Man to Man: A Support System for Men (part 2)

CasperO

It ain't up to them, it's up to you.

ccgisme

Teroknor - Congrats on all your progress! You've done a fantastic job and should be proud!

Do you have a medical opinion about your weight, body fat percentage, etc? I don't know that you need one, but that might be sufficient to get the ladies in your life off your back :bigsmile:

It can be hard for our loved ones to accept the change we want for ourselves - particularly if they have weight "issues" of their own and are not doing anything about their situation.

I had mentioned to my mom that I'd been working hard and losing weight. The next time I went to visit her she had made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies because she "knew I'd help her eat them" which I did - but I was also doing hours of manual labor in her backyard so it all came out in the wash.

Whatever you choose to do, I wish you luck!

In my family, providing food has always been an expression of love - however misguided - and it can be difficult to get people to find other ways to do that.

Umpire57

My doctor just said good job.

I totally understand what you are saying. My mom never tries to "sabotage" me but she has no filter from brain to mouth.

paullie_t

Hey, guys!

I started in February at 255.5, probably the heaviest I have ever been in my life. I am 36, 5' 6" but I am stocky, so I never understood how those BMI calculators could say I needed to weigh 155 lbs.

In Feb. of this year, I thought I was having kidney stones, which led to an anxiety attack, which led me to think I was having a heart attack. After a night in the ER, everything checked out okay, except for my weight. The doc told me I should lose 20-30 pounds or risk going onto high blood pressure meds.

Well, that was enough motivation right there, so shortly after that I began working out and moderately changing my diet. I have lost 26 pounds since February and feel really good after hitting the Elliptical Trainer every night.

I only found MFP a few weeks ago, but I already enjoy it much more than the previous website I was using, Calorie Counter from about.com.

My medium term goal would be to be at 200 pounds on my birthday on September 7th, but that might be too aggresive, however that's not stopping me from trying. I am currently at 229 and dropping.

Thanks for the inspirational posts, fellas! I hope that I could provide inspiration to someone just by posting my story as well.

ccgisme

Welcome Paulie_t! Keep up the good work :bigsmile:

CasperO

Hey, guys!
I started in February at 255.5, probably the heaviest I have ever been in my life. I am 36, 5' 6" but I am stocky, so I never understood how those BMI calculators could say I needed to weigh 155 lbs.
<<snip>>

Welcome aboard. I was in about the same boat. 270 pounds and just a little taller @ 5'8" and mega stocky. When I started out I had about a 46" waist and my BMI was over 40. Well,,, I've lost a foot off of the waist (yes, a foot - 12 inches, ain't that wild?). I've lost close to 70 pounds and now weigh about 202. I have abs now,,, and still I'm obese. To get to merely 'overweight' I need to get below about 197. To get to 'healthy' on the BMI chart I need to get down around 164. I'm about 13% bodyfat, my lean bodymass is close to 180. Only way I'm getting to 164 is with anorexia and organ donation.

Anywho,,, don't sweat the BMI. It's crap for Clydesdales like us and doesn't work at all. You're well on your way. Welcome.

dinos

Weight consists of both lean body mass (bones, organs, muscle) and body fat. BMI can't address this. Knowing your body fat percentage can help you determine if your weight loss goals are realistic. To figure out what your ideal weight is check out your Body Fat ( http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/.)
The American Council on Exercise considers a 25 - 31% body fat acceptable for women, 18 – 25% for men.

CasperO

Yup yup,,, I use this one and a pair calipers I paid $15 for @ GNC : http://www.linear-software.com/online.html

dinos

Yup yup,,, I use this one and a pair calipers I paid $15 for @ GNC : http://www.linear-software.com/online.html

The caliper seems a lot more precise than the tape measurement method. I'll give it a try, as soon as I figure out where they sell these in Greece

CasperO

Mail order man - http://www.accumeasurefitness.com/

I have these, they're fine.

dinos

No doubt they are fine Casper, but I cannot mail order hardware from the US except for books and some other stuff. I tried Amazon but there are trade restrictions. I'll find a site located in Europe that can deliver and place my order there.

summersmi

Dinos, try looking in the hardware type stores. Also look where the construction guys work and shop. I work in maintenance and use the calipers from work. I'm pretty sure the fellows in Greece use the exact same tools we use here in the states. Ask the machine shop union members where to get calipers.

dinos

Thanks for the advise summersmi. I'm sure it won't be that hard to find calipers here, its not that I'm looking for the holy grail lol

CasperO

Bodyfat calipers are specific. They squeeze with a specific amount of pressure over a specific amount of area. Too much pressure = inaccurate reading. Too small an area = inaccurate reading. I'm an ex-machinist, have several sets of measuring calipers and even a couple of micrometers.

