510 lbs -> 187 lbs - my 323 lb weight-loss-story

felixg1109

Thanks :-)

WilmaValley

This is a remarkable story!!!!

kathan01

That's awesome and happy for you.

L1zardQueen

Wow! Amazing transformation and kicking the binge eating to the curb.

BTW, your English is perfect.

eminater

felixg1109 wrote: »

Hi everybody,

My name is Felix, i'm 31, from Remscheid,

In February 2015 i reached my maximum weight of 231kg (510 lbs).

With the start of march 2015 i changed my life and fought my way out of the eating disorder.

Within about two years of dieting and doing sports i lost 323 lbs.

You are an AMAZING person. I love your story so much! Thank you so much for sharing. This, to me, is a story about a person loving themselves back to good health and it warms my heart to read it and see your amazing successes!

Well done, Felix!

felixg1109

Thanks :-)

felixg1109

Just a little update - last week i got the approval of my insurance company for the surgery of my thighs. I think i will do it in january. *happy me*

jenilla1

MFP Rockstar!

slimgirljo15

felixg1109 wrote: »

Just a little update - last week i got the approval of my insurance company for the surgery of my thighs. I think i will do it in january. *happy me*

That's awesome news

Skelders88

Dude, you rock. That is seriously a lot of weight gone.

Have you heard of the YouTuber Boogie2988? He was a big reason I decided to get serious about losing weight. I was 306 at my biggest and it was looking like I'd be upwards of 500 before 2020. Besides that and my heart throwing a tantrum, I just wanted to be healthier. My ex had left and I was also tired of being lonely (that hasn't been fixed though yet haha), so I decided it was time lose weight.

Now here I am, ~65 lbs lost and still going strong. It's stories like yours and Boogie's that really drive it home to me that it's possible and it keeps me going, so thank you for sharing.

You touched on the excess skin...you said weight lifting fixed it? I've been focusing mostly on cardio, and flabby, extra skin is becoming a bit of a problem. Are there any specific tips you can offer to help in that department? Or will general weight-lifting help? I've upped my water consumption too as I've read that it can help elasticity levels in the skin.

Again, thank you for sharing your story. It's incredibly inspiring.

Big_Gedrick

Sir you are awesome a truly inspiring story thanks for sharing it with us .

felixg1109

Thanks @jenilla1 & @slimgirljo15 @Big_Gedrick :-)

@philosearcher Sports in general is good for the skin - and drink enough water. I used a "bodytonic" to moisture my skin. I would recommend you to do weight-liftingt to prevent loosing to much muscles. Especially when you have loose so much weight. I had problems with my back within the first year, because my muscles degenerated and my spine wasn't stable anymore. Fixed it by doing weight-training within 2 month, but it hurt f... bad in the beginning.

Nevertheless genetics is a big part concerning skin and it takes time.

Btw - it's worth the fight, so keep on going. Feel free to ask if you have any questions

Skelders88

felixg1109 wrote: »

Thanks @jenilla1 & @slimgirljo15 @Big_Gedrick :-)

@philosearcher Sports in general is good for the skin - and drink enough water. I used a "bodytonic" to moisture my skin. I would recommend you to do weight-liftingt to prevent loosing to much muscles. Especially when you have loose so much weight. I had problems with my back within the first year, because my muscles degenerated and my spine wasn't stable anymore. Fixed it by doing weight-training within 2 month, but it hurt f... bad in the beginning.

Nevertheless genetics is a big part concerning skin and it takes time.

Btw - it's worth the fight, so keep on going. Feel free to ask if you have any questions

Perfect information. Thank you!! Luckily, I've been losing weight really slowly, so that seems to be helping with the excess skin and even muscle deterioration, but I'm still noticing it. I'll see what sports I can get into locally (I'm not in a great area for much in the way of sports). I'll check out bodytonics and see what I can find, and I'll start pushing for weight training again.

I'm looking forward to hitting that fit dude goal like you did. I'll shoot you a message should any more pop into my head. I really appreciate your input.

felixg1109

Good luck for you!

manonamission73

Well done Felix, a outstanding commitment to get your life back

Jonesie1984

You look amazing and you look younger too!

104McKnight

felixg1109 wrote: »

Hi everybody,

since i cought myself using the international forum more often i would like to use this topic as my introduction.

My name is Felix, i'm 31, from Remscheid, Germany and moderator in the german section of this (great) forum. (English is not my native language - so please excuse my mistakes)

In February 2015 i reached my maximum weight of 231kg (510 lbs). I was an binge-eater and have been "fat" all my life. Even in the first years of school i was the biggest guy around. When i started studying my eating disorder went stronger and stronger, until it was basically everything i had in my life. With the start of march 2015 i changed my life and fought my way out of the eating disorder.

Within about two years of dieting and doing sports i lost 323 lbs. I did most of it by myself, since my old doctor was not supportive at all (got a new one now). I changed my way of eating, got "sober" of my binge-attacks and started doing sports when i reached the physical ability to do so.

