Weight Loss: Okay, I'm officially sick of it.

[invisiblehouses]

Weighed in yesterday morning. For about the fourth week in a row, I have now either gained or lost the same two damn pounds. Yesterday it was "gained." I was back up to 272.9.

I am officially sick of those two pounds, along with about 70 or so of their friends. Yadda, yadda, grateful for the lessons being overweight has taught me, etc. etc.; it's time for 'em to go.

I know there are some people here who have gone from "fit" to "incredibly fit," but who has experience going from "quite large" to "in pretty decent physical shape?"

I'm 6'1" and broad-shouldered, so even though my weight may seem very high, I'm not built like a Biggest Loser contestant; I look more like a strapping not-quite-young-per-se lad with a large stomach. I actually like to exercise, I just traditionally fail to make it a habit.

Running is out of the question for a while, though; I have gout, and though it's well-controlled with medication at the moment, I'm not interested in pressing my luck just yet. Trauma DOES cause attacks, I don't care what the doctor says. I'll get a blood draw this summer and see what my serum levels are, and then we'll see about running.

[Lynn 007]

Don't give up. It sounds like a perfect opportunity for a 30 day trial.

I would suggest walking "with purpose" for at least 30 minutes every day, drink lots of water and watch what you put on your plate. If you're a meat eater the portion shouldn't be any larger than a deck of playing cards and load up on fruit and veggies.

Also, I wouldn't pay attention to a scale. I went from a pack a day smoker to running a marathon in six months and lost 5 lbs according to the scale.

Good luck, summer is around the corner.

Lynn

[marinik]

Hi invisiblehouses, you know it all, I don't have to give you any advice but then I can give you pure hope. When I was loosing the horrid 60 pounds I would be on a plateau for a month and half and got devastated, but hen it would drop 4-5 at once... just hang in there and start calling it weight release and not weight loss. You are not loosing anything but releasing your body from what you don't need.

Rooting for you!

Originally Posted by invisiblehouses

Weighed in yesterday morning. For about the fourth week in a row, I have now either gained or lost the same two damn pounds. Yesterday it was "gained." I was back up to 272.9.

I am officially sick of those two pounds, along with about 70 or so of their friends. Yadda, yadda, grateful for the lessons being overweight has taught me, etc. etc.; it's time for 'em to go.

I know there are some people here who have gone from "fit" to "incredibly fit," but who has experience going from "quite large" to "in pretty decent physical shape?"

I'm 6'1" and broad-shouldered, so even though my weight may seem very high, I'm not built like a Biggest Loser contestant; I look more like a strapping not-quite-young-per-se lad with a large stomach. I actually like to exercise, I just traditionally fail to make it a habit.

Running is out of the question for a while, though; I have gout, and though it's well-controlled with medication at the moment, I'm not interested in pressing my luck just yet. Trauma DOES cause attacks, I don't care what the doctor says. I'll get a blood draw this summer and see what my serum levels are, and then we'll see about running.

[Kahuna]

Does That help?

August 137 kg (274 pounds)
29th March 96,8 kg (193,8 pounds)

[invisiblehouses]

Originally Posted by Kahuna

Does That help?

August 137 kg (274 pounds)
29th March 96,8 kg (193,8 pounds)

Yeah, that's the kind of "weight release" I'm gunning for.

So you used the Ferriss slow-carb method? Those are some damn good results, and fast, too!

I picked up 4HB about a month ago (between Borders going out of business and an old gift card, it was only $7!), but it's an intimidating book. I keep skipping around it like a kid in a candy store instead of reading whole sections. The thing is, I already know about slow carbs. It's the implementation phase that gets screwed up for me. It works, though, apparently. I see that in your results.

I was talking to my wife about food cravings, and we hit upon a seeming incompatibility:

1. If it's in the house, I'll eat it. I will eat the hell out of it.
2. If it's not in the house, she'll obsess and go insane until she gets it. If she knows it's readily available, she won't obsess about it.

I said we were gonna try an experiment; we're going to buy groceries today. All slow-carb, healthy food. She's going to go out on her own later and buy a stash of complete ****. I am not to see it, or to even know what she bought. This is to be hidden where I will not find it. That way, we'll both have what we need to keep our bad habits in check.

[AndrewJen]

I went from 273 to 163 pounds. Theres a link in my sig to a short article about how it felt.

In terms of practicality, I feel like it's about taking small but permanent steps to change your lifestyle. I know I didn't do it all at once, there wasnt a profound knowledge of what to do, only a profound realization that I was done being so fat.

