My first 100 days

dvisser1

I've been on MFP for slightly longer than 100 days, but I guess I wasn't ready to commit to this journey on that first day. I am a large frame guy and formerly very athletic. I always stayed in decent shape by being active all the time. Age, injuries, a poor diet and a sedentary job all compounded and I let myself get really out of shape. Early April last year I was right around 300 lbs, but don't really know what my peak weight was because I never went near a scale. I felt sick and tired all the time and knew I had to make a change. I adopted my dog and started walking him every day, from 1.5 to 4 miles. That worked for a while, but all Fall and Winter I was hovering in the 275-280 range because I didn't make the needed changes to my diet.

For whatever reason, Monday January 23rd was my breaking point. The switch flipped on, and so I'm counting my 100 days from then. I have cleaned up my diet, with the occasional indulgence and now use MFP to track everything I eat and my exercise. I credit MFP as being the tool that finally opened my eyes to what I was consuming every day. On that Monday morning I weighed in at 281 lbs. I started using my gym membership regularly and making sure my calorie needs for hte day are met. There has been a lot of sweat and sometimes some foul language directed at my scale. I set my goal to lose 2 lbs a week. Well, I'm now early into my 16th week, and I'm down to 249 lbs. Yes, 32 lbs down in 15 1/2 weeks. During those weeks I did get sick once and quit the diet & exercise for 2 weeks while getting rested up. The couple pounds I gained while sick came back off in the first week of getting back in the gym. It hasn't all been a smooth, continuous weight loss, but it has been coming off.

When I started on here in January, waist size 40 pants were tight on me. 20 lbs down in early March I started seeing I needed knew clothes.


This morning I weighed in at 249 lbs. 32 lbs lost. Now, I am comfortably wearing size 38 pants.



I work out at the gym normally 3 days a week for 1:15 to 1:30 each trip. I don't waste a single minute while I'm in the gym. I can normally register 1300-1400 calories burned according to my heart rate monitor. Due to the dog I don't have time to spend more time in the gym or I probably would. I do a combination of elliptical, situps, recently started doing pushups (trying hundredpushups.com training plan), leg press, and either the stairmaster or treadmill. I decided to sign up for a 5k in early July and recently started running with the dog on non-gym days. Slow and kind of short, but slowly improving.

There is plenty of work for me left to do. 9 more lbs to goal weight (240 lbs), but I'm starting to think I should push down to 235. The fact is, I've done nothing special to lose 32 lbs in 15+ weeks. I eat a healthy, balanced diet but I have completely cut out nothing. I have cut way, way back on fast foods, pizza and booze but have not completely eliminated them. I just try hard to stick to my calorie goal for the day. I do eat back most of my exercise calories. I weigh or measure everything now to make sure I know the portions I'm eating. If I go over my calorie goal by a hundred calories or two on any given day, I don't flip out. If I weight myself everyday I have to remember that the scale may go up by 2 lbs one day and down 2.5 the next and not to freak out. Diligence, dedication and patience makes the waist smaller and the heart happier!

Warning, fat guy shirtless pic below.



I plan to be doing more weight training, but don't really want to get bigger, just stronger and a little more defined. I'm every bit of 6'2" and fill a 54 suit jacket, to give a relative sense of size.

kindra3434

Good for you! You are looking good.

MisterTEZ

you have done brilliant, and it shows, well done

JesterMFP

Wow, all that hard work is definitely paying off! You look great, well done!

Agirard25

great work!! today is my 100th day too-down 28 lbs and feeling like a new woman!! Can't wait to continue getting stronger and healthier day by day! I'm also doing 100 pushups and 200 situps simultaneously!

coliema

Great job!!!

mrsnathanandrew

Look at you and your smexi self!! Great job!!

erickirb

I plan to be doing more weight training, but don't really want to get bigger, just stronger and a little more defined. I'm every bit of 6'2" and fill a 54 suit jacket, to give a relative sense of size.

Great progress. Just an FYI, if you are eating in a caloric deficit you will not gain very much muscle, just retain what you do have. without strength training weight loss will come from fat and muscle.

If you are not looking for size but more for strength aim for 4-6 reps/set where the last rep or 2 is difficult to complete with good form. I would look into Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5 for a suitable program for this.

If you do 8-12 reps that is more for adding muscle mass (still difficult but this is the rep range that works best at this) and since that is not your goal you should aim for less then 8 reps with heavy weights.

SirZee

Almost exactly same story. Same formerly athletic background.... I started Jan 29, at 249, 32 lb down.

macnotes

Great story and excellent work! It will be so nice to have a doggie that can run with you! When you start getting into the longer distances, most pups can't go much more than 16K or so. You can give them a little back pack too, so they have water as well. Enjoy the journey!

dvandhi

Thanks for the post, it really increased my motivation seeing someone with a similar story. I retired from the military and just stopped exercising altogether out of rebellion of 20+ years of forced PT, and my weight exploded. My switch just "flipped" last weekend when I found myself unable to enjoy and off road bike ride with my son because I was too fat and out of shape to really get going on the ride. I felt embarrassed and humiliated. I am also a pretty large frame guy, but at my current weight of 275 I am about 50 - 60 lbs out of my healthy size.

In the last few days of using the software I have really enjoyed how easy it is to input calories, and as long as I use it, I can't deny how many calories I am taking in. Thanks again for the post, it helped me see that there really is hope to get back to the right weight.

dvisser1

I plan to be doing more weight training, but don't really want to get bigger, just stronger and a little more defined. I'm every bit of 6'2" and fill a 54 suit jacket, to give a relative sense of size.

Great progress. Just an FYI, if you are eating in a caloric deficit you will not gain very much muscle, just retain what you do have. without strength training weight loss will come from fat and muscle.

If you are not looking for size but more for strength aim for 4-6 reps/set where the last rep or 2 is difficult to complete with good form. I would look into Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5 for a suitable program for this.

If you do 8-12 reps that is more for adding muscle mass (still difficult but this is the rep range that works best at this) and since that is not your goal you should aim for less then 8 reps with heavy weights.

I know I have to change up my diet a bit. You can build muscle on a small calorie deficit, but it's hard to do. The 2 lb / week weight loss goal means I'm at about 1000 cal / day deficit, which does not allow for muscle building. I'll look into those programs, but I've lifted off and on since early in high school and have a good idea of what has worked for me in the past. I've found that a 6-8 week rotation, going from high weight and 6-8 reps to low weight (70% of high weight mark) and 12-15 reps.

dvisser1

Great story and excellent work! It will be so nice to have a doggie that can run with you! When you start getting into the longer distances, most pups can't go much more than 16K or so. You can give them a little back pack too, so they have water as well. Enjoy the journey!

My dog doesn't seem to like to run with me. He's a black lab mixed with unknown larger breeds. Last time, after he finally stopped trying to steal the leash from me he started putting the boat anchor on me. Slowing down to where I'm basically dragging his furry 80 lbs around. I shouldn't be able to out run my dog.