Reached my goal! Lost 50 lbs w/ pics.

I have confession, I have been a vampire here. Sucking up everyone's success stories and at least believing that others are working on the same journey that I wanted to follow. I believed that if some random person lost weight, so could I.



Well I did it!!! As a dude, I now weigh 175lbs on my 6'1" frame. My pants went from 38" to 33" and my shirts went from XL to M. In fact, I currently weigh less than I did in high school, which is awesome!



So a little background before we get to the good stuff...

From a little after eighteen years old, on I have been overweight. It wasn't bad in high school because I started my freshman year at 165 lbs/6'0"and graduated at 195 lbs/6'1". I figured that I put the weight on as I put time in the gym, lifting weights and working out for sports. I felt okay, I wish I could lift more and was self-conscious of this. As a whole, I was relatively lean to the rest of my teammates, but girls would talk to me, so I must have been doing something right. So obviously, it made sense to me at the time, that once football was done, my time in the gym was done because I no longer would have to feel self-conscious of my body relative to my peers. Which, at the time, was awesome; I had free time, deluxe. Things were looking great. I eventually went onto college and that is where the weight began to creep in. I had traded working out for nacho nights w/ $.25 taps. By the time I graduated college, I was 215 lbs. I thought that wasn't too bad. I had a great social life and my academics where in the A-/B+ range. So gaining 20 lbs. wasn't so bad, right? Besides, I was networking with my peers!

The world of work set in and I went from 215 to 230ish. NOT cool. How did I get like this? I didn't like how I looked, when I thought I looked good in a picture, the picture would come back awful, when I thought I looked okay, I felt like a rock star because the second chin was not as visible. I couldn't figure out where I went wrong, I bought exercise equipment and joined gyms; I didn't necessarily use any of these resources consistently, nor longer than 2 months, but they were there. I actually did have a spot of relief because my I didn't own a scale, so I wouldn't have to face the reality that potato chips and spaghetti had calories that actually count. Finally, I knew that, I was bringing the minimum to the table: moobs, love handles, tummy, and a second chin. Isn't that what women want?

So last November, my back went out, which prompted me to get to the Doctor. This was embarrassing because I just saw her 6 weeks prior, for a physical. The prognosis of my physical was that I was healthy, but everything was starting to move closer to unhealthy, which had me to promising the moon and the stars that I would start working on living a healthier life, but yet I did nothing. So, this time, I asked if my back had anything to do with my weight and what is the biggest correlating factor to a person's weight? She said that yes my weight probably made the problems worse and stated something that I never knew, that exercise has nothing to do with weight. She said that recent research indicated that calories consumed is the biggest indicator of maintaining a healthy weight. She also added and emphasize that exercise is very important in overall health, but it alone has no correlation with a person's weight. I was floored.

So, I signed up for MFP, the day before Thanksgiving. I didn't know what to expect, but I figured that anything that makes it easier to track calories is good and I don't want to do a 'diet'. I want to eat and be happy, but I had tracked calories by myself and found it to be a lot of work. This website makes that part easy because I just have to use a search engine and count what I eat. The hard part was sticking to the calorie guideline. MFP showed me the positive correlation that if I exercise, I get more calories. I like eating food.

Finally, after seeing the initial weight come off, I set the goal that once I would get to 200 lbs. I would start running because I used to years ago and missed it a lot. As of today, I have completed 3-5k's, I am doing a 10k next weekend, and have signed up to run a marathon in October (which, because of my success, I am more confident in hunting down this life-long, formerly secret, goal).

So, after reading my soliloquy, here are my results:


Around 230. I liked this photo because it minimized the chin.


Florida vacation. Had lots of fun but hated this photo in particular.


Florida vacation clothes now. Sorry about the creep 'stache- It's Sunday!


Florida vacation clothes now.


Clothes that actually fit.


Thank you for your success stories! I am glad for every one that I read and feel nothing but gratitude for when others share. You all keep me inspired (especially the guy success stories).