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You know what sucks? Being fat sucks. You know what sucks even more? Being super fat, losing a ton of weight, but still being considered by society as being fat. You know what sucks the most? Exercising.
I’m 6”4, male, 25.
Four years ago I was pushing 310. I was a giant blob stacked on top of another giant blog. I would get sweaty walking up the steps to my room. My favorite meal was thus: one box of cooked macaroni on a plate. Then I would crush up 2 bags of Miss Vickie Jalapeno chips and sprinkle it over top of the macaroni. Then I would add another box of macaroni over top. Then I would cover the entire thing in ketchup, salad dressing, and bbq sauce. I would eat 3 of these a day. And although it shames me to admit it, my mouth still waters when I think of it.
Then some stuff happened in my life that left me really depressed. Stuff that I don’t feel comfortable sharing with other people yet. At this point in my life I decided that I would lose weight and become a healthier person. I put a picture of my high school photo on my bathroom mirror, I was 170 back then, and started my journey.
At the beginning, I quit every week. I gave up and started over hundreds of times. I would exercise for a couple of days, and then get depressed and binge like crazy. I developed a super bad temper, and got fired from my job. I stopped hanging out with my friends, I stopped leaving my room, I stopped living like a real person.
Yet somehow I perservered. I don’t know how, and I don’t know why. I didn’t have this great reason for losing weight. It wasn’t my dad’s dying wish, and there was no big reward waiting for me at the end. But somehow, for some reason, I never gave up completely. I walked whenever I could, I cut back on the junk food, I drank only water. I lost 50 pounds.
50 pounds sounds great right? Well as great as it sounds, I was still 260 pounds at this time. In other words, I was still the fattest guy in any room. And because of my recent alienation of other people, I had no one to celebrate my weight loss with me. The worst part was eating out. Usually I ate lunch in the mall. I would order something healthy yet delicious. Like a giant thai salad or something. The thing that sucked was that people would look at me and laugh. Fat guy eating thai salad? Why don’t you try going for a run? People looked at me with pity, with disgust, with embarrassment, and there was nothing I could do to convince them that I was trying to improve. Even when I related my story to some people, it was met with disbelief and ridicule. I will say that maybe people weren’t really this bad, and I was just a big fat over sensitive guy.
Anyways, fast forward to today. I weigh 205. I’ve lost over 100 pounds. I feel great, and the amount of stuff that I can easily do now is incredible. However, I’m still overweight. That’s right. Four years of torment. Four years of giving up junk food. Four years of giving up things I love. Four years of drinking only water. Four years, and I’m still not where I need to be. I still have a gut, and my face still looks chubby. Not anywhere near to how I was before, but still.
And the thing that I don’t get among people who are fit, are their attitudes toward their lifestyles. People talk about how they don’t miss junk food anymore, or how they love running, and lifting weights. That’s never happened for me. I still crave junk food like crazy. I haven’t eaten a donut in almost four years and my mouth still waters when I pass a Tim Hortons. There are isles in the supermarket that I still will not allow myself to go down, because if I do, I’m gonna binge. I hate running. I hate hate hate hate running. The entire time I’m out there, I know exactly why I’m doing it. I just started lifting weights this past week and so far it sucks.
The only hope I have is that once I hit my weight goal I can stop doing these things and just live normally. I’m 205 now, I want to reach 180 by the end of August. If I can do that, I think I can maintain that weight just by having the right diet. Oh God, how I hate running.
 
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As someone who has lost a good amount of weight I can understand a lot of this post, godspeed with your goals man!
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And the thing that I don’t get among people who are fit, are their attitudes toward their lifestyles. People talk about how they don’t miss junk food anymore, or how they love running, and lifting weights. That’s never happened for me. I still crave junk food like crazy. I haven’t eaten a donut in almost four years and my mouth still waters when I pass a Tim Hortons. There are isles in the supermarket that I still will not allow myself to go down, because if I do, I’m gonna binge. I hate running. I hate hate hate hate running. The entire time I’m out there, I know exactly why I’m doing it. I just started lifting weights this past week and so far it sucks.
Oh man, I'm like 50/50 split on this one. I still crave junk food as much as ever, and if I am not careful I will occasionally put away 3000+ calories in one sitting. I just love food, especially the sweet stuff, but to be honest just food in general.
The exercise part on the other hand...I decided to like. When I first started running and lifting several years back because I was out of shape I despised it. Every second I was in the gym or out running was like "please just shoot me". Then I realized that it was pretty stupid for me to have this attitude and decided to stop disliking those activities. Instead of thinking about how much I hated doing them I changed the mindset to I'm going to focus on the benefits of this and enjoy and immerse myself in the process of improving.
