Who: 36 yo male
SW: 190 lbs. (86 kg) at my heaviest in 2017
GW/CW: 145 lbs. (66 kg)
UGW: 135 lbs. (61 kg) + 10 lb. clean bulk = a new and improved 145 lbs.
Strategy: CICO, limited attention to macros, increased lean protein, decrease sugar/snacks/drinking, and a *little* bit of fasting (but not really)
Exercise: Nothing at first, then walking, then spin, then spin and lifting, and now outdoor running and bodyweight circuits since the gym closed (and I'm getting fast!!).
Progress Pics (took first picture at 169 lbs in October; latest picture is 145 lbs. today after my run)
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While I have already hit my initial goal weight on a fluke few times on the scale after particularly intense/long runs, I decided finally today to acknowledge my successes with my first post on LoseIt — to reflect on what's worked and what I'm proud of and also to hopefully garner a bit of advice on the next steps. Here's the story:
January 2018–August 2019: The Rocky Road and the Long Plateau
In January 2018 I was a mess. I had been up between 185–192 lbs. for at least a few years as I finished up grad school. I was totally sedentary, my diet was mostly unplanned (though I effectively was maintaining), I was depressed and anxious, and my sleep schedule was horrid. I got a lot of exercise just by commuting via walking and doing weekend hikes, but my blood pressure was borderline and as I turned 34, I started to wonder how much time I had to turn my lifestyle around and get in shape.
*Then*, for about nine months, I started to have a pretty bad IBS flareup. I'd never had digestive issues in my life, but between the anxiety of my job and the inconsistency of my diet, I think I triggered a cyclical digestive issue that simply would not resolve. Between the flareups and the attempts to resolve it (cutting sugar and drinking, etc.), I got down to 170 lbs. by August 2018. But then I plateau'd, almost thankfully since I wasn't losing the weight in a healthy way.
I was ok being around 170 lbs. and wasn't thinking too much about changing my diet and exercise, but then in August of 2019 I had to move for my job. This was a *very* stressful move and along with that stressful move came stress eating. By the time we landed and unpacked, I was back up to 175 lbs. and getting freaked out about losing the progress I'd made. Then:
September 2019–June 2020: Spin to Win (and CICO)
Pretty much the only thing that was good about my work move was that the apartment I found had gym access bundled into the rent. The frugal (lazy?) soul in me had been denying myself a gym membership for ages, though I ran on and off through the years and had the cardio skillz to do a sloppy 5k. But now that I was ostensibly paying for this mandatory gym, the petty soul in me decided that I was going to milk every penny's worth of value out of the gym fee. Additionally, my gym is a really solid gym — uncrowded, nice machines, etc. The big draw for me was (and I know these things are controversial) the two free Peloton bikes.
I have never had or been able to afford training my whole life and I've never been great at coaching myself either. Doing Power Zone training on the bike and getting help from the very positive and generous r/pelotoncycle community, I had, for the first time ever, a consistent and manageable training workload that worked on the principle of gradual progression in consistency, duration, and intensity over time. Instead of burning myself out overtraining and expecting too much from myself, I watched my numbers tick up consistently week after week, did my FTP tests and crushed mental barries, learned about aeorbic and anaerobic training intensities, endurance paces, threshold, VO2 Max, learned to manage discomfort, and more.
The other benefit of getting involved in a training plan with a coach and a community is that they had all kinds of knowledge I couldn't find on my own, and that's what led me to CICO, the real center of my weight loss plan. Starting on September 23rd, I started using MFP and a TDEE Spreadsheet with a starting weight of 174 and a first week average weight of 174.5. There was some trial and error — I had to learn not to eat back my calories from exercise, that calories in exercise apps are *extremely* inflated, that certain foods make you feel fuller and more satisfied than others, what meal-planning strategies were sustainable, etc.
Generally speaking, here's what has worked for me diet-wise:
1) Eat lots of lean protein. When I was a dieting novice I assumed that the biggest part of the equation was eating a lot of fiber, fruits, and vegetables and avoiding meat; I was a saladaholic. Not wrong, but not everything! A well-timed bowl of greek yogurt or a 500–600 calorie whey-protein smoothie in the morning can be so energizing and filling that I can either get by with a healthy afternoon snack or skip lunch altogether. This is not to mention that, since I run in the afternoons, if I plan a mid-morning breakfast I have a ton of energy stores for an afternoon/early evening run and then can plunge right into a very satisfying dinner that doubles as run recovery.
2) Angel Sunday–Thursday, Conscientious Devil Friday–Saturday. Food is always going to be a great pleasure and stress release for me, but what I've learned from calorie counting and conscientious meal-planning is that saving my calories and indulgences for the weekend actually makes them much, much more pleasurable. On Fridays and Saturdays I eat lightly throughout the day and at night I have my martini and my takeout (often Chinese or Sushi or burgers or pizza) and my popcorn, sometimes my Ben & Jerry's, my saltines with peanut butter and sriracha, my Newman-o Mint cookies, my pistachios, etc. The point is, I can have all that and have a good time on the weekends without going overboard or feeling like I tanked my diet. Typically between Sunday and Thursday I've been between 1400–1700 calories/day and on the weekends I'll run the gamut anywhere from 2400/day to 3000 (I mean I try not to eat 3000 because that's a lot for anyone, especially a short guy like me, but I have been doing longer and longer runs on Saturdays and sometimes I can't help stuffing myself full of carbs after). If you think of CICO on the scale of a week rather than a 24-hour thing, I think you'll find it much more doable.
