OP
First 3-4 weeks are going to be tough, make you reconsider all your life choices up to that point, etc. But, if you can make it through this period, it will all good from that point forward. Good luck and I hope you stick with it!
Let's drop the weight challenge
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First 3-4 weeks are going to be tough, make you reconsider all your life choices up to that point, etc. But, if you can make it through this period, it will all good from that point forward. Good luck and I hope you stick with it!
How old are you? Do you have kids or grandkids? Do you want to be able to play with them and do fun things with them?
When I feel like I want to quit, I imagine my granddaughter on the ski hill saying "come on grandpa, keep up"". She is only 7 but I plan to be able to ski with her for many years to come.
OP
Actually, according to this podcast, it is expected. I have increased the number of eccentric movements, so soreness is going to occur. I had been training for strength recently but CF has upped the reps (plus introduced me to squat snatches, hanging snatches, power cleans, etc), thus inducing the soreness
It's expected, but not necessarily "good". When I was doing the four day bro split and everything for four or five sets of twelve reps I was sore constantly for months. When I stopped that silliness and concentrated on full-body workouts with heavy weights for sets of five I stopped being sore.
Outlandish_Bandit
Member
Made the trek from a high of 262 in 2011 to 185 now +/- 5 pounds.
I agree with the other posters who mentioned a necessary lifestyle change being what it takes. I went from having a 6 pack post-Sapper school and eating ~3000 kCal/day to being a civilian and not doing as much exercise.
Nearing my 29th birthday and not wanting to enter my 30's overweight caused me to reexamine my priorities and what I ate.
I'd urge other posters to do the same if they really want to lose weight.
Do you actually NEED that beer every night/week?
That second helping?
Those potato chips?
Ya don't.
You just like the taste.
You can live healthier without it.
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I agree with the other posters who mentioned a necessary lifestyle change being what it takes. I went from having a 6 pack post-Sapper school and eating ~3000 kCal/day to being a civilian and not doing as much exercise.
Nearing my 29th birthday and not wanting to enter my 30's overweight caused me to reexamine my priorities and what I ate.
I'd urge other posters to do the same if they really want to lose weight.
Do you actually NEED that beer every night/week?
That second helping?
Those potato chips?
Ya don't.
You just like the taste.
You can live healthier without it.
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Well, here goes nothing...
I am fat. Doesn't matter how I got here, it was a combination of many things and can only be repaired by a combination of many things. However, I am now committed to making those changes.
Two weeks ago I joined a gym. In my initial assessment I weighed 371 and my body fat % was 49.7. So, I am carrying around 185# fat person. (I am 5'11".)
I am starting slow. Made some basic dietary changes and trying to go to the gym 2-3 times per week. Hopefully in a month or two I will be able to add a another step. Going to eat this elephant one bite at a time.
I am in this for the long haul. I am not going on a diet or trying to get ready for a specific athletic event. I am trying to change my entire life so that I can provide my children a better quality of life with their father.
I had initially avoided this thread, but decided that using it as a place for accountability would be beneficial. I read through it this morning and am now throwing my hat into the ring. I wish all of you continued success and hope that I can offer some positive thoughts and results as well.
Now I am off to try a class at the gym. It is called Bodyflow and is apparently a combination of yoga, pilates and tai chi. They say it is good for ALL fitness levels, guess I will put that claim to the test. ;-)
I am fat. Doesn't matter how I got here, it was a combination of many things and can only be repaired by a combination of many things. However, I am now committed to making those changes.
Two weeks ago I joined a gym. In my initial assessment I weighed 371 and my body fat % was 49.7. So, I am carrying around 185# fat person. (I am 5'11".)
I am starting slow. Made some basic dietary changes and trying to go to the gym 2-3 times per week. Hopefully in a month or two I will be able to add a another step. Going to eat this elephant one bite at a time.
I am in this for the long haul. I am not going on a diet or trying to get ready for a specific athletic event. I am trying to change my entire life so that I can provide my children a better quality of life with their father.
I had initially avoided this thread, but decided that using it as a place for accountability would be beneficial. I read through it this morning and am now throwing my hat into the ring. I wish all of you continued success and hope that I can offer some positive thoughts and results as well.
