Raise your hand if you're a typical gamer: sedentary lifestyle, crappy diet, over- or underweight, sleep a lot, and so on
33 days ago I'd have raised my hand. 32 days I would not have.
During a visit to my doctor in late October about serious back pain, I was told my weight. I knew I was overweight, but not as much as I was told. My doctor told me my bad back was mostly due to being overweight. After a few days of hard thought I said "fuck this noise" and decided to quit being fat.
October 23, 2012 - 270lbs
Yeah. Way too much. I spent the next couple months researching all kinds of ways to get in shape. Diets, exercises, about 3 dozen gyms around me. Everything. I picked out a ketogenic diet (oh dear god) and a simple C25k program. Set my start date: January 1st, 2013.
I decided to spend the first month adapting to my new diet. It's a radical change from how I used to eat, and adjusting the body's metabolism can be rough. In February I would start off my C25k.
So for those of you who don't know what a ketogenic diet is: 1. Next to no carbs. 50g per day is considered the absolute max, generally speaking. I went with a much more strict 20g. 2. No sugar. None. Nada. Zip. This is because sugar sucks donkey balls.
Sugar is the DEVIL
3. More protein! I'd not been eating enough protein 4. Way more veggies. Not usually my sort of thing, but I've taken to some of them. 5. Vastly more fat. Yes. Fat. A ketogenic diet is mostly about fat. Delicious, scrumptious fat.
FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT
I decided to start tracking my weight mid January. As of writing, I'm down to 239lbs, which is pretty damn good in my book.
Then just a little while ago I did something stupid: I decided to complete a Tough Mudder. This happened because some other people in the TL EVE group decided to do it for some reason, and I said "fuck it". So we picked UK South West in September.
the fuck was I thinking?
Tomorrow morning I start my running. I have about 8 months until the event, so I'm going to speed up the program. After a month or so I'm going to be starting something else, but I'll leave that for next time.
wow, quite an impressive undertaking. already lost 30+ pounds..congratulations! and best of luck getting in shape for/competing in tough mudder. i have some friends who've done it and they all seem to feel like its a great, rewarding experience. that said, i don't think i would ever do anything like that haha
I find myself fortunate to have a healthy BMI and have lifted weights since high school. Good luck man, what you're doing takes some serious self-discipline, but you can do it!
On February 03 2013 11:10 tofucake wrote: 3. More protein! I'd not been eating enough protein 4. Way more veggies. Not usually my sort of thing, but I've taken to some of them. 5. Vastly more fat. Yes. Fat. A ketogenic diet is mostly about fat. Delicious, scrumptious fat.
Have you tried making scrambles? I make them a lot. I usually make it with onions, bell peppers, tomato, spinach, and cheese, but you can put whatever in it.
1) put butter (a good amount) in pan. 2) chop up 1/4 onion 3) start cooking onion 4) wait a bit, and chop 1/4 bell pepper 5) add bell pepper 6) wait a bit, and chop 1 roma tomato 6) add tomato and spinach 7) chop up your cheese 8) crack 5 eggs into pan 9) sprinkle some salt on top 10) scramble and keep the eggs from sticking to the bottom of the pan. cook until it looks good 11) add hot sauce and eat!
It's not insane, it's a tangible mid-term goal to motivate yourself to keep working out and eating right other than relatively arbitrary goal of staying fit and lean. Even if you decide not to do it in the end, this sum of effort you put to attempt achieving this goal is worth something.
look up macronutrients man. bodybuilders have been bulking during the offseason and cutting 20-30 weeks prior to competition...how can they consistently lose a few pounds a week every year without fail? by tracking macronutrients and keeping their caloric intake under their base metabolic rate.
Tough Mudder? Niiiiice. I'm planning on doing the one in July 13th in Tahoe, CA. Other than my friend who's in a different group, I'm going to be alone. I planned on using it as motivational source to exercise but then this thing called college came and decided that I'm to do other things so more power to you. I'll be sure to let you know how Tough Mudder goes for me (if I should live).
