I weigh every morning, but I also like to use Saturdays as my point of reference. It helps that I started all of this on a Saturday

This morning I weighed in at 288.6. I'm in the 280s now for the first time in 6 years. As an interesting point - when we first bought this house, just over 7 years ago, we bought a new bathroom scale. We still have it, and it still has my initial weigh-in in memory: 306 lb. I no longer use that scale for my "official" number since we now have a fitbit scale (auto-sync ftw)... but occasionaly I'll break it out and see what it reads. This morning it said 285

A year ago (July 2012), after returning from a week of company-paid training which included drinking, eating, and generally feasting on the company dime, I weighed in at just barely under 350. I had never seen that number on the scale before, ever... I decided then that I had to do something. I didn't count calories or use MFP or anything, I just watched my portion size, cut out some obviously nonsense foods, and made sure I was more active. From July to January, I lost about 50 lbs, getting down to 297 on the old scale.

The weather got cold, outside got less fun, and I lost the motivation to eat well. My fault, to be sure... but it happened.

I started my MFP journey the week after my wife's birthday, after being very shocked by how I looked in some photos taken on that occasion. I hadn't weighed in a while, and didn't realize that from January to July 2013 I had put 23 lbs back on. The photos made me go buy a new scale (the fitbit one) and join a gym. This time I'm serious about it. Since July 27, I've dropped 31 lbs. That's 50 days. Logging all my food and exercise has added a level of accountability to the sensible methods I already knew. Discussions with some really intelligent and knowledgeable people (they're in there, you just have to dig) on the MFP boards have helped me discover new things about how the body works and how to optimize my fat loss without sacrificing muscle. I'm really lifting again for the first time since I was a teenager, and I'm getting stronger. I'm walking, hiking, and running close to 30 miles per week and I expect that number to keep climbing. I bought a few XXLT shirts as soon as I could fit back into that size... and I can tell that soon I'll have to replace them with XLT. That will be an exciting day for me

I'm down 7 for the week. Scale was 414.5 this morning. Goal is 399 by Oct 1st..

Keep it up Nate! I have hit a stall, but I am making serious linear progression in all my lifts and my clothes are still falling off. My scale isn't moving, but the measuring tape is showing great progress. Great work everyone, let's keep the progress up even though winter is coming and hibernation mode is usually killer for me.

Down to 303 as of this morning! Finally broke that 305 plateau that I'd been on for 2 months. Also pressed 230lbs for reps on bench, and today I was squatting 400lbs for reps. Feels good man. I already picked out the gym next to my vacation house for next week. I head to Myrtle Beach with the wife and some good friends for a week of relaxing. Thankfully, there is a gym around the corner from the house we are staying at, and it's only $5 a day to work out all day. So I can go 3-4 times for my morning workouts before any one else is awake for about $20. Looking forward to not screwing up my progress on my vacation!

I am going to maintain my workouts for the duration of my vacation next week, but I am not going to restrict my diet. I will make smart choices, but I will drink and eat what I want, when I want. Consider it my re-feed. I'm looking forward to some nice coastal seafood and good southern BBQ.

alcohol is a diuretic

I started this thing on the last hole in my belt. Then after a lbs I was on the second one. Then the third. Today I noticed my belt was loose and figured I must have accidentally gone back to the second.. tightened it.. 4th hole, beeches. feel it.

edit: fwiw, I tried the "fe-feed / cheat day" thing for a couple days last weekend. I gained like 3 lbs and it took all week to get it back off. I'm back under 290, but damn... it was not worth it.

edit: fwiw, I tried the "fe-feed / cheat day" thing for a couple days last weekend. I gained like 3 lbs and it took all week to get it back off. I'm back under 290, but damn... it was not worth it.

3 lbs in a couple of days? Seems like water weight to me but it's discouraging nonetheless... And certainly not doable on a weekly basis if it takes the rest of the week to get back to the pre-refeed weight.

I was thinking about taking a diet break or at least introduce some refeed days but maybe it's better to keep going until goal weight and only then deal with the metabolic adaptation by eating at TDEE for a while. Any thoughts on that?

BTW to stay on topic: I lost 3 lbs this week.

being a type 2 diabetic I recently went to my doctor for my checkup and was taken off all medication. Thats unbelievable, still can't comprehend the fact that I no longer have to take meds every morning.

That is incredible! Congratulations, really.

I like this thread - I think I'll join in!

First "update" - let's just call this the baseline.

Got tired of being "afraid" of the barbell on my heavy squats this week - I'm still relatively new at the whole powerlifting thing, and just the idea of failing under a lift is enough to psyche me out on the high numbers. 500 lbs? No problem. Don't need spotters. I've maxed out at 615 months ago, but ever since then, anything near 600 intimidated me. I had to spend 5 minutes or more just working up to doing the lift.

So yesterday, I go for some lockout squats (about a 5-6" lift to lockout, then held for a five count) just to get the idea in my head of "it ain't that heavy". Just started piling on plates after my normal set, and pushed until either I couldn't lift the weight, or I ran out of room on the bar.

Ran out of room one the bar at 885, and I think I had another good, strong push waiting - so next time, I'm going to use the 100 lb plates to push it up to a full 1000. The next time I look at 600 lbs, there's going to be that little voice - instead of "you sure you can do that?" it's gonna be "this ain't even close to half a ton - you got this, buddy!".

Mind over matter, that's all it is.

I do mean squats. I'm new to powerlifting, but I've got 9 years of highland games and 5 years of kung fu under my belt. Caber tossing translates well to the squat form, and martial arts gave me a solid core.

I'm also a fairly solid 370 lbs. 2x bodyweight squat is my goal - either I'm going to lose the weight or just get stronger.

Note that I was just doing lockout squats - I wouldn't even call them quarter squats. Just getting it up a few inches off the rack and holding it just to say I could do it. I'm going to do my attempt at 1000 and have someone take a picture. Once I get the picture, I'm going to print it out, and use it as my pre-workout psych up. Just the sight of that bar bending is enough to get you ready for anything!