It starts with a contest...

For me, it started with the right motivation; a local 'biggest loser' contest. Nothing motivates me to get out of bed and onto the elliptical on the 3rd day when I'm sore and tired more than thinking that if I quit I've just donated my entry fee to somebody else.

With the motivation hurdle out of the way, I just needed a plan.

To respect Mike's wishes, I won't mention the name of the company whose products I'm taking. However, I'm replacing two meals a day with a nutritional supplement and keeping my lunch to under 600 cals (MFP is great for this!); on top of that I'm doing 45 minutes on an elliptical every single day (with only 30 minutes the first week); and after the 3rd week picked up a heart rate monitor to make sure I was working between 65% and 75% of my heart rate reserve. Every 7th day is a fast (I call it moving day because the scale moves quite a bit after the fast!) Make no mistake - this is a starvation diet.

So with the motivation and the plan I just had to work the plan. I started at 322 lbs and 35.5% bodyfat. I lost 13.5 pounds the first week, ~9 pounds the next two weeks and not quite 6 the 4th week. I took 8 lbs off last week , but I can feel myself 'hitting the wall' - tough to keep pace all of a sudden on the elliptical. With 3 weeks left to go in the contest (and a weigh-in tonight), I'm trying to keep pace at 5 pounds a week.

A buddy was impressed enough to try the same system, but isn't doing the work (and isn't seeing the results). He's still losing weight, though.

Is that helpful?

After the contest ends I'm moving to a low-carb, higher protein, higher fat diet, adding plyometric exercises and will likely cut the cardio back to 30 minutes (but continue 7 days a week). I'll still have 50-60 pounds to go from there and expect it to take 3-5 months to come off. It's kind of sick to think I'll have lost half the weight in 2 months, then take twice as long to do the other half.

For those interested, I've been tracking body fat percentage with a less-than-perfect device, but I seem to have been averaging 60% of weekly weight loss as fat.

If you have hit a wall you need to change the plan. Increase your cardio to 2-a-days. So 45 in the morning before you eat anything and then 45 whenever you workout again. Consider adding weights. Good luck in the contest.

I've considered going to two-a-days; will make a decision based on the weigh in tonight.

I won't add weights until post-contest as it's only about total percentage of bodyweight lost - it's unhealthy, I know, but it's about total weight loss (versus fat loss or overall health). The weights come when the contest is done; then it's all about fat loss!

The update is down 69 pounds in total for the contest (Jan 5 - Mar 9) and I should know in a day or two where I placed.

Wraiythe, it was basically a starvation diet with a shake-replacing-two-meals dealie, coupled with 45 minutes a day of cardio. Highly motivated to take other peoples' money (and lose a ton of weight!)