Good luck! I'm trying to get fit for tough mudder too, one day I was just tired of sitting around and being inactive and someone told me about TM and I was like screw it - just do it!. But I've never been an endurance athlete (my mind screams at me when it gets tough, like 'why are you doing this to yourself!'), slowly getting there with circuit training but I've got a long way to go.
Looking forward to more of your blogs, I'd like to hear about what kind of training you'll be doing.
oh yeah forget to post this vid lol this guy makes me look like a sissy
Bro forget the shitty diet. No carbs + no sugars = no energy. I would never trust a food scientist or a PT (I am a scientist btw) over someone who is ripped and fit. Trust me, you will probably have to keep up your old calorie intake, or perhaps increase it if you want to get really fit. Don't delay going to the gym. Get started now. Nobody cares if you are fat or can't lift shit at first. Just start going 3 days a week. Get on the whey protein shakes if you aren't already, and aim for 3 a day (~100g protein including milk). They are a very easy and relatively cheap way to get enough protein into your diet. If you are running twice a week + going to the gym 3 days a week, then you will certainly have a calorie deficit and will be losing weight, unless you are eating a LOT. Some people that go to the gym don't do cardio at all because it kills your gains, but since your goal is to get lean this should work well. When you start running, you want to really push yourself on your first couple of sessions just to get over mental barriers. When your lungs and legs have given in, you have only gone half way. Gym is opposite, work on your form first so you don't injure yourself, especially your back or shoulders. Anyway good luck and I hope you stay committed
Edit: Holy shit that first video is a real rustler
A ketogenic diet is incredibly unhealthy and really really bad for your liver. I'd recommend counting calories and working out a lot instead of wrecking your liver.
On February 03 2013 18:03 eSen1a wrote: Bro forget the shitty diet. No carbs + no sugars = no energy. I would never trust a food scientist or a PT (I am a scientist btw) over someone who is ripped and fit. Trust me, you will probably have to keep up your old calorie intake, or perhaps increase it if you want to get really fit. Don't delay going to the gym. Get started now. Nobody cares if you are fat or can't lift shit at first. Just start going 3 days a week. Get on the whey protein shakes if you aren't already, and aim for 3 a day (~100g protein including milk). They are a very easy and relatively cheap way to get enough protein into your diet. If you are running twice a week + going to the gym 3 days a week, then you will certainly have a calorie deficit and will be losing weight, unless you are eating a LOT. Some people that go to the gym don't do cardio at all because it kills your gains, but since your goal is to get lean this should work well. When you start running, you want to really push yourself on your first couple of sessions just to get over mental barriers. When your lungs and legs have given in, you have only gone half way. Gym is opposite, work on your form first so you don't injure yourself, especially your back or shoulders. Anyway good luck and I hope you stay committed
Edit: Holy shit that first video is a real rustler
On February 03 2013 18:25 Sauwelios wrote: A ketogenic diet is incredibly unhealthy and really really bad for your liver. I'd recommend counting calories and working out a lot instead of wrecking your liver.
All the research I've done disagrees. Taking it too far and doing it wrong is definitely bad (too much protein relative to fat, wrong fats, etc). People often confuses ketosis with ketoacidosis. They are very different things. It'd be next to impossible for me to get ketoacidosis because I don't have diabetes. And people have been living a keto lifestyle for basically all of our existence. Many native Americans lived like this. Most Europeans did too, up until the Romans fucked everybody's day up. Living on carbs is not something humans were really meant to do.
I know keto works for some people but I never liked depriving myself from stuff I like and damn I like carbs I used to be 330lbs ~ Im now 165-170~ man I hope you are lifting or not loosing weight too fast because you'll end like the dude on the video someone posted in the first page ( I had some loose skin problems myself ).. If diets working for you I guess you can keep going like that but I hope you understand that you don't need to deprive yourself from stuff you enjoy, I did flexible dieting ( or IIFYM) while losing weight and was just fine still eating ice cream or stuff I like. anyways good luck and keep strong
Yeah we are. So far it's Kwark, Big Monkey, myself, and a few others. I'm not sure who as some are training with us but can't make the event, and others can't/won't train but will be going to watch and meet us.
