I'm about 5'11" and 185 lbs. I'd like to drop another 10 lbs, but at 39, that's easier said than done. Lean proteins and no beer would probably do it, but dang... really? NO beer?
I haven't had an alcoholic drink since May 2009, when I was diagnosed with diabetes. Hasn't had any impact on my weight one way or the other.
As was mentioned earlier in the thread, body fat % is more important to me. I'm at about 16% now, down from 25% when I began training in BJJ. I'd like to get down to 13 or 14% and lose the spare tire.
No idea what my body fat % is, but my goal is cardio-vascular fitness, not weight. Weight is an arbitrary number and to a certain degree, so is body fat %. They apply to the aggregate, but are much harder to fit to an individual. That said, I thought my CV health was doing pretty well until last week's promotion/sparring event; I found out quickly that my CV is nowhere near where I wanted it to be. More time in the gym, working harder.
I do train for health and sport. My job doesn't put me in regular danger, nor do my personal habits. I don't hang out in bars or anything like that, live in a nice neighborhood and generally avoid trouble, so I won't need a "This is my Life" t-shirt. My family is my life, not martial arts.
That's kind of what I meant. I may not do martial arts for sport (I do not engage in competitions), and I don't hang around in bars either. My comment was based on my approach to my martial arts training; it's not something I do for entertainment or for fun (although it can be both on a good night). I do it because I have accepted the role of the karateka and made it part of my life. It's part of who I am; it's not a baseball glove in a closet somewhere, waiting for the company league to start up again.
Frankly, I train and exercise in the hopes that I will be active and healthy enough to enjoy playing with my great grandkids. That's my goal. Not defending myself from ninjas in a dark alley.
You could get that with a good jazzercise class. Must be more to it than that. And I'm not too worried about the ninjers.