I know you've heard it was before, but yes, I was once like you too. But here's the thing. I was probably worse than the majority of you looking for inspiration here.
On December 31st, 2019, I was running around trying my best to find a shirt that actually fit for a "Roaring Twenties" themed NYE party.
Turns out, I could only find one that fit at all at the XL Casual Male store. And I wasn't in their smallest size either, not by a long shot. Literally nothing in Target, Kohl's, Scheels, the Nike outlet, or anywhere else except for Duluth would fit.
At 6'2", I weighed in at 385 lbs.
I saw that number and was shocked. I had been lying to myself for so long, that I truly believed I was 340, maybe 350 lbs at the very most. I mean, everybody has back pain when they lay in bed too long, right? And my feet hurting when I got out of bed was just because I'm getting older, clearly. Clothes were getting too small because they were shrinking in the dryer. Besides, i could still move around pretty decently. Who cares if I could barely pick something up off the floor, or if I choked myself out when I tied my shoes. I'll just wear slip ons!
That number woke me up. I was only 15 lbs away from being 400 lbs. That's not just being a big guy, that's HUGE.
I needed to change.
I'd tried diets before. HCG just made me hungrier than regular. I tried cutting out unhealthy things. I thought I could just eat plenty of healthy stuff and be fine. Turns out that's not how it works. 3000 calories of carrots and broccoli is still 3000 calories.
I knew nothing about calories except that food contained them and they were energy. And if you burned more than you consumed, you worried lose weight. Calories In, Calories Out. CICO. I had no clue how many I was eating, or what Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) was, or what Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) was. I only knew that the average person needs about 2000 calories per day. So I decided I would start eating 1500 calories per day.
On January 13th, I started my weight loss journey.
Please don't be like me and go into this blind. Ask questions. This is probably THE most welcoming sub on Reddit. Use us. We've been where you are. Find yourself an online calculator for your BMR and TDEE to see how many calories you need to maintain your size or lose it. Ask, pick our brains, utilize the resources we've collated and sorted through. If you don't know what an acronym is, ask. We've all been there.
Later on when I learned more about all of this, I sat down and calculated out that I would consume an average of 6-9,000 calories in an average day. My BMR was around 2,700, and my TDEE was around 3,500. So I was easily eating twice what I needed to maintain my weight. No wonder I got so big. Especially considering that a pound of fat is around 3,500 calories.
So I started eating 1,500 calories per day. It was torture. But I stuck to it. I drank more water in those first few weeks than a fish does in its entire lifetime just to try to keep my stomach full. One of the keys for me was switching my thinking to food=fuel. That's all it is. It's gas in our tanks. It's what charges our batteries. That's it.
But it worked. Holy crap did it work. I had a surgery on my arm on Valentine's Day, and by then I had already dropped 20 lbs. Holy crap.
Personally, I ate whatever the hell I wanted, as long as it fit into my calorie limits for that day. Over the past year, I've had brownies, cookies, bread, pasta, steak, loaded baked and mashed potatoes, everything I wanted, just less of it.
I also couldn't do cheat days. My first cheat day was my ex's birthday weekend at the end of June. I gained 10 lbs that weekend from indulging and swimming in a lake. But take heart, I lost it again by the end of that week! It was just temporary.
I lost a phenomenal amount of weight at first. But it slowed significantly as I lost more and more. I've just broken through a plateau that lasted a month. You can too.
I also want to tell you that weight loss is NOT linear. Some days you'll get on the scale and gain 5 lbs and wonder how. You'll get demoralized, you'll want to say screw it. Don't. Maintain your program. You'll lose it again, I swear to you. And if you screw up one day? Oh well. Enjoy yourself that day. It's one day. Get back on the wagon tomorrow. It's a new day and a new opportunity.
I'm now 245 lbs. I've lost 140 lbs. In under a year. It can be done. You can do it too.
I'm not done, but damn if I'm not proud to have people legitimately not recognize me. Damn if I'm not proud to have people wonder what happened to me. Damn if I'm not proud to have inspired multiple friends to get on their own journey.
I've gone from wearing 4XL shirts and 46 pants that fit tightly to carrying a concealed Glock 19 in 38s with XL shirts. Check out the pictures, the last one is an Eddie Bauer XLT and the pants are Duluth Trading Company 38x32s (short legs). And it's still loose enough that you can't see the Glock 19 I'm wearing appendix.
You can do this. One day at a time. One meal at a time. One step at a time.
I believe in you. I'm proud of you for getting started. You got this.
