Before and after: https://imgur.com/xQ4LiF9
On 6th November 2017 I weighed in at 418 lbs., after much hard work and dedication on July 24th of 2019 I dropped below my goal weight of 173 lbs. hitting 171.4 lbs. I am 5'10''.
I didn’t have any weight loss surgery, I have not had any loose skin removed yet (yes there is a lot of loose skin), I didn't follow some crazy fad diet. I utilized CICO (calories in, calories out), and exercise.
Some other statistics for those who LOVE math; Year 1: Daily average calories1408.46, weekly average calories consumed 9847.53, calories burned via exercise per week 7639.64, average lost per week 4.9 lbs. Year 2: Daily average calories1509.13, weekly average calories consumed 10,567, calories burned via exercise per week 5628.08, average lost per week 2.19 lbs.
It wasn't always easy, I tried to stay positive for a majority of the weight loss journey, I stumbled a few times, but now I have crossed the finish line and begin a new chapter in my life by maintaining what I have achieved.
I hope that others in this sub who are about to give up, or who just need a little push to help them across their own finish line can take some motivation from this post. If I can do it at age 44, just about anyone can do it!
The last time I posted on this sub I got a lot of questions so just to recap from that previous post:
TL; DR: Calories in, calories out, exercise, tracking.
First, I use quite a few apps:
- MyFitnessPal for calorie, nutrition, and exercise tracking.
- C25K, to learn to run over an eight-week period.
- Map My Run, to track my running calories burned and distance.
- Map My Ride, to track my biking distance and calorie burn.
I made a spreadsheet in Excel. Once a week, on weigh-in day (which is typically Monday or Tuesday) I enter data from my apps to track trends including: Starting weight, current weight, amount of weight lost or gained for the week, daily calorie average for the week, weekly calorie total, weekly total of calories burned via exercise, starting BMI, current BMI, current weight BMR, and weekly calorie deficit.
With formulas in place it is a snap to enter data and see trends so that I can make adjustments to CICO (calorie in and calories out), to ensure I am on the right path.
Since I do a lot of VR based cardio on the Oculus Rift, I use data from the VR Institute of Health to calculate calorie burn when playing certain exercise-based games such as Beat Saber, Thrill of the Fight, Holopoint, Audio Shield, Gorn, Fruit Ninja VR, Space Pirate Trainer, etc.
My current favorite Oculus game for cardio is Sound Boxing, I typically do 60-90-minute straight sessions on Sound Boxing a few days a week.
Last, I use a website called WebMD which has calculators to determine calorie burn for other activities, such as doing squats, swimming, playing an instrument while standing etc.
With all of this data available to me, I was able to start making smarter choices every week and it shows in my overall trends.
Final bits of advice are learning what an actual serving size is by utilizing a digital scale to record the food you eat down to the gram so that you have accurate data on CICO, you will be shocked at how small a serving size really is once you start weighing food out.
Another thing you can do is learn to read labels. Look for things like serving size, calories per serving, servings per container. If you have certain nutrition goals in mind read the labels for that info, I personally like to limit salt intake as it makes my weight spike due to water retention and I previously had high blood pressure (which is now cured via weight loss).
I do all of my own meal prep and will typically go to a restaurant supply store and buy disposable microwave food trays that have three sections (protein, veggie, and veggie is what I put into them), and will normally make two meals for myself and my girl at a time so that we can just come home and reheat the trays while I prepare our evening salads.
A typical dinner for me is: 150 grams of spring mix salad (30 calories), with Greek yogurt blue cheese dressing (60 calories), a diced plum tomato (11 calories), and 3 oz. of radish coins (12 calories), seasoned with Nu-Salt, and crushed red pepper flakes.
8 oz of Shady brook farms boneless turkey breast cutlets baked in a 375-degree oven for 12-15 minutes (220 calories and 50 grams of protein)
2 cups of steamed broccoli florets (40 calories). 1 3/4 serving of steamed ShopRite brand baby carrots 61 calories.
After dinner, I peel and dice up a Fuji Apple (63 calories), and combine it with 15 red seedless grapes (34 calories) a light and fit Greek yogurt (80 calories 12 grams of protein) and a serving of pumpkin spice Cheerios dry cereal for crunch (110 calories).
For dessert, I will have a pint of Bryers Delight chocolate ice cream (270 calories 21 grams of protein)
Later after dinner, I will have a toasted Best Pita 80 calories with 16 grams of Smucker’s natural peanut butter (95 calories 4 grams of protein).
That’s a total of 1116 calories for a pretty substantial meal and leaves me with around 400 calories to play around with for the rest of the day (I still typically only eat dinner and my evening snack).
I might use those calories to have oatmeal or eggs before work 100-143 calories or broil up an entire sliced and peeled eggplant for lunch (454 grams 115 calories) drizzled with wasabi sauce (15-30 calories).
I hope this information can help others in their weight loss journey.
