https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/ad20uw/today_is_the_day/ Original post.
6'1.
Original weight - 23 and a half stone - (329 lbs)
Current weight - 13 ST (182 lbs)
Total loss - 147 lbs (10 and a half stone) in 7 months.
Ok, to preface the main post - how I feel at the moment.
So it's been a hell of a ride - I started this knowing I'd be where I am now eventually and that I'd be sitting here writing this to you, but the reality differs from expectations in so many ways. I want to be honest and not lie about anything here - I don't feel like I thought I would, I reckoned I'd feel proud and amazing etc, but I just feel .. "okay". Meh about all of it, like 'alright, that happened. So anyway ..."
I'm not really sure why, maybe it's the fact that I went into this with the mindset that I'd let it all fade into the background to make it easier, and over months and months of conditioning it did just that. Maybe it's the fact that I'm still overweight and because I'm such a goal-focused all or nothing kind of person, I don't feel accomplished yet. I'm getting plenty of praise and congratulations from my family but it goes straight through me, like it isn't valid until I reach where I want to be (where I'll be by the end of the year, around 11st.) The 'wow' factor wears off once you get used to this whole thing, and from there it stops being a challenge and just another part of your life. When I get told 'holy shit you've lost so much weight!' it feels like someone celebrating the color of my shoes or the shape of my tie. That's the best thing I can compare it to. I've always been kind of a grouch so you can take a point off my scoreboard here for that, but yeah. That's the real deal of it, cut square and simple. Best I can do.
Oh and don't pay attention to the bullshit I sold myself in the OG - I totally did count calories. And step on the scales. And look in the mirror. Just shut the fuck up past-me, go read or something.
How'd I do it?
No exercise. Not a single jog in the park, starjump, whatever. Sat on my ass like I usually do for the most part, made an effort to pace around while waiting for something that cooked maybe but .. nothing else. Honest!
No junk food. Nothing processed was my rule, no sodas or chips or chocolate etc, nada. If it didn't grow in the earth or live on it, I don't eat it.
Sum of it is, it was the inadvisable way. And as I learned in both consequence and humor, the hard way. I tanked my calories real low to around 200 a day for about 2 - 3 months following my post. Lost a metric fuckton of weight from that, slowly started increasing. 300, then 4, then 5. 4 or 5 months in, 500 a day. Multivit everyday, if I can help it. Also drinking A LOT of water, 2L a day minimum, sometimes 4. Can't stress how much that's helped. Weight loss most certainly did not stop, slowed very slightly. Stabilized to about a stone a month after the first 4. Diet consisted of boring salads and nuts, apples, different random fruits in the beginning. No bad health effects .... yet. Then I got extremely bored of all that, had a big Caribbean take out as a reward with rice, beans, lots of chicken, dumplings, and felt so worried I'd put weight on but to my amazement the weight loss just kept on going. Didn't put on a pound. Even had another less than a week later and it was the same story. I honestly have no idea, more questions that answers, maybe someone can fill me in on just what exactly was going on with my body. So after that my weight loss started to slow, I stalled and hit my first big plateau for the first time. Was at 16st. Lasted about a month and a few days. During that time I decided I'd try upping protein as I'd read that your body burns more fat trying to digest it, so I started eating 4 to 8 cans of skipjack tuna over the course of a week, every week, with fruits and vegetables to accommodate for when I ran out, salads included. Still doing that now. It worked, or at least seemed to - had the 'whoosh effect' and have had it every month since. Also introduced potatoes back into my diet recently and stopped counting so aggressively, eating between 800 - 1k calories a day for the past month.
So the bad side.
Severe constipation. More specifically, a bowel obstruction, my guess anyway. And it's shit - big time. Yes, I just wanted an excuse to use that. So, turns out that you actually can't? just eat a ton of food after having your gut shrink to that extent and expect everything to be fine, as my ape brain failed to correctly process. Where the realization that this was a very fucking stupid idea should've been, instead were circus monkeys enthusiastically smashing cymbals together. I'm an absolute spaceman. So yeah it's still going as I write this now. Started I'd say around the time I had those meals, .. a few months ago. Taken a myriad of different medications, suffering very bad light-headedness when standing up too fast, stress, nausea - I'll leave out the messy details, you get the picture. Meds and more food seem to be working now, very slowly, but more than likely I'll be visiting a hospital soon. Not pretty :-( but if there's anything to learn from it, it's that there are REASONS people that are smarter than you or I tell us NOT to do this the inpatient and risky way, let me be an example. It sucks. Be smart and don't destroy yourselves, people.
The good side!
I look a lot skinnier and more muscular than I used to pretty much everywhere, especially in my arms, face, hands and neck. I feel healthier, can move around more, do more. Skin looks better. I can literally fucking step into my clothes like I'm wearing one of those blow up bouncy suits you for some reason see in weird car advertisements. Libido has increased. Noticeably. Eyesight seems to have improved a little. I think clearer and more effectively, enjoy stuff more. Taste of food is godlike compared to what it used to be, that occasional take out makes me feel like I'm eating in the halls of Valhalla. Hair looks better and doesn't grow out as much, guessing it's a nutrient thing. Or body grew out of it's human Michelin man wannabe phase. I dunno. I'm a ' if it works' kind of guy, I don't think about it too much. Lot of other positives I mostly hear from other people, but we went over that already, so - conclusion!
- Possibly the only time in my life I can say that I lost a person with everyone dancing in jolly celebration.
- Bad eating habits are bad + no do weight loss stupid ape no human think way for best results.
- It's nice! .. but you know, whatever else you've got going on in your life is still there. Can't really burn it off with the fat. So keep that in mind.
- Extra bullet point because I'm uncreative and too cool for school 😎 👉👉
Couple of months and probably a couple more into the new year before I fully realize my destiny as skeletor incarnate and enact my wrath upon the world. Thinking I'll settle for 10 at the lowest based on my BMI. So I guess I'll be back then? dismissing any acts of god or crossing the street backwards with my eyes closed. But yeah, it feels good Reddit :-)
