New here, and ready to change my life!

harmar21

This is a long post, which is my life story, if you don't feel like reading it (hey I completely understand!) scroll to bottom for a tl;dr version

Hey everyone, I made a few posts in other threads, but thought it was time to start a thread of my own.
Guess I'll give you all my life story
I have been big frame my entire life, in fact when I was born the doctor said "I never seen a baby with such big muscles, was he working out in your womb?"

I am not sure exactly when I started getting fat, must have been around 7 or 8 as I see pictures of when I was 4 or 5 and look normal, but I never remember in my entire life of being regular size.
I grew up on a farm far away from any friends. My dad was working 16 hour days 6 days a week so never had time to do anything with me. My mom was a stay at home mom, but when you have an 8 acre lot to look over and 10,000 sqft worth of garden she also rarely had time for me.

This was a problem in school since I had to take a bus every day, and most of my friends lived within walking distance of the school. So they would always play road hockey, or some other sport, or just hang out after school and I always wanted to join them but never could since my parents never had time to pick me up.

This went on my entire childhood even through 1/2 of my teenage years. My mother would also rarely ever make me do chores (no idea why). I had ZERO imagination so I would spend all day and night either watching tv or playing video games to keep myself entertained. Weekdays I would spend 5+ hours either on tv or playing video games, and weekends 14+ hours. So not doing literally any exercise I piled on the weight (and clearly I had no metabolism).

By the time I was in highschool I was very anti-social and shy with zero self-esteem. I did make a few friends, but with the problem of transportation, rarely ever got to do anything with them. By college any socialism I had left was gone. I had a car at this point, but I only had 2 friends at this point (brothers), and I would go to their house every weekend playing video games (they were also heavy).

After college I found a job, and been there the past 7 years. I am social with my co-workers, and I would almost consider us friends, we even sometimes go out for beers after work, but they all still have different circles of friends (and all of them except 1 are all over a decade older than me). So I literally wasted all of my 20s sitting in front of my computer playing video games. The loneness drives me to eating for comfort, but since I am fat it makes me shy and anti-social, a classic catch-22.

Don't get me wrong -- I have tried losing weight many times during my 20s. I exercise 45 minutes a day on a treadmill for 4 months and lost only a total of 10lbs, so gave up. Later on I did elliptical machine 4 months straight again only lost 10 lbs, I wouldn't have given up but at that point in time I moved out of my parents and into an apartment and had no room for the elliptical machine.

Looking back the reason I wasn't losing was because my mom's cooking was so wonderful I would eat so much of it. She would also always have some sort of home made dessert such as a nice peach pie, or chocolate cake, or canned fruit loaded with sugar. My parents are Mennonite, and if you have never seen a Mennonite cookbook, let's just say every dessert has about 2-3x the amount of sugar than necessary.

So this brings me to the present - A 29 year old 6' male 337lbs anti-social, shy, bona fide loser. Some would look at my current situatio and say hey man you got it all, a paid off new car, your own house, a good job.. but I am missing the one thing that matters the most, someone to share it with.

My weight has been fairly "stable" the last couple years. I pretty much been hovering between the 335-365 mark for the past 5 years.

So I want to change. Remember the 2 brother friends that I said I have that were heavy? Well I didn't see them in person for over a year, and then I met up with them recently, and they were in amazing shape. I asked how they did it?
They said easy, remember how we spent all those nights on the weekends eating a large pizza each, or eating chicken burgers at 1 am, or drinking 4 sodas a day? Well we stopped that.

They completely changed their lifestyle and ate healthy, exercised (running) and lifting weights.

This was my trigger point and if they can do it so can I. They taught me a lot on what they did to lose weight. He said at the start 99% of losing weight is your diet. Get your diet under control and the weight will start coming off no problem. However you should also supplement it with exercise. He said obviously at the start you can't do much.. but it doesn't matter. He said he would go out at 1am every night and jog. .He could only jog 200m but that was fine, just do it every night (he would do it at night because like me he was embarrassed of himself, so didn't want others to see), and eventually you will go a little further, and a little more further, and before you know it your at 1 km, 2 km, 3 km, etc. He also said lifting weights is important. Start off with something simple and inexpensive like resistive bands, look up some routines. Then get some dumbbells and a chin up bar.

