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Hey TL, this is just about my attempt at losing weight right now. I'll put a TL;DR for you guys too if you need it. To give some background on myself: When i began in June i weighed 355 lbs, i'm about 5'11 in height, and i'm 20 years and 3 months in age. Currently my scale runs me around 321.
Of course my mom and her boyfriend say they can tell a difference but lolz parents kkthx. Still feels good to know i'm actually making progress unlike the previous times i've tried and it felt like nothing was happening.
On June 5th I visited the doctor after taking my blood pressure and it was 160/110 or something like that. My doctor put me on blood pressure medicine, Lisinopril. It's only a 5mg prescription which controls it very well and is rather small. That's really when i decide my weight was pretty out of control and i needed to work on it. I revisited him July 15th and discussed getting a prescription weight loss pill. He gave me Phentermine and it has worked good so far.
So to date i've lost about 30 pounds and i think as long as i continue on this trend i will eventually reach my goal of losing 175-200 pounds. I know thats a big goal and typically your advised to pick small goals at first to build confidence but that won't do shit for me, which is why i just assume to look at it this way. I'm 1/8 of the way there after a couple months. I figure, i keep plugging along and it'll get down there.
I've weighed 350-355 for about 3 or 4 years now. I started gaining weight when i was 12 and it's steadily built up over the years. Really what happened was my diet just went to pure hell.
At about 12 i started drinking coke, pepsi, mt. dew, etc., all the time. Never drank water or anything healthy other than fruit juice and even then thats pumped full of some bad shit to make it taste good. I ate a lot. I would eat 2-3 sandwichs a day, tons of chips, and i also ate sunflower seeds religiously for years. I would eat all the time. Looking back i know thats what my problem has been.
I've always been a fairly active person but probably intaking crazy amounts of calories and there was no way my body could burn that much in a day.
Just as a note I don't like counting calories. Since i still live with my parents it's hard to buy food thats easy to measure out. But i feel safe saying that i easily take in less than 2000 per day.
So now i've cut down how much i eat by a lot. Basically my rule now is "Don't eat unless your hungry". By hungry i mean my stomach is growling and i can tell it needs food. I usually try to force an apple down in the morning to get my metabolism started. Lunch usually consists of a grilled piece of chicken, precooked, with a shimmy of ketchup and either an apple or another fruit/vegetable like corn/carrots/broccoli. For meat or chicken i usually go by a rule of "A portion is the size of your palm." Dinner consists of the same thing or some variety of that.
I limit drinking cokes to going out, which is maybe once a week or maybe even once per 2 weeks. I primarily drink water now. On average i would say 6-7 bottles a day probably a little more. When i sit down to eat i always make sure to eat very slow and drink some water in between each bit of food. Almost always i feel full after i eat whats on my plate. Many times i can't finish it because i get full. I also try not to eat later then 8pm.
For exercise i currently walk 2 miles. 1 mile takes me about 20 minutes to walk, I stop for 4-5 minutes to catch a drink and let my legs/feet stop throbbing and then walk the next one. I run a small portion of both miles. If you ask why i don't run or jog a lot is because even before a quarter mile i'll fucking die. I do that every night around 10pm or so.
I'm just generally looking for advice from people that have lost weight and have suggestions as to what i could do to improve. A few questions that maybe you could ask yourself and tell me what you think could be:
1) Should i walk during the day? Or do some exercise during the day time? (Heat wave fucking sucks in Arkansas 114 degrees 124 what it feels like gg god)
Skin
Then as just another question i pose to people who have lost quite a bit of weight and gone through major physical changes (I'd say 100+ pound lost or more), how has your skin adapted to it? I'm pretty young which i believe helps with skin coming back to shape. I'm losing weight for health reasons yes, but obviously being 20 theres quite a few reasons why you don't wanna be 350 pounds. Losing weight over a longer period of time, i've read, helps to let your skin naturally reconfigure to what you've lost. I saw a figure of about 2 years time to let skin reform.
Are there any specific things i should do? Exercises? Lifting weights as i lose more weight?
