I went from morbidly obese to 6 pack abs! Ask me Anything

Big fan of this thread, I actually created a word document to save the big points to refer back to later on. If anyone is interested, feel free to see the below summary of Vismal's answers.

Toning: Toning doesn't exist. You cannot tone a muscle. Muscles can do 2 things, get bigger or get smaller. The toned look is achieved by having a moderate muscular base with low body fat. Having a dumbbell/barbell routine is recommended.

Loose Skin As for loose skin, sometimes there's no way to prevent it. It will get better with time. Its 10x better/healthier to have loose skin and be fit then be fat IMO. The 2 biggest things that help with lose skin are lifting to preserve/gain lean mass, and time. Vismal from MFP noted that his skin is almost completely recovered at this point in his weight loss with some noted loose skin noticeable when doing push-ups.

Eating Clean Myth Totally false. First off "clean" is a very subjective term. One cannot even adequately define it. Total calories and macro nutrients determine results, not cleanliness of diet. I eat cookies, ice cream, bacon, etc EVERY DAY! Now I'm not saying eat nothing but pop tarts and meet your calorie goal, you must still get in adequate micro nutrients and fiber from things like fruits and vegetables but restricting foods is not a good idea, especially if you love that food. You must learn to eat what you love in moderation.

Eating Multiple Smaller Meals Myth: Eating multiple small meals a day rev's the metabolism and helps burn fat. NOT TRUE! There is no scientific data to support this notion at all. In fact, there is plenty of data to disprove this. Total calories for the day/week make the difference, not total number of meals.

Working Out and Slow Gains: You just have to get used to the idea of making very slow gains. I know it's not super thrilling to spend a month adding 5lbs to your squat. Sometimes in a cut I have to be happy with simply not losing strength. I look at lifting as an ends to a means. As long as I look and feel great, the number on the bar is basically irrelevant.

Weight Lifting Halt weight Loss Myth: No. Weight lifting does not halt weight loss. That's kind a rumor. People think they start gaining muscle rapidly when they lift and it's why the scale stalls. That's not true at all. Gaining muscle is hard and takes time. If you stop losing weight, 9 times out of 10 it's because you are eating too much.

Maintain Muscles: If your goal is to lose fat you simply need to track everything you eat, and reduce calories when weight loss stalls. I would lift heavy weights to help maintain muscle as you lose the weight. That's all you need to do!

Spot Reduction Myth: Nothing you can do to spot reduce. You must just keep losing fat and it will eventually come off from your stomach.

Starvation Mode: Starvation mode is basically pseudoscience. There is very little scientific research to support it. It takes eating an extremely low amount of calories for an extremely long amount of time for the adaptations you are talking about to occur.

Gaining Muscle and losing fat (at the same time): To answer all the people asking about gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time. First lets start by saying fat will not be lost unless a caloric deficit is present (eat less then you burn in a day). Muscle generally isn't built without a caloric surplus (eat more then you burn in a day). For most people you simply will not be able to do both. Some select groups of people can gain a little bit of muscle while losing fat but it's not massive and its not for a long period of time. Newbies to weight lifting will do it for a short while, the obese can do it as well, but know that not a ton of mass will be gained. Teenagers can accomplish better then most people. People who take PEDs can do it as well.

All that being said, no matter what you goal is, YOU SHOULD LIFT! When in a caloric deficit the body must burn something for fuel. It can burn fat, glycogen, muscle, etc. If you lift weights and get in adequate protein, you give the body much less of a reason to burn muscle. This is why the obese should lift. When you are losing all the weight, some of it will be lean mass. If you lift, much less of it will be lean mass then if you don't. You will look better when the weight is off if you lifted throughout the process. Trust me on this.

Heavy Lifting: As far as getting into lifting. When I use the term "heavy lifting" it's relative. I consider heavy lifting to be lifting in a lower rep range like a 5x5. The number on the bar to start isn't important so long as that number increases over time. Don't try and lift more than you can, but lift enough that you are sufficiently worked.

Don't eat in or around bedtime Myth: Total net caloric intake for the day is what matters, not timing. Nutrient timing is of VERY LITTLE IMPORTANCE

Skipping breakfast causes weight gain Myth: Skipping breakfast causes weight gain. Again it's totals for the day not timing! Eat when you want.

Supplements: Most supps are expensive garbage! I take a cheap multivitamin, an additional 5000 units of vitamin D, 1 triple strength fish oil tab, and creatine monohydrate. That is all you need. I do not consider protein bars/powders to be supplements. I treat them as food. That's all they are. The protein in powders and bars is no better or worse than the protein in chicken, beef, dairy, etc. Dollar per gram whey is probably the cheapest way to get in protein. If you have trouble eating enough protein in your diet, whey is a good option. If you can hit your protein goals without it, that's fine too. Don't spend tons of money on supplements! They account for <1% of total results

Thoughts on diet pills: I have tried several in the past (Hydroxycut, ephedrine, VPX meltdown, etc). Here's my theory on them. They don't actually burn fat. They blunt appetite and give you energy. If taking the pill allows you to eat less then I guess it "works". I have reached a point where hunger is no longer relevant to me. Hunger does not sway me or cause me to break. It's just a feeling, it's temporary, and if your goals are big, its sometimes necessary. Because these pills are mostly unregulated by the fda I will not recommend any of them, and I'd speak with a doctor before taking one.