Now I am off to try a class at the gym. It is called Bodyflow and is apparently a combination of yoga, pilates and tai chi. They say it is good for ALL fitness levels, guess I will put that claim to the test. ;-)
Want a basic dietary change? Cut out sugar, bread and pasta. Start with the Sugar, it sucks, but that will drop you a lot quick, then you will stall, so then drop bread. If you want more on diet stuff when can really get you eating clean. Going to the gym will help, but the mouth is what controls the fat in the body.
OP
You got this. The first step is deciding to take it. Stick with it for a month and it will be easier every day after that.
Once you get over the initial hump of adding gym time to your weekly routine (that first 3 weeks or so), figure out the caloric intake that works for you (leaves you will a negative but doesn't leave you without energy or causes headaches) and strive to stick with it. Yes, what you put in your mouth is important but you are at a point where just limiting the calories in should provide good results for awhile.
Outlandish_Bandit
Member
I'm rooting for you too, brother! You can do this!
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Started out almost exactly where your at in February, 376lbs 5'11". Started keto after reading the thread here. Added some walking, then some kettelbells. Down to 287 as of this morning. If I can do this, you can do this!
Started out almost exactly where your at in February, 376lbs 5'11". Started keto after reading the thread here. Added some walking, then some kettelbells. Down to 287 as of this morning. If I can do this, you can do this!
Keto is no joke if you can do it. I have Mark's book on it, if anyone is interested, I can pay it forward.
My suggestion is a bit counter intuitive. With that much weight you don't want to drop it too fast. Slow and steady so your body can adjust.
I dropped 40 lbs with keto and excercise in about 6-8 weeks. 210 to 169 at my lowest. It was probably a bit too fast. I'm into maintenance and trying to build some muscle now. 178 as of this morning and no notable fat belly so I'm hoping its muscle.
Getting my blood work re tested Monday to see how things are coming along.
Good luck with it.
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I dropped 40 lbs with keto and excercise in about 6-8 weeks. 210 to 169 at my lowest. It was probably a bit too fast. I'm into maintenance and trying to build some muscle now. 178 as of this morning and no notable fat belly so I'm hoping its muscle.
Getting my blood work re tested Monday to see how things are coming along.
Good luck with it.
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OP
Agreed. At his current state, I think slow and steady vs jumping in head first will produce better and longer lasting results. Too much change this early might be too much and actually cause him to abandon the change. Some people can handle jumping in, while others need to ease in.
The thing is diet is basically what you eat. If you eat chocolate and bread all day, that's your diet.
Going to Keto, Primal, Paleo, it's a lifestyle change. Going to gym, getting active, eating a healthy diet is a lifestyle changes. I lift barbell Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I do yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays along with elliptical.
Once we get our house on the market and sold and move to wherever, I want to have a garage gym to work out at the house.
But he would be better served doing a Ketosis diet and being hardcore on it, not even thinking about cheat day for a couple months. Cheat meals turn into cheat days, turns to weekends, then to weeks.
OP
@MadMardigan, I agree with what you are saying but not everyone can make drastic lifestyle changes like that all at once. All diets have more people that fail on them than succeed because the change was too much to handle at once. If he can make a total lifestyle change like that, that is the absolute best way to do it. But, based on statistics, I would encourage him to take baby steps and incorporate other changes down the road, once he has gotten comfortable with the previous change and committed to it. Easing into it and sticking with it is preferred to jumping in, failing, and then abandoning the change altogether. That is all I am trying to get across.
Yeah, I didnt eat myself to 240s over night, I haven't cut to 190s over night either. But the latter was a conscious effort with where my life is. I set an ambitious goal of 170. But they way my body is, I may only get to 180 with lifting and stuff.
Like I mentioned earlier, the first thing he should do is cut sugar, that imho is the silent killer of most Americans.
My neighbors son did keto for 18 months. Dropped a bunch of weight. Started cycling semi competitive. Felt great the first 16 months. Then things went sideways. His liver started developing fat deposits from the diet. He lost too much, too fast and went too hard core. That's one of the reasons I'm getting my yearly blood work re tested.
