Tomorrow, I begin my program at the Weight Management Clinic at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. This program comes highly recommended and is apparently quite successful in the work they do with their clients. They have a number of initiatives that range from nutrition training to rapid and maintained weight loss to bariatric surgery.

I went early last month for an assessment. It was interesting. They ask a ton of questions. One of them asks how much weight I believe I want to or should lose. My response was about 40 kg (about 88 pounds for our southern neighbours, or neighbors as the case may be). They did a test or two and determined that, of my current body mass, 32% is fat content and 68% is muscle and bone. They said that this was a good starting ratio because it signals two things: (a) that I don't need to lose as much as I think I need to - making the goal more achievable, and (b) that i am dealing mostly with abdominal fat and their program tackles this well. Their assessment is that I probably don't want to lose much more than about 22 kg (or 50 pounds) maximum.

So, tomorrow is the information session and then the program gets under way. I will begin by simply reducing my caloric intake to 1200 calories per day and keep track of items consumed. This goes on for a week or so. Then the real program begins and I start on a regimen of shakes 3 times each day for up to 3 months depending how long it takes to reach my goal weight. Alongside this is a weekly meeting to start learning about weight management, fat loss, nutrition, etc so that, at the end of the 3 months, I will have the ability to maintain my new weight. I would continue to go to weekly meetings and learning sessions for a whole year. That provides the opportunity for doctor-supervised weight maintenance for quite a while after the weight is lost.

So, here's the unofficial situation:

Current weight:   EEK!!!... 140 kg (311 pounds)

My original goal expected:   100 kg (223 pounds)

The hospitals assessed goal for me:   118 kg (259 pounds)

The reason for the assessed goal is because about 210 pounds of my current body mass is muscle, so we're only tackling a much smaller target in fat than I anticipated. We don't want to eliminate fat to too unhealthy a level. This is interesting because I've always been told by my doctor that they think I'm just "meant to be big" and this seems to corroborate that belief. I like the fact that we're not going to try to squeeze me into some height/weight ration chart.

So, wish me luck, cheer me on and I'll keep you all posted.