The small steps came afterwords; giving up all drinks for tea and water, writing down literally anything that went in my mouth (I learned this from my mom who was going to weight watchers, I'd say its necessary, theres great apps like "LoseIt" if you have an iDevice), I also decreased my overall calories and made sure to eat more vegetables and find ones I really enjoy. I also gave up all white carbs and reduced general carb intake (not low carb, just selective).

This got me to 205 with exercising off and on, just doing stuff I enjoyed that was active. Then, I plateaued around 205 for a long time and got really frustrated. This is when I became more athletic and started exercising consistently. My weightloss blunders came from being inconsistant (on a sidenot all my shortcomings come from being inconsistant).

Hope that helps.

I also did the ferris-slow carb diet for fun recently. I lost about 5-6 pounds and enjoyed my cheatdays but I got bored with the diet.

[Kahuna]

First i started to avoid sugar, no coke, no nutella, nothing with alot of sugar. I did it fruit though, alot of apples and banananes, i replaced the dinner with 500g curd with 2 bananas (yeah much carb and alot of kcal). Because i was that overweighted, the pounds still went down like nothing.

But after nearing 200 pounds, the process slowed down a bit. Then i started the low carb phase, meaning only a few carbs per day, which was 50g per day (most at dinner, and the rest a few berries for the curd, replacing the banana). I don`t have brakefeast often, but if i`m hungry i take a protein shake with 200ml milk (200 kcal) or eat a low carb bread (logi bread, you can google it) with some mit on top, also staying in the 200kcal range.

Launch, mostly salate with tunna and corn, which has the most carbs, but it`s so tasty. My dressing has 2 oil 1 vinegar and 5 large spouns creme ( i add 1 water for more mass) add some salt and pepper and herbs to your liking. This is a big portion for dinner as main meal, having 900 kcal.

Sometimes i take brookly and his with sister mix, add some eggs scrambled, a little bit cheese (mozarella tasty) and cooked ham, and throw it in the pan and or ofen. Depeneing how much from everything 700-900 kcal.

Dinner ist 1 pounds curf, with about 200ml milk and berries. 500-600 kcal.

This is some ideas you want to start from it, i would suggest you eat more then my 1800 kcal for the start. I also eat 1 day (monday) more calories, so my body don`t get used to the low calories.


That`s the 80% of loosing pounds, i also started lifting at the gym.


The theory works like this: Insulin High equal low Growth Hormon and Glucagon, which are responsible for fet burning. If you avoid much carbs, especially sugar which is quickly absorbed and raises insulin, you burn fat longer. THEN the lower kcal intake can make you loose the pounds. Also get your sleep for that.

Lifting damages the muscle, which need to rebuild(1 day break), so you using kcal for using them and maintain them. If you would just do some cardio you only have the usetime for burning kcal.

One hot days i like to drink water with a little lemon juice when i can`t stand mineral water or fresh water.


I hope that helps a little. And a last tip not from me but from another source: "Say to yourself:" Everytime i eat sugar, i dont want to burn fat for a few hours!""

[invisiblehouses]

Originally Posted by AndrewJen

I also did the ferris-slow carb diet for fun recently. I lost about 5-6 pounds and enjoyed my cheatdays but I got bored with the diet.

Yeah, from what I've read of it, I think boredom would set in very rapidly. He says it himself: it's meant to be effective, not enjoyable, but intuitively that doesn't feel right to me. Food has so much potential to bring joy, especially when shared with others, and to live on nothing but steak and broccoli for months on end...meh.

(Not that I don't love me some broccoli.)

Thank you to everyone who has been responding...sometimes I get the impression that these forums are full of nothing but "Yeah, I became a raw vegan at age 9, ran my first double marathon at 12, and I'm currently 136 lbs at 6-foot-2," so it's cool knowing that several of you pretty much started where I am right now.

I want to take a "before" picture this evening or tomorrow and post it here, so everyone can see me in all my beefy glory.

Hey, we're all about alignment with truth around here, right?

[Kahuna]

How about now (when you get up?).

Also write the pounds and the navel/neck circumsflex down, because it can happen that you fat goes down, but muscle grow, and you only use 1 pound instead of 2 pounds. Look at my link, jmcejula link to his blog has that discribed with the navel/neck stuff for bodyfat.

I would advice to get rid of all the unhealty stuff in your house/office.

Do you eat at home? Office? While traveling? Then prepare for it, just because your on the road is no excuse to eat bad, just stick to low carb stuff, some cooked ham (in germany a package usually have 200 kcal) and eat some joguhrt or cheese with it.

[LauraJane]

Real life inspiration for you: YouTube - Raw Food Weight Loss over 125 lbs On Raw Food #1

Does your wife have any interest in joining you in eating better? You will have so much more success if you can do it together...

