Former fat weakling

I have kept putting off posting a "Success Stories" thread until some time when I feel "done", but let's face it, as long as I'm still alive, I will never be done. So I might as well post now, just so I can have a summary of the timeline and the story in one place. As time goes on, the dates and details are fading more and more. Most of the dates below are approximate, as I'm piecing this back together as best I can.

So this all started somewhere around July of 2009. I was fat. I was weak. I was out of shape. I was (still am?) asthmatic. I relied on taking a control inhaler once every night, and a rescue inhaler "as needed". Back then, doing something like running up my driveway would be enough to get me winded and have to take a hit of the albuterol. Not to mention that back then, if I so much as tried to run or jog, I would pretty much sprain my ankle within the first few steps. I hated physical activity, because I was a lazy weakling.

Here's a pic of me and my dad around the time. (I'm the one on the right ). This is probably a good example of me around my fattest.


So somewhere around this time, I remember sitting in my kitchen, on my laptop, exactly the same place I'm sitting right now. My wife (girlfriend at the time) was away on the east coast visiting family. It was late at night. I was bored senseless. I was down and depressed, feeling rather pathetic. I feel like I had read all the way to the end of the internet and I was waiting for them to print more of it.

I don't know exactly why, but I had a moment of clarity where I thought, enough is enough. I don't want to be a fat out of shape weakling any more. I had this book on a bookshelf titled Body for Life. I owned it for probably a year or two. I bought it because a friend of mine had great success following it. But I couldn't really bring myself to open it. To be honest, it was a little hard to get past the front cover. But I knew that "someday", eventually, I would probably check it out. And somehow, somewhat at random, that night was the night.

I sat down, bleary-eyed and started reading. I read the whole book in about a day or two (it's a quick easy read). I spent the following few days trying to construct a plan for myself. I knew that I would need to go shopping for good healthy food - that was easy enough. I also knew that I would need a workout routine. This was harder. I didn't like the idea of going to a gym. It was the usual fear of looking stupid and clueless, coupled with a pretty high level of social anxiety and self-consciousness. I knew that for this to work I would have to work out at home.

While going through trying to reconstruct my timeline, I found this email to my brother, which is just so funny to read now, 3 and a half years later:

Seriously considering getting a bench and some free weights. If you were gonna do that, would you just get a whole collection of different ones that are different weights, or the kind that you can add and remove weight on the bar? Don't they have some with like quick-release systems these days? Time to get my fat *kitten* into shape. I'm going to start this 12 week "Body-for-Life" program. Probably still need a gym membership though for some exercises.

I finally decided the best thing would be a set of PowerBlock dumbbells, a bench, and a treadmill. The PowerBlocks are cool because they take up the footprint of 2 dumbbells, and are adjustable from 5lb up to 50lbs, and expandable up to 90lbs (which I did later expand).

Since there is absolutely no hope of actually keeping this post brief and concise, I might as well insert the quick summary of Body for Life here: Strength training 3x/week (upper/lower split, of basically isolation exercises); HIIT 3x/week; Eating 6 small meals a day, focusing on mostly "clean eating" of lean protein and complex carbs; One day per week is a rest day and free day, where you eat whatever you want.

Now, in retrospect, I don't really agree with, well, any of this. For me, at the time, it was a good starting point. It got me from completely sedentary to working out intensely 6x/week; and it got me from complete nutritional ignorance to eating mindfully (if a little too anal and borderline orthorexic). For someone just starting out, without any real reference point, it's as good as any place to start out.

The results after 12 weeks of Body for Life were dramatic. Here is the before and after
Before:


After:


I got into what I would call "The Virtuous Cycle", which is the opposite of "The Vicious Cycle". In a virtuous cycle, you do something, you observe some good results,and it motivates you to do more of it, which yields more good results, and this continues over and over.

Well, until about a month later. It was Thanksgiving. We were hosting. Lots of people over. Everyone was impressed with my "transformation". My ego was hugely inflated. Then something weird happened. I guess subconsciously part of me thought "OK, I'm done!" And like that, I just stopped working out. I more or less kept up with vaguely decent eating, but without the exercise, I started putting on weight again, and that confident strong energy I had faded away.