Since last year i am getting rid of the big amount of loose skin and had a 360° bodylift in september 2017 and an upper-bodylift in march 2018. Last thing to do are the thighs - and at the beginning of this week i submitted an application to my insurance, hoping that they will cover the costs.

With my weight, my whole life changed - i changed from a very intoverted person into liking social activities, i like doing sports and love to hike and travel.

Here are some before-and-after-pics
2015:




2018:

I started my journey at 347 pounds and have lost 41 pounds so far since June, 10 2018. I am assuming that I as well will have some skin issues and I am dreading that issue. Are the body lift procedures hard to deal with, and are they real expensive?

What kind of life change or eating habits did you do? Like Keto or calories in, calories out?

felixg1109

@manonamission73 & @Jonesie1984 thanks for the nice words

@104McKnight there are some good things to reduce the amount of spare skin even during the weightreduction - drink enough water, use lotions to moisture the skin (massage it in) and do sports as soon as possible to get enough blood circulation.

Considering the costs of a bodylift I don't know anything about it in the US. Here in Germany sometimes the costs are covered by the health insurance - a total bodylift (tummy-360° + thigh + breast/arms) should be above 30,000 € I think. I paid about 5,000 for the arms, the rest was/gets paid by the insurance because they considered it medically necessary to do. The surgeries themselves aren't minor ones - they take a pretty long time and have a very large wound, which can make problems considering healing. Within the first time it's hard to move and sometimes (luckily not for me so far) pretty painful. Hard time, but worth it.

But nevertheless even without those surgeries it would be totally worth it to loose the weight - it's a life changer and still waaaaaay better even with the skin.

I did low calories on the first part which I did all by myself. If you ask me now it's the easiest way to loose an larger amount of weight by eating enough protein and high-volume/low-calorie food. I did this most time by cutting carbs, but I didn't went into keto. Not for any special effects of cutting carbs, just because most of the side dishes etc are high calorie. For an example even for 100g cooked potatoes spared(which are not that high calorie compared to fries/mash/rice/gratin etc) you can eat 200g more spinach and still have saved a small amount of calories. By that way you can even make a huge stew of vegetables at around 500 calories and eat about 3kg of food. Most of the times that can even help against some kind of food cravings because the brain associates a full stomach with not being hungry anymore, even if the input of calories was not that high at all.
This is by the way a good eating habit you can easily keep after finishing the weight loss - which is the main goal : changing the way of eating permanently. By doing this you don't have to restrict any food to yourself, as long as you stay within your calorie & protein goals.

Keep on going! Don't fall into old habits - you can do it. It is possible.

If you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask or contact me.

Greetings everyone

buffywhitney

Herzliche Glückwünsche!

tammyfranks2

well you are amazing , way to go and congrats on losing so much , I am at 420 right now , and I want to lose at lease 200 , I have lost little over 50 pounds so far . I know I will need surgery , in my legs and maybe my tummy , but that is a long way off . Right now I am just trying to lose it . Thank You for your story !!!


people really don't understand about eating disorders , they are real and just as painful as drug addiction or drinking . I am working on that as well . again Thank You !

felixg1109

@buffywhitney Dankeschön
@tammyfranks2 You can do it! Considering eating disorders : yeah, you're right on that. On the one hand drug addiction and alcoholism are more heavy about the physical aspect when stopping it, but the problem on eating disorders like Binge eating and bulemia is that you still need food to live. You cant stop eating like you can stop drinking alcohol. And every former alcoholic knows, that it can be really critical, when the there's alcohol in something where they didn't expecedt it. It's similar to trigger-foods. I don't have any potato chips in my house because I would eat them in hard times. When I host a party or something like that I buy them, but my guests take the leftovers with them.

Just to make clear: alcoholism and drug addiction are really really bad things and maybe a lot worse for most than eating disorders, but they still have a lot in common.

Still there is the possibility to stop it. And @tammyfranks2 you have the ability too. Good luck for you and your journey.

Fflpnari

you are absolutely amazing!

lunchboxesforme

This is awesome, congratulations Felix!

Machafin

Wow a big congrats to you!

felixg1109

Thanks @ everyone. I really appreciate it

SunStarMoon47

Absolutely inspirational. Also, thanks for your replies and insights into the process.

vampireebunny

omg great job!!! *applause*

So many people make excuses, including myself at times, but you really grabbed the bull by the horns and pushed through!! that's not too easy to overcome when you suffer from disordered eating (I know how that feels). Keep being active! At this point who cares about "weight", you've changed your mentality completely and are soo much healthier. Congrats

christinedlg50

Felix! What an inspiration! Thank you so much for sharing your story! Bravo!

SparkyTinman

Your English and journey are both amazing! Thank you for the tip about how to eat large to get small. Being able to eat a huge meal full of vegetables sure beats an over processed protein bar/shake or 1/2 cup of potatoes with my meat that wouldn’t fill my pet! I agree eating a large amount of vegetables is a much better trade off! Well done and thank you, so much, for sharing your story. Please do keep posting!

msegalrubin

Congratulations! You look fantastic!