Also, if you need accountability you might find it helpful going to a nutritionist. If you have a good health plan, it may be covered. Worth investigating.

Wishing you good luck. Actually, no, not luck. Wishing you mental strength and good health, which is all within your grasp if you want it.

If someone gave you a million dollars to go healthy, could you do it? Probably, right? If you had a choice between a million dollars and looking amazing and feeling fit and full of energy, which would you choose?

Sounds like you're already on the right path. Try to bring your wife on board, it'll increase your chance of success. Don't frame it like she needs to lose weight, frame it that you need her support. And you do!

[invisiblehouses]

Here's the official BEFORE photo.

Weight: 272.9
Neck: 18 in.
Chest: 48.5 in.
Waist: 50 in.
(Which is not to say I wear 50-inch pants...I don't hike 'em up that high!)

Let's see if I can make some progress by April 30, 2011...

[jamesm]

ihave struggled with my weight all my life. i have learned that there isnt a secret. all you ahve to do is burn more than you take in.

count every calorie you take in for a few day and see what your intake is. now lower it. a few hundred calories can net you a few pounds a week. add in some exercise and you are that much better.

also make sure you weight your self consistently. if you are going to weight your self every Monday morning that make sure it is Monday morning at the same time every time. i can tell you i am lighter around Wednesday and Thursday than i am on Monday. it was trend i had to figure out. we are all different. also a 0-3 pound fluctuation in wieght is normal if you decide to weight your self at a different time.

now there are things you can do to help with staying on track that will make life a lot easier and i advise that to but the physical part is pretty simple.

my guess is you will be very suprised if you count ever calorie you take it. be honest with your self when doing this and you will be amazed.

My biggest issue is dealing with emotional eating. i like to eat when im bored, stressed, etc....

good luck you can do it, baby steps is the best way. you keep it off that way.

[invisiblehouses]

In response to advice about preparation and also tracking what I consume:

This is where you're going to shake your collective head in disgust at me; I currently have a WeightWatchers Online membership. Since December, I actually am down about 8 lbs, but that was all in the first three weeks; I've been stagnating because I don't use the tools I have in front of me (and that I paid for).

What I'm trying to say is, maybe I'm being presumptuous by hanging around a forum with "smart people" in its name, because I'm certainly not acting in such a manner, am I?

I should already "be there" when it comes to tracking and pre-planning, but I've got a real block when it comes to habits: in addition to having trouble breaking old ones, forming new ones often eludes me as well. I like the WW interface until I know I'm going over in points for the day. Then I stop tracking. Then it's a free-for-all.

We didn't get the groceries yesterday, but I'm heading out here in a few minutes. Here are the rules (and their sources, where applicable):

1. Nothing white or that can be made white (Tim Ferriss' 4HB)
2. Plenty of fruit (standard WeightWatchers advice...fruit is free!)
3. Plenty of lean proteins (standard diet advice, outside fruitarian circles)
4. No HFCS, no hydrogenated anything, no processed food (Dr. Weil's 8 Weeks...)
5. A butt-load of vegetables, especially roots and cruciferous (because I love 'em)

I was going add "nothing with more than about five ingredients," but if I stick to #4 above, I won't be able to buy anything with more than about ONE.

And I'm going to track points this week, but I'm going to try a different approach: eat what feels good, intuitively, and then add them up at the end of the day. Just to see if what I think is probably true is true (that if you eat right, you won't go over in points at all).

Weigh-in's on Friday.

[Kahuna]

How tall are you? Because this is missing for Body Fat Methode It`s not 100% accurate, just another thing to measure then the weight.

Aunt Edith : No matter found it in the first post: Percent Body Fat: 31.9%

[ginkgo]

There are many factors that cause people to be overweight. You should learn them and see what applies to you. But focus more on being healthy than thinner. To give you one example one doctor says that people do not get enough iodine. Note that they add it to salt but that is another story about how salt can make you overweight.

Not enough iodine causes your thyroid to be under-active slowing metabolism. The solution is to sprinkle granualted kelp on food. Kelp is a seaweed loaded with iodine. Then one study showed that getting enough sleep is the biggest factor. There a little things that you can do like drink green tea instead of water. De-caf is OK since the EGCG in tea helps you to lose weight.

I could go on but you get the idea. In school you learned all this stuff that does not help you now like how to shake a spear (Shakespeare). They could have taught you the above and below. But you need to learn it.

[joelr]

Originally Posted by invisiblehouses

Yeah, from what I've read of it, I think boredom would set in very rapidly. He says it himself: it's meant to be effective, not enjoyable, but intuitively that doesn't feel right to me. Food has so much potential to bring joy, especially when shared with others, and to live on nothing but steak and broccoli for months on end...meh.

