First up, picture gallery.
I basically never take pictures so my only max weight before pic is my driver's license taken April, 2020 @ approximately 295lb (133.8kg). Then a couple of today pictures @ 187lb (84.8kg). Then a couple from June, 2021 @ 249lb (112.9kg) of me trying out a bike for the first time and then January, 2022 when my bike finally arrived @ 195lb (88.4kg). Then a shot of my progress graph courtesy of MyFitnessPal.
https://imgur.com/gallery/fGevmQz
TLDR
Really fat guy starts fixing things and for the large part is wildly successful. Discipline is greater than motivation. Small incremental changes are sustainable.
The numbers.
I'm a 6' (183cm) male, age 44, one leg. Actual start weight was 288lb (130.6kg) in January 2021. Actual current weight 187lb (84.8kg) in February 2022. Initial goal weight is 179lb (81.2kg). Potential (very likely) follow up goal is 166lb (75.3kg). The initial goal weight was my old army weight of 215lb (97.5kg) from when I was in my mid 20s back in the early 2000s adjusted by the average leg weight being 16.68% of total body weight. The follow-up goal is an adjusted 200lb (90.7kg) because I was always overweight in the Army Using the same adjustment, my start weight would have been 346lb (156.9kg) and my current weight would be 224lb (101.6kg).
Now the story.
In January of last year, 2021 I had my annual checkup. My weight was ridiculously high (but not as high as it's ever been) and so was my blood pressure which required not one, but 2 medications to barely get back down into normal range. Around the same time one of my friends who is about 5 years older than me required back surgery for an injury. Another friend was also dealing with back trouble. And Covid was all over everything and for which I had a huge number of potential co-morbidities. This appointment it wasn't an issue, but past ones the prediabetic blood indicator was in the cusp of needing medication as well.
All of this combined to provide me with some external motivation to get myself back on track health wise. I hate taking medication. I understand and absolutely do when I've needed meds in the past both for physical and mental health issues. But I don't like it. And this blood pressure thing was 100% something I could get off if I just applied myself and lost some weight.
For Christmas 2021, I bought myself a rowing machine. Or at least I tried to. They were on a 3 month back order. So I was in line for that. The last time I did anything remotely resembling physical activity was back in 2017 when said back surgery buddy and I started doing weight lifting. Back then I had a start weight of 292lb (132.4kg). We lifted Monday, Wednesday, Friday, always heavy weights. I rowed with no real plan for about an hour on Tuesday and Thursday. I did a 16:8 intermittent fasting schedule. After almost a year of that I was down to 240lb (108.9kg). And I felt pretty good back then.
Gyms were closed. I didn't have the rowing machine, but I did start intermittent fasting again on a 16:8 to 18:6 schedule. I cut out snacking and most all of my junk liquid calories (mostly coffee creamer, alcohol, and soda) but didn't really do much more than that at first.
In April 2021 several things came together. I had a screening for a life insurance policy at which I weighed 270lb. I was really happy with that at the time. My rowing machine (concept2) arrived and I had a training plan to go with it courtesy of the rowing sub sticky. And I decided that if I was going to be serious about the process I would have to actually start logging what I ate again because that piece is hugely important for me for mindfulness. So I paid for a year of myfitnesspal. This was in part due to me knowing myself. I hate paying for subscriptions that then don't get used. So by paying 8n advance for a year, my hope was it would help motivate me to use the app. I couldn't care less about any features that came with payment. But the 3 or 4 false starts at weight loss over the last 15 years of my life has all been logged using MyFitnessPal so I saw little reason to start all over. I also went ahead and joined the VA (USA veterans administration) MOVE program. This was a 16 week education and accountability group which met each week and required you to weigh in. Meetings were virtual so this forced me to finally buy my own scale so I could track my journey.
April, May, and June I was rowing 5x a week on the beginner Pete Plan. I set a hard limit of 1750 calories per day which was approximately a 1k deficit. I limited my take out to 2x per week and started cooking again the rest of the week. I maintained my intermittent fasting schedule of 18:6. I logged everything that I consumed and when I ran out of calories I didn't have anything but water until my next eating window. The days I ate junk, I could feel it in the following morning row. By the end of June I was down to 240lb (108.9kg).
In late June the YMCA opened up again as vaccines were being rolled out for covid. I had really enjoyed the weight lifting I had done in the past and on top of that, everything about my daily life and movement (99.98% on crutches) is easier when I am stronger. The Y had a great deal for veterans at the time so I signed up and started lifting 3x a week in addition to the rowing still 5x a week. Through the MOVE program I had access to a physical trainer. I named the routine he set up for me 'Zach Hates the Cripples". It was challenging and great! I could barely complete some days. I was back to that wonderful borderline constant soreness of muscle breakdown and regrowth. And I was loving it.