Another friend went seriously low carb way before keto. He lost so much the dr told him to gain some back. He was on the verge of loosing muscle in a big way. Apparently when that happens it can come on fast and be pretty dangerous.
Too much of a good thing can still be too much. And you loose too much weight too fast you get the flappy skin thing going on. Loose it steady and your body can accommodate the change better. Too be honest, I wish I would have taken it a bit slower. I lost so much weight so quick it scared my wife. The success is a bit addictive though. I lost almost 5 lbs in 24 hours at one point. That's what they recommend you take a month to loose. If I did that long term I'd likely have problems.
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The guides on it actually have you introducing carbs back in later on. I lost my fist 20 on Keto, and I've lost another 22 watching what I eat, and looking to lose maybe another 20.
To add to what Mad said about carbs above, cut out visible carbs late in the day. Bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, processed sugar, and most processed food in a box or bag. If you feel like you need a fix, work it into breakfast. That way your body can burn it off. Very little if any at lunch. And none for dinner. Try not to eat anything after 8pm if you have a normal schedule.
If you stop loosing then start finding those hidden carbs and sugars. Eat as much as you can that you fix. Eating out and loosing is very hard.
Drink mostly water. I do coffee in the morning and add Mio to my water at work. Sugar in drinks equals carbs.
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To further @chiefjason
The old saying:
Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a queen, Supper like a peasant.
Learning how how to meal prep, cooking up everything on Sunday for the lunch through out the week helps also.
The old saying:
Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a queen, Supper like a peasant.
Learning how how to meal prep, cooking up everything on Sunday for the lunch through out the week helps also.
I brought some back when I hit 169. Never expected to get that low anyway, and didn't want to loose more. At some point, if you want to pick up muscle, you need some carbs anyway. You just don't want too much.
I'm thinking about tweaking some things again. I worked in some garlic bread at dinner a couple times and it made me feel terrible. I've found several things I used to eat that I just don't tolerate well anymore, and most are carb related. I've been eating 2 pieces of toast with breakfast, but considering changing that to see if I feel better. Dealing with my residual back issues and changing stretches, workouts, and getting messages to try and get it under control. It's hard to tell if some of my aches and pains are me working those things out or adding back the carbs via a couple pieces of bread. I know when I went hard core with keto a lot of those aches and pains went away. But that diet isn't sustainable long term. Like you said, you have to work some things back in to maintain your health.
Try Rye bread or sour dough, also the locally grown not modified wheat bread (you know the non gmo), chew it slower and longer when you do eat it to break it down more.
Atta boy! It's going to be the hardest thing you've ever done, but very much worth it. And as others have said, cut the sugar! As in none. You'll be amazed at the difference it will make.
Can you expand on this thought? What makes them bad, the artificial sweeteners? If so which ones? The carbonation? Other additives that we might not know are dangerous at this point? Had an ex-wife who used to harp on and on about how diet soda made you fat, but she would swing back these flavored carbonated "waters" that used the same artificial sweeteners and flavors that are in diet sodas.
Aspartame. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame
If you need flavored water, MIOs.
Also to note, sugar alcohols don't get absorbed by the body, so things like Orbit gum (gum marketed to adults) is good to go.
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I thought most diet sodas had moved to sucralose and ace-k? What does mio use as a sweetener? Are the assumed dangers of aspartame the cancer risk? Or are there others? What about xylitol, or Stevia?
Depends on your body. Aspartame can have issues with people predisposed to PKU.
Mio uses Sucralose and Ace-K.
Stevia is an alternate that some can and can't due to genetics.
Xylitol is sugar alcohols.
Ok so PKU is fairly rare, are there other dangers to aspartame consumed in reasonable quantities? What genetic qualities preclude the use of stevia? So for you aspartame is bad but sucralose, xylitol, ace-k, and possibly stevia are acceptable and not "evil stuff"?
Depends on your body and how it process it I think. Xylitol in gum I don't worry about.
I've heard about the negative returns on diet soda through the aspartame. And then the other things like PKU.