So here I am, committed, finally know the keys to success. Have full control over my own meals.
I still wanted to follow a diet plan, that is actually a lifestyle, or slowly converts into one. So I picked Atkins.
I have been doing it for the past week, and I am not going to lie... I REALLY miss the grains. I don't miss the sugar, but definitely the starches. I am going to stick to it, but not sure if this is exactly the lifestyle I want to live. If it does end up failing I have a backup diet -- OMAD (One Meal A Day -- see here http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1257158-from-363-4-to-197-7-lbs-my-one-meal-a-day-success-story) which I know I could do. But I am going to stick with Atkins for now.
I was starving the first 2 days, but now that I am in full ketosis (tested with a ketostix and it's deep purple) my appetite has gone WAYY down. In fact I almost find it hard to eat at all.

Either way if it all fails, I am still changing my lifestyle. I realize I don't miss sugar. So that will be mostly cutout except for special occasions. I will eat more sensibly. I will lower portions, I will cut out a lot of carbs. I will cut the junk food. So whether I follow a diet or not I am not sure, but I will be counting calories.
For the exercise I am taking my friends advice, every night around midnight I go out and jog for as far as I can (approx 150-200m). Then stop and walk back. My friends gave me their old resistive bands, so I also been doing that a little.

Anyway sorry for the long post, but this is going to be a long journey. My diary is open to the public so feel free to comment, criticise, give advice, etc.. Also feel free to add me .
The only thing I don't track is spices I use in cooking (including salt) so sodium is probably a lot higher than stated... which I know is already way too high to begin with... but hey I already cutting the carbs, if I cut the sodium too I might as well quit now because I will give up.
I am also using the blog feature where I am keeping a diary of my progress.

In case your masochistic and want to read more of my life story, I made a post here http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1366510-how-can-someone-get-to-538lbs?page=8#posts-21417094
That also goes through my life story, but I give more details on certain aspects that I leave out here.

Thanks for reading!



TL;DR:
Stats:
29 year old male, single fat all my life
Height: Tad over 6' 0.5"
Current weight 337
Goal Weight: Anything <200 and I would be ecstatic
Foot Size 14

Started atkins last week and looking for some pals! Feel free to add me. Also my food diary is open to public so feel free to criticize, comment, give advice.

heart2health

Welcome and congratulations on taking the first step towards a healthier lifestyle. We all have are own reasons for taking this journey and hopefully we will all be successful at reaching our goal weight. Good luck !

lisanangel

Hi my name is Lisa ,,feel free to add me I'm on daily trying to lose my last 28 pounds.

zericaaaaa

Congrats on making this huge first step! you can do this! I do want to say though, skip the fad diets/diet plans. I've found much more success in eating what I want within my calorie goals. I feel like restriction is what really causes failure in dieting. not to say atkins or the one meal a day diet WONT work, just that they may not be as sustainable as just eating controlled portions of allllll the foods would be. Either way, good luck!

valley2mtn

I have been on a diet or thinking I should go on a diet every day of my life since I was ten. I would yoyo up and down through my teen years, but I was never thin. I was almost a normal weight for about a minute when I was in 8th grade. Then I gained back weight that I'd lost plus some extra. My obesity (which was about 70 actual pounds, but 200 in my imagination) made me shy and awkward around my peers. I hated high school. About six months into my first year of college, I replace meals with a gallon of water and would eat a few bites of something and then purge. I lost 50 lbs in about two months. Everyone told me how wonderful I looked. No one questioned my methods. This actually made me even angrier and more resentful of society, as a whole. I kept that weight off for about six months and started gaining again. Not long after that I got married and had a baby and just got heavier from there out. I would lose ten and gain twenty. A few years ago I hit 270 lbs, a number I never dreamed I would even get close to. It has been a long, long journey for me with lots and lots of failures, but I'm learning to make healthier food choices and not let anxiety or depression lead me to binge. I'm down 43 lbs from what I was four years ago. It's not fast, but I'm getting better at it. I've only been on MFP for a week, but I love it so far. People are very encouraging. We are all in the same boat. I realize how much I've been lying to myself and making excuses for my behaviors. If I ate a bad meal, I would tell myself it didn't matter now and that my diet was blown. I would feel irritable and decide that I couldn't take it, I'd rather feel happy and be fat. Except I wasn't happy once the food high wore off. I was completely miserable. Now I am counting calories for every nibble of food. If I don't know how many calories it is, I make an honest guess. I'm measuring food. I don't throw some cheese on my salad and assume that it was a serving. I use a measuring cup. The accountability is completely paying off. I feel happier and healthier. If I can do this, anyone can do this. Truly. I have been a complete sugar addict and been totally out of control with my emotional eating. Now I am learning to enjoy exercise which is totally new for me. I've always hated it. I think I'm finally growing up at 36 yrs old and accepting the fact that this is a matter of responsibility just like paying a bill or going to work. I hope that I can keep the resolve that I've had over the last few weeks. Best of luck to you on your journey! You deserve to have true happiness that comes from knowing you are making responsible choices and taking care of yourself

