SV: 120 lbs lost

Well I made it to my ultimate goal 175 lbs. I am 6'0" tall 37 years old and that puts me at a BMI of 23.7. I am in the best shape of my life and now I will transition from Losing weight to putting on some lean muscle. I have some toning work to take care of but let me tell you this I FEEL GREAT!!!! No matter what hardships you go throught to make it to where you want to be it is very much worth it!

My story (I have posted it a couple times before but for those who haven't read it here you go!

HW: 295
MFP SW: 285
CW: 175

I was a obese kid and stayed that way my entire life. I had knee problems as a child that continued on as an adult. At age 19 I damaged my lateral meniscus in my left knee playing basketball and had surgery on it. I continued to put extra stress on my joints carrying around extra weight and in January 2011 I tore the medial meniscus in the left knee while playing basketball with my son. I rehabbed the injury at home and 6 months later when I was still not back to where I thought I should be I went and saw my doctor. He sent me in for an MRI and it showed the tear along with signs of severe arthritis. I went to an orthopedic surgeon and he suggested going in an cleaning up the tear and either doing a micro-fracture or possibly taking a piece of good cartilage to grow some in a lab. So in Oct 2011 I went under and when I woke up the surgeon gave me some bad news. He completely removed the medial meniscus (weight bearing side of the knee) he also informed me that the arthritis was very much worse than he had expected to see and confirmed that I have grade 4 osteoarthritis on both the femur and the tibia and under my kneecap. He gave me prescription for a unloading brace to help me live with the knee until I am in my mid 50's when I will be old enough for a replacement. He informed me that due to artificial knee's wearing out in 20 years I was not a candidate to have one until I am old. He said I have the knee of a 65 year old severely arthritic man and handed me a prescription for pain killers and asked me to work with my primary doctor to keep the pain under control. He told me I needed to be under a 25 BMI and only by doing this and wearing the brace will I manage to live with this until I can get the replacement. I was told I can never run or do any sports that causes impact on my knees. I was very upset and it is still hard every time my son goes out to shoot hoops I want to join him. It was something we enjoyed doing together and when I see my daughter needs me to work with her on her soccer skills yet one kick into helping her and the pain is horrible. It is something that has weighed heavy on me for some time now and it doesn't get easier. I did purchase a bike and the kids love to go riding with me so that has helped make it easier but it is tough. Well I have put in the hard work and the one question I get from the people who know me is how does the knee feel. Well I was really hoping that when I got down to a 25 BMI I would have some relief and then when I got to a BMI in the 24's I was hoping and now I am down to a 23.7 and unfortunately my knee doesn't feel any better. It does feel more stable and climbing stairs are not as hard but the constant pain is still there and after swimming or biking the pain is still horrible but I know that if I was where I was before I would still be walking with a cane.

Here is how I accomplished this. Calories in and calories out, I figured it out. Getting healthy was really just a math problem. I was eating fairly healthy before but I really had no portion control. So I started increasing my exercise and decreasing my portions and made a huge lifestyle change. On 1/26/2012 about 3 months after surgery I was back to 270 and decided that until I was a healthy weight I would no longer eat sweets and if I was hungry between meals I would only eat raw fruits and veggies. I did cheat once I had some kind of berry crisp thing at Easter dinner but other than that I pretty much stayed true to the deal I made with myself. I have looked into P90X and those workouts but unfortunately with my knee the way it is I am unable to do the workouts. So I used swimming as my main exercise. I started out walking in the shallow end and getting my quads built up then I moved on to swimming and worked up to swimming a mile before work 5 days a week. I get up at 4:15 every morning before work and go to the pool. I counted my calories and often found myself under my calorie goal. I stopped losing a couple of time but never really plateaued. I now have quads for days and have no problem riding 34 miles on my bike on Sunday and then getting up at 4:15 to go swim a mile come Monday morning. I have a hard time making my legs sore at this point. Along the way I discovered some things I never saw before like an adams apple and a rib cage. It is a great feeling to look in the mirror and the person looking back at me is someone I never thought I would meet.

I do have extra skin and in my opinion quite a lot of it. I am going to give it sometime to shrink up before I get a skin reduction but I am not in a rush to go out and would like to see how much my body can do on its own. I have some toning I need to work on in my upper body and hope that with that will come a reduction in extra skin. I haven't taken any new pictures yet but I have posted a bunch on here before. If you search my posts you will find them.

My advice for all who read this! Stick with it you are worth the effort it will take to get healthy! You can do it and it will be an emotional journey but remember no matter what setbacks you may have tomorrow is a new day and you can get right back on track if you make the choice. It will not always be the easiest choice but it will be the right choice. As for me I am never going back to my unhealthy lifestyle again!

Thanks for taking the time to share in my SCALE VICTORY!!!!!!!!