Fat to Fit in a year

I wanted to post my results on here. I’ve been at this fitness thing for the last year now. First, a little background…as a young man I was always in good shape because I was an infantry guy in the Army. Once I got out of the Army I started gaining some weight, but continued to exercise and at least try to stay in shape. About 3 years ago I suffered a herniated disc in my back and I had to stop exercising. I didn’t stop eat though. I gained weight more quickly and got very out of shape. Finally after 1.5 years I decided to get my back fixed. By God’s grace with some physical therapy and inversion table the disc went back in place. Stay on top of your injuries!!

It was a stressful time at work and I never got the motivation to get back exercising and lose the weight. Plus I have 4 young kids that take a lot of my time. I continued to gain weight and finally decided to take charge of the situation. I’m 5’9” tall and weighed 220 to start. I started dieting and exercising on my own, but within a couple of weeks I found MFP and started counting calories. From reading the information on the boards and doing other research I have eventually settled on a moderate protein (100-140 grams per day), low carb (less than 20% of calories), and high fat diet. However, most of my weight loss I accomplished with moderate protein and low fat diet. I avoid like the plague processed foods and try to focus my diet on whole minimally processed food like lean meats, fruits, and vegetables and tried to hit my macros everyday. I logged everything. Anytime I stopped losing weight it was due to poor logging and undisciplined food choices.

In terms of exercise I started doing cardio exclusively both running and cycling, but within a couple of months I started doing body weight resistance exercises as well (pushups, pullups, and core work). Over the winter months I did Insanity to help stay in shape which was always a time I used to gain weight. My weight came off pretty steady with an occasional plateau until I hit the 170 mark. Lately, I’ve struggled to get below the 10% BF mark, but overall I’m happy and proud of my results. I’ve always kind of been more of a cardio guy so here are my running results: I PRed my half marathon last fall at 1:44 30 and have recently done a 5k in 20:50 and a 5 miler at 35:30.

My goals going forward are to continue to try and push down into single digits of body fat and continue to try and improve my running times. My goal is sub 20 minutes in the 5k, sub 42 minutes in the 10k, sub 1:40 in the half, and 10 perfect pullups.

Here is my advice to anyone starting out:

1. Log all your food
2. Hit your macro targets
3. Stay away from processed food especially starchy ones
4. Focus your diet on whole foods as much as you can
5. Do something/anything to workout. Lifting heavy is popular on MFP but even if you just can walk you need to workout for your overall health.
6. Harden up – complaining and whining get you no where
7. Stick with it and don't quit

I couldn’t have done this without the support of my wife and 4 beautiful kids who all sacrificed time from me so I could workout and who all have had their diets altered because of my needs. I’d like to thank my MFP friends who have helped motivate me along the way especially: Tennis Mike, Cindy, Michelle, Trina, Brian, SeanT, and all my other friends on here. I’d also like to thank Sarah and Side Steel for the Eat, Train, Progress group which is extremely helpful.

I’m and engineer by trade so here is some data stats from the journey:

Starting: Final:
Weight: 220 170 lbs
Body Fat: 32-34% 10-11%
Blood Pressure: 142/78 122/70
Resting Heart Rate: 70-75 42-45 bpm
Waist: 42 30 inches
Jean Size: 36 (busting out) 32 (loose)
Pullups: 2 8
Pushups: 8 35

Here are some pictures:
Here is a couple of pictures of fat me:


Here is me now after the recent 5 miler:

This one here is in my jeans I used to wear and I was busting out of them. This is 10 lbs heavier than today.

Hope you enjoyed my success story!! Best of luck to you all!!