TL;DR
-I was 355 pounds, 5'11, 20 years old in June
-On blood pressure and weight loss medication via prescription
-I am now 321 pounds 20 years and 3 months old
-I've changed my diet drastically as well as drinking tons of water
-I exercise every night by walking 2 miles with a 5 minutes break in between
-I'm looking for any advice you have on changes i should make in exercise or diet
-I'm looking to hear from someone who has lost a major amount of weight and how their skin has taken to it
That's it. Thanks for reading and thanks to anyone who posts suggestions.
The whole skin thing might seem stupid but i think it would be stupid to lose 175 pounds only to be met with bad looking flimsy skin. I would say most people that have been as overweight as i am know how it feels because hating yourself is bad!!
 
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Well the very simply broken down way for losing weight is to limit caloric intake by either eating less or burning it through exercise. (obvious I know) But you seem to have a good idea already on how to lessen caloric intake EAT LESS! and eating less of foods high in calories helps but even if you portion control that crap it wont matter. But for the important part, the exercise...try to push yourself just a little farther every single day if you can. Like if you're doing distance and you do 2 miles a day, well the next day do 2.1 miles then 2.2 etc and try to add in some variety too!
That's why people can eat so much because we have variety could you imagine getting fat just eating purely one food? It'd be pretty difficult that's why it'd be hard losing lots of weight doing 1 type of exercise you'd get bored of it. Try finding as many types of exercise as possible and throwing them in and constantly PUSHING yourself to do even a little more every day. Always feels great in the end. (I have no idea about the skin stuff)
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Great job working to get more healthy! Sounds like you have a pretty good idea of how to be feeding yourself and exercising. As you lose more weights and get more time walking you will be able to run more easily for a little longer each night. 
For the skin thing, an ex of mine lost quite a bit of weight over about 3 months by going to the gym super hardcore. Because he lost weight so fast he was left with a lot of stretch marks and lose skin in spots. It seems as though you are not losing weight super incredibly fast, but you are losing it at a good pace, so this could be a problem.
There are a couple of solutions--
Slow down your weight loss. This seems silly to me, because you might lose momentum and not reach your goal as easily. Besides this, slower weight changes will prevent stretch marks, but not do the best to prevent lose skin.
Try prevention techniques based around keeping your skin as healthy as possible: drink large amounts of water to keep your skin hydrated and elastic, use a moisturizer such as cocoa butter or vitamin E oil, and keep your skin well washed and exfoliated. Again, this will prevent stretch marks, but not necessarily lose skin.
Truthfully though, if these options do not work for you, you will want to consider a cosmetic surgery to remove the lose skin. You are younger so your body may be able to get rid of the extra skin over time. However, if this doesn't happen, and you have maintained your new weight for some time, a surgery is probably in order. In the long run this would probably help you feel better about your body and feel happier than leaving the lose skin.
GL dood! :D
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I lost about 25 kilos of weight last year so thats about 55 pounds. I did about an hour of cardio every day after class/work. Did 3 15 minute intervals of high intensity stuff so I'd be sweating then take a few minutes break and finish it with a moderately paced walk on a treadmill. In terms of diet stop drinking all sugary drinks entirely, they only taste good as you've become used to them. I stopped drinking caffeinated drinks as well but that's personal preference. High Protein low carb is a good rule but the main thing is caloric intake. You can eat skinless chicken breasts and vegetables and all that fun stuff but if you're eating 4000 calories of it every day you won't lose any weight.
GL to you, also check out the TL health and fitness thread.
In terms of skin I had some stretch marks back when I was fatter. They disappeared as I lost weight and I haven't noticed any messed up skin.
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5'8, went from 200->145 in like 7 months a while back
Make sure you're eating the right amount. Counting cals is a useful skill, just look at some pictures of different mealsizes and you'll develop a feel for it. You might be undereating right now.
Walking is healthy, and you should continue doing it, but imo it won't affect your weight loss much.
Start lifting.
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Hi and good luck in your endeavour! I think you can profit a lot from going through a hard process, such as changing for lifestyle for good and overcoming the hardships that come with it. Apart from the obvious gains from weight loss, it can strenghten your will power and work ethic a lot. I suggest that you start a diary to log your food intake, sports activivity, how much you actually weigh, maybe sleep pattern too. I do this right now and it helps me control how much I eat. Also, I can look back and see if I have improved and how. I also log how much I learn and work each day. I think it's a good method to improve myself or at least to see if I have improved.