The running especially I have to ask about: where/how intense do you run? I know for me when I ran on the treadmill I hated it cause it was boring as shit and I was always focused on what else I wanted to do. When I started running outside I didn't hate running anymore, but definitely didn't particularly love it. Now I am at the point where I can run on the treadmill and it's not that boring because I am busy focusing on my running.
Basically what I am getting at is what is it that you absolutely hate about running? Does it just bore you to death?
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On June 13 2012 04:10 L_Master wrote:Show nested quote +And the thing that I don’t get among people who are fit, are their attitudes toward their lifestyles. People talk about how they don’t miss junk food anymore, or how they love running, and lifting weights. That’s never happened for me. I still crave junk food like crazy. I haven’t eaten a donut in almost four years and my mouth still waters when I pass a Tim Hortons. There are isles in the supermarket that I still will not allow myself to go down, because if I do, I’m gonna binge. I hate running. I hate hate hate hate running. The entire time I’m out there, I know exactly why I’m doing it. I just started lifting weights this past week and so far it sucks. Oh man, I'm like 50/50 split on this one. I still crave junk food as much as ever, and if I am not careful I will occasionally put away 3000+ calories in one sitting. I just love food, especially the sweet stuff, but to be honest just food in general. The exercise part on the other hand...I decided to like. When I first started running and lifting several years back because I was out of shape I despised it. Every second I was in the gym or out running was like "please just shoot me". Then I realized that it was pretty stupid for me to have this attitude and decided to stop disliking those activities. Instead of thinking about how much I hated doing them I changed the mindset to I'm going to focus on the benefits of this and enjoy and immerse myself in the process of improving. The running especially I have to ask about: where/how intense do you run? I know for me when I ran on the treadmill I hated it cause it was boring as shit and I was always focused on what else I wanted to do. When I started running outside I didn't hate running anymore, but definitely didn't particularly love it. Now I am at the point where I can run on the treadmill and it's not that boring because I am busy focusing on my running. Basically what I am getting at is what is it that you absolutely hate about running? Does it just bore you to death?
There's a route I run outside of my gym. Someone told me about this loop that incorporates a path beside a river that is about 5k. I don't have any sort of running plan, ie: jog 2 telephone poles, run 1, walk 1, or something like that. I just run until I'm tired, then I walk until I'm ready to run again. I always make sure that I finish no matter what. I suppose you could call it boredom, it's just when my legs start burning, and my heart is pounding, and my mouth turns dry, the only thing that keeps me going is wanting to lose weight. I'm not enjoying the landscape, or the challenge of beating my best time. I am out there for one reason: to lose weight.
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Godspeed! I wish you the best of luck and willpower in your quest!
I also despise running. that is why i swim!
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I'd reccomend joining a gym with a nice community as the Muay Thai gym that I currently attend has some overweight people there to lose weight and everyone is supportive and it seems like it helps.
Good Luck with the rest of your journey!
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Well, I have some good news for you at least, since I just finished running data for a study on weight/BMI. At 6'4", 205lbs is the top edge of what is considered "normal". So congratulations! 100 lbs is great. Just get to a weight you are comfortable with. I think 180 lbs is a great goal.
Do you do core exercises? Situps and such. If your gut is still bothering you, perhaps you should focus on those. Do situps every morning or something like that. Its not fun (I certainly don't enjoy it) but it'll target that area.
As far as running goes, don't worry about not enjoying it. Running actually isn't as good for you as a brisk walk (from a purely weightloss standpoint). Running will help you with your cardio much more than walking, but walking will work all your muscles and overall will help you drop the weight equally if not better. It comes down to whether you have time to do this though, as you need to walk farther than you would run, and running obviously is faster.
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Something I've noticed is that not everybody is capable of feeling the "runners high" that I hear about a lot. I'm one of those people - exercise does jack shit to my endorphins. I am also clinically depressed, which doesn't help, but on the other hand, my girlfriend - who is also depressed - does get it. I'm guessing you don't, since you're saying you hate it. I have no idea why that is, but it's unlucky.
Honestly, I'm guessing the reason you still (and probably will forever) crave junk food is that you grew up loving it. People don't develop the habits that get them in trouble overnight - it's generally a result of how they grew up. People who tell you they don't miss junk food, or don't like junk food, or whatever, probably didn't grow up with a lot of it. That's me - there were rarely chips or soda around my house when I was a kid, so I don't really miss them. Everyone, though, has one or two things that they miss the hell out of that are absolutely awful, so don't think you're the only one who struggles with that kind of temptation. (My personal demon is a Jack's cheese pizza, the $4 gig, in a sitting.)
