Someone asked for big men...

Someone asked for success stories of big men, because apparently there are "too many" women on here... :laugh:

I've published part of this before, but in a closed group where only group members could comment. So here we are, with a few updates and things.

This WAS me. I barely recognise myself in those pictures these days. Living in that body, I always felt as thin as I am now. I felt lost in all that flab. And when I first reached my target weight in December last year, I was quite angry at a few people for a while for never telling me that I was THIS BIG.


The pics below are from December 2011 to January 2012.



I'm a German guy who's been living in South Wales, UK since 2007 now. My weight loss journey started in March 2009, after my GP gave me a military style dressing down when I approached him for help with my severe back pain. He bluntly told me to lose weight as the only help he could offer me was this advice and pain killers.

So after grumbling for a night, I decided that he was right and went for it. First thing I cut out was my usual 1.5 to 3 liters of full sugar Coca Cola. That made the 1st stone (14 pounds) difference within the first 4 weeks. I've gone slowly, but steady since then.

I haven't been on any diet as such. I've done lots of research online and took nutrition advice from different sources. Just combined what I liked the most and it worked. Healthy eating and moderate exercise for the start. I started with walking, cycling and swimming and added time and distance to that.

In October 2010 I joined Slimming World , after having lost 4.5 stone on my own. In November 2011 I finally reached my initial target of 14 stone 13 pounds. Just after Christmas 2011 I reached my new target of 14 stone 3 pounds. (Actually a pound under that.) I could lose a further stone to reach my ideal BMI .... But with a current body fat percentage of 11.4 % (last checked mid February 2012, so could be even lower now), my Personal Trainer told me not to worry about BMI, as it is outdated anyway. I would have to lose muscle mass to get to my "ideal weight". No thank you!

Ever since reaching this lower target, I've been around that weight, changing by 1 to 3 pounds above or under it. So ideal maintenance really. Body fat has dropped by 1 % on a monthly basis from 14.8 % in December 2011 to 11.4 % in February 2012.

Some facts about clothing sizes

I used to wear 54 inch jeans and trousers from specialist stores. NOW 31 inch waist, but jeans are all between 30 and 33 inch waist, some of them are starting to be too big yet again.

I also used to wear XXX to XXXXL shirts and other tops. NOW tops are mostly S or M

=====

So the rest of 2012 I'm not working on losing more fat and gaining muscle, whilst sculpting the body of my dreams. The maintenance and sculpting challenge is on. Come on Summer 2012!

And now even the lower outer obligues (aka Adonis Belt) are starting to show, so some of the "sculpting" is working greatly. (March 2012)