“Ideal weight”: achievement of satisfactory balance between weight, alcohol intake, and lifestyle.

After reducing his weight by 19 pounds over 5 months to a BMI just under 30 (overweight, but no longer obese) and maintaining for an additional 5 months, O made the positive decision to maintain the health and life-oriented benefits he gained up to that point and stop his weight loss journey. Society may tell you there is a desired weight or aesthetic to achieve, but everyone eats according to different priorities in life from social connection to performance to aesthetics to survival to health, etc. Given his past nutrition changes and current diet, the main avenue to healthfully reduce his weight any further was to reduce/replace alcohol consumption – something that for social, work, and enjoyment reasons he did not want to do. He had improved various blood markers of health, increased the chance of living a longer life for his children, and enhanced his ability to participate in enjoyable activities like hunting with friends. It’s not our job to tell you what you have to do, but to help you navigate food and nutrition science to live your best life within your own framework – to improve valuable outcomes and reduce the effort of achieving them – while laying out the process and the costs and the benefits to help you make the best decisions for you.