It's not a permanent thing though, giving up some foods. You just have to go through a period of so many months with a strict diet and then when you get to your desired weight it's much easier.

Then you can plan you cheat meals around social activities or weekends or whatever you choose. Maintaining a weight is much much easier than losing bodyfat.

In terms of fun I find overall I get much more enjoyment over being in shape than trying to make every meal a "food high" fest. Although I do still get that from fruit smoothies with fake sugar (my vice) 1x daily.
But you can eat whatever you want once you get to your goal. Not WHENEVER you want but there is always room for a few cheat meals each week.

My ex-wife used to insist on having ice cream and dessert items around even while I was going through a strict 3-4 month cutting phase. But I didn't begrudge her that, I just tried not to look at them. And keep the blood sugar levels stable by eating small meals every 3-4 hours. That type of temptation and breaking the diet in general is only hard at first. Once the midsection starts tightening up and some abs start sticking out it's truly awesome. the natural high and enjoyment just from that blocks all further temptation.
Because it's not just a beer-belly thing, as we lose weight everything loses fat, especially the face and jawline. I just started a spring diet and had my initial water loss plus a little fat so far and my face already looks much better. I was bloated from water retention, face was round. I looked in the mirror today and was like, hey I'm getting handsome again! Now my momentum is strong.

[invisiblehouses]

Originally Posted by joelr

It's not a permanent thing though, giving up some foods. You just have to go through a period of so many months with a strict diet and then when you get to your desired weight it's much easier.

I know it's not permanent. But apples? I can't have a bleedin' apple?

Sorry, Tim Ferriss. I'm having an apple. There's more to an apple, when eaten as a whole food, than just the fructose it contains. Sure, it's not exactly a slow carb, but it's also not like drinking a Pepsi, either. I'm leery of getting too hung up on the components of whole foods. That's where you get crap like, "Well, there's this bunch of people who live to be 100 a lot, and they eat some yogurt. So yogurt is the fountain of youth! Eat it by the gallon! Better yet, take these pills in which we've isolated what we think is the magic component of yogurt...it's like having an oil drum full of yogurt three times a day!" Like...really? Do these people who live so long really just eat nothing but gallons of yogurt all day?

Would I love to drop weight as fast as 4HB slow-carbers do? Of course. But if it's not going to be done via habits that are sustainable and enjoyable, there's no point. As soon as I'm over the temporary phase of the diet, I'll rocket right back up to where I am now.

That said, I wanna kick some *** this month. You're all my accountability partners now. Sorry, not optional.

[marinik]

I'll be your partner if you like. I have to take of these reached menopause kilos. I am going to try a mix - from yesterday I am on a Moon Phase diet. Every week one day of fasting on tea and vegetable juice - depending on the Moon Phase. The rest of the week low carb diet and once a week cheat day.

As for your apple I went without fruit for almost 6 months. I ate a lot of carrots, a lot of carrots!

Originally Posted by invisiblehouses

I know it's not permanent. But apples? I can't have a bleedin' apple?

Sorry, Tim Ferriss. I'm having an apple. There's more to an apple, when eaten as a whole food, than just the fructose it contains. Sure, it's not exactly a slow carb, but it's also not like drinking a Pepsi, either. I'm leery of getting too hung up on the components of whole foods. That's where you get crap like, "Well, there's this bunch of people who live to be 100 a lot, and they eat some yogurt. So yogurt is the fountain of youth! Eat it by the gallon! Better yet, take these pills in which we've isolated what we think is the magic component of yogurt...it's like having an oil drum full of yogurt three times a day!" Like...really? Do these people who live so long really just eat nothing but gallons of yogurt all day?

Would I love to drop weight as fast as 4HB slow-carbers do? Of course. But if it's not going to be done via habits that are sustainable and enjoyable, there's no point. As soon as I'm over the temporary phase of the diet, I'll rocket right back up to where I am now.

That said, I wanna kick some *** this month. You're all my accountability partners now. Sorry, not optional.

[rawxstasy]

Originally Posted by Kahuna

Does That help?

August 137 kg (274 pounds)
29th March 96,8 kg (193,8 pounds)

Congrats on the weight loss! Looks good!

[Natalia]

Originally Posted by invisiblehouses

I know it's not permanent. But apples? I can't have a bleedin' apple?

