5 months, 100 pounds. How I am an achieving my goals.

Hey everyone, I've posted 30 day and 3 month. Some reason in my head I thought 160 days was 6 months using quick math. It's not it's around 5.3 months. I've went through the write up so I'll go ahead and post this instead of doing a 6 month one. I'll share some photos then I will share what I have done to achieve this as success stories are nice to see but I've always thought.. I wonder how they did that. I will cover my exercise regiments, my eating habits, and any supplements and medicine. I still have about 60 pounds that I truly need to remove.

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Basic Info & Stats

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Stats then and now:
August 1st, 2011 (Start date of this weight loss)
BF: 41.8%
BMI: 49.2
Blood Pressure: 140-150's/70-80's

Jan. 2012
BF: 28.4% (Change of 13.4%)
BMI: 36.3 (Change of 12.9)
Blood Pressure: 100-110's/high 40-low 50's

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DIET

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I started out eating better, cut my calories and had one cheat meal a week. I knew that it would help my metabolism to do that. Then I met a fellow on this site who had good results doing a Spike Diet, I did some research on it and just over 30 days in I decided to follow that diet as it was an extreme version of what I already was doing. I spike on random days a week, once a week. I will eat around twice my BMR. This replenishes my strength, keeps my metabolism burning at a high level.

Do I eat my exercise calories? The answer to that is, if I'm hungry yes. If not, then no. I am trying to lose weight so I know there will be times I am hungry. I tell myself that isn't me being hungry as much as little guys in my stomach using a jack hammer on the fat cells ;-)

Water, I take a lot of supplements currently so I always try to be at least 15 glasses of 8 ounces a day or higher. I judge my water level by making sure I have at least 2 clear pees a day.

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Medicines & Supplements

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I was told by a Dr. that I was going to die soon since I was so large. Didn't like that, he wanted me to have a surgery. I have anxiety how it is and didn't like the idea of going under a knife for gastro. I ended up going to another Dr. He told me eat right, and started me on Phentermine. Phentermine well lets say it was good jump start for the 2 weeks I was fully on it, but it made me have wayyyy too much energy, and if you met me in real life you'd already think I have ADHD. (I don't by the way!) I cut it back to half a pill for a week then just quit taking it.. (This ticked my Dr. off, apparently you are suppose to talk to them about quitting any medicine.)

Anyways I do take a lot of supplements, they aren't needed. Supplements will not be these magical answers. They will help fill in gaps and give you other benefits if you feel you want to use them.

I started supplements pretty light and easy.
Multi-Vitamin
Fish Oil

Here is what I currently take.

1. Multi-Vitamin w/Joint Support - I usually use one called Orange Triad, but I have used others.
2. Fish Oil - Triple Strength - I like Spring Valley, cheap and effective
3. Organ Shield - Just a mixture of Saw Palmetto, ALA, NAC, and Quercetin Dihydrate. (Helps with Heart, Liver, and other organs. I don't have a gal bladder and had a fatty liver.)
4. DAA - D-Aspartic-Acid - This is a testosterone booster.
5. TestoPro - A testosterone booster that stacks with DAA.
6. Protein Powder - helps keep my Protein Macros in check. I go for high protein, low carb blends.
7. BCAA's - I train in a fasted state which means that BCAA's give me the Amino Acids my muscles need for faster recovery.
8. 3z - An herbal sleep pill.
9. LCLT - has various uses, helps DAA be more effective.
10. Erase Pro - Anti Estrogen helps as fat is high in estrogen.

That sounds like a lot, and it is. I am taking 4,5,9, 10 as a stack just to see if I'll see any results. Again I don't think these are necessary by any means. Supplements are to help you but will never achieve the glory for you.

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Exercise

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When I started out I was strictly low impact cardio. At 380 pounds you aren't in much shape to do HIT or ultra heavy lifting. I wanted to take the safe and easy path to start. Let my body get used to the shock it was about to receive. I did a lot of walking and biking. The elliptical was the evil machine from hell, couldn't do but a mere 5 minutes on it.

About 30 days in I was happy with what I had done and decided to ramp it up. I knew to reach my goal I was going to have to lift, I started a modified lifting schedule of the 5X5 system. I lift EOD (Every other day) and average day consists of:

BenchPress 7 sets of 5 reps
Tricep Pulldowns 5 sets of 10 reps
Barbell row 7 sets of 5 reps
Single Dumbell Row 7 sets of 5 reps
Squat 4 sets of 5 reps
Deadlift 2 sets of 5 reps
Curls 7 sets of 5 reps
Standing Leg pull backs 7 sets of 5 reps
Suitcase Dead Lift: 5 sets of 5 reps
Flat Dumbell Skull Crusher: 5 sets of 5 reps

So my current schedule goes like this.
Day 1. Lift and 45 minutes Cardio
Day 2. 1 hour - 1.5 hour Cardio
Day 3. Lift and 45 minutes Cardio
Day 4. 1 hour - 1.5 hour Cardio
At this point I judge how my body is feeling, If I'm sore and have Delayed Muscle Sorness I'll sometimes take a rest day. Other wise I keep going til my spike day and I rest on that day. In this case I'll probably be feeling a little soreness but okay on average so I'd continue like..
Day 5. Lift and 45 minutes Cardio
Day 6. Spike Day and rest.
Day 7. Lift and 45 minutes Cardio
Day 8. 1 hour - 1.5 hour Cardio
and etc..and so on.

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Special Note - FAT BURNERS and Weight Loss Pills

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Many people think fat burners and so forth are a great way to increase the weight loss they are having. The supplemental weight loss pills that you see in the stores are not designed for that. They are designed for someone who is healthy at say around 12-13% body fat who is trying to drop into the 10 or sub 10% body fat levels. Please, please, do not try to take them early one. It is hard on your heart, as 9 times out of 10 they are going to be stimmed. Meaning they will increase your heart rate, this will in turn pose a small danger with Cardio, especially if you are out of shape.

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Pre-Workout Supplements

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I admit it, I love my preworkout supplements but I haven't taken one for almost a month. A pre-workout supplement is not really something you want to get addicted to though. They again are usually stimmed, they will give you great pumps and energy to lift but again can keep that heart rate pretty high during cardio. If you absolutely have to have a pre-workout to get motivated for the gym there are some good non-stimmed ones that are definitely worth looking into. I will say the stimmed pre-workouts can be addicting in that you will feel like you have to have them to have a good work out. It took me a couple weeks to get to where I felt like I could get a good workout without them.

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Closing

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I know this is long but I hope this success story in progress can help someone, I wanted to go beyond just sharing some pictures, I wanted to share info. Thank you to all who took time to read this! This is not a how to for everyone. This is just how I'm doing it. You have to find what works for you. I just want to provide you with information that I've learned and my opinions and views on what has worked for me.

YOU CAN DO IT! WE CAN ALL ACHIEVE. I leave you with a quote that seemed to go over well on my news feed yesterday when I posted it.

“Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the truth, bending over backwards, lying down on the job, sidestepping responsibility and pushing their luck.” ~Anonymous

GET OUT THERE AND MOVE IT PEOPLE! 2012 is OUR YEAR!