I finally lost weight in 2016: 217 → 182 lbs

cloudbrows · December 2016

I've wanted to lose weight for a long time, but for the last eight years or so it's been a steady creep upward.

December 2015:

October 2016:

This year, I finally was able to lose the weight I wanted, and here's how I did it:

Weightlifting

In March, I got the best gift there is for regular exercise: a workout partner. I found a guy who lifted at my new job, and we started going to Gold's Gym three times a week. I did Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength program for about four months, then shifted to Texas Method, which is aimed at intermediates.

I focused on the four core lifts: squat, deadlift, press, bench. The only cardio I do is five minutes at a steep incline on the treadmill to warm up. (I started at 10% and have upped it whenever it feels easy. I'm at 14% now.) I don't enjoy cardio: it leaves me exhausted and unhappy. But I love the effort of lifting heavy stuff. It's short, intense, and leaves me with a feeling of accomplishment.

Lifting was good, and it was nice to see muscles in my shoulders and arms emerge to give me a feeling of progress. But in July I realized I wasn't losing much fat even though I was getting stronger, so I started aggressively cutting to lose weight.

Anti-charity motivation

I roughly knew that I needed to maintain a daily calorie deficit to lose weight, but getting myself to do that seemed really, really hard. I'd used myfitnesspal before, and I always struggled with a) not knowing how many calories a homemade meal for dinner really had, and b) not surging past my quota at the end of the day when I felt hungry before bed.

So I signed up for an anti-charity motivational tool (sticck.com) and gave myself a weight loss goal. I gave them $120 of real money and put in a one-pound-a-week goal for myself. Every week from that point on, if I didn't hit my goal, $10 would be donated to a Super PAC that supported the candidate I did *not* want to see become President. (I will let you speculate on who that was.)

That really sounds like a gimmick, but it proved to be effective. The thought of actual money going to support that person was just not something that could happen, so I immediately got serious. A week of good eating passed, then a second week... and I was amazed how quickly the things I was trying to do became habits.

I still struggle with occasional bouts of cutting too hard and eating a bunch in reaction, or with getting knocked out of my routine by holidays that involve food (I'm glaring at you, Thanksgiving and Christmas), but I just get right back to my schedule, and the overall momentum has kept me going down.

That's it

And there's not much more to it than that. Of course, even though the principles are simple, I spent a *lot* of time thinking about food, exercise, and dieting, mental and emotional energy that didn't come free. But it's really nice to be pleasantly surprised by photographs of myself now, and to be able to buy clothes that fit well. If anyone's in the same position I was last year, I hope you can figure out what it takes to make the transition you want in 2017.