Intro
Hello reddit,
Im feeling a bit of trepidation putting my personal stuff out there, especially something like this relating to erectile dysfunction. Some people know my reddit name, but the shame I felt about this issue I think was unwarranted to a large degree, and I think by being brave enough to talk about it I might help others secretly dealing with this same issue. Roughly around my 30th birthday of last year, I began having issues being able to have sex and get hard or finish with my wife. We've always had a good sex life, and its been important for both of us, like assume it is for most people. So this creeping up was not a good thing for us. At first I figured to just let it go, don't think about it too much since I had these issues on a few occasions in the past when I was younger. I suppose all men do to a degree, or at least most. If I let it get in my head it would only make it worse, So I figured I'd let it go. The only problem was that it didn't get better over time, in fact it started getting worse. At the worst, The success rate was probably less than 50%, and even the successes were pretty underwhelming. I spent about 10 months like this. I had considered doing something about my health for awhile, but this honestly was the last straw. Its weird I guess, That all the warnings about future suffering from strokes, heart attacks, embolisms, diabetes and so on did not motivate me in the slightest, but when I couldn't have sex like I wanted to, it was the last straw. At one point I was almost in tears over this. It was NOT fun.
Im happy to say that things are back to normal sex wise, and that Ive begun waking up with morning erections again. I feel weird telling strangeres this, but I know that others are dealing with this issue.
So how did I do it? And what other benefits have I seen (because let me tell you there are many, being able to get hard is only one of them)?
Diet*
I will put this here next because this is by far the most important ingredient to my success. I have been going to the gym on and off for 17 years this January. I can safely say that you cannot outrun or out lift a bad diet, period. Not going to happen, especially over the long run.
Do you want to know what weight lifting without diet will get you to over the long term?
I went from This at 19 y/o. This is thanksgiving 2007 and Im about 149lbs and 6'1 in that picture.
To This on april 30th of 2019. Same height obviously, but Im 343lbs there ( lost a bit from a job I had walking downtown to and from the train station, I was 365 not long before this picture)
Don't get me wrong, I was incredibly strong, which was nice to have at the gym. I could do a heavy double with 365lbs on bench, deadlifted 515lbs, Squat was not as impressive but In my defense I do ass to grass squats so my max was 365lbs
I was walking around getting some shopping done at my local super walmart in the middle of the night randomly, when I was thinking about the bedroom issues and my health. I walked by the produce section and said "fuck it". Lets do this!
And thus my journey into dieting began
You know, right before I started, this had always seemed like an overwhelmingly difficult task, to lose weight. This time around instead of giving up before I started, I calmed down and tried to logically think through what obstacles can I plan for or foresee and make solutions for them so that I give myself the best chance of success? Here are a few examples and their solutions:
I like to cook, but not everyday, Solution: Meal prep, I cook once ~3 weeks ( I freeze my meals in a deep chest freezer)
I don't like counting calories, solution: Count calories by proxy by portion control. I limit myself to 2 meal prep containers a day, and small amounts of healthy snacks in between, roughly equivalent to 2-3 liters of food volume wise. Definitely not going to starve on that.
I don't like being hungry since I grew up poor and partially starved for the first 18 years of my life, solution: Healthy snacks in between meals, but only when I start feeling tempted. Bananas, tomatoes, unsalted nixed nuts are my usual go to in between snacks, but only If I feel I need something.
How should I cut calories, even though Im counting by proxy I should still plan somewhat, solution: Control the ingredients to be less calorie dense and far more plant based. Any meat you include should be lean (fat is calorie dense) as possible. I get my meat from the butcher section of my stores and make them from scratch, this was I control things like seasonings, salt intake and so forth. Far more healthy.
I figured an easy way to cut calories would be to not drink anything with calories in it but drinking only water gets boring, solution: I buy green or black tea by the box, which is only about 3 bucks per 100 tea bags. I make it by the gallon to simply things and keep it in a pitcher in my fridge. making it myself also controls the ingredients more as well, no sugar, preservatives and so forth.
Pics:
first batch of raw ingredients
Dry goods I got for the meal prep, yes that Brown rice lasted until a couple of weeks ago lol
here is the protein element of the first batch. All that meat cost about 20 dollars and lasted me about 3 weeks.
Some healthy snacks for in between meals if I need it, so I don't go to some fast food joint.
My younger daughter snapped a secret picture of me while I was making my first batch. She didn't realize this since she is only 5, but this picture kind of means a lot, thought I'd share.
Finished product. First batch took the longest since I was still learning, about 8 hours. Totally worth it though since I only have gotten faster plus I only cook once every 3 weeks.
The weight loss came quick and fast at first. I averaged around 1600 calories intake a day, which is an enormous decline from what I was eating ~4500-5000/day.
The first week I lost about 16lbs, I wasn't too excited about it since I knew that would happen. Water weight, also stomach contents and all that. How much was fat? hard to tell that early.
I averaged around 4-5lbs a week for a long time after that.
