I went from morbidly obese to 6 pack abs! Ask me Anything

vismal

I've always wanted to do an AMA so I thought I'd set one up here. The basics about my story are that I went from 315lbs to 195 and have been making small gains in muscles/losses to fat ever since. Ask me anything, anything at all!


Add me as a friend on here too!

SLLRunner

You GO! Good job and congratulations!

Sorry, no questions for you.

Strokingdiction

Did you lift during your entire weigh loss? If so, what type of lifting did you do?

Extremely impressive physique change, btw!

orangbatak

For the first 3 months, how many calories were you consuming a day?

During the same time for fitness, did you focus more on cardio or resistance?

Any issue with loose skin? Did you get surgery done?

yafashelli

You look really amazing, and I'm sure that you're so proud.

Did you do anything to prevent loose skin? I'm kind of bad about moisturizing, so I guess that worries me a little. :blushing:

I'd still rather be fit than fat, so even if I do have something left, it isn't enough to stop me.

vismal

I starting lifting maybe 6 months into my weight loss. Originally it was just diet and running. I wish I would have started lifting from the get go though. That would be what I consider my number 1 mistake. As for the type of lifting, I did it wrong at first by doing a typical "bro split" where you do a body part a day with high reps and low weight. I later switched to 5x5 training which is what I would have started with day 1 if I had to go back and do it again. I currently do a upper/lower 4 day a week split for intermediate lifters.

vismal

Moisturize and exfoliate. It helps a little. The 2 biggest things that help with lose skin are lifting to preserve/gain lean mass, and time. My skin is almost completely recovered at this point. It is still not tight and probably never will be but the hang is virtually invisible unless I am in a push up position. So as long as I don't do push ups at the beach I'm good...lol

But you are correct, fit with loose skin looks and feels better then fat. It's also worlds healthier. With cloths on you can't notice at all!

WanderingPomme

Hubba hubba!

I mean...AWESOME TRANSFORMATION!

Spill your secrets!! How much BF did you get down to before you started lifting?

vismal

I was still pretty heavy when I began lifting. I don't know what my body fat was but I probably weighed around 240ish. BF was likely > 25-30. Again, I wish I would have started lifting from day 1.

RenaTX

You look great!


How has getting down to this weight and building up muscle impacting your life? The good and bad of it.

vismal

You look great!


How has getting down to this weight and building up muscle impacting your life? The good and bad of it.

The good: Feel better physically and emotionally by a degree I cannot put into words. Look better. More confidence. I can climb stairs with feeling like death. I work in health care and no long feel like a hypocrite when I tell my patience about the risk factors associated with obesity. I love being able to pull out old fat picture when someone says something to the effect of "You don't understand because your in shape" or "you don't get it, you've never been fat". I could go on and on in this category.

The bad: I'm kind of a pain about going out to eat certain places. I don't much like eating food I didn't prepare unless its on my very few and far between free days. Don't get me wrong I eat treats and snacks all the time but I weigh/prepare them myself so I can account for it. I will always feel the need to better myself. When I was fat I didn't care. Sometimes this can be mentally exhausting. But the bads don't even begin to compare to all the goods.

sc003ro

Awesome ...whats the 5 x5 training

AnabolicKyle

very nice!!!

how tall are you?

vismal

5x5 training is a method of training that has you doing 5 sets of 5 reps for your heavy compounds like bench, squat, rows, etc. There are several programs out there. The "Ice Cream Fitness 5x5" is my favorite. Google it if you want to check it out. Stronglifts 5x5 is another.

vismal

very nice!!!

how tall are you?

6'1

SimonC09

Nice work.

Just starting on the same journey with the same weight to lose. Lose skin is the thing I dread the most. It will be such a turn off to have it hanging there.

I'm doing cardio and resistance bands for the weights. Trying to lose and tone at the same time. Fingers crossed.

HMVOL7409

Simply amazing! Congrats on your success!

SLLRunner

You look great!


How has getting down to this weight and building up muscle impacting your life? The good and bad of it.

The good: Feel better physically and emotionally by a degree I cannot put into words. Look better. More confidence. I can climb stairs with feeling like death. I work in health care and no long feel like a hypocrite when I tell my patience about the risk factors associated with obesity. I love being able to pull out old fat picture when someone says something to the effect of "You don't understand because your in shape" or "you don't get it, you've never been fat". I could go on and on in this category.

