Morbidly Obese

This morning, I updated my weight loss progress sidebar (now called Oink Stats) to include my goal weight, total pounds lost and BMI numbers.

When I started this program 4 weeks ago, my BMI was 47. According to the National Institute of Health's BMI Calculator, a BMI of 30 or more is considered obese. A BMI of 40 or above is considered morbidly obese, which places me at a 75% higher risk for mortality than people of normal weight.

Such encouraging news for a Saturday.

The good news(?) is that at least I don't fall into the super-obese category. Those are folks with a BMI of 50 or more. To achieve that dubious honor, I'd need to tip the scales 274 pounds, or another 17 pounds higher than where I was when I started, or another 25 pounds from where I am now.

25 pounds. That's not all much weight. It's pretty sobering to think about.

The other good news is that I don't have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes, the big three health problems of overweight obese people. As far as I know, I don't have sleep apnea, but it's too late for my gallbladder. I lost that sucker in my early 30's, though looking back I was having symptoms as early as my 20's. (I wasn't really overweight back then, but I suspect years of dieting may have contributed to the problem.)

I have noticed (recently) that I sometimes snore at night. Hopefully, losing weight will eliminate that problem, since I think snoring is one of the most unforgivable acts a person can do. It's noise pollution at it's worst. When I was a kid, my mother (not overweight, but used to be a smoker) would fall asleep on the sofa while watching TV. She'd lay there and snore, eventually becoming so so loud she'd wake herself up. She'd snort, raise her head, and then glare at us kids malevolently, thinking we were responsible for the abrupt end to her nap.

Okay, so now that I have all the bad news about my weight, I guess I should go do something about it. Since going off and sitting in the corner and crying about it won't help, I guess instead I'll just go eat a big plate of broccoli, and hope my next weigh-in is better.