zericaaaaa

I have been on a diet or thinking I should go on a diet every day of my life since I was ten. I would yoyo up and down through my teen years, but I was never thin. I was almost a normal weight for about a minute when I was in 8th grade. Then I gained back weight that I'd lost plus some extra. My obesity (which was about 70 actual pounds, but 200 in my imagination) made me shy and awkward around my peers. I hated high school. About six months into my first year of college, I replace meals with a gallon of water and would eat a few bites of something and then purge. I lost 50 lbs in about two months. Everyone told me how wonderful I looked. No one questioned my methods. This actually made me even angrier and more resentful of society, as a whole. I kept that weight off for about six months and started gaining again. Not long after that I got married and had a baby and just got heavier from there out. I would lose ten and gain twenty. A few years ago I hit 270 lbs, a number I never dreamed I would even get close to. It has been a long, long journey for me with lots and lots of failures, but I'm learning to make healthier food choices and not let anxiety or depression lead me to binge. I'm down 43 lbs from what I was four years ago. It's not fast, but I'm getting better at it. I've only been on MFP for a week, but I love it so far. People are very encouraging. We are all in the same boat. I realize how much I've been lying to myself and making excuses for my behaviors. If I ate a bad meal, I would tell myself it didn't matter now and that my diet was blown. I would feel irritable and decide that I couldn't take it, I'd rather feel happy and be fat. Except I wasn't happy once the food high wore off. I was completely miserable. Now I am counting calories for every nibble of food. If I don't know how many calories it is, I make an honest guess. I'm measuring food. I don't throw some cheese on my salad and assume that it was a serving. I use a measuring cup. The accountability is completely paying off. I feel happier and healthier. If I can do this, anyone can do this. Truly. I have been a complete sugar addict and been totally out of control with my emotional eating. Now I am learning to enjoy exercise which is totally new for me. I've always hated it. I think I'm finally growing up at 36 yrs old and accepting the fact that this is a matter of responsibility just like paying a bill or going to work. I hope that I can keep the resolve that I've had over the last few weeks. Best of luck to you on your journey! You deserve to have true happiness that comes from knowing you are making responsible choices and taking care of yourself

inspiring story!! don't ever give up! I feel your pain, my highest was 271 lol but we can do this!!!

steveyinasia

This is a long post, which is my life story, if you don't feel like reading it (hey I completely understand!) scroll to bottom for a tl;dr version

Hey everyone, I made a few posts in other threads, but thought it was time to start a thread of my own.
Guess I'll give you all my life story
I have been big frame my entire life, in fact when I was born the doctor said "I never seen a baby with such big muscles, was he working out in your womb?"

I am not sure exactly when I started getting fat, must have been around 7 or 8 as I see pictures of when I was 4 or 5 and look normal, but I never remember in my entire life of being regular size.
I grew up on a farm far away from any friends. My dad was working 16 hour days 6 days a week so never had time to do anything with me. My mom was a stay at home mom, but when you have an 8 acre lot to look over and 10,000 sqft worth of garden she also rarely had time for me.

This was a problem in school since I had to take a bus every day, and most of my friends lived within walking distance of the school. So they would always play road hockey, or some other sport, or just hang out after school and I always wanted to join them but never could since my parents never had time to pick me up.

This went on my entire childhood even through 1/2 of my teenage years. My mother would also rarely ever make me do chores (no idea why). I had ZERO imagination so I would spend all day and night either watching tv or playing video games to keep myself entertained. Weekdays I would spend 5+ hours either on tv or playing video games, and weekends 14+ hours. So not doing literally any exercise I piled on the weight (and clearly I had no metabolism).

By the time I was in highschool I was very anti-social and shy with zero self-esteem. I did make a few friends, but with the problem of transportation, rarely ever got to do anything with them. By college any socialism I had left was gone. I had a car at this point, but I only had 2 friends at this point (brothers), and I would go to their house every weekend playing video games (they were also heavy).

After college I found a job, and been there the past 7 years. I am social with my co-workers, and I would almost consider us friends, we even sometimes go out for beers after work, but they all still have different circles of friends (and all of them except 1 are all over a decade older than me). So I literally wasted all of my 20s sitting in front of my computer playing video games. The loneness drives me to eating for comfort, but since I am fat it makes me shy and anti-social, a classic catch-22.

Don't get me wrong -- I have tried losing weight many times during my 20s. I exercise 45 minutes a day on a treadmill for 4 months and lost only a total of 10lbs, so gave up. Later on I did elliptical machine 4 months straight again only lost 10 lbs, I wouldn't have given up but at that point in time I moved out of my parents and into an apartment and had no room for the elliptical machine.