EXERCISE
I've always had this part down. I think I am mildly naturally talented at putting on muscle, it comes a bit easier to me than other men of the same age and weight IMHO. The almost 17 years of experience has helped. I've learned alot over the years, and at some point you basically have a topic mastered. I felt that way in my early 20's about the gym, and although I have learned a few things since, the frequency of novel and useful information has decreased. Typically at this point I know more than a lot of the young trainers at my gym. I'd say for an amateur Im about as good as they come knowledge wise. Don't get me wrong, there are tons of more talented, more hard working, more knowledgeable people than me, especially professionals. But Im pretty decent at this.
In the past I've done powerlifting, purely for strength and very little to do with looks. For those that don't know, There are different styles of training that are optimal for different goals. For example heavy weights and low reps will be optimal for strength, but not size. For Size, medium weight and about 8-12 reps are standard advice, a typical bodybuilding/fitness routine will involve this range for most body parts. Endurance is light weights and many reps, depending on what you're going for I usually only really see this with either endurance athletes who focus more on running, or people with niche needs related to work or a hobby or are rehabbing an injury, not very common way to work out at most commercial gyms in my experience. All of those styles have overlap, you will get size, strength, and endurance with all of them, just in different proportions.
This time around, instead of doing powerlifting, I decided to do a general bodybuilding/fitness routine. Why? Well two reasons. The main reason is that if Im hoping to avoid as much loose skin as possible, I'd like to invest in replacing the fat with muscle as I go as much as possible, and why not workout with a routine that maximizes this? Bodybuilding was the clear choice with this goal in mind. The other reason is because in theory the bodybuilding work would burn more calories since its a bit more "volume" intensive, meaning I do more sets and reps throughout the day than in standard powerlifting style workouts. Ideal if Im trying to loose weight.
I go about every weekday, and optionally on the weekends depending on how I feel, probably every 3rd weekend I will go in, and on those days I focus more on cardio. I could expand on my routine in the comments if anybody wants.
RESULTS
365lbs -> 285lbs
~40% bodyfat --> 31%
I've lost about 11 inches on my waist, 60 inches ---> 49 inches
lost 3 inches on my arms, 22 inches --> 19 inches (this is nice since not only do they look more muscular, But My arms actually fit in old jackets and suits)
My thighs shrunk about 3 inches, 34 inches ---> 31 inches
You would think my post is good enough, But wait, theres more!
I had a blood test about a week ago, and the thing that inspired me to post this journey today was the results of that blood test. I compared results from april 2018 to my blood test last week. See, I called the doctor asking about my test results, they hadn't called me. Usually they call you only if there is bad news, but I hand't gotten a call, which I found strange. See, last blood test My workup was horrendous for someone my age. No way in hell I thought I'd make this much progress to have normal bloodwork in only 6ish months. The secretary that answered said everything was in the normal range according to the doc. I figured there must be some mistake. I drove there to grab some copies.
See, the thing is that I have some medical training since I went to nursing school, and I can read and interpret a blood workup to a degree, I know what most of the tests are looking at and what they're measuring. I couldn't believe my eyes, literally everything that was absolutely FUCKED in april 2018, was now solidly back in the normal ranges. I got my results about 3-4 hours of making this post, and I was legit kind of choked up looking at it. For you medically inclined folks, here is what happened.
Cholesterol: 246 ---> 162 ( above 200 is abnormal, docs talk about meds around 210 or so, maybe before that)
Triglyceride: 346 ---> 117 ( above 150 is abnormal, can sometimes be interpreted as a high fat diet, but depends on lots of things)
LDL Cholesterol: 139 ---> 95 (below 100 is considered optimal)
AST (liver enzyme):50--> 36 , (above 39 is considered abnormal, a sign the liver is working harder than normal)
ALT (another liver enzyme): 76 ---> 38, (above 52 is considered abnormal, same interpretation as the last enzyme)
These last ones aren't really blood work, but....
Blood pressure: 147/93 ----> 124/80 ( above 130/90 is considered prehypertension)
resting heart rate: 90 ---> 71
Did I mention I lost 80lbs? lol
PROGRESS PICS
This wouldn't really be a complete post without before and after pics right? Honestly Im only part way to goal weight, I want to get down to 230lbs or less. Reason? Thats about the cutoff for BMI categorized obesity for my height of 6'1. Yeah I know, BMI isn't everything, so I added more goals. Get my waist below 40 inches, my bodyfat below 25% and of course the aforementioned BMI. All of those are markers for obesity related disease. I figure If I can string all three together, theres a very excellent chance that Im protecting my health better than simply paying attention to BMI, so even though BMI is great, its not perfect, and that my solution. Anwho, pics:
Sorry for the potato quality in the before pics, I left my flash on like an idiot. Anways.
Front picture relaxed shirtless, Before and after
Side picture relaxed shirtless, Before and after
Bonus posing pic because why the hell not.
Bonus pic to see what I look like with a shirt on lol
TLDR: Diet and exercise cured my Erectile dysfunction. My health has improved greatly as a result.
P.S, This post is gargantuan, however I'd be willing to talk with people and give advice for awhile, maybe longer depending on how it goes. I really think every single one of you can do this, for real. And not just for your sexual health like me, I've improved in so many areas is crazy, and one of the best proofs is the scale and the blood work.
