Fat Food Bloggers

In today’s Times, Kim Severson has an article about — how do we put this? — fat food bloggers.

Exhibit A: Jason Perlow. As Severson tells it:

Back before everyone with a fork and a laptop started nursing a food blog, Mr. Perlow was a founder of eGullet, a pioneering online discussion forum that helped obsessed food enthusiasts find one another.

It put him at the center of a community where no food was too fatty and no field trip too extreme. Ferreting out the best place for an empanada or the perfect way to braise pork belly meant tasting countless versions, often in the same day. Being the first in the group to find it was golden.

Reality hit in October, when the 400-pound Perlow collapsed and spent three days in the hospital. He was diagnosed with diabetes and told he had five years to live.

Perlow’s eGullet co-founder, Steven A. Shaw (“Fat Guy”), who weighs 270 pounds, is unrepentant: “I think the whole diabetes thing is a major hoax. They are overdiagnosing it.” Presumably he believes Perlow’s hospital stay was a hoax too.

I have managed to avoid a weight problem only with difficulty. I weigh about 15 pounds less than my high, but about 10 pounds more than my low. A lot of my clothes (acquired at the low) just barely fit, and I do not want to replace them.

I spend a lot of time food-blogging, but fortunately I’ve never been as obsessed as Perlow. This week, I’m on a four-day stretch when I’ll eat only a very light breakfast and lunch, and no dinner. My first dinner of the week will be on Friday. I will most likely order just an appetizer, an entree, and a bottle of wine—no dessert. Despite that regime, which no one would call gluttonous, I am just barely treading water. If I ate out anywhere near as often I’d like to, I would be constantly gaining weight.

When I have a mid-week dinner on my schedule—anything on a Monday through Thursday—I know that it will be a tough week. I will probably end that week with a net weight gain. Just to tread water, I need to fast an awful lot. My metabolism is slow. What I lose the first four days each week, I generally gain back on the weekend, when I do most of my “dining out for fun.”

Next week will be challenging. I will be on vacation in Hawaii, and there will certainly be a temptation to eat out more than I normally would. To avoid gaining weight on the trip will require constant focus.

I am battling it every day.

Comments

[anon]

Your metabolism is slow because you aren't eating. You need to eat 3 healthy meals a day to get your metabolism up. The other way to rev up your metabolism is to exercise on a regular basis, which you didn't mention. Finally, skip the wine (and hard alcohol). It has loads of calories.