Almost there

vathek61 · March 2013

Some amazing success stories on here. Mine is very minor by comparison with most.

I'm 51, and 5'10", and had always been in pretty decent shape. I cycle a lot and eat well, although I drink more booze than I should). But about a year ago, working in a desk-bound, very high stress job, I looked in the mirror and thought "Bloody Hell!" Flabby, puffy, collars, suits and coats too tight, up to 34" jeans and every prospect of the next stop being 36". So I bought some scales and found my weight was 187 lbs.

Six months on, that's down to 150 lbs, with a BMI of 20, body fat of 10% and blood pressure of 130/45. And I'm now wearing 28" jeans. It's been surprisingly easy. I aim for 1800 calories a day but ignore that if I am going out, do 30 minutes a day on an exercise bike, or longer on a real bike, and lift weights twice a week for an hour at a time. Aim is to get to either 143 lbs or body fat of 7% in the next month or two, and stick there.

Incidentally, I'd definitely recommend some weights as well as diet and cardio, to avoid the "skinny fat" problem.

Looking puffy, May 2012

Wondering what to do about it, June 20112

Thinking harder, July 2012

Getting there, January 2013

Not far to go, March 2013

magpie0 · March 2013

You look great! Look at how flat your stomach is!!!

vathek61 · March 2013

Thanks, Magpie, that's very kind of you. Belly fat is always the last to go, and I still need to burn off another inch of it. I think doing a few weights to reinforce diet and cardio will always help a lot on toning up. I'm sure there's plenty of other good advice out there, but I can recommend 'The Body Fat Solution' by Tom Venuto which I found pretty sensible.

Timshel_ · March 2013

Great example of just doing simple things consistently over time and not sweating the small stuff.

Cheers!

Synapze · March 2013

Thats awesome mate. Cant wait to be in your shoes.

Well done.

vathek61 · March 2013

Thanks, all.

One thing I've found interesting about the process is that in only 6 months, without any huge effort, and as a 51 year old, I've now returned to pretty much the same body shape and level of fitness as when I was in my late teens, when I was rowing and running long-distance at school and university. It's also quite funny in the gym to see the bemused reaction of muscle-bound kids in their 20's as I shift heavier weights than they can manage. 40 years of regular cycling has probably helped.

The other thing is that an extra 40 lbs just sort of creeps up on you without you noticing. I was quite shocked, when digging around for a "before" picture to post here, by my chubbiness then, as I hadn't even really noticed it at the time until I spotted that my trousers seemed, rather surprisingly, to have shrunk a bit.

Reactions from family and friends have also been quite funny. My sister is convinced that there is something wrong with my nose (maybe nose cancer?) because it keeps getting bigger (no, dear, my face is getting thinner). My ex-wife who was a size 6 when I married her and is now a 12 and going for 14 tells me I look terrible because my bum is too small (yes, dear, it's an opinion and you are welcome to it). With GFs, there seems to be some concern about my unhealthily low weight from those who are heavier than they would like to be but not from those in good shape. Funny that.

Quite a costly exercise in some ways. Having always been more or less a 40R suit size, I now find the bloody things need braces to stay up, and have remarkably compendious trousers; and I will need to buy some new ones in due course. I have 34", 32" and 30" jeans languishing in the wardrobe because they are too big, similarly piles of L, M and S T-shirts, having moved on to XS ones. And I suppose the 16" work shirts will need 15" replacements too. And it is surprisingly difficult in mainstream shops for middle-aged people, like M&S, to find anything casual that fits, so I am reduced to slinking furtively around places aimed at teenagers, like H&M or Gap.

Almost there

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