

That is not a good thing. It's such a bad thing, that my doc­tor has ex­plained to me that if I don't lose a lot of weight soon­ish, I am go­ing to fuck­ing go and die. Not next week, not next year, but not in 40 years ei­ther.

Since my weight start­ed go­ing up while I was in col­lege and my dad was sick, I al­ways blamed some anx­i­ety prob­lem, eat­ing crap, a seden­tary lifestyle, the usu­al sus­pect­s.

So, I got some tests done. Turns out I was more or less right. The "more" is be­cause I do have to stop eat­ing crap, and I need to ex­er­cise more. The "less" is be­cause I have (a­mong oth­er things) hy­per­in­su­line­mi­a. Wan­na guess what are the most vis­i­ble symp­tom of that?

  • High blood pres­­sure (on med­i­­ca­­tion since 5 years ago)

  • In­­creased VLDL (di­ag­nosed 2 years ago)

  • Lethar­­gy (fuck yes)

  • Weight gain (dou­ble fuck yes)

And what does weight gain of this kind do to you? A lot of oth­er bad things.

Since tues­day I am on a very spe­cif­ic di­et, and tak­ing a drug to re­duce my in­sulin pro­duc­tion (Met­formin). I am feel­ing ac­tive, and have lost 3 ki­los in 4 days (yes, I know that is not a sus­tain­able rate and will plateau).

My feet stopped swelling.

I am not hun­gry all day.

I am walk­ing 30 min­utes, twice a day.

I want to code.

I feel good. I have felt bet­ter, when I start­ed tak­ing BP med­s, I have felt worse when my liv­er func­tion de­creased, I have felt very bad, when my BP spiked, but good? I have not felt good in a very, very long time.

This may not be the drug or the di­et. Maybe it's place­bo ef­fec­t. Maybe it's some­thing else. On the oth­er hand, I have de­cid­ed that my life is too sweet to drop dead right now. So, let's see how this goes.

Santiago Cabezas / 2012-03-11 02:14:

I approve this post.

María Amalia / 2012-03-11 04:43:

Hermanito, como la hiperinsulinémica más antigua de la familia, un consejo: yo me sentí muy bien mientras respeté la dieta, la que dejé cuando falleció papá y al día de hoy no pude retomar con las mismas pilas, no hagas lo mismo, se necesitan las dos cosas (dieta y medicación) para estar bien. Y otra cosa, vas a ver que también se te cae menos el pelo y dormís mejor. Yo era tan flaca que papá decía que las polleras me quedaban mal y no quería usar bikinis porque se me notaban las costillas. Cuidate mucho.

Roberto Alsina / 2012-03-11 21:14:

Pelo???? Voy a tener pelo???? :-)

María Amalia / 2012-03-12 00:41:

Jajaja, no te va a crecer, va a dejar de caer nomás.

Pierpaolo Da Fieno / 2012-03-11 08:33:

I understand you perfectly. With the help of a very good doctor some years ago my wife succeeded to lose 40 kg. There was something wrong with her metabolism and just a diet would have not worked. She used to spend all day on the couch and she had lost the joy of staying with people. After 6 months of treatment she was again the lovely, beautiful, caring person I had met 7 years before. Overweight can ruin your life physically, psychologically and socially. I'm sure your resolution will make you happier and I wish you all the best. I love your coding skills and I'm really happy if you have new strength to code more.... ;)

Roberto Alsina / 2012-03-11 21:13:

Thanks for the kind words!

Citolino / 2012-03-11 20:51:

It's worthwile investing some time into your health. I noticed that my BP lowered a lot after slimming down, and was able to reduce medication. Try eating sparsely, but healthy, at regular times 3 times a day. Avoid snacks between the meals. Prefer carbohydrate for breakfast and protein for dinner. Go jogging every 2nd day for an hour. A crosstrainer can help when the weather is bad or you have problems with your knees, but buy a good one or go to a gym. Do a little strength training too, get bigger muscles. Both components are important: Eat less, move more. Listen to music or podcasts when running makes it less boring. Software can motivate, e.g. www.my-health-software.com. Good luck!

Roberto Alsina / 2012-03-11 21:13:

25 years of gaining weight have completely messed up my ankles, so running is not yet a possibility, but we'll see.

Citolino / 2012-03-11 21:56:

You should use a good "elliptical" cross trainer in this case, or a cycle ergometer. Investing money in good equipment or gym membership pays out, with cheap equipment you will soon lose fun using it and it then will only collect dust. Appropriate shoes will help, too. Swimming is a good alternative. Unfortunately, there is no pool in my vicinity, but maybe you have one. Be creative.

Joshua Hoover / 2012-03-11 21:01:

Happy to hear your doctor has helped identify some of the problems and you're already seeing results from the changes you've made. Keep up the work! We need and want you around a lot longer. :-)

Roberto Alsina / 2012-03-11 21:14:

Thanks Joshua!

Facundo Batista / 2012-03-12 00:40:

Yo era un alfeñique. Claramente, ahora me dicen Señor Atlas, cuando entro a un boliche.

Hablando en serio, yo era flaco de chico. Un tío me decía que yo tenía que pasar dos veces para que me contaran. Otro que no me dieran globos, que salía volando.

Llegué a los 108.5 a los 21, ahí adelgacé.

Más allá que subo y bajo (aunque ahora estoy bastante bien, no me puedo quejar), el tener un peso "piola" te cambia la vida. No porque te entren más remeras. No porque transpirás menos. No porque las chicas te chiflen en la calle. Es porque el 99% de tu vida funciona mejor cuando no tenés una variable tan jodida.

Es como tener una computadora último modelo, con 640KB de RAM. El día que solucionás eso, *todo* funciona mejor.

Bienvenido, que te dure.

Franco Grismado / 2012-03-12 12:31:

3 kilos in 4 days!! that´s not healthy at all!Fuera de eso no aflojes, natación y gimnasio para fortalecer tu cuerpo y darte más estabilidad.
Que buena noticia lo de la permanencia del pelo!

Yo Mendieta / 2012-04-03 00:46:

Siempre fui gordo, desde chico. Hasta que llegué a los 154,500 hace un par de años atrás y empecé una dieta que me ayudó a bajar hasta los 123. En estos momentos estoy buscando la manera de seguir bajando y, por sobre todo, comer de una manera más sana y organizada. La interacción con los demás, la ropa, los espacios por los que uno transita, cambia de proporciones.


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