I think it was about a year that I was off the wagon. I had some incident with eating a big plate of french fries and just feeling so full and disgusting that I felt compelled to hop on the treadmill a day or two after that. And then poof, the virtuous cycle started again. I was still doing the Body for Life thing. It was just a way of life for a while there. By the way, I was no longer using the nightly inhaler, and even the rescue inhaler was being used very infrequently.

Fast forward to January of 2011. I was pretty satisfied with my results, but I really wanted to get "really lean". I wanted to be ripped. I wanted the 6 pack abs. I was in great shape and in the "normal" weight range, but I wasn't really getting any leaner than I was. It occurred to me that I should look into calorie counting.

So I joined MFP and started the whole calorie counting thing. After some trial and error, I had my calories pretty well tuned in, and kept working hard and logging. In a few months I reached what I guess was my skinny phase.





I was doing quite a bit of cardio at this time, running, HIIT, cycling. I still kept up with weight lifting, but it was more or less spinning my wheels with the elaborate upper/lower spit of isolation exercises. I was doing squats and some straight leg deadlifts, but they were with dumbbells. I was challenging my grip strength more than I was challenging my body strength. My actual strength advances were very slow, or arguably non-existent.

As a result of learning from some of the MFP power users, I transitioned slowly into more of an IIFYM (if it fits your macros) approach, and set my calories based on TDEE; rather than going with the MFP-prescribed numbers and adding back exercise calories. This was the simplest approach, and I always try to go with the simplest approach possible.

In the meantime I had been hearing more and more about full body compound lifting and Starting Strength. (Interesting side note - the buddy who inspired me to try Body for Life was the same one who inspired me to do Starting Strength).

This was to be a whole new learning curve. What I learned was that these compound lifts, while simple looking, are actually quite technical. There was to be a fair amount of study and practice involved. Not to mention equipment - power rack, Olympic barbell, plates, bumper plates. Hey at least I could reuse my old bench. (Again, I'm a weirdo and would rather do this all at home than go to a gym).

According to my notes, I started Starting Strength on 11/2/2011. I believe I had stopped counting calories at the time, and was just focused on strength gains. Also according to my notes, the working set for that first workout were 175lbs for squats, 150lbs for bench press (with a note that says "form suffered"), and 220lb deadlift.

Here I am on 2/1/2012 after my first "bulk"



Around April 2012, I started Wendler's 5/3/1, which is another compounding lifting program, but geared more towards the intermediate lifter rather than novice.

The next months were more of the same - calorie deficit, compound lifts, cardio here and there (usually hill/speed intervals on the treadmill).

Here I am on 10/27/12, after a "cut"


And about a month later, my current profile back pic


On Dec 1st, 2012, I entered my first powerlifting comp, and did pretty respectable for my weight class. I actually "won" the weight class, but that was a technicality as I was the only lifter in that class :laugh:

Here I am pulling a 413lb deadlift at about 155 lbs body weight at the meet.


I think I've done pretty good all in all, for someone who waited till his mid thirties to get a clue about health and fitness. I am very proud of my strength gains and hope to continue getting stronger and stronger. That 175lb working set for squats is now at 312.5 lbs. Bench press from 150 now 205. And 220lb deadlift now at 385. And these just keep increasing slowly over time thanks to the solid 5/3/1 program.

To close this out, I'd like to pass on a few key things that I think are the essentials to success:
- You have to want to change and believe that you can change
- You should work hard but you shouldn't suffer
- It will take as long as it takes. The time you spend losing weight and getting fit is a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of your life
- Weight loss comes from a calorie deficit, plain and simple. You can achieve the calorie deficit by counting calories, or you can eat in a way that incidentally puts you in a deficit. Any of these diets you hear of that "work", work because they put the user in a calorie deficit.
- Exercise increases your fitness level. The point of exercise is strength and fitness, not weight loss
- Whatever diet or exercise program you follow should be sustainable. Don't go on any hokey crash or fad diets or so-called cleanses that have you malnourishing yourself for a small period of time in the name of "jump starting your weight loss"; Similarly don't go trying to do hours and hours of exercise every day.
- Simple is better

Oh, and one final tidbit. If you made it all the way down here, you may have noticed that I didn't mention my body weight from before or after. And the reason is, who cares?! I was fat before - it was obvious. How much did I weigh? Too much. How much do I weight now? About the right amount. Whether the scale happens to say 135 or 185 is rather meaningless.

edit: some typos, grammar