I have about 90 pounds left to lose before I hit my arbitrarily determined goal weight. When I was washing all my flabby bits last night in the shower (you didn’t know this blog featured nudity, did you?), I started to wonder exactly how that excess weight is distributed. It’s kind of fun, like trying to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar.
My belly alone must be at least 30 pounds. I’d guess at least another 30 pounds in my ass. Let’s say my arms have 5 pounds each, which leaves me with 20 pounds in my legs? That can’t be right.
Maybe my ass isn’t as big as I think. I’m not Linda Blair in the Exorcist, so I can’t swivel my head around to get that great of a look. Until the devil possesses me and makes me vomit pea soup, we’ll just have to go with what I can see in the mirror. Does devil induced vomiting count as bulimia? I don’t want an eating disorder, paranormal or not.
Maybe I’m overestimating my arm weight. The upper arms look like chicken wings, but how much do they really weigh? I’m hesitant to underestimate them. I’ve gone down three notches on my wristwatch in the past year and I would never have guessed I had that much fat in my wrist. My wrist! I thought my wrist was just bone and veins, but fat seems to lurk everywhere.
My mother insists that my shoe width has probably gotten smaller, but I think she’s loopy. How much fat can I have in my feet? I have heard a snide comment or two about the size of my ass, but no one has ever accused me of having chunky toes. It’s not as if there is a fat-person shoe store, is there? I’ve always assumed I had to wear wide width shoes because of my bone structure, but maybe she’s not crazy and I can start wearing normal width shoes in the future. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Random blog stumbler-uponer says
December 5, 2005 at 12:14 pmI just wanted to say you are really an excellent writer. Plus, you are doing an awesome job.
Beth says
December 5, 2005 at 1:27 pmI think you’d be surprised how that fat kinda goes all over and not just in the big, cushy spots.
As for your feet, I don’t know about you, but my feet are definitely thinner. I can tell because I have a pair of Adidas pool shoes (with the strap that velcroes over the top) and they are getting downright slip-slidey!
This is a good thing, as my feet are quite square. I got a good laugh the other day when I put on my 10-year-old niece’s sneaker. They have the skinniest, longest feet you can believe (a woman’s size 7). My feet must be twice as wide, but just a little longer. You should have seen the look on her face :)>
Hilly says
December 5, 2005 at 2:57 pmWow. You have me totally giggling. Not that your struggle is funny but the words you use are :).
You would be surprised…when I weighed over 300 pounds I had to get the wide shoes and now I can just get normal ones…but all of us are different. I keep praying that my cup size will go down, alas…not so much.
T_Stormcrowe says
December 5, 2005 at 3:35 pmLooks like you’re doing pretty good! I’m fighting obesity as well, and at the last weigh in I had dropped 305 pounds. Come on by my place and say hello! I promise no porn! I’ve gone from a wheelchair to a mountainbike, by the way! I found your blog through technorati, by the way, we use the same keywords it looks like!::GRIN:: Keep up the great work!
kathryn says
December 5, 2005 at 4:00 pmWhen my sister lost weight, she went down a shoe size. How freaky is that? I can understand losing foot width when losing weight but not foot length.
Dee says
December 5, 2005 at 6:16 pmHehe I loved this post and the whole divvying up has totally made me want to do it now too!! For some reason when you put stated it as belly, legs, butt, arms it didn’t seem as much as the whole picture – probably just my crazy mind. Isn’t it so bizarre where the fat resides (lol every bloody where?!)
You’ve done an amazing job so far! and the thing about the feet LOL I’m with your mother when I first started I was a size 10 shoe, and now I’m a size 8… what’s so odd is that I actually don’t have wide feet they’re slender so who knows what’s going on hahah.
love your blog btw.
monica says
December 5, 2005 at 6:50 pmi definitely went down a half a shoe size, so i think your mom may have a point….good work on your weight loss… :)
T_Stormcrowe says
December 5, 2005 at 7:15 pmI can understand losing length on the foot, less flattening of the arch under pressure = less length on the foot!
PastaQueen says
December 5, 2005 at 10:28 pmWoah! Who knew fat feet was such a hot button issue? I guess I’m going to have to go with the majority opinion here and admit that my mother really does know best. I’ll run out to Shoe Carnival this weekend and see what size my feet are.
Hi to all you new people and than you for commenting! I promise to check out your blogs sometime this week when work slows down some.
T_Stormcrowe says
December 5, 2005 at 10:40 pmBy the way, if you tried to visit my blogspot blog, apparently blogspot is down and I’m now in the process of changing sites. this link is to my new blog address if you want to visit! If/when I can get back into blogger, I’ll transfer the archives to the new site! In the meantime, keep up the great work PQ!- Tom
hopefulloser says
December 6, 2005 at 1:01 amYup, my feet lost weight. My wrists and calves too. All places I wouldn’t have thought carried a lot of weight. I even think that my nose got thinner.
:-)
Kirsten says
December 6, 2005 at 9:03 amMy ankles got thinner – I have one pair of boots that zip up. They used to just barely zip up (I was being a fashion victim when I bought them) and now they do so with room to spare.
Now if only the rest of my legs would shrink to match… I could well believe that most of my excess weight is in my thighs. If your head weighs 20 pounds (and I’m assured it does) then couldn’t a chunky thigh?
Oh, and my engagement ring got too big, fell off and was lost for a month, and when I found it I had to get it made smaller by two sizes. My hands look exactly the same chubby little paws they always were…
Queen says
December 6, 2005 at 10:45 amWOW. I could say a lot about this one, but everyone else did such a fabulous job, I pretty much think they covered it.
For me, I lost first where I last gained. Including my double/triple chin. I even think my EARS are thinner. I don’t have ONE ring that fits anymore.
And yes, my feet are WAY slender-er-er-er. [Hey, I’ve lost alot.] I’m with BETH on the width thing, but I can tell you this — I can stand much longer — even *gasp* run!
Amy says
February 13, 2006 at 9:40 amyour feet get smaller when there’s less of you to support. very upsetting to know your feet get bigger when you do, shoe shopping is like the last shopping joy for the dieting.
Dana says
July 26, 2009 at 10:01 amGod, my feet went through all kinds of changes over the last 15 years or so.
They’re supposed to be a size 6, 6.5 at the most. They still are, in fact. I measured them the last time I was at Meijer.
The problem is I’ve been through two pregnancies and a 100+ pound gain over that fifteen years. And my feet were *already* wide–when I was a teenager I had to get the extra-wide shoes at Payless. Those don’t cut it for me anymore. (Well, they might cut into my heels and ankles. If I can even get the damn things on.) Shoe-shopping has gone from minor annoyance to full-fledged fucking nightmare. At this point I have to snag an 8.5 or a 9 in the widest size possible to get something that’s wide enough for me. And they never feel right because my toes just swim in them.
It doesn’t help that shoe companies apparently expect women to have really narrow feet that take up little space. Wish someone had given my parents the memo when they were passing on their genes to me…
So just because someone changes shoe size with weight loss doesn’t *necessarily* mean the size has changed. It may be chalked up to the difference in width. I will always have trouble with shoe-fitting because my feet are an odd shape regardless of my weight, but it’ll be interesting to see if I can ever get into a 6 or 6.5 again.