Sunday, January 2, 2022

My Weight Loss (and gain) journey and what I did throughout it.

I will try to keep this brief and would love to answer questions for more detail in the comments. My family and friends have encouraged me to share this so this is not of my own volition but I will try to do it justice nonetheless. What I did I’ll be briefly described but questions and

TLDR: I struggled with obesity, anorexia, exercise bulimia (anorexia athletica), and body dysmorphia. I have finally gotten to a healthy point and am looking forward to the future. I started at 285lbs (5’7”) and have gone down to 156lbs (5’11” which is my current height), up to 240lbs, and now am comfortable at 194. My extreme methods of gaining results has led me to be knowledgeable as to what I believe to be the best approach to living a healthy lifestyle

I was a victim of childhood obesity that lasted a bit longer than early childhood. I was very involved in sports but my eating habits caused me to be a bit on the very heavy side. Going into high school I was forced to quit football due to an excessive amount of concussions and that led me to going from 246lbs (5’7”) in 8th grade to topping out at 285lbs (5’7” tall) before the end of my first semester of high school. My dad played left guard until his sophomore year of college so he was unable to see much issue with me being obese cause he was 320lbs going into college at my same height so my situation was unfortunate to say the least. I was very active through my early life through soccer, baseball, swimming, hockey, football, etc. but tended to eat more than I should. Following middle school, I was kicked out of football for having too many head injuries and decided to do performing arts to replace it. This paired with my eating habits led me to gain 40lbs my freshman year. This resulted in me doing the “Tom Segura” diet of hating myself as motivation to lose weight. I developed body dysmorphia which led me down the path of eating disorders (anorexia nervosa and athletica). Through the remainder of my next 3 semesters these disorders brought me down to 146lbs at 5’11. A comment from a friend led me to change my ways to pursue weightlifting and proper health management. Since then I have bulked to 175lbs, cut to 160lbs, bulked to 245lbs, and cut to 194 (current). While my eating disorder has stayed consistent I have reached a point where I know it’s time for a change. This post serves as my promise to myself to be stronger than them. Pictures with time stamps will be included below and I will include some minor (but important) details below the pictures. Thanks for reading.

SFW (not shirtless): https://imgur.com/a/LbXaela

NSFW (shirtless and/or pants are low): https://imgur.com/a/pRE3UFh

Starting Strategy (Do not do this)

I will briefly touch on what I did initially then elaborate on the changes I made to make it actually viable Diet: My diet consisted of 800 calories a day of anything I could eat to satiate my hunger or satisfy my cravings. -Breakfast: Black coffee, multivitamin, water -Lunch: 1 low-fat Pop tart from the vending machine and a small Granny Smith apple which was 180 calories. -Snack: Convenience store food adding up to 300-400 calories. This was only on days where I would train with a personal trainer and I would allow myself 1200 calories total for the day. -Dinner: Anything I could eat that would keep me below my calorie goal. Usually it was a Qdoba bowl with half rice half beans and chicken. Around 10 diet sodas would be had through the day minimum. This diet was developed because someone told me of the Twinkie diet and I implemented it for my own use. Exercise: -Elliptical: 4 hours every day -Weight training 2x per week

Improved Weight Loss Strategy: What I changed was I educated myself on macronutrients and learned to cook. I also began focusing on building muscle in order to raise my resting metabolic rate in order to eat more because my sleep was atrocious, I was always cold, and I honestly just enjoy food. Diet: -Breakfast: 400cals high protein and high fat. Usually eggs and bacon with a fruit or piece of toast and black coffee/water -Lunch: ~weekdays I got a a Qdoba bowl of half rice, black beans, chicken, grilled veggies, and salsa ~weekends were a sandwhich with turkey, lettuce, and light cheese -Dinner: High protein and carb meal of my choice. These were home cooked usually

Exercise: Weight training with a personal trainer 3x per week. These were powerlifting focused since that was his specialty.

After finally fixing my approach I educated myself on diet, sleep, and exercise optimization. I became much more focused on macronutrients, rest and recovery periods, and circadian rhythms for getting the most out of the time I was spending. Since then I have streamlined my approach and simply try to get as much protein in my diet, rest for my body, and sleep as I can as my life becomes more complex as I get older. My current strategy is much easier and has shown the best results. Train with a good split with however many days I have to train in a week, sleep as much as possible, and watch what I eat so I don’t eat in excess. I’ve found the best approach for getting results is simply being cognizant of what can happen when you aren’t on top of your health.

Long story short… I have been to every extreme in my journey through weight loss and management. My main piece of advice for all those wishing to become healthy is to simply know what it takes. It doesn’t make it easier to make the necessary steps, but it sure does guarantee success. Success eventually with time and effort as well as success down the road. I’m by no means an expert, but I think my experience makes me qualified to speak on that. Thank you for reading.

submitted by /u/Kysar-H
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/3zhpIWY

No comments:

Post a Comment