The bad: I'm kind of a pain about going out to eat certain places. I don't much like eating food I didn't prepare unless its on my very few and far between free days. Don't get me wrong I eat treats and snacks all the time but I weigh/prepare them myself so I can account for it. I will always feel the need to better myself. When I was fat I didn't care. Sometimes this can be mentally exhausting. But the bads don't even begin to compare to all the goods.

Oh, now I have a question, but only if you're comfortable:

Has your health journey affected your relationships, especially with the person closest to you? Give me both the good and the bad.

vismal

Nice work.

Just starting on the same journey with the same weight to lose. Lose skin is the thing I dread the most. It will be such a turn off to have it hanging there.

I'm doing cardio and resistance bands for the weights. Trying to lose and tone at the same time. Fingers crossed.

Toning doesn't exist. You cannot tone a muscle. Muscles can do 2 things, get bigger or get smaller. The toned look is achieved by having a moderate muscular base with low body fat. My advice to you would be drop resistance band training for a dumbbell/barbell routine. As for loose skin, sometimes there's no way to prevent it. It will get better with time. Its 10x better/healthier to have loose skin and be fit then be fat IMO

Strokingdiction

Completely off topic but I keep coming back to this thread to check all your answers to people's questions and every single time I see your pics I think you visually belong in some Greek or Roman epic as one of the warriors. They wouldn't even have to paint on your abs.

Oxxygi

Fantastic!!!!:flowerforyou:

vismal

Oh, now I have a question, but only if you're comfortable:

Has your health journey affected your relationships, especially with the person closest to you? Give me both the good and the bad.

I am not with the same person when I started my journey as I am now. I started right after I got out of a relationship. My orginal motivation was to lose a little weight since I was going to be "on the market" again. I think a lot of people get motivated that way. Losing weight in and of itself does not make finding a significant other easier. I feel the confidence gained does more in that department then does the actual weight loss. As a more confident person I had more success with dating. I am engaged now and my fiance is also a fitness nut. It was almost inevitable that that would be the case. When you have extreme fitness goals it changes how you live your life and it's important that you significant other at least understands where you are coming from.

vismal

Completely off topic but I keep coming back to this thread to check all your answers to people's questions and every single time I see your pics I think you visually belong in some Greek or Roman epic as one of the warriors. They wouldn't even have to paint on your abs.

LOVE IT! Gladiator is one of my favorite movies!

WanderingPomme

Completely off topic but I keep coming back to this thread to check all your answers to people's questions and every single time I see your pics I think you visually belong in some Greek or Roman epic as one of the warriors. They wouldn't even have to paint on your abs.

:laugh:

He looks angrier now though compared to his old pic. :frown:

Smile OP! :flowerforyou:

Totally going to paint abs on myself.

steve2kay

Congratulations, that's an amazing transformation. What do you think are the top 5 things that led to your success?

WW_Jude_V2

Amazing....truly amazing.

Thank you for having an open diary. I have a recent dietary challenge. I was able to easily meet my fiber needs prior with eating all sorts of whole grains. Now I can't eat anything with gluten and any time I find an MFP member with an open diary I go through to see if they've found a good source that I hadn't considered.

You have no idea how surprised I am to see that ICE CREAM has fiber!

I'd write more but I need to go to the grocery store asap. :bigsmile:

D_squareG

bump for future

vismal

Congratulations, that's an amazing transformation. What do you think are the top 5 things that led to your success?

1. Myfitnesspal of course. It wasn't until I began tracking my intake that my success really started to take off
2. Understanding that "eating clean" is meaningless and that in order to have true life long success I had to eat foods I enjoyed (ice cream, cookies, etc) on a regular basis but in moderation
3. Lifting heavy weights
4. Not listening when people say "you lost enough already" or "you are getting too skinny"
5. Learning as much about the science behind nutrition and dieting as possible. There is more pseudoscience and myths in this field then any other on earth! So much BS to cut through to find the truth.

vismal

Amazing....truly amazing.

Thank you for having an open diary. I have a recent dietary challenge. I was able to easily meet my fiber needs prior with eating all sorts of whole grains. Now I can't eat anything with gluten and any time I find an MFP member with an open diary I go through to see if they've found a good source that I hadn't considered.

You have no idea how surprised I am to see that ICE CREAM has fiber!

I'd write more but I need to go to the grocery store asap. :bigsmile:

Open diary all the way! Fiber is natures broom. It can't be neglected!

Strokingdiction

I creeped on your diary. Do you only eat once a day as it suggests? If so, what are your reasons?

Also, I only went back a week but do you ever drink alcohol?

tennisdude2004

No questions - just more power to your elbow dude.