I tried regular measuring calipers and had problems. #1 - ouch, they're sharp. #2 - tip size was too small, just dug into the skin. #3 - inconsistent, could never get the same reading twice. You can try it, and good luck, but I wouldn't trust those readings - that's why I went out and bought the real thing.

whyflysouth

I've got calipers but I'm so bad at measuring I always get drastically different values and always forget the exact place I measured before so I bought one of those omron impedence hand held fat % measures. The reviews for it say it's roughly just as precise as the calipers, maybe off by 1-2%, so that's good enough for me.

Here's a link of the one I got:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FYZMYK/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?ie=UTF8&cloe_id=b88035d9-2e69-432a-ba91-5748ecc87f6e&attrMsgId=LPWidget-A1&pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00006WNPU&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1QEJHERJADVS0JV29PEV

whyflysouth

Teroknor, congrats on the over 100 loss! That's seriously impressive, you look like two different people in that pic. Regarding your weight loss, I'd just advise that you ensure you're at least eating your BMR day in/out. I'm 5'7" - 31 yrs old - now 148 lbs and my BMR is 1584 cals, so I'm thinking yours should be more than that.

You don't want to eat so little that you cut into muscle, and if you get your body fat measured, if you're between 13 - 19% you're probably in the clear and you don't really need to focus on weight loss. At some point you'll want to get into maintenance and maybe even look into building muscle as we end up losing muscle naturally as we get older and our bodies get more catabolic, so you'll need to offset that so you don't break your hips in the future - but yeah you probably shouldn't stay on a lose 2 lbs / week diet, and maybe slow it down to 1 or under / week.

oh yeah, BMI probably makes sense for me, but not so much for you. For naturally bigger guys (over 6'0) with a decent amount of muscle, it can be pretty off. Even health professionals these days recognize the problems with it and are more concerned with a person's waist to hip ratio when it comes to determining whether the person is at risk due to his body composition.

dinos

Good grief Casper. You're using micrometers to measure your body fat? :laugh: Btw, Great post
I finally found the shop in Athens that sells the original accu-measure equipment. I'm getting the real thing. I also learned the greek word for it, it is dermatoptychometra. :happy: This is getting better and better

Umpire57

Needless to say, I do not starve myself

This week I have actually been way over all 3 days - 1520+1000 exercise and I have been ending up in the 2800-3000 calorie range all 3 days (Although I do not measure anything and TRY to over-guesstimate portion sizes in most cases).

Tomorrow I am taking a trip to Atlanta to take my daughter to her birthday Braves game (The girl is OBSESSED with the Braves) so this weekend should be a challenge to say the least.

I am staying with my brother in law a couple of hours away from Atlanta so I don't know if I will skip my Saturday workout or see if they have a YMCA there that allows out of town members to have a guest day pass (I hope they do)

I know my body fat percentage is still high just by looking (Although I need to invest in one of Casper's calipers to really check.)

Once I drop my BMI below obese I will more than likely change my goals.

Thanks

wjassell

I just wanted to jump in as I am roughly the same height although a bit lighter at about 6'1 220lbs. My wife has been telling me I don't need to loose any more but I don't listen I have a goal and that is what I am focused on. You should pretty much throw out BMI it is useless. I am still listed as Overweight with a BF% of around 15% and even at my goal weight of 210 I would still be in the Overweight category with a bodyfat % around 9-10%.

I average 2000 calories per day while doing P90X which for me burns about 4000-4500 calories (per HRM) per week just for reference.

Apparently according to BMI in this picture I am at the top of the overweight section.

Umpire57

I agree about BMI to a point. The thing is, I have not been strength training so I know just by looking (shirt off) that I still have more I can lose (especially in the gut)

I have just about convinced myself now that I need to get a body fat caliper and go from there.

I do not expect or even want to get in the healthy range for BMI (136-184) but I would like for it to not be obese

I truly believe somewhere between 215-220 is going to be my maintenance spot but then again I thought 100 pounds ago that I would be ecstatic at 230.

I average about 2300 calories a day eating and I usually start M-Sat with 1 hour on the elliptical (Lowest reading I have ever gotten on any machine is 1060 and the highest was 1500+ on about 4 different models tried, and the lowest was one that asked age and weight before starting so I always use 1000 for that count)

I also officiate softball throughout the week but I never count that as exercise as without a HRM, I have no way to accurately determine it.

I think that should be enough to let my body decide where my sweet spot should be...Correct?