A year well spent - 30+lb fat loss

Here we go...

I've never been someone who people would have really described as out-of-shape, but after having to give up basketball over 10 years ago I've been up and down. I would consistently go to the gym but really didn't have my diet under great control - again, not obviously atrocious but definitely wrong as it turned out. At one point when I was pretty off-form I thought I'd take a shirtless pic every week and track progress (left-hand pic). The workouts continued but I only ever took the one photo!

I did improve, but about 16 months ago I was on a bit of a downer and that led me to be generally lazy, stop exercising, and eat too much of the wrong things. When I couldn't bear to look in the mirror while dressing, and I could feel my obliques jiggle when going over speed bumps, I knew something had to be done! I would have looked like that left-hand pic, or maybe a bit worse. I thought if I had a number to chase I'd be motivated so last September I bought a body fat scale; found out I was about 25% fat and 213 pounds (at 6'4") and after reading decided I needed to at least get below 20%. I started off with 3 weights and 2 cardio sessions a week, and at the urging of a good friend, joined MFP. Tracking my food was a revelation and after a period of eating at a decent deficit I started seeing benefits; after 9 weeks I got below 20% body fat and that really motivated me to keep going. I ate at smaller deficits, swapped one weight session a week for yoga, and as the months went on I carried on making steady progress. Friends started to notice and while one or two thought I might be ill (!), most said I was looking much better.

By February (middle pic) I was in the 16% range, but decided to see how much lower I could get without doing anything extreme. Fast-forward to September (final pic) and I'm around the 10% range at 180lbs, and very happy with how far I've come. I'll keep logging my food for the foreseeable future, and I'd like to carry on increasing strength and try to add just a little extra muscle - may need a trainer or at least a spotter to help at this point!

Without MFP and the people on it, I don't think I'd have got it done - so thanks!

PS - I know the photography and flexing does make a bit of a difference too!