Around mid July I looked at how many meters I had rowed and how long I had left in the beginner plan. And I decided that if I just added 25 minutes of really slow rowing as a cooldown each day, I would hit 1 million meters rowed at the end of the 24 week plan. Concept2 sends you a pin and a t-shirt for your first million so that seemed like a fun goal. I also started taking my dog for walks in the 20-40 minute range every day. Through the VA recreation therapy I started playing around with biking and kayaking. Neither activity was something on my radar at all but both were extremely fun!
In September I finished my 24 week rowing beginner training plan and decided to celebrate by rowing a marathon (42,195 meters, same distance as a running marathon). It took me 3 hours and 29 minutes so cleared my goal of 3.5h by about 15 seconds. The VA ordered me q bike of my own! And I started a marathon training plan in preparation for rowing a half-century (50km) on new year's day. By the end of September I was down to 203lb (92.1kg). I was then rowing 1-1.5h per day, lifting 2x a week and still walking the dog almost daily weather dependent.
In late November I hit my new year's weight goal of 190lb (86.2kg). Then I went on a Thanksgiving trip to visit my parents for a week and decided I was just going to try and maintain my weight until after the new year and the 50k was done. I had to eat more to handle the volume of training I was doing so relaxed my calories up to around 2200-2700 a day. It didn't matter what junk I ate at these (to me after so long in restriction) insane heights. But when more of my calories were ice cream or alcohol, I still felt it the next morning on the row
On New Year's day 2022 I rowed my 50k in 4h9m. This was the same pace I had done the marathon at but held for an extra 40 minutes and 8km. I did some more travel to visit my brother. I dropped lifting for basically all of January between giving myself time to recover from the 50k and travel. Near the end of January I weighed 195lb (88.5kg). After 2 months of semi-maintenance eating and 3 holidays and 2 trips I was only up 5lb which again felt great!
But I knew I still had a goal weight and needed to get back on track. I legitimately missed the weight lifting but that first week back everything was day 1 sore all over again. I had to laugh at myself as I failed my 3x8 pull ups getting 8 then 7 then 5. And I remembered why I don't take entire month long breaks from this.
It's taken me a fair few weeks to get back in the groove. But I finally have diet reigned back in at around 2200 calories a day which is near a 500-750 deficit after the rowing. I'm working on a training plan for a 100k row which will likely be sometime around August. I went indoor climbing with the VA last week and have never had so much fun in my life. It was an amazing way to take a literal year of fitness and strength work and have it apply to a dynamic problem solving puzzle. I joined a local climbing gym yesterday and plan to be there at least 2x a week moving forward.
My birthday is 20 April. I'll be 45 years old. I'd love to hit my weight goal by then but it's not a huge deal if I don't. I am in better shape now than I have been in my entire life, including my time in the US Infantry. The rest of the weight will come off. I'm really only targeting about 1lb per week at this point as opposed to 2 simply because I'm still doing around 10-15h a week of physical activity.
My mantra this entire process has been that discipline is greater than motivation. It did not matter to me that I didn't want to row some mornings. The rower was there in my house and I sat down and did the workout. It didn't matter if I wanted to break my fast and binge on whatever. Because the snacks were counter productive to my end goals, they didn't get eaten. When I did overindulge and eat that whole bag of Doritos or that entire pizza which happens still more than it probably should, I simply wrote it in my long and remembered that tomorrow is another day to do better. My rowing almost always reminds me when I eat garbage the day before.
I know that for me maintenance means logging. It always will. I need to write it down to be mindful and accountable to myself. I also am hugely thankful for the resources I have access to. The VA recreation therapy has afforded me many great opportunities to explore my world and my physical activities despite my amputation. These groups have been amazing. I am retired and have all the time in the world to exercise and cook and prepare my own food. I know not everyone has this level of scheduling freedom. The important thing to do though is to find strategies and systems that work for you. My method won't be for everyone.
If you are all the way down here, I really hope this story has been helpful for you in some way. I believe you can accomplish your goals! I believe you can make small changes over time that make your life more fulfilling and better for you! I believe you can take a disciplined approach to change! I believe all this because looking back at where I started I can hardly comprehend how far I've come. And I know there is still so much more for me still to do and to be and I can't wait to live that life. Thanks for letting me share this with you.