3) Lunch (or breakfast, or dinner) Is Overrated. Now I didn't take to intermittent fasting or what have you, but what I appreciated about IF is that you don't have to eat just because you're hungry and you don't have to eat socially acceptable meals at socially acceptable mealtimes. I first figured out I could make the most progress via lunch by often being so busy at work that I'd plow through it and be stuck with an apple or a slice of bread with olive oil or a plain omelet or whatever I could scrounge up on the fly. Then I realized that the lighter the lunch, the better I felt throughout the afternoon and the more I could load up on calories at night when I was plopped in front of the TV watching Parks & Rec. A typical breakfast for me is around 300 calories and a typical lunch is anywhere between 0–300, so my dinners now, at my current activity level, can be potentially 1000+ calories on a weeknight! Isn't that bonkers? I split a pint of beer with my husband, I drink red wine, I have fudge pops or sorbet bars for dessert, I have a nice satisfying dinner, and sometimes I even have a post-dinner snack. It fucking rules, y'all. All I had to do was reel in lunch and eat a strategic breakfast.
4) Find Your Cheats. It has taken me years to develop my library of "cheats" that aren't pure disasters. Here's a list of my faves: seltzer (0 cal), saltines (empty carbs, but hard to binge on; 1 serving is like 70 calories), pistachios (cannot be eaten by the handful! Each individual nut takes like 15 seconds to eat!), sorbet bars (100 cal), fudge bars (100 cal), beef jerky (protein and sodium rules for running, and it's low-cal), sausage and bacon (even just one or two links or strips adds tons of flavor to ostensibly healthy soups legume-centered soups and stews).... I could go on but these are the ones that have been my true winners. Oh, and like I mentioned above, I split beers now; I love beer, but I'm good with a 6-8 oz. pour. When I go out to a bar to hang with friends, I have resigned myself to drinking Miller Lite, which I think is arguably the most tolerable 100-cal drink next to neat whiskey.
5) Meal Stockpiling Will Save You. How many times in my life have I come home from work simply unwilling to make a healthy meal for myself? I know this isn't cutting-edge advice, but find 3 or 4 sensible soup and stew recipes (my personal favorite is this sausage, chard, and lentil stew on Smitten Kitchen) and make sure you always have a few of them in your freezer. Plan on making 1 or 2 large pots of easy weekday meals every weekend and you'll always have a healthy dinner waiting for you.
All of this brings us too...
WHAT'S NEXT? (June 2020 and Beyond)
Now that I have a sense of what I look like at a very "normal" BMI, my goal now is to get down to 135 or so (perhaps even leaner) and then clean bulk back to 140–145. The idea here is part vanity, but has more to do with my running goals. I recently ran my first sub-50 10K and I want to get a sub-20 5K and a respectable first marathon time. In order to get there — and losing 45 lbs has taught me this — I gotta lose a little more weight. Lightness has a big impact on increasing pace and endurance. Think about it this way: 190 lb me was generating way more power when exercising at a slower pace because I was hauling around a lot of extra weight that was doing nothing for me. The good news is I primed my cardiovascular system, which is now humming along beautifully; but two people generating the same power at different weights will also move at different paces. I wanna go fast, so even though I'm happy at 145 with a little bit of a fleshy torso and hips that stick out (lovehandles are literally all I can see in the mirror), I think I can go even further and become the athlete I never knew I could be.
I've had some hiccups the last 4 or 5 weeks, to be honest. As my running has progressed (up to 30–35 mpw now), I've needed to figure out how to load up on energy better to sustain my performance gains and goals. Trying to cut weight and make performance gains wasn't so bad for the first eight months, but now that things are getting more granular goal-wise, I'm finding that trying to do both things at the same time has resulted in compromises on both ends — I'm really doing neither well right now.
First of all, I've recently cut my weight-loss goal to 0.5 lbs/week. Not seeing the weight melt off has been a real bummer just confidence-wise and, because I'm retaining a lot of water, bringing in more calories from recovery foods and whey protein, etc., my weight has been really inconsistent from week to week and my TDEE spreadsheet isn't showing a clear trend as of yet. I've been up and down and up and down, though since the end of April I've lost maybe 3–4 pounds. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I think I want to stick with the slowdown for at least another month, but if things don't progress, I might need to get more aggressive with CICO again, cut the whey protein recovery drinks and granola bars (big source of my calorie increase), and slightly scale back my running. I don't want to wind up totally skinny fat and I want to maintain my strength and the consistency of my training plan, but I also do effectively need to lose those pounds. The question is: do I have the patience to make a very slow cut work for me? Or should I rip off the bandaid, lose the last ten fast, and then commit to a clean bulk? I would appreciate advice on this front, my fellow athletes.
As I wrap this up, I just want to say that it's never too late to realize how simple nutrition and effective dieting can be. It's never to late to become an athlete. It's never too late to take control of eating and do it in a way that works for you. It's never too late for now. Find your supportive community, your knowledge-sharing peers, your non-judgmental cheerleaders — root for them and take their boosts in return. Big thanks to r/loseit, r/pelotoncycle, etc.
Very happy to answer questions.
PS: This didn't make it in, but yes I did do a really janky novice lifting routine throughout a lot of this with dumbbells, which is what's available to me. Now my gym is closed so I'm doing bodyweight circuits, again very jankily and inconsistently. I need to do more. I know what's holding back my running pace and mileage is strength — I seriously have zero ass/glutes and never knew I'd want them until now.