My rule of thumb is similar to yours: only eat if you are hungry and till you are full. Never "overeat". I also drink a lot of water, although I've never had problems with that.
Remember to improve! Work up those walking miles and when it's getting too long and boring, include some jogging. I wish that you experience the great feeling of having done everything you could and call it a day. I think I've read iloveoov say something like this: "I have no worries, because when I go to bed at night, I know I have done everything to win."
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Right now I think you are absolutely on the right track. The most important thing that you can do is to try and watch your caloric intake as much as possible and mix it with varying intensity cardio. However, make sure that you are not doing so at an expense of things like protein. Chicken is the best meat source (imo) for staying healthy while losing weight, the only thing to make sure to watch is your cholesterol intake. You'll probably average 20% DV of cholesterol in a 4oz piece of chicken, so just make sure that number is staying within the Daily Value range for all of your meals.
I'd recommend completely cutting all sodas/sugary drinks from your diet. Never drink calories--if you're trying to limit calories per day, you just end up cheating yourself. In addition, and this is up to enormous amounts of debate in the nutrition world, HFCS can allegedly stimulate hunger and is believed by many to be a contributing reason for obesity. Get rid of everything! Also, avoid sports drinks at all costs. 32 ounces of Gatorade sneaks in 200 calories and over 50g of sugar--water and a banana is all you need to refuel.
As for the exercise, I'd try mixing things up with what you are doing. Instead of doing the same thing every day (and your body eventually building a tolerance to it), try mixing up the intensity at which you are walking/jogging/running. You can vary the distance accordingly so long as you get your heart rate up. Try something like: walk a very long distance one day at a smooth pace, walk a shorter distance but mix in some jogging the next day, then mix in running as fast as you can for as long as you can followed by slow walking the next day. Variety is always good here, and it'll break up the monotony.
I'm not sure weightlifting is going to have the kind of effect you are looking for right now, so I would hold off on doing any lifting until you shed some more weight.
GLHF!
EDIT: If you can eat tofu (some people hate it), its nutritional value as a meat alternative is mind bogglingly good.
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Go to the Teamliquid Health and Fitness Initiative, ask Eschlow for advice, he knows everything about this stuff. Being TL we get people like you a lot, and just about always they lose weight FAST, and the healthy way.
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On August 04 2011 18:16 benjammin wrote:
As for the exercise, I'd try mixing things up with what you are doing. Instead of doing the same thing every day (and your body eventually building a tolerance to it), try mixing up the intensity at which you are walking/jogging/running. You can vary the distance accordingly so long as you get your heart rate up. Try something like: walk a very long distance one day at a smooth pace, walk a shorter distance but mix in some jogging the next day, then mix in running as fast as you can for as long as you can followed by slow walking the next day. Variety is always good here, and it'll break up the monotony.
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Comming from someone that has lost 120 pounds (roughly), that isn't the way of doing it. Doing the same thing every single day when it comes to just walking/running/cycling is good. It forces a habit on you, you do it the same time every day, the same stretch every day and you can put up nodes that you run between if you wish but they need to be the same every single day. People get fat for all kinds of reasons but if you want to get thiner and stay that way you have to get habits because nobody has the kind of motivation to keep it new and fresh every day, somedays you'll feel like you would never ever want to run again, but if the habit is there you do it anyways, just like you brush your teeth or go to work.
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I very rarely rate blog posts a 5, but because I love what you are doing purely for yourself, I want to encourage you to keep up the trend that you are on. I absolutely love hearing stories about people doing good things in their lives, there is no purer form of good than doing well for oneself.
I've never had to lose a significant amount of weight myself; I was 30 pounds overweight when I was 9 and I lost it all and have never been more than about 15 pounds overweight since then. I'm 6' 2", 23, 205 lbs and I consider that to be about 10-15 obs overweight, although my weight has gone up recently as a result of working out. I'm in good shape but without significant abs, and I bet cardio is all I need to get them.
The most important thing you need to remember throughout this challenge is to learn to simply not eat crap. I don't mean starve yourself; I mean learn to recognize when you're picking up unhealthy food or drink and learn to reject it and put it down. I constantly catch myself looking for a snack in my mother's snack cupboard (containing every delicious snack you could imagine; my mom is an asshole that way). You just have to realize what you're doing and get a glass of water instead.