GL But don't be too quick in these things. Body needs to adapt, so don't be too strict, you should'nt be too strict with your diet and speeding up the training program, especially if you are not used to these things (you could also lose motivation). Plus I'd suggest you to start exercise asap (not too hard at the beginning), training>diet if you want to be fit
I recommend you do some non impact cardio, unless you want to fuck your joints up. You're still pretty heavy, and if you start pounding on you ankles, knees and back they aren't going to like it. I speak from experience. You should consider biking, or even using an elliptical machine for a while. Once you get down closer to 200 running will be much less damaging to your joints. Also, make sure you do plenty of stretching, it will help prevent injury and if you do happen to injure something like a knee or ankle it will be less severe if the joint has been stretched out regularly.
On February 03 2013 23:57 Reborn8u wrote: I recommend you do some non impact cardio, unless you want to fuck your joints up. You're still pretty heavy, and if you start pounding on you ankles, knees and back they aren't going to like it. I speak from experience. You should consider biking, or even using an elliptical machine for a while. Once you get down closer to 200 running will be much less damaging to your joints. Also, make sure you do plenty of stretching, it will help prevent injury and if you do happen to injure something like a knee or ankle it will be less severe if the joint has been stretched out regularly.
Incredible important point.
Doing stuff that suddenly means your body has to bear more than your actual weight is asking for trouble. On top of that "Just starting to do some running" without the correct shoes or technique can go wrong very quickly as well. Unless you have someone who can actively help you out with this (no, videos don't count) either stuff like swimming (maybe biking) or, depending on whether you have classes in the area that aren't made for housewives, Qi Gong / Tai Chi might be options.
Just please please please be careful with the running part when you're overweight. :o
How is it even possible to entirely miss the controversy surrounding those diets? The sole fact that there is a lot of controversy means that research is not conclusively for or against either side of the argument, which means that there has been research done indicating that low-carb diets are not good for you. Have you really not been exposed to any research contradicting your opinion? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and interpret that line as "I've seen the pro and contra research and I conclude that it's safe." This is fair enough, but why not settle for a balanced and non-controversial diet instead? At least that way you can be sure that what you're doing is actually good for you.
How is it even possible to entirely miss the controversy surrounding those diets? The sole fact that there is a lot of controversy means that research is not conclusively for or against either side of the argument, which means that there has been research done indicating that low-carb diets are not good for you. Have you really not been exposed to any research contradicting your opinion? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and interpret that line as "I've seen the pro and contra research and I conclude that it's safe." This is fair enough, but why not settle for a balanced and non-controversial diet instead? At least that way you can be sure that what you're doing is actually good for you.
There is controversy regarding everything. If you just shy away because of controversy you might as well sit back and just watch TV.
How is it even possible to entirely miss the controversy surrounding those diets? The sole fact that there is a lot of controversy means that research is not conclusively for or against either side of the argument, which means that there has been research done indicating that low-carb diets are not good for you. Have you really not been exposed to any research contradicting your opinion? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and interpret that line as "I've seen the pro and contra research and I conclude that it's safe." This is fair enough, but why not settle for a balanced and non-controversial diet instead? At least that way you can be sure that what you're doing is actually good for you.
It's not just low carb, which is bad. It's low carb high fat. And Firebolt does make a good point, I've decided after seeing a lot of pro and con. I'm not staying on this diet forever, either.
Good luck Tofu! I think this would be a good time for you to pick up some general cooking tips (not like cookbooks, but like flavor pairing guides and such I.E. the flavore bible) so you can make great food while sticking to this diet.
