Morbidly obese need help!

Hiawassee88 wrote: »

@springlering62 and @JBanx2

I have a question for you, but maybe I should ask it over at the flophouse. Why not ask it here.


It takes so long to undo what extra weight does to the body. It's virtually painless going on and painful coming off. The hard work and all of the effort, I know it's so worth it for you @springlering62

During the difficult days and the months, what kept you going? There's something that we don't talk about very much, but there is a small amount of hunger involved with weight loss. It may not be much, but there are days when some hunger is there.

I SWEAR when I first read/responded, I only saw the first line, hence the chop house remark! My bad! OK, pull up a chair, as this could get long-winded...

I've been overweight (over-fat), but never WAY over fat). I'm drawing the distinction between the two because right now, I'm overweight by medical standards (BMI), and I've been right at obese. Right now I'm definitely not overweight due to excess adipose tissue; I carry a lot more muscle mass than most women (TBH, more than most people, male or female) of my height. That said, I have been chubby a couple times in my life, including once where my mother not-so-tactfully made remarks about me needing to lose weight...ahhhhh...yes....family...gotta love them (even if you don't really like them)?

But as far as what kept me going on the HARD days, the GRIND days, the days where I was DIGGING? When I was in prep - whether for shows or photoshoot or whatever, I had that "keep your eye on the prize" thing. In prep, at some point along the way, every morning I'd sharpie the back of my hand with how many days out I was. "THIS is how much longer..." and I KNEW that yeah, after that, I could ease up - not go completely hog wild and inhale everything in sight indefinitely, but that I was working toward a VERY specific goal, and once I achieved that, I could let my foot off the gas, coast a little bit, get a little comfortable, and be good.

I made meal prep, or at least the foods that I did prep, to be something I enjoyed. I planned them out - at a certain point I had to forgo more calorie-dense sources of protein (LOTS of chicken, tilapia, etc...), but picking my meats, picking my veggies, "theme-ing" big batches (eg, a spicy Thai-style noodle dish), finding flavor combos that I like. A good deal of research backs up incorporating more bland foods due to satiety reasons, but that's just one area where I personally kinda buck the "say-so" and do what works for me. When I got hungrier, I incorporated more volume foods like cauli rice, shiritaki noodles, etc. I drank a lot of diet sodas and flavored waters and chewed boatloads of gum. I had strategies up my sleeve that mitigated (but never nullified) the suck. When I absolutely bottomed out my calories toward the end of prep, I was going to bed hungry every night, waking up hungry every morning. I was never full. I would eat a meal and still be hungry, just LESS hungry than I had been 5 minutes prior. And you don't even wanna talk about "hangry"!

Contest prep truly is controlled starvation. Women experience the female athlete triad - loss of menstrual cycles, loss of bone density, massive hormonal shifts. Men also can tank their testosterone - many (natural; guys on gear are a different story) male bodybuilders won't be able to get an erection toward the end; when you are literally starving, your body isn't gonna allow you to try to procreate. Coaches (for both M & F) will have you track libido.

Photoshoot prep didn't get that extreme - I got down to approx 3 weeks out condition; I was digging and it sucked but...there's a goal on the horizon.

Obviously now I'm not in a deficit like that; I'm in maintenance. I hang out in a fairly comfortable range - I am able to indulge (pizza last night when kiddo had friends spend the night, donuts this morning afterwards, a beer with homemade cottage pie for dinner tonight), but within moderation. I meal prepped this morning, for every meal I'll eat at work this week, still loads of veggies and lean meats (but a couple days with some fattier salmon), but also some grains (rice, quinoa) and sweet potatoes etc. I continue to track, although not super-strict. I do a lot of eyeballing. Some days I may be a smidgen over, but it all balances out in the end. I train hard and I know that I "can't out train a bad diet" of course, but I lift hard and heavy (but smart - I base my training on scientific principles and do my best to program intelligently) and the additional muscle I carry is beneficial in multiple ways in that regard.

I'm not really sure that answered your question or if I just kind of went on some sort of random wordy romp through my brain (uh, did I mention beer tonight?), so if I went in completely the wrong direction from what you were looking for, gimme a poke and I'll see if I can steer it back...

@Bittertraaman Find a swimming pool. If you don't know how to swim, walk around in shallow end. Hang onto the sides and kick your legs. Use floatation boards, one under each arm and move across the pool. Get your momentum going and when you finish in the pool, you will feel so much better. Water is good medicine. Relax in the hot pool.

100% yes. I started swimming back in Feb cause I was too big to do anything else. It's September 14 and I'm now running