Cut out any excess snacking. I limit myself to one or two glasses of sugary juice per night, and drink water any other time besides dinner, when I drink milk, or pop & wine on pasta night. I snack slightly at work (a couple cookies and an orange per day), and have at most one snack per night. If I were to cut those things out I'd probably lose the additional 10 pounds.
You're at a weight now that pretty much any exercise will cause you to lose weight. If you want to really maximize your improvements, I'd suggest starting weights once you're down to about 300 lbs. Start slow, but ramp up your weights every other week and you'll notice significant improvements. Healthy young men at our age will absolutely bounce back once we start weights. I notice it every time I begin working out.
Keep up the good work, and remember, be disciplined.
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I like this story.
I'm glad you mentioned you stopped drinking Sodas on a regular basis. Soft drinks are the number 1 cause for weight gain, the main reason behind it is you are drinking calories on top of eating you're meal. Basically adding extra sugar to you're blood stream. The body just takes that sugar turns it into fat because it's the easiest response.
Exercise is the other key component to losing weight, the easiest way to know how much to exercise is to frequently exercise, and judge how much you can handle by what you're body is capable of.
But you seem to have all the right ideas in mind, eating fruits will help your organs, and no not exercise in the sun. The body dispenses energy to keep itself cool, and in my opinion, weight loss is greatly affected by you're muscles burning energy.
So during the day you will have a harder time working out because of the sun, where as at night you're body will have more energy to burn.
The previous poster also suggested weights. That is another great way to adapt you're body to burning more calories.
The more muscles you use the more you're body will adapt to exercise and in turn burn more fat easier and faster.
Another tip I would recommend, in a few months of weeks when you feel like you have starting making good progress. Have a work out and intake a protein shake.
The main reason is that protein helps muscles rebuild stronger. But this only really works if you get you're muscles to that point of tissue ripping (when you're destroyed)
Another tip, if you work at night, eat fruits and variety is helpful. The main reason why fruits are great after work outs is the many anti-oxidants you ingest. All of which help you clear you're lactic acid buildup.
The other tip about eating fruits is generally if eating them raw, and on an empty stomach is the most efficient way of consuming the good stuff from them.
But Overall I wish you good luck
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Good luck with your goal! From what I've heard, at least, you seem to be doing a lot of the right things -- making sure to drink enough water, avoiding snacks/soft drinks, not eating too late at night, etc. I just started a weight loss regimen of my own -- 181 to 174 lbs in 3 weeks, although they say the initial loss comes the easiest. For my own diet, in addition to eating mainly vegetables and meat, I also try to avoid processed carbohydrates like rice and pasta (or at least eat black rice/whole-wheat pasta instead). I also try to eat breakfast (usually 2 eggs + greek yogurt/fruit) which helps me stay less hungry throughout the day (pre-lunch hunger headaches were the worst when I used to skip breakfast). I've heard anecdotally that taking one day per week to ignore your dieting rules helps keep your metabolism up (as well as your morale), but take it with a grain of salt.
Exercise like walking or swimming are fine. I'm not sure about weight lifting though. I've been doing a bit of HIIT because I don't want to feel like I'm wasting away as I lose weight, but know that it is typically harder to build muscle while losing weight.
Again, good luck!
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You are definitely on the right track. I lost a lot of weight in grade 11, and it was really easy because I just stopped drinking pop (from usually 5 cans a day).
Try getting your calories from non-processed food (if men made it, don't eat it), it will make dieting a lot easier. Exercises will always help, but from a pure weight-loss point of view, it's largely what you take in that matters.
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Thanks for all the words of encouragement guys. It helps a lot to see them! I'll continue to work and improve my diet and exercise. I usually try to play some basketball before i do my walking which for me gets my heart rate up and really starts the sweating.
Probably start lifting a little weight soon. My college has a weight room thats accessible so i'll start working out there too. Glad i took that physical fitness class last year, taught me a lot about that stuff.
Once again I just want to say thanks to everyone <3 helps me a lot!
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Good job man very proud of you and dont stop doing it because every day you feel more and more alive anyway some advice from my personal experience below:
You should eat 4-6 meals a day every 3-4 hours.
Your first meal should have some protein to start you off strong in the morning and something light in the evening.
Do not eat at night.
Drink ONLY water and milk , just trust me on this one.