Heh kinda funny,I was just reading up on a diet plan to gain weight the other day along with going to the gym(which I was putting off for the last 4 years zz),I'm like 6'1'' and 165 pounds since highschool.My back is probably in a pretty shitty state as well from all the sitting. Gl tofu and don't overdo it.
Wasn't the Atkins diet all about no carbs high fat and was eventually shown to be insanely unhealthy for you...? It lets you lose weight but has insanely negative effects longterm, but people liked it because you saw results short term..? I could be wrong, but I even thought Atkins died from something health related due to the diet.
Just reread the entire topic and it seems like it's been noted by others as well. As long as you say you've done your research.... but I'd never go that route. I've lost a ton of weight in just 2-3 weeks by taking pre-workout supplements to get me energy to go to the gym and then taking whey protein after. I've lost a ton of weight since I've worked out so much and can tell a decent amount of muscle growth in my triceps.
Keep up the good work. I was in a situation similar to yours last year around may. I was 240 pounds and had a horrible lifestyle. Soda soda soda, fast food multiple times a week, the whole nine yards. And I wasn't going to stay a steady weight, rather I would have kept gaining and gaining until I was literally round. This was the complete opposite of my younger years (15) when I was in good physical shape and could run a 5 minute 40 second mile.
I stopped drinking all soda and only drank water. Started at 2~ liters a day and I only drank water (no juice / tea / ect). Also cut out fast food, sweets, and ate a lot of veggies / cooked my own meals. Right now I'm back down to a much more healthier weight - 160 lbs. It wasn't easy (quite hard in fact) and I'm still working on my weight issues to this day. But I've never felt more energetic / happier in my life. Keep up the good work and you will be rewarded.
I've had excellent luck with the keto diet. I mean, its not luck, because I'm working hard at it, but you know what I mean. I'm a little in love with this diet. I love that the base energy level is really high throughout the day- without sugar or carbs, that is, no insulin spikes or blood sugar lows- the energy level is very consistent throughout the day. I never get headaches or dizziness from being hungry, nor do I ever get suddenly ravenous.
Carbohydrates are the devil's macro-nutrient, as I like to facetiously tell family and friends when they offer me carbs. I feel good.
Seems like this is something you want to do, so I'm happy you're actively trying. That's all that matters, cause, that's actually all that's needed. Hope it works out!
From my experience running wont get you to lose alot of weight, but it will give your body a better shape . Only be carefull once you go past 10k that you adjust your diet to it, you need the right amount of food to recover, otherwise you will start eating up your own muscles and stuff and become really skinny..but in a bad way .
Good luck mate! I am going to do a similar race here in belgium called the spartacus run, stuff like that is awesome, and respect to anyone trying to do these things.
On February 04 2013 03:06 FabledIntegral wrote: Wasn't the Atkins diet all about no carbs high fat and was eventually shown to be insanely unhealthy for you...? It lets you lose weight but has insanely negative effects longterm, but people liked it because you saw results short term..? I could be wrong, but I even thought Atkins died from something health related due to the diet.
Just reread the entire topic and it seems like it's been noted by others as well. As long as you say you've done your research.... but I'd never go that route. I've lost a ton of weight in just 2-3 weeks by taking pre-workout supplements to get me energy to go to the gym and then taking whey protein after. I've lost a ton of weight since I've worked out so much and can tell a decent amount of muscle growth in my triceps.
On April 8, 2003, at age 72, a day after a major snowstorm in New York, Atkins slipped on an icy pavement, suffering severe head trauma. He spent nine days in intensive care before dying on April 17, 2003, from complications from his head injury.
On February 03 2013 23:57 Reborn8u wrote: I recommend you do some non impact cardio, unless you want to fuck your joints up. You're still pretty heavy, and if you start pounding on you ankles, knees and back they aren't going to like it. I speak from experience. You should consider biking, or even using an elliptical machine for a while. Once you get down closer to 200 running will be much less damaging to your joints. Also, make sure you do plenty of stretching, it will help prevent injury and if you do happen to injure something like a knee or ankle it will be less severe if the joint has been stretched out regularly.
