I'm a 6'1, 23M who, on August 31st of this year, after years of zero exercise and consistent overeating, weighed 285.2 pounds. As a teen I was healthy and active, consistently in the gym and occasionally running. I was around 185-195 pounds, lean and somewhat muscular. That was, up until the age of 18, when I started gaining weight rapidly in 2020. I've been almost 100 pounds overweight and very sedentary since then.
On August 31st, I laid out a plan to try to lose 70 pounds in 144 days, with a goal weight of 215 pounds. Today is day 64 of 144, and over the last 9 weeks I've accomplished so much. I've gone from 285 to 239 pounds. Every part of my life has changed for the better, words can't even describe it. I am an entirely different person. I wake up and go to bed happy instead of depressed and anxious. I look forward to each and every day, even the difficult ones. I've even now changed my goal, as I was losing weight at a rate that meant I would hit 215 well before day 144. My goal now is to hit 195 pounds, which is a weight I would be happy to stay at for the rest of my life. The only reason it wasn't my initial goal is because I would never have thought it was possible for me to lose 90 pounds in 20 weeks. I think it's possible now.
Here's a nice summary of what I've been doing each week. I've been tracking everything pretty diligently. Still pissed and confused about Week 4 lmao, but obviously things have been rock solid otherwise, and I have nothing to complain about overall.
I've never been a runner before, and decided as a part of this journey that I would get into it (not because I think it'll massively help me lose weight. I know it won't. But just because I want to be healthier). I've managed not only to run consistently, but to love doing it. Just yesterday, I hit a goal that's been on my mind since week 3: A sub 1 hour 10k!
I've also been consistent about resistance training, adequate sleep, and keeping protein as high as possible; after all, I'm trying to lose fat here, not muscle. Even while losing 45+ pounds, I've gotten at least a little stronger on all of my lifts, which makes me feel confident that I'm not losing lean mass even while on such low calories. The body fat scale at my weight loss clinic's office says I've gained 12 pounds of muscle over the last 9 weeks, but obviously I don't trust that. Still, perhaps it's a sign I'm at least not losing muscle. I also can just look in the mirror and tell that if anything, I'm gaining muscle, not losing it.
I've also been able to steadily increase my daily steps throughout this journey, as my feet and legs hurt less and less each week. In fact, I can now walk 35k steps in a day, with 12k of them being a hard 6 mile run, AND hit a hard gym session that night, and have ZERO pain afterwards. That is beyond insane to me, and it's one of the coolest things I've ever experienced/been able to do. My last four years of being obese and sedentary have basically taught me: "Don't move too much! Your knees and ankles will kill you at the end of the day and for the next 3 days after that!". To have that be gone is beyond exciting. I feel like I no longer get punished for being physically active, I get rewarded. It's a positive feedback loop that has been making things easier as this journey has progressed, not harder.
Now, to address the elephant in the room from the linked document: Yes, I am on a quite low calorie diet for someone of my height, age, sex, size, and activity level. I wouldn't recommend anyone copy this extreme of a deficit, and I consider myself to be in a somewhat unique situation with my overall schedule, motivation levels, and hunger signaling that I seem to be able to pull this off. I didn't actually plan to drop my calories quite this low, but the thing is: I haven't experienced any hunger, or any real struggle at all yet. I have been feeling amazing, and have the motivation to pretty much effortlessly eat the amount of food I've been eating, and no more. I know this may change in the future, moving into the second half of this 20 week journey. And if it does, I'll raise my calories without hesitation. I have no desire to crash and burn from pushing myself too hard, trust me. But going into week 10 now, I still feel absolutely amazing. I guess my body was pretty ready for me to stop stuffing it with insane amounts of food after 4 years of overeating. Again, I do NOT encourage others to try to copy this extreme deficit. It is NOT necessary to make progress, and in fact will only massively increase the chances that you won't be able to stick to the diet!
So that's been the last 9 weeks for me! After 4 years of constantly trying and failing to lose weight, I was really starting to think this would never happen for me, but here we are. I've found my groove, I suppose. I've managed to lose a little over half the weight I need to lose (46.5 pounds lost, 43.7 pounds to go) in 9 weeks, with 11 weeks and 4 days left to go. I'm excited to crush these last 11 weeks! If anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer them!
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