Do 30min of cardio a day , walking is a good start maybe try running after a few weeks for example run 1min walk 2min.
Lift weights for 30min every 2nd day. It will increase your metabolism for 24 hours and you will burn even more calories.
And last but not least do not skip meals or eat less because thats the stupid part about our system if you dont get enough calories a day your body will go into starving mode and its gonna start to store fat and you will lose weight very slowly.
So eat those meals every 3-4 hours and look that they are not to small and obviously not to large.
I am currently as well trying to lose 5kg (10 pounds) after losing 19kg and i pretty much do the things above i said.
Good luck to you man and i hope you get your dream weight.
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You're on a great plan, just keep it up! Out of every piece of advice people give you, just remember calories in < calories out = weight loss. The body then finds a way to make calories in match calories out... fat! :D Sorry to say but counting calories is really the most useful way to stay within bounds on consumption. Keep the calorie intake down and keep the cardio up. Walking is absolutely great, it's the safest exercise in terms of avoiding injury. Only start to run when you know your body can take the strain. Don't go exercizing in the middle of the day, you gain nothing besides sweating away more water and putting yourself in greater danger of dehydration.
Remember what your goals. Keep them burning in your head so they don't escape. When you think about maybe walking that extra quarter mile, think about your goals and how every step you take brings to closer to what you want.
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On August 04 2011 19:54 Hynda wrote:Show nested quote +On August 04 2011 18:16 benjammin wrote:
As for the exercise, I'd try mixing things up with what you are doing. Instead of doing the same thing every day (and your body eventually building a tolerance to it), try mixing up the intensity at which you are walking/jogging/running. You can vary the distance accordingly so long as you get your heart rate up. Try something like: walk a very long distance one day at a smooth pace, walk a shorter distance but mix in some jogging the next day, then mix in running as fast as you can for as long as you can followed by slow walking the next day. Variety is always good here, and it'll break up the monotony.
. Comming from someone that has lost 120 pounds (roughly), that isn't the way of doing it. Doing the same thing every single day when it comes to just walking/running/cycling is good. It forces a habit on you, you do it the same time every day, the same stretch every day and you can put up nodes that you run between if you wish but they need to be the same every single day. People get fat for all kinds of reasons but if you want to get thiner and stay that way you have to get habits because nobody has the kind of motivation to keep it new and fresh every day, somedays you'll feel like you would never ever want to run again, but if the habit is there you do it anyways, just like you brush your teeth or go to work.
I don't want to start an argument here, but I think this advice is wrong. The assumption already is that you are doing something every day, so developing the habit of exercising didn't really seem to be in question here. The key to weight loss is targeting various heart rate zones, and the only easy way to do that is to vary the intensity of the cardio you are doing. Doing short sprints will get your heart rate way up very quickly and very high; walking long distances will get your heart rate up slowly and to a lower number. I'm not alone in this opinion: http://exercise.about.com/od/weightloss/a/burningfat_2.htm
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On August 05 2011 03:12 Engore wrote:
Thanks for all the words of encouragement guys. It helps a lot to see them! I'll continue to work and improve my diet and exercise. I usually try to play some basketball before i do my walking which for me gets my heart rate up and really starts the sweating.
Probably start lifting a little weight soon. My college has a weight room thats accessible so i'll start working out there too. Glad i took that physical fitness class last year, taught me a lot about that stuff.
Once again I just want to say thanks to everyone <3 helps me a lot!
I was afraid to impose on you, but now that you said it yourself:
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On August 05 2011 04:03 Knap4life wrote:
You should eat 4-6 meals a day every 3-4 hours
If you are referring to the "eating more increases your metabolism" stuff -- that is a myth.
Metabolism increases based on calorie and macronutrient intake. If you eat the same amount over the course of 3 meals as you do 6, your metabolism will be affected the same.
You gave a lot of sound advice, but I felt the need to point out this small flaw.
It is a common myth that somehow still persists to this day, and I understand why some people believe it, but it isn't true.
EDIT: Just to point out, I'm not saying that it is BAD to eat that often, but rather, that it simply isn't accurate to say that eating more speeds up your metabolism. Evolution (and facts) say otherwise:
Here is a quick article about it (with 50 or so references at the bottom):
http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/nutrition/logic-does-not-apply-part-1-meal-frequency/
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EPT
