INTRO
All your success stories and tips have been highly motivational to me so I figured I would share my own. I’m not an expert at any of this, it just happened to be what worked for me. Be sure to talk with a health professional before you start any serious exercise or weight loss program.
STORY
I’ll start off by saying I’ve never been what I would consider “in-shape” a single day in my life. I remember dieting when I was ~10 years old because I was overweight. I had dieted on and off constantly since then, without any success. I was over 300lbs in high school and just slowly gained more over time. I was pretty much relegated to being “the big guy.”
On January 2nd, 2021, I was 380.2 lbs. I had already lost ~50lbs from my peak of 430lbs in the Spring of 2018, but I hadn’t made much progress in the last six months. I weighed in this morning at 230lbs, a weight that I haven’t seen since probably the 6th or 7th grade. This puts me down 200lbs from my peak and down over 150lbs in the last year. I can honestly say that I can now look in the mirror and not feel embarrassed, something that I haven’t been able to do since before I was a teenager. I’m now buying large shirts instead of 3-4XL, large scrubs instead of 4XL, and size 34 pants instead of 50+.
Left pic is from about 1.5 years ago at ~410lbs and right two are from the last couple of days at 230. reference I’m 34 years old and 6’4” tall.
Let’s talk about what I did. This is not for everyone, but it’s the only thing I’ve ever been able to stick to and have success with (I will totally admit that this is much easier as a single person with no one else in the house). I fully acknowledge that being a large man, an advantage that many of you may not have, definitely helped me in the BMR department as well. Each person will have to decide what works for them and their health status. I weighed myself every Saturday morning, no more and no less. I even brought my scale with me on vacation. I think a huge part of losing and maintaining weight loss is (obviously) knowing what you weigh and not getting complacent. I plan on weighing myself weekly for the rest of my life in order to stay on the wagon.
DIET
I calculated my basal metabolic rate at around 2500 calories and set my diet based on that. I only ate once per day at dinner for the first 8 months or so, then I started working in a breakfast or two on the weekends (increasing my calories occasionally). I chose to eat once per day because I always seem hungrier if I eat breakfast, and I’m much more likely to give in and snack or eat the junk that people bring in to work if I’ve already had something to eat that day. Having that one big meal at the end of the day was also a big carrot for motivation. My body likes the feeling of being full and I’m able to give-in to that with this “diet”. I pretty much eat either breakfast for dinner at home or go out and get whatever is available that has published calories, which ends up being fast food a lot of the time (McDonalds, Taco Bell, pizza, Five Guys, Panda Express, etc…) to make sure I stick to my limits. FWIW my cholesterol went down from 193 in Oct of 2020 to 120 in Oct of 2021 despite eating this junk.
EXERCISE
I’ve lifted semi regularly at times in my life, so I had a decent muscle base. Around the same time I got my Peloton I bought a set of 5-90 power blocks and a bench and started heavy lifting 3 days per week. I lifted ~1.5 hours on those days and I also supplemented 30-60 grams of protein per day with powder to try and help minimize muscle loss. I’ve had a basic total upper body routine I’ve stuck with the entire time in order to hit most of the upper body. I think I’ve only missed a couple days of lifting in the past year. The only other supplement I take besides multi-vitamins is creatine, which supposedly makes a difference.
As far as cardio, I got a Peloton in late December 2020. I’ve done 177 rides since then for a total of 67,912 burned calories. I was riding 4-5 times per week (mostly 20-minute rides) at my peak until I hurt my hip lifting in September, at which point I slowed down significantly. At ~3,500 calories per pound, the Peloton was responsible for about 19.4lbs of my 150lb weight loss this past year. Twenty pounds is nothing to scoff at, but it really shows the importance of diet. In the last month or so I’ve started doing the Stairmaster a couple of times per week and have started Peloton rides again. My cardiac health as improved significantly as well considering my resting heart rate has also lowered from mid-80’s to the mid-50’s.
CONCLUSION
There is no doubt in my mind that the old adage, “You lose weight in the kitchen and get fit in the gym,” is very important when it comes to weight loss. The close-to-20lbs of weight I lost due to the Peloton definitely mattered, but it was only 13% of my total loss. I think resistance training is as important, if not more so, as regular cardio to help minimalize muscle loss. No matter how we try to shake it though, CICO is king!
I still have about 20lbs to go, but hopefully my rambling serves as some sort of guideline/motivation/hope for some of you. Please feel free to ask any questions. I’m an open book.
A year ago I couldn’t even imagine what I would even look like if I ever got in shape. Now I don’t have to 😊.
TLDR: 200lbs down total, 150 in the last year. One meal per day. Cardio and weight lifting.
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