The thing that enabled me to exercise for long periods at a time while not hating myself was audiobooks. I load up an audiobook on my ipod and hop on the elliptical or do a round of weight lifting for half an hour, and it flies by. My body's on autopilot and I'm basically reading. (When I'm on the elliptical I'll occasionally just bring a book and use that.) Honestly, that's the only way I'm able to enjoy exercise - find something I enjoy doing and do it at the gym. I think some of it might be attitude - some people are better able to look at how good of a workout it is and enjoy themselves - but I don't know that that's something that's easy to develop (although it seems that L_Master did, and I'd love to know whether that took a lot of effort or not much.)
My girlfriend's struggling to lose weight right now too, and I think having support really helps. I don't know if you have tried this yet, but see if you can find an exercise group. Having the social aspect, as well as the support aspect, really helps.
Good luck, man!
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Do you listen to music when you run? That keeps me far more motivated than anything else, to be honest. Also, if you're 6'4", and 205, you're same height/weight as me, and I'm not really "overweight", it's possible your body is still readjusting to it's current weight, and you'll continue to slim down even without losing weight, I'd think.
That being said, I agree, I hate fitness freak attitudes. Especially because the majority of them are extremely condescending to those that don't agree. Once you hit your target weight, as long as you stay active, and eat reasonably healthy, you can continue to enjoy the things you like, as long as they're in moderation. I still eat pizza, chips, and other things that aren't good for me, but I only eat them friday/saturday, and I continue to run 3 days a week, and play basketball or some other activity a few other times a week. Just avoid going back to being extremely sedentary and you'll be cool as a cucumber :D
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Something I should have mentioned in my previous post - if you really hate running, but want the benefits of running and don't mind absolutely murdering yourself every time you go out, consider high intensity interval training as a substitute. There is a lot of information available on it, but basically it boils down to a trade of intensity (MUCH more intense workout) for time (reduced workout time) and effect (overall more calories per unit time burned). This really only applies if you hate running for long periods of time, and you want to get it over with quicker, and don't mind hating yourself more during.
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6'4'' 205 lbs seems like a pretty good weight to me O.o
I'm the opposite of you, I've always been really skinny. Was about 125 lbs, 6'0 two years or so ago. About 153 lbs now, hoping to get over 160 and stay around there.
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TL's fitness community this way!
Seriously, awesome advice and encouragement awaits you  Also, 6'4" at 205 sounds really good. You may want to look into "body recomposition", fancy way of saying gaining muscle and losing fat. You may stay at the same weight but look like a boss at that weight 
Also, 4 years, way to stay commited. Props!
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I run on a treadmill and in front of me is my laptop with a stream of White-Ra or some other awesome SC2 player.
I don't mind running now, it's not boring as fuck, and I don't even think about it when I do it. I can focus on the game for the most part.
Also: Despite you going back and forth and constantly thinking about reverting back to binging, you have more dedication than I'd ever have. Well done.
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I know how ou feel man
3 years ago.
My dinner was:
1 Hotdog, 1 Burger, 1 fries and a large drink
Or 12 chicken fingers, fries and a drink every single night.
I was psuhing my weight and I got towards 230
As long as you decide to just walk everything, treadmill it on high incline and exert yourself, the rewards arent initially there but its present, Took me basically a year and a bit to get to 170. and now I'm just working on building muscle mass.
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Grats on your weight loss. I started exercising and eating better as well, although you did a lot more. I went from 240 to 215 (still going ofc), but losing 100 lbs is amazing!
If you want an easy-to-follow running guide, I suggest this. I think the TL Running Thread also links to this. http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml
Also, music helps a lot. I look forward to running nowadays because it is sort of like a meditation time. I put on some music to fit my mood, and I let my mind go drifting. I do run on a treadmill in my room though...IDK if you have the same luxury in an outdoor setting. And you don't feel it at first, but eventually, you start getting addicted to running. I can't go a day without feeling like shit if I don't run. And you start feeling more active too. It's weird.
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I have found that when I wanted to exercise to lose weight, I would just go walking around my local area for about an hour to an hour and half everyday, I didn't notice any weight lose, but I felt lighter and family and friends said I looked better for it :D Best of luck to you and congratulations in what you have lost so far
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It's all in the mind. If you believe that exercise is chore, won't enjoy it and you will despise doing it. If you believe it is a challange you will want to do it more often and improve. Same goes for eating healthily.
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it's just when my legs start burning, and my heart is pounding, and my mouth turns dry, the only thing that keeps me going is wanting to lose weight.