Incredible important point.
Doing stuff that suddenly means your body has to bear more than your actual weight is asking for trouble. On top of that "Just starting to do some running" without the correct shoes or technique can go wrong very quickly as well. Unless you have someone who can actively help you out with this (no, videos don't count) either stuff like swimming (maybe biking) or, depending on whether you have classes in the area that aren't made for housewives, Qi Gong / Tai Chi might be options.
Just please please please be careful with the running part when you're overweight. :o
gl. <3
An additional suggestion for running (if it's an option) is to run on softer surfaces if that's an option, as those will absorb some of the energy and take a little stress off your joints.
Once you get around 210, start doing weight training. Once you get skinny it can be hard to eat the 3k calories a day you need to efficiently build muscle. If you do keto, you can lose weight and gain muscle at the same time. http://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/ or r/fitness are good if you want excercises. Just look in the faqs.
On February 04 2013 03:06 FabledIntegral wrote: Wasn't the Atkins diet all about no carbs high fat and was eventually shown to be insanely unhealthy for you...? It lets you lose weight but has insanely negative effects longterm, but people liked it because you saw results short term..? I could be wrong, but I even thought Atkins died from something health related due to the diet.
Just reread the entire topic and it seems like it's been noted by others as well. As long as you say you've done your research.... but I'd never go that route. I've lost a ton of weight in just 2-3 weeks by taking pre-workout supplements to get me energy to go to the gym and then taking whey protein after. I've lost a ton of weight since I've worked out so much and can tell a decent amount of muscle growth in my triceps.
Atkin's diet hate was just really dumb propaganda from the heart and stroke foundation. They didn't have any foundation for their arguments and they were easily disproven.
The food pyramid and the "healthy" oats/cereal/whole wheat bread stuff are just lies made up by the grain industry because North America has an amazingly high supply of grain. Most of the rest of the world isn't obese because they have less of a supply of grains.
Source : Why we are fat by Gary Taubes
The book is really good and brings up many different proofs that pinpoint the source of the obesity epidemic.
Good luck man, although it does look like luck won't help you in Tough Mudder as you're going to get wrecked anyway. Should be fun though, for a little while.
Good luck on your goals as well as Tough Mudder. I just completed Melbourne TM 3 weeks ago and had such a great time signed up for the winter one this coming September ( and will likely do 2014 summer one as well =] ). The obstacles a really fun though a bit easy. The tough part comes with the pace you set for yourself in between obstacles. Your time is irrelevant though as your sure to sure to find yourself mucking about with (sabotaging) mates and lending other runner a hand?
Just take it easy with the running. You will be putting hard pressure on your knees and feets. Just start by fast walking and running now and then imo!
I firmly believe there are three major factors that help lose weight/stay skinny:
1. Drinking lots of water. 2. Playing football (soccer). 3. Having lots of stress.
For #3, play lots of chess or Starcraft, really focused and tense, hopefully forgetting meals in-between.
Also, very important thing is eating ONLY when you get hungry and stopping ALWAYS when you feel remotely full, regardless of time of the meal or the size of it. Food should be ideally cooked at home, not bought in a food court.
I need to get my diets etc going as well.. I have a free card to the best gyms in my city but I just can't be arsed. It's not that I'm too lazy to work out (because I'm kinda not), it's more that I'm really fucking protective of my free time. When I'm done with work, I want to go home and relax and dick around, gaming and such, not get my ass to the gym and waste an hour or two over there, effectively making my 8 hour workday into a 10 hour workday.
How is it even possible to entirely miss the controversy surrounding those diets? The sole fact that there is a lot of controversy means that research is not conclusively for or against either side of the argument, which means that there has been research done indicating that low-carb diets are not good for you. Have you really not been exposed to any research contradicting your opinion?
because every research against ketosis is biased or funded by someone with an agenda to sell unhealthy shit that they grow (USDA), or the methodology used in the research is unfeasible in real situations.
