The 1960s was an era when you lost weight by eating the steak and not eating the potato. South Beach was a vacation spot, not a diet. Dr. Robert C. Atkins was toiling over his diet books. Diet was a noun, not an adjective for Pepsi.

And Bill McShane weighed 313 pounds.

The weight for his 5-foot, 10-inch frame crushed his feet. (The picture at left is from a yearbook photo in 1963.)

"I had calluses on my feet, so thick ..." he said. He had chest pains and got out of breath easily.

Most of all, "I missed being around people and feeling good about myself," he said.

The wake-up call came when he was a mechanic at McDonnell-Douglas, "I was assigned to work on a (military airplane)," he said. "I got out of breath going up the ladder; I couldn't fit in the midsection of the plane."

Losing weight in those days consisted of willpower to resist hunger; much of the advice was wrong.

So, intuitively — he says he just sort of knew what to do — he made some changes.

He reduced his number of meals to two a day, and watched how much he ate.

Then, "I started working out in the evening and not eating after the workout. I'd go to bed a little hungry."

A major step, he stopped drinking eight to 12 sugar-packed sodas a day and switched to a revolutionary new product called diet soda. "I credit diet soda with saving my life."

In about a year, he was down to 290 pounds, and in four to five years, he was down to 220 pounds. With some ups and downs over the decades, today he weighs 160 pounds.

The saga taught him lessons about himself. "I'm a compulsive finisher," he said. "If there's a 16-oz. jar of nuts in the house, unopened, that's fine. But if it's open, I finish it."

Now, "When I go to a restaurant, I eat half and take the rest home."

He even shops differently. "I learned to buy smaller portions and not bring things in the house."

Still, that was a time when weight loss wasn't the mantra it is now.

"It was just instinct," he said. "I was so uncomfortable."

His only medical challenge was in the early 1990s when he had excess skin removed from his midsection.

Today, he still speed walks 4 to 5 miles, four to five times a week around hilly Kirkwood Park, often with his wife of 35 years, Suzy McShane.

Otherwise, "I still love my food. But I've become a taster, not a finisher. There's nothing I won't taste. I just don't finish anything any more."

Connie Diekman, head of nutrition at Washington University and past president of the American Dietetic Association, said McShane's story shows that going after weight loss for health is what works, regardless of the era.

"Focusing on health moves us to shift portions, make better food choices and develop routines that we can maintain," Diekman said.


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Jackie Hutcherson

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