Most people would say that at six foot tall two hundred and fifty pounds that I am not fat. Well don’t say that around my doctor, becasue for the last two years he has been telling me that that my health is fine but would be better if I dropped a few pounds. I have been thinking of what to write for the last two days and it just came to me that I should talk about what it is like to be fat, obese, chunky or whatever term that is popular at the moment for a man of size.
I have been big all my life. I always heard the term “big man” when I was growing up and I never thought much of it because my best friend was bigger than me. I didn’t see myslef as being a big person I just saw me. It wasn’t until I turned twenty two and had to go out and buy a pair of size forty two pants that I realized that I wasn’t the same 165lb kid that I was in high school.
My eating habits where at best bad. I would venture to say that I could consider myself as an overeater at the times. Though I joke today about it I would routinely say back then, “I’m ordering a large pizza for me, what do you guys want?” I didn’t see it as a bad thing, it was just a way of life with me and how I ate. As the pounds packed on during that time I first became aware that I was a actually a big man.
I realize that at 250lbs that I don’t have the same story that a person that is twice my size, but I still have my demons to deal with. The time in my life that made me look hard at what it was like to be the size that I was and dealing with a health scare that was life threatening. I went to the doctor for something that I honestly can’t remember and the blood tests revealed that I had Hepatitis C. At this point I was thinking that my entire world was coming to an end. Hepatitis C is a disease of the liver that today is call the “silent epidemic” and back in 1998 was something that I knew little about and had no clue as to what I was going to do about it.
My best friend found out for me that in the early stages of the disease that I could control it by controlling my diet. Diet is not a part of my vocabulary and the thought of going on a low carb high protein diet was just not something that I wanted to do. Considering that I grew up in a house that fried foods where the only way of life, the thought of giving up all that tastey food and starving myself was not a sobering thought.
My journey to weight loss began because at this point I was honestly thinking that I was going to die. I didn’t start out wanting to lose weight I wanted to eat healthy and stay around for as long as possible for my children. I had lived with being the size that I was and was quite happy, but now I was faced with the point that I had to shed a few pounds in order to stay alive.
A fifteen week trek that took me through all types of emotional and physical highs and lows resulted in me losing seventy two pounds, but more important than the weight loss was the fact that all blood work came back minus any trace of Hepatitis C.
During that time I felt good about myself but wasn’t happy with the way that I looked. I was down to 185lbs and was still considered overweight by the new BMI charts that came out back in 1999. In my mind I was just to skinny. Though I was working out four days a week and had muscles popping out from everywhere I was still overall not happy with my look.
Fast forward the time to 2006 and I have put back on all of the weight that I lost but to be honest I feel better about my self now that I have ever. I haven’t gone back to eating like I did before I lost the weight. Fried foods, sugar and other really bad foods are not a part of my diet. I eat a lot more fruits and vegetables now that ever and as I said earlier no trace of Hepatitis C. At the end of the day I realize that I am a big man no doubt about it but I am more happy with how I look now even though most people would just look at me as being a fat man.
I think you would be considered big but not fat. Men don’t really have the stigma that women have when they are overweight.I’m glad that you made healthy changes in your life, I need to make those as well. good blog.
As far as the medical establish is concerned I’m obese. Though I don’t see anything wrong with me, I have to call it like it is.