Looking back the reason I wasn't losing was because my mom's cooking was so wonderful I would eat so much of it. She would also always have some sort of home made dessert such as a nice peach pie, or chocolate cake, or canned fruit loaded with sugar. My parents are Mennonite, and if you have never seen a Mennonite cookbook, let's just say every dessert has about 2-3x the amount of sugar than necessary.

So this brings me to the present - A 29 year old 6' male 337lbs anti-social, shy, bona fide loser. Some would look at my current situatio and say hey man you got it all, a paid off new car, your own house, a good job.. but I am missing the one thing that matters the most, someone to share it with.

My weight has been fairly "stable" the last couple years. I pretty much been hovering between the 335-365 mark for the past 5 years.

So I want to change. Remember the 2 brother friends that I said I have that were heavy? Well I didn't see them in person for over a year, and then I met up with them recently, and they were in amazing shape. I asked how they did it?
They said easy, remember how we spent all those nights on the weekends eating a large pizza each, or eating chicken burgers at 1 am, or drinking 4 sodas a day? Well we stopped that.

They completely changed their lifestyle and ate healthy, exercised (running) and lifting weights.

This was my trigger point and if they can do it so can I. They taught me a lot on what they did to lose weight. He said at the start 99% of losing weight is your diet. Get your diet under control and the weight will start coming off no problem. However you should also supplement it with exercise. He said obviously at the start you can't do much.. but it doesn't matter. He said he would go out at 1am every night and jog. .He could only jog 200m but that was fine, just do it every night (he would do it at night because like me he was embarrassed of himself, so didn't want others to see), and eventually you will go a little further, and a little more further, and before you know it your at 1 km, 2 km, 3 km, etc. He also said lifting weights is important. Start off with something simple and inexpensive like resistive bands, look up some routines. Then get some dumbbells and a chin up bar.

So here I am, committed, finally know the keys to success. Have full control over my own meals.
I still wanted to follow a diet plan, that is actually a lifestyle, or slowly converts into one. So I picked Atkins.
I have been doing it for the past week, and I am not going to lie... I REALLY miss the grains. I don't miss the sugar, but definitely the starches. I am going to stick to it, but not sure if this is exactly the lifestyle I want to live. If it does end up failing I have a backup diet -- OMAD (One Meal A Day -- see here http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1257158-from-363-4-to-197-7-lbs-my-one-meal-a-day-success-story) which I know I could do. But I am going to stick with Atkins for now.
I was starving the first 2 days, but now that I am in full ketosis (tested with a ketostix and it's deep purple) my appetite has gone WAYY down. In fact I almost find it hard to eat at all.

Either way if it all fails, I am still changing my lifestyle. I realize I don't miss sugar. So that will be mostly cutout except for special occasions. I will eat more sensibly. I will lower portions, I will cut out a lot of carbs. I will cut the junk food. So whether I follow a diet or not I am not sure, but I will be counting calories.
For the exercise I am taking my friends advice, every night around midnight I go out and jog for as far as I can (approx 150-200m). Then stop and walk back. My friends gave me their old resistive bands, so I also been doing that a little.

Anyway sorry for the long post, but this is going to be a long journey. My diary is open to the public so feel free to comment, criticise, give advice, etc.. Also feel free to add me .
The only thing I don't track is spices I use in cooking (including salt) so sodium is probably a lot higher than stated... which I know is already way too high to begin with... but hey I already cutting the carbs, if I cut the sodium too I might as well quit now because I will give up.
I am also using the blog feature where I am keeping a diary of my progress.

In case your masochistic and want to read more of my life story, I made a post here http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1366510-how-can-someone-get-to-538lbs?page=8#posts-21417094
That also goes through my life story, but I give more details on certain aspects that I leave out here.

Thanks for reading!



TL;DR:
Stats:
29 year old male, single fat all my life
Height: Tad over 6' 0.5"
Current weight 337
Goal Weight: Anything <200 and I would be ecstatic
Foot Size 14

Started atkins last week and looking for some pals! Feel free to add me. Also my food diary is open to public so feel free to criticize, comment, give advice.

Welcome to MFP and thanks for sharing your story. I have only really been a constant visitor here for 35 days, I tried last year however my heart just was not in it, however now I am on the journey. I really cannot relate to your past however I do know that everyone in here is here to help when you need it. There are plenty of people in here that have proven methods and with this great advice I am sure you will meet some amazing goals. I am happy to help out anytime.

harmar21

Congrats on making this huge first step! you can do this! I do want to say though, skip the fad diets/diet plans. I've found much more success in eating what I want within my calorie goals. I feel like restriction is what really causes failure in dieting. not to say atkins or the one meal a day diet WONT work, just that they may not be as sustainable as just eating controlled portions of allllll the foods would be. Either way, good luck!

