i'm new to the forum...my first post was about 3 months ago...

growing up, i was always thin and solidly built maxing out at 5'10 1/2'' @ 165... then, in my early 40's i put on an extra 35 lbs... i carried that for maybe 2 1/2 years and finely decided i had had enough... i quit drinking 10 months ago... and that didn't do it...? hmmm, i thought... I REALLY AM GETTING OLD.... so the diet began.... i lost about 1/3rd of a lb a day for 3 months... i got to 170 and stayed there for three + weeks.... then for some crazy reason i went on a hagindaz and cashew binge... gained 15 lbs back... that shook me up... big time... so i started over [this time however i only needed to drop 15 + lbs] so i figured that would only take 6 weeks...

but this time i made myself aware of the different foods calorie contents ... the amount of food a person my age and weight needs to maintain, came out to around 2,000 calorie's a day. i drew my intake down to between 1,400 to 1,600 calorie's a day...

my activity level at the time was somewhat energetic with some bike riding a few times a week but pretty tame really... so then along came spring in the northwest and i got in the yard, moving soil, bricks, demolishing an old garage and more bike riding and walking... and... SUDDENLY... BANG... i'm dead... laid out... unable to sleep well, unable to find any energy ...stamana... nothing...it went on for 5 days like this. then the light went on... your out of fuel buddy... no gas... empty... this sort of thing never happened 10 years ago... i ALWAYS ran up the stairs... ALWAYS... 4 flights... and i never thought about what i ate... often i didn't eat much at all and i was always riding on this endless fountain of strength

so the day i made the connection between fuel and health i got some very good quality multi vites and 5 days later i am back to feeling somewhat normal...

now i need to tone up and get into some free weights... i finally have a full set...

what i am wondering about is, was it the body fat i was burning that sustained me along for those weeks and months i was eating less...? AND... was it that i did not have enough extra fat to burn, that caused me to hit the wall last week...? that seems like the answer...

i am 46 years old and am now 168 to 170 lbs. i plan to raise my intake enough to finish a workout and build a bit of strength...

so what do you think...? was it the fat that kept me feeling good, and then the lack of fat in the end that sank my ship...?

glad to be back... this is a great resource..... j