This sounds like a major part of the problem. Your probably running WAY to hard, which most new runners do. I have a theory behind this, but that's neither here nor there: + Show Spoiler +Most people that are overweight and haven't exercised much aren't in good shape, especially not for running. However, when people that don't exercise from a cardio standpoint do run its usually for sport activities and is generally at a pretty high speed (i.e. not at all uncommon to run down a basketball court at sub 6 mile pace) so they gain muscle memory for these more intense speeds. Then when they go out to run, that's what they remember and even though they have heard "take it easy" it's a struggle because the correct paces feel awkwardly slow.
The bottom line is if your legs are burning and your heart is pounding away you are running much, much faster than you should be. Especially if your not concerned with getting fast and just want to lose weight/stay in shape then 90-100% of your runs should be EASY. And I mean easy. You should feel like you could run for hours at the pace your running at. The fact that your running until your tired, then running again after walking means the pace is crazy intense and your working inefficiently and needlessly hard.
Bottom line: learn to run EASY and I think you'll find running a lot less of a chore (may not ever love it, but I doubt you'll hate it), but when your running as hard as you are everytime, yea....that's not very pleasant.
And you don't feel it at first, but eventually, you start getting addicted to running. I can't go a day without feeling like shit if I don't run. And you start feeling more active too. It's weird.
Generally agree, but if he is running really hard all the time you won't ever enjoy that. Hard running flat out hurts and I don't think even many serious runners particularly enjoy the hard workouts, or if they do it's in the sense of the satisfaction you get from improving to new levels.
if you really hate running, but want the benefits of running and don't mind absolutely murdering yourself every time you go out, consider high intensity interval training as a substitute.
If only it worked this way. Sadly it doesn't. HIIT is a good way to "compress" workouts into a shorter time and arguably provides an even bigger calorie deficit due to increased metabolic process following the training, however, it does not provide the same benefits as running.
Running training basically incorporates HIIT from time to time during the season but usually only for 2-3 months at a time. The reason is simple, intervals provide some MAJOR benefits to running fast, and it's not uncommon to drop a respectable amount of time coming out of "base" training and getting into the serious training. However, these benefits are totally different that the ones achieved from easy/steady state/tempo running and after 6-10 weeks are usually pretty much maxed out. Only way to get faster/better shape after that is to return and continue to build that aerobic foundation.
I think some of it might be attitude - some people are better able to look at how good of a workout it is and enjoy themselves - but I don't know that that's something that's easy to develop (although it seems that L_Master did, and I'd love to know whether that took a lot of effort or not much.)
I've always had this ability to take things I dislike and either spin them into a positive or at the worst, accept them for what they are and tolerate them. It's just my belief that things like boredom, misery, etc. are a choice. If I am in a class and notice I find it "boring" I start making a point to reframe it as something valuable and then start looking for relevant connections that make the material more interesting or relevant.
Same goes with exercise. I think what happened there is after a little while doing it I started reading as much as I could about weightlifting/running/etc. and then started to want to be good at it. Obviously, with that comes training, and serious training at that. Going to the gym and doing a few sets of bench, some lat-pulls, and some curls a couple times a week is not going to make you a good lifter, just as running easy a few times a week for 30 minutes is not going to make you a good runner.
Whether because of the process and burning desire to get better or just out of realizing that it's alot easier to be motivated to train if you enjoy it I eventually began to enjoy training, and in my case especially running. Basically, the desire to be good is what motivated me, and chasing after the goals and trying to improve (especially seeing improvement) was fun and I think as a subsequent work I started actually enjoying the process itself because of my desire to get stronger/faster. The enthusiam to get better "bled over" into actually enjoying the training.
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Congrats on your progress, feel proud on it. Also Join TL & HF, great support and mb some help finding your passion. For example I was never satisfied with runing, then I got into bodybuilding stuff which I never liked either, and now (A year ago) I found my passion on powerlifting. Doing heavy squats, benches and deadlifts. Looking and more important, feeling great, is just a side effect.
Glad L_Master posted above, cause he is kinda an example of the opposite. I hate long distance runing, yet he seems to fucking love it, kinda like I can't wait to get to the gym and do my training every day. I kida miss it on rest days. Find something u like doing, will be much more enjoyable. (I used to be overweight till 13-14, and just not satisfied with myself till I got bit by the iron bug)
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running is bullshit for weight loss. I absolutely hate it. it can accelerate weight loss but if your diet is correct, there is no need for it. I've successfully achieved a bodyfat % of ~8-9% witih pure diet, no running.
base your meals off of meat and vegetables. if you go long enough without soda and other processed garbage, when you eventually try them again they will not taste appealing to you anymore.
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EPT