I really want to eat carbs (healthy ones)... The thing I am worried about though, is that if I do start eating the carbs the cravings will kick back in, and I won't be able to control myself. I find carbs make me more hungry, doesnt matter if it is rice, pasta, or potatoes. So I know I need to cut them.

I know at the end of the day Atkins isn't going to be right for me as a lifestyle, but my goal at the moment isn't so much lifestyle as is diet. Perhaps I will need to research more, and maybe I will get off of atkins..

I just know that so far being on atkins it really has slowed down my appetite. You will see on my daily log my lunch.. 5 days ago I would have been able to scoff down that 300g of ground beef, and that salad and still be starving. Today I couldn't even finish 1/2 of the ground beef after eating the salad, and had the 2nd half for supper.. For supper I didn't even finish my salad and ground beef as I was almost full! So now I will be finishing it off for snack in about 30 minutes..
So 5 days ago a meal that would have still left me hungry in 1 sitting, lasted me for 2 meals + a snack! Don't know if it is ketosis or what but hey, seems to be working.

arguablysamson

Welcome again, dude.

You know, my shoe size was 14 1/2 before losing the weight. Now (depending on the shoe type since I have bad feet and inserts), it is 13 1/2 to 14! Even feet can lose weight. Funny how that is.

seb11224

Welcome, and congratulations on making the decision to improve your health. I am just getting back into working out again. I recently hit a new highest weight for myself and I am really determined to stick with it this time. I have looked into many different diet plans. From what I have found, just eating cleaner works best for most people. Eating lean meats (staying away from the red meats) adding in more fruits and vegetables, drinking ALOT of water, cutting out junk food for the most part and trying to limit simple carbohydrates (aim for complex ones) **don't cut out carbs completely, your body needs them!** and avoid processed foods. This type of diet, plus working out 3x a week is going to be my battle plan Good luck with yours and feel free to add me as a friend. Whatever you do, listen to your body, don't push yourself to the point of being sick, and stick with it! Good luck!

Patttience

Hi, as above, congratulations on your decision and thanks for sharing.

How lucky you met your friends who inspired you. The only thing i disagree with them about is the necessity and wisdom of jogging. With your weight, its not really good for your knees and joints. The impact is unhealthy. YOu should do high impact sports when you at a slim weight.

Instead go for a brisk walk. Walk as fast as you can. This will be far safer. And also start wearing a pedometer because it motivates you to move about more.

But agreed, you don't need to exercise to lose weight. You are doing it for fitness and health. By now you may have some insulin resistance so the exercise will help a lot in that regard i believe.

I"ve done six weeks on low carb so i know how it goes. And i'm not against it either but i think its probably not necessary if you don't want to. Just be very careful when you come off it to reduce your fats as soon as you can. Its pretty tricky and it may take a little period of adjustment.

I think eating at around 100 net carbs a day is good though because you can still have a great variety of foods and believe it or not, you can still get the benefit of appetite reduction.

These days i'm doing the fasting 5:2 diet and on fast days when i eat 500 calories i get the appetite reduction and burn fat. And it spills over into my others days by keeping my appetite lower. I also have recently started doing 16:8 on non-fast days so i eat in an eight hour window most of the time. this won't get me burning carbs but it may have other health benefits.

The other thing i do is to eat a lot of fibre. Watch this show. Catalyst - gut reaction. So at least while you are still on low carb you will understand the importance of eating your vegies. But if you go off low carb you can eat more fibre too. I get a lot of my fibre through lentils and chickpeas and i love the recipes they come in. I don't eat much meat and did my low carb by eating a lot more seafood and tofu, cheese and eggs. But it was too restrictive for me after two weeks on 40g carbs.

Prior to that i'd done a month on 100 net carbs which was much more pleasant.

I think you can do this. YOu sound focused and ready to make the important changes. And you sound pretty stable in every other way.

And the great thing is you've learnt how to quit sugar. I did that way before i went low carb and its been fine for over 8 months. I do eat it sometimes under low risk conditions and have only one serve. Ie i do not eat it at home or buy it for myself. I am at the mercy of others for my sugar hits. And it works well for me.

I do drink alcohol. And love my fruit.

So i don't think you should do one meal a day. But two meals with restricted and controlled calories is good and try the two day fasts. I do mine consecutively which it think is easier than separate days.. there's a fast diet website read the faq. There's a book a tv program called eat fast and live longer and a forum.

Good luck and best wishes.