On February 04 2013 00:41 Sauwelios wrote: I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and interpret that line as "I've seen the pro and contra research and I conclude that it's safe." This is fair enough, but why not settle for a balanced and non-controversial diet instead? At least that way you can be sure that what you're doing is actually good for you.
maybe you should ask why ketosis is controversial in the first place? once you know that the research against keto are funded by corporations trying to sell you whole grains or sugary drinks, while the research promoting keto are done by scientists with no agenda and the arguments are convincing, it's pretty easy to choose.
Yea don't start immediately killing yourself exercising. Your body has adapted to a state of indolence, which means it has minimized the capabilities of your joints and muscles. You have to start slow and give it sufficient time to redevelop before you can really push yourself. Since you are regrowing tissues it will be fairly quick, about a month lower intensity stuff like power-walking, which may be even be enough to aggravate your knees or shins.
I'm not really sure how you are planning to run/train on a ketogenic diet. It may work fairly well as a weight loss approach (though there is some controversy on both sides) but glycolysis is pretty important to running.
Overall, I tend to agree with the general feel here, in that you would be wiser to start out with more work on the elliptical or cycling before jumping into significant running. C25K is a good program though that will ease you into running a pretty comfortable matter, however the key thing here is effort. Almost everyone has a problem with running WAY, WAY too fast/hard when they start running. They come from backgrounds where the only running they did was sports, which generally involved running at quicker speeds (usually 10+ mph), so they jump in and run naturally closer to what they are used to and end up finding running "hard".
In your case given what sounds like limited prior athletic activity you won't start off running fast. I'd say learn to do your initial runs at maybe a 15:00 pace. Yes, you could also probably walk this. That is fine for now, especially as your adjusting. Learn to run easy, and as you get into that easy pace will naturally fall. You'll be less likely to get injured, benefit more from your runs, and make running less of a chore.
Most of the rest of the world isn't obese because they have less of a supply of grains.
Come on.
Grains are not the reason American's are fat. It's our overall trends and habits of exercise, lifestyle, and diet. It's not one or two things, but rather the collective sum of the typical lifestyle.
I signed up for a Spartan Sprint 2 years ago. It's 5k (3.11miles) of the obstacles and mud and everything else while going up and down Camp Fortune (ski hills). I loved it. Last summer, I did a Spartan Sprint at the Rideau Carleton Raceway. Not as fun; it was practically all flat. I also did the Super Spartan, which is essentially the same thing but at Mt. Tremblant (bigger ski hills) and for 13k (8miles) instead of 5k...
Continuing in the vein of craziness, I'm signed up for a Spartan Sprint, a Super Spartan AND a Spartan Beast (21k... so half a marathon, Spartan style) this year. I really need to take up jogging again to get ready in time! I find it really sad that I need to sign up for such ridiculous races just to motivate myself to exercise... My physique appreciates it every year though.
It's too bad there's no Tough Mudders locally... I'd like to try one. Apparently they're harder on the upper body than a Spartan but easier overall.
Tough Mudders are lots of fun according to my friends who have competed in them. There are a couple of difficult obstacles but overall its fun and not too terribly difficult as I was told.
On February 05 2013 04:32 tofucake wrote: Yeah woke up this morning and decided not to accelerate my running plan
It's okay don't kill yourself with extremely drastic diets/weight-loss plans! Best of luck Tofu =)
It's also important you are used to exercising and eating in moderation, but healthily, so that once you've lost the wait you can continue in a sustainable way- not in a way that you will eventually hate. Nothing kills good eating and exercise more quickly than difficult, unpleasant food, and boring tedious exercise. Live in a healthy way which you can maintain for the rest of your life, or your weight will go up and down depending on motivation, which is fickle at best.
EPT
. Only be carefull once you go past 10k that you adjust your diet to it, you need the right amount of food to recover, otherwise you will start eating up your own muscles and stuff and become really skinny..but in a bad way 
