Long-Term Fat

I have this theory that there’s a difference between Long-term fat and Short-term fat. How I define those is as follows:

Short-term fat consists of those few extra pounds gained or lost in the short term. For example, I weighed 165 a few weeks ago and gained seven pounds and was up to 172 a few days ago. As of today, I’ve lost some of that weight and I’m now down to 168 again. That’s Short-Term Fat and I find that particularly easy to lose with some diligent eating over a week or so. In reality, some of that “fat” might have actually been water or some other type of weight gain, not necessarily 100% fat.

Long-term fat consists of that fat I gained over the previous 15-20 years that brought me to an all-time high weight of 235 pounds in October of 1996. In the first year, I was able to lose 20-25 pounds of that, however my weight kind of stabilized at 210-215 for a while (likely that 20-25 pounds was only gained in the previous 1-2 years). In 1999-2000, I was successful in losing another 35-40 pounds of Long-term fat to bring me to 170-175. I managed to gain some of that weight back over the next few years (back up to 185 in 2002-2003), but then got diligent with my eating/exercise in early 2003 and managed to lose 10-15 pounds. I stabilized at 173-178 for quite a while. My next breakthrough in burning Long-term Fat came in the fall of 2005 when I was able to lose another 10 pounds taking me to a new all-time low of 165 pounds. I’m up a few pounds from that now, but that’s my new “baseline” of Long-term fat that I am trying to break through.

So, why the distinction between Short-term and Long-term fat? Well my theory is that Short-term fat is relatively easy to lose as your body has been that weight before and it easily adapts to that level. But Long-term fat is much harder to get rid of as it’s never been burned before. It requires new levels of calorie reduction and exercise to burn it off. And it’s damned hard to lose! It also requires much more of a lifestyle change and permanent changes to eating habits – not to mention the psychological and emotional changes that go along with it.

Of course, I have nothing but my own anecdotal experience to back this up, but that seems to be the way it works for me.

My current “Long-Term Fat Loss Challenge” is to break through that 165 barrier and get to 160 by mid-fall. I am realistic in thinking that it might not be feasible to expect that I will lose any weight in November and December as that’s peak holiday party time, but I hope to be able to maintain whatever I lose by the end of October all the way through until January. That’s when I can focus on my next goal: 150!