Big guy with physical job

bigkahuna66

Hi everyone. Let me introduce myself. My name is Jerry. I'm 46, 283 pounds. The heaviest I have ever been. I've always been bigger than normal even as a kid. When I graduated high school I was 250 pounds. Then, my mother got sick and I lost 50 pounds overnight it seemed. Thank God she is OK but what a scare for a young man. I was able to keep the weight off for the good part of 12 years or so. At my smallest I was 180, working out at gym everyday and getting very fit. My wife and I went on vacation to Vegas in the early 90's and for some reason when we returned I gave up on myself. In my mid 30's I began to gain weight. It all happened so slowly I hardly recognized it. I would buy a larger waist trousers every once in a while and hated it but did nothing about it.

I work 12 hours a day and unfortunately when I get home I eat dinner, visit with wife, watch a little TV and then bed. At some point I started eating dinner and never stop. Eating anything and everything. Especially Hershey Kisses. It was nothing to eat 3/4 of a bag every night.

I work as a delivery person for a bread company. My job entails lifting, squatting, stooping, walking. And as you can imagine a 6'2", 283 pound guy doesn't get up from the floor very easily. My knees are hurting and popping. I struggle to walk when I get out of bed in the morning, afraid my knees are just going to give out at anytime. I'm not the smartest guy in the world and the bread business is pretty much all I know. I need to keep my body in condition so I can handle my career. I have recently started having nightmares about not being able to finish my duties on the job and the company having to let me go. I also was baptized last year and joined my church. I have always been a believer in Jesus Christ but got serious about it last year. As a Christian I shouldn't have idols above God. Well, food is/was my idol I have been putting it before God so this has been a strong factor in helping me to be encouraged this time.

I started counting calories a few years back by listing it all in a notebook but quickly gave up to hunger. I was really surprised by how much I was overeating then. Three weeks ago I found MyFitnessPal on my phone and thought why not start this again. So, I just started counting. My goodness. I was SERIOUSLY overeating! The calculator on here said I was eating approximately 3500 calories a day. Myself, after playing with the calorie counter, believe it to be more like 4500 to 5000 calories a day. 5000 CALORIES A DAY? Holy crap! What am I doing to myself? I'm on high blood pressure medicine, high cholesterol med., and Omerprazole for acid reflux...... My bowels work well though. TOO WELL!

Anyway, that's my story and I'm new on here. I'm not sure yet how to add friends but would appreciate some to share stories with or encouragement. Thanks for reading.

albertabeefy

Hey Jerry, welcome.

I'm a little older than you - 47 years young. I'm about 6'3" and was pushing 350lbs at one point in time, so I know what it's like.

I was also on medication up the wazoo but in addition I also had (still have, though better controlled) huge spinal issues. The last straw for me was the diabetes diagnosis...

First, if you haven't already, as a 46 year old overweight/obese guy I've got to strongly recommend you get screened for diabetes by getting - not just a fasting blood glucose test - but also an HbA1c test. (FYI fasting blood glucose is often the LAST symptom to appear when we have diabetes. HbA1c will show metabolic syndrome and pre-diabetes before folks become full-blown diabetics.)

The biggest reason I suggest this is IF you do have diabetes, or even just pre-diabetes or metabolic syndrome - you'll find like I did that reducing your carbohydrate intake (especially by eliminating refined carbohydrate) is essential to your health and weight-loss journey. If it's NOT the case, you don't need worry about carbohydrate levels as much.

Anyway, welcome. Feel free to add me as a friend. With the exception of the physical job you're in a very similar circumstance to where I was a couple years ago

bigkahuna66

Thank you