Something Random

[CougTek]

Same here. Depending upon the make I can sometimes fit into a 36" waist but 38" is what I usually need. Trying to get back down to 30" like I was until my late 20s (sedentary job caused me to put on weight and ever since I've had trouble keeping it off).

Forget it. Unless you decide to move to a slum in a third-world country and adopt the diet of the locals, you won't lose 8" of waist at the age you are. The fat that has accumulated there is there to stay in the most part and it will make you pay for every inch you'll try to cut. You would have to change your exercice routine significantly, to put your body in a state of shock (so that it reacts and start burning fat again). Cycling won't do it; your body is already very efficient at that, because of the years of training you've had doing it. Cross-country running combined to swimming might do it, but I don't know if you can do much of the former in New York city (safely, at least).

You'll also soon realize that at fifty, you have nowhere near the amount of energy you had when you were half your age. It might not be obvious on a bicycle because of the years of training you've had on it, but it will be if you try to do something you're not used to do.

 

[timwhit]

This NY Times Magazine article from a couple months ago is pretty interesting.

 

[Groltz]

Good: 32" waist. Down from 56".

I believe that a response to our friend's excellent personal achievement is necessary.

Congratulations on taking control of your weight so convincingly, Sam Mercutio.

Best of luck appropriating pants that fit.

 

[P5-133XL]

Well Groltz, it's been a while. You haven't made a post here since 2006 ...

WB

 

[Howell]

Good: 32" waist. Down from 56".
Bad: Gotta buy a bunch of new pants.

Good job Merc!

 

[paugie]

the waist loss is what I can call miraculous. Of course, there may be objections to the term, but I think it really is a great achievement.
I am 5'5" and have had a 34" waist since 15 years ago, maybe longer.

 

[Tea]

If you need to be closer than 1000 metres to take a picture, it's not an Ostrich.

 

[time]

Groltz, I thought you were dead.

You've now proved that such speculations were greatly exaggerated. Good to hear from you - you are far from forgotten, my friend.

Please drop in before another 8 years is up, because Eric and I probably won't last that long.

 

[Mercutio]

I've been trying to get back here to reply in this thread for five freaking days...

Groltz, I thought you were dead.

You've now proved that such speculations were greatly exaggerated. Good to hear from you - you are far from forgotten, my friend.

Please drop in before another 8 years is up, because Eric and I probably won't last that long.

I think Groltz just moved to a more lurkerish mode. But I agree that it's great to know he's still around! Also, thanks man.

Nitsirk also lurks all the damned time and never posts anything. I talk to her on the phone and she always knows about SF's goings-on. I find that pretty funny.

A 32" waist for a 40-years-old man, especially one that has the frame to have once needed 56" pants, is borderline unhealthy. Of course, I haven't seen you in person, but that had me thinking about your eyesight problems and the possible relation with the kind of drastic diet you must be on to reach such a slim size. Are you sure your daily intake provides you with all the vitamins/proteins/lipids/minerals required to remain healthy?

My body shape is pretty odd. I have A LOT of loose skin. I look like a have a big belly, but my pants are 32s and I'm buttoning them at my actual waist. Supposedly the skin will eventually take care of itself, or I can go pay many thousands of dollars to have it cut off, but it's not something I'm that worried about. My thighs and calves are so muscular that they're actually vascular like a bodybuilder's. I probably do have some hormonal issues stemming from being overweight for so long, but my nutrition is supposedly relatively sound other than my ongoing need to avoid sugars. Most days I have to struggle to eat more than I do. I know what keeps my blood sugar normal and that's calibrated at about 1200 calories, but 1200 calories for my size puts me in a starvation metabolism.

As far as actual weight loss, it's really been pretty steady over time at about 1lb. every week or 10 days. I tend to slow down and also eat more in the winter or I might be farther along. In theory I could drop another 20lbs. and still be, from a medical standpoint, slightly overweight.

 

[LunarMist]

Yikes. Perhaps the extreme and extended weight loss is somehow the cause of your problems.

 

[Mercutio]

Yikes. Perhaps the extreme and extended weight loss is somehow the cause of your problems.

I was actually referring to my very likely low testosterone levels. Imma get that checked next time I get blood drawn anyway. :\

 

[CougTek]

In theory I could drop another 20lbs. and still be, from a medical standpoint, slightly overweight.

If you refer to the BMI, at your height, or at least at the one I assume you have, anything above 175lbs puts you in the overweight class, but that's bullshit. Your legs must be quite heavy due to the muscle mass you wrote about, which you used to need to move your former body mass. Plus, as you advance in age, you tend to become a bit heavier. In your case, a weight of ~190lbs would be just fine.

 

[Chewy509]

Merc, fantastic effort on the weight loss...

Re: BMI, the best advise is to ignore BMI completely (it falls apart in way too many situations), and look simply at body fat percentage. (and with many consumer grade scales that have semi-accurte body fat mesasurement, this is the way to go).

I personally have no idea how BMI even become mainstream, as the original calculation was a statiscal measure for certain populations in a demographic study conducted bewteen 1830 and 1850. (The study had nothing to do with healthy weight ranges or anything health related).

 

[iGary]

Good: 32" waist. Down from 56".
Bad: Gotta buy a bunch of new pants.

Pics, or it didn't happen.

 

[LOST6200]

Pics, or it didn't happen.

