50 pounds gone

I'm 3/4 of the way done to getting to my first goal weight, 150. I'm 5'6" tall and I started at ~215 ish, and decided to lose some weight. I was the heaviest I had ever been. In February of 2012, I went to GNC, dropped a ton of cash on shakes and supplements and vitamins and workout mixes.. and tried to eat a little less.

I made it about two weeks. I got a cold, and my body was screaming for calories. I wasn't chronically under eating, I just wasn't gorging on french fries, chicken wings, beer, alcohol, and sodas. I was eating mostly as before, without knowing about calorie dense vs light calorie foods, and the difference in volume between the two.

Serving size of Oreos: 1/3 of box and a glass of milk
Serving size of chex mix - entire bag
When the real serving sizes are like, 2 cookies, and a handful of mix..

Stuff like that. I wound up looking like this:









From February 2012 to September 12th, I lost a grand total of 5-7 pounds. I hired a trainer, learned how to count and set my macros and started cutting calories. No more serving sizes of entire packages of snacky carbs. When I want to feel full, I eat protein. Any meat will do, as long as it’s not hot dogs, 80/20 ground beef, or anything else that has more calories from fat than protein. Center cut bacon is transcendental Counting and doing high intensity workouts, I lost 30 pounds in the first 2 months, and another 10 pounds in November. Through July 2013, I’m down another 10 pounds.





I'm almost there:




The best part was, by keeping weight training as a part of my workout routine, even during my maintenance, I went from a wimpy 60 pound bench press in September to 135 lbs in December. I didn't gain any real muscle size, but they got harder and stronger I'm currently at 145x6 for my bench press, and 230x6 for my squat. I'm not sure what my max is, I haven't tried to see how much I can lift yet.