Sorry, Tim Ferriss. I'm having an apple. There's more to an apple, when eaten as a whole food, than just the fructose it contains. Sure, it's not exactly a slow carb, but it's also not like drinking a Pepsi, either. I'm leery of getting too hung up on the components of whole foods. That's where you get crap like, "Well, there's this bunch of people who live to be 100 a lot, and they eat some yogurt. So yogurt is the fountain of youth! Eat it by the gallon! Better yet, take these pills in which we've isolated what we think is the magic component of yogurt...it's like having an oil drum full of yogurt three times a day!" Like...really? Do these people who live so long really just eat nothing but gallons of yogurt all day?

Would I love to drop weight as fast as 4HB slow-carbers do? Of course. But if it's not going to be done via habits that are sustainable and enjoyable, there's no point. As soon as I'm over the temporary phase of the diet, I'll rocket right back up to where I am now.

That said, I wanna kick some *** this month. You're all my accountability partners now. Sorry, not optional.

I would like to be your partner for this diet if you want too!
It's the first day of my diet, I have 16kg to drop with healthy food and sport.

Natalia

[ssandra]

I'm on the same road to recovery

I was at one point a horrible 73 kilo's..... brrrr.... a long long time ago I was even 85 kilo's... which for me, is really really overweight.

Right now I'm 66,6 kilo's (as of this morning ) which is the thinnest that I've been since a few years.

I'm aiming for another 3 or 4 kilo's less and/or some toning.

I've done the 4HB together with my husband. For him it is working wonders and he is loosing a lot of weight fast. For me? Not so much. Eating a breakfast right when waking up makes me gain weight.

However, not eating bread is helping me a lot with loosing weight, although pasta seems to make no difference for me. Cheese on the other hand makes a lot of difference again.

So what I do now is just eat whenever I almost feel hungry. I do mainly stick to the rules of what to eat (lots of veggies, no fruit, no sugar, no soda, meat and or chicken), except that I eat a lot less chicken or meat then my husband and I usually skip the beans or at least have a smaller portion.

I listen to my intuition on what to eat now. Most of the time I do what it says as well...

I used to have the same issue as your wife, with freaking out if there wasn't anything to snack in the house. I got over that by making sure that I always have emergency food in the house, but healthy stuff. Noodles, soups, etc.

I did a 24 hour fast once and that really hit home all my anxieties about eating and not being able to eat etc. I got a lot of them resolved during that fast. Things that I didn't even know I was anxious about came to light... very helpful for me....

[ssandra]

Originally Posted by invisiblehouses

I know it's not permanent. But apples? I can't have a bleedin' apple?

You may want to try it for a week or 2 to see if it does make a difference or not?

I notice a HUGE difference when I eat certain fruits. Apples, pears, melons make me gain weight like crazy and give me huge cravings for chocolate, potato chips etc.

Banana's are good, if I have one or two a week.

Mango's are also good, if I have one or 2 a week, not more.

Carrot juice, orange juice, a big NO NO for weight loss for me....

Carrots raw to snack on ? Perfect.

It might be worth a trial to see for yourself what works and doesn't work for you with regards to fruit?

[KaleidoskopicVision]

Originally Posted by ssandra

You may want to try it for a week or 2 to see if it does make a difference or not?

I notice a HUGE difference when I eat certain fruits. Apples, pears, melons make me gain weight like crazy and give me huge cravings for chocolate, potato chips etc.

Banana's are good, if I have one or two a week.

Mango's are also good, if I have one or 2 a week, not more.

Carrot juice, orange juice, a big NO NO for weight loss for me....

Carrots raw to snack on ? Perfect.

It might be worth a trial to see for yourself what works and doesn't work for you with regards to fruit?

Apples give you cravings? Maybe it's the kind of apple? I notice those bright green ones with the sour taste make you not want to eat after you've eaten one.

In fact I used to weigh 220lbs and in a few months lost 70lbs by eating a diet of mostly apples and the occasional bowl of Cheerios or some other non sugary cereal.

I now weigh a steady 140lbs and I am 5 ft 8 in.

[ssandra]

Originally Posted by KaleidoskopicVision

Apples give you cravings? Maybe it's the kind of apple? I notice those bright green ones with the sour taste make you not want to eat after you've eaten one.

In fact I used to weigh 220lbs and in a few months lost 70lbs by eating a diet of mostly apples and the occasional bowl of Cheerios or some other non sugary cereal.

I now weigh a steady 140lbs and I am 5 ft 8 in.

I don't like the green apples .

it is not a craving right away, but a few hours later, or even the next day.

[KaleidoskopicVision]

Originally Posted by ssandra

I don't like the green apples .

it is not a craving right away, but a few hours later, or even the next day.

And you are sure it's the apples that are responsible? Did you eat them on an empty stomach?

[