We put so much stuff through our systems. Stevia is a hit or miss for some, some it acts just like sugar, some it doesn't.
Drinking water with a little mio, I can't see it hurting unless you have a underlying allergy.
I found personally, when I started making changes, the biggest detriment for me, with diet sodas, is that the more of them I drank, the more I wanted something else that tasted sweet. I have been on unsweetened tea, coffee and water for several months now. I was just curious what made diet sodas specifically "evil stuff" when the same ingredients are found in other products that are not considered "evil stuff"
Some people propose that artificial sweeteners in soda can cause the same insulin response in your body as sugar. For a person who is highly insulin resistant, like most severely overweight people, this can cause your body to hold on to more fat.
The more I see and the more I experience myself the more firmly I believe that everyone needs to make barbell strength training their top priority for at least the first three or four months of a fitness program. If you learn how to squat, overhead press, deadlift and bench press you can see progress in your strength in the first week. Once you are barbell strength training and eating single-ingredient foods like steak and tuna you may have to work hard to eat enough of the right foods to drive your progress in the gym, and believe me that lifting goals will become huge in your life.
Yup, heard the same thing about spiking your insulin also.
This is kind of more what I was thinking, but this is for most artificial sweeteners, not just the ones in diet soda, correct? So best to avoid all artificial sweeteners as much as possible right? Not just diet sodas?
Poking around it seems diet soda is linked to increases in the chance of diabetes, high blood pressure, INCREASED weight gain, osteoporosis (same as regular soda), higher cholesterol, and it has no nutritional value. You tend to consume less water via diet soda. So you are getting less bang for your buck so to speak as opposed to just drinking water.
In some cases it has the exact same problems as regular soda. While most folks think it's better for them. So they may make worse choices in other areas because the diet soda is OK. Supersize that combo because I'm getting a diet soda! So there are both actual issues with the soda and some choice issues with folks that drink it.
FWIW, I have drank Sundrop since I can remember. I drank a lot when I was a kid. Before the diet I had cut to one a day. One of the reasons I dropped weight as fast as I did initially was cutting soda out completely. I'll have a sip of my kids Sprite occasional, and drank a little gatorade the other day; but they taste like cough syrup to me anymore. About the only thing I can tolerate is sweet tea, and I only get that if we go out to eat. I don't even bother to make it at home, and have not in probably a year. If I want to sweeten my coffee up I put vanilla latte protein powder in it, vanilla hazelnut MCT oil, or both.
The MIO I use in my water at work has sucralose in it. If I could find a better option I would probably try it. But it's got far less sugar and carbs than the gatorade I used to drink. I've looked into making my own, but most have a lot of sugar in them.
In some cases it has the exact same problems as regular soda. While most folks think it's better for them. So they may make worse choices in other areas because the diet soda is OK. Supersize that combo because I'm getting a diet soda! So there are both actual issues with the soda and some choice issues with folks that drink it.
FWIW, I have drank Sundrop since I can remember. I drank a lot when I was a kid. Before the diet I had cut to one a day. One of the reasons I dropped weight as fast as I did initially was cutting soda out completely. I'll have a sip of my kids Sprite occasional, and drank a little gatorade the other day; but they taste like cough syrup to me anymore. About the only thing I can tolerate is sweet tea, and I only get that if we go out to eat. I don't even bother to make it at home, and have not in probably a year. If I want to sweeten my coffee up I put vanilla latte protein powder in it, vanilla hazelnut MCT oil, or both.
The MIO I use in my water at work has sucralose in it. If I could find a better option I would probably try it. But it's got far less sugar and carbs than the gatorade I used to drink. I've looked into making my own, but most have a lot of sugar in them.
I think there is a correlation/causation problem with most of those studies. Fat people drink diet soda, but they eat too much, so they're fat and they have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and everything else. If they lost weight all that would get better, diet soda or not.
I stopped drinking sodas that have aspartame in them, but I'm not sure that it really helps any. Diet pepsi and Diet Cheerwine both use sucralose as does Diet Arizona iced tea and Sparkling Ice.
I've lost plenty of weight drinking diet soda. I'm going to keep drinking diet soda because I like it.