<p>Today I got a deferral at the blood bank for low hemoglobin. It was still in the healthy range, but not high enough for a donor.</p><p>I'm pretty sure the cause if my recent aggressive attempt to lose weight. The irony is that eating below the basal metabolic rate most days and still going for 20km and 150bpm bike rides and the like had a nearly zero effect on my weight. Slower approaches didn't work; an aggressive approach killed more erythrocytes than it emptied adipocytes. A fascinating discovery.</p><p>I've never had hemoglobin that low, even in my young days on a poverty diet. Blood bank personnel always commented on how high it was. Deferral for this reason was a huge surprise. Showing my age?</p><p>But the most distressing part is that before this, even if I felt absolutely worthless otherwise, at least I was still good "for parts". At the moment, I'm worthless even for spare blood.</p><p>This is the next level of uselessness.</p>