Garyu Henderso and Steve Groltz are alive. Its a mircale!

 

[iGary]

Ya, well, I don't visit the interWWWebs or forums very often any more... been too f***ing busy and vice versa.

I did get banned a little while back on the Royal Planetary Society forum after posting several dozen jokes one night about black holes, white dwarves, Uranus, and Prince Charles. :diablo:

 

[LunarMist]

Holy crap, is this the end of the world and the dead have risen to post at SF? :rofl:

 

[Mercutio]

Pics, or it didn't happen.

Oddly enough, there really aren't very many pictures of me in general.

One of my customers is getting a 300Mbit synchronous internet connection put in this week and oddly enough I just figured out where I want to put my spare i7-980X.

 

[Handruin]

Amazon has a reasonable deal on LoTR bluray extended for $38 for their deal of the day today. I only had the original DVDs in individual so I bought in on getting these in the higher quality format.

Congrats on your weight loss, Mercutio. Keep up the good work.

 

[Handruin]

Launching a Porsche 911 Turbo S from 0-60 in less than 3 sec...50 times in a row.

[video=youtube_share;A5DRCTW-Q7o]http://youtu.be/A5DRCTW-Q7o[/video]

 

[LunarMist]

Launching a Porsche 911 Turbo S from 0-60 in less than 3 sec...50 times in a row.

Why 50x? Is it OCD or other mental condition?

 

[Handruin]

Why 50x? Is it OCD or other mental condition?

Watch the video and you'll have your answer.

 

[jtr1962]

I'm surprised it didn't break. I've been told by a number of people, including mechanics, that you should never, ever floor a car, much less do so 50 times in a row.

 

[ddrueding]

Launch control is way harder than flooring it. It actually lets the revs build before letting the clutch slip considerably to barely maintain traction.

Flooring it is something I do a dozen times a day every day in every car I've owned, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[Handruin]

I agree with David. Launch control is way more intense than simply flooring it. I don't know where the info comes from to not floor a car, but this is a regular event in my car. I've rarely launched my car due to the amount of stress it causes.

 

[Bozo]

Why 50x? Is it OCD or other mental condition?

The guy doing the testing doesn't own the car....

 

[timwhit]

I floor every car I drive. I've never had a problem caused by this.

 

[Stereodude]

I'm surprised it didn't break. I've been told by a number of people, including mechanics, that you should never, ever floor a car, much less do so 50 times in a row.

How can you do an Italian tune-up if you don't floor the car?

 

[jtr1962]

I agree with David. Launch control is way more intense than simply flooring it. I don't know where the info comes from to not floor a car, but this is a regular event in my car. I've rarely launched my car due to the amount of stress it causes.

I'm just repeating what I've heard. I should mention also that I heard these things when I was a kid, so they may have been true with cars of the time even if they're not true now.

 

[Bozo]

If cars were not supposed to be run wide open, there would be throttle stops or governors on them.

 

[LunarMist]

A cliff or wall will do nicely; even an ocean or a lake will suffice.

 

[Mercutio]

Known as one of the best restaurants on Earth, the $295 per person Chef's Tasting Menu at The French Laundry, as reviewed by a four year old. as told in many, many photos.

 

[ddrueding]

Awesome.

 

[sedrosken]

Can the site handle large amounts of pictures in a single thread? I kind of want to start a "Show us your desktop!" kind of thread, but if the site can't handle it then I guess it's no-go.

 

[Handruin]

Can the site handle large amounts of pictures in a single thread? I kind of want to start a "Show us your desktop!" kind of thread, but if the site can't handle it then I guess it's no-go.

Yeah it should be fine. Vbulletin may be configured to limit the number of pics to 5 or 10 per post. You could also use imgur to host the pictures and then just reference the urls but feel free to start a thread if you want.

I follow the subreddit called /r/battlestations which is exactly what you've described. I've seen some nice setups there. There are some things I'd like to try for my upcoming Haswell-E + X99 build to update my Lynnfield i-7.

 

[LunarMist]

Perhaps it can be a separate thread?

 

[Mercutio]

We've had picture heavy threads before and SF has been fine.
Most of my desktops are utterly not safe for work and not for the impressionable eyes of youngsters such as yourself.

I had to spend 40 minutes today explaining to someone why he has to use a password to access his web mail. He honestly wanted me to take the password off his Hotmail account. Completely. And he didn't understand why he could not do it. I spent the last 35 minutes of the conversation alternating between regular facepalm and double facepalm.

 

[Handruin]

Perhaps it can be a separate thread?

That's what he proposed.

 

[Handruin]

We've had picture heavy threads before and SF has been fine.
Most of my desktops are utterly not safe for work and not for the impressionable eyes of youngsters such as yourself.

I had to spend 40 minutes today explaining to someone why he has to use a password to access his web mail. He honestly wanted me to take the password off his Hotmail account. Completely. And he didn't understand why he could not do it. I spent the last 35 minutes of the conversation alternating between regular facepalm and double facepalm.

I interpreted his idea as literal physical desktop setup. Otherwise how many screen captures could one possibly have of their IS desktop. :-D

You spent 35 minutes too long explaining this whereas showing this person how you would read and hack into their account could have done the same thing.

 

[sedrosken]

Well, I was talking about in-screen setups. But physical desk setups work too!