How to Feed Myself - #2

My adventures in dieting continue.  I started it with two questions: 'Can i do it?' and, 'Should i?'

The first i already answered in my last post on the subject.  It's a definite 'Yes'.  To date, i've lost ten pounds in a little less than ten weeks, and i'm on the last notch of my belt.

The 'Should i?' question seems like a no-brainer to most.  I'll look good, and feel good, and be healthy, and blah, blah, blah.  I was talking with a friend once, and she said something like, 'I think the pizza makes me happier than being thin would.'  She was the first to raise the question for me, and it is a valid question.

Recently Steven Levitt raised the question again, but this time from an economic perspective.  He pointed out that it's a simple cost benefit analysis.  The cost is to your waist line, and health.  The benefit is the enjoyment you get from eating.  Then he pointed out that if you were to eat 500 more calories than it would take to maintain your weight, you would not grow to infinity.  You would reach an equilibrium.  All of those extra calories after that would continue to have a heath impact, but would not affect your waistline.

It seems silly to be have to told this.  I've been a fairly constant forty pounds over weight even though i ran a calorie surplus every day for most of my life.

However, my dieting experience so far is that i can maintain the weight i'd like and still get about 90% of the pleasure from food that i had been.  Part of that is because a lot of the surplus calories were not amazingly satisfying, and i just had no idea what a waste that was until i started counting calories.  Sometimes i'd finish eating something high in calories that i wasn't enjoying for no better reason than i'd already started eating it.

I've been on the diet for sixty-five days, and i calculate that i'll need to be on it for one-hundred and thirty more to reach my goal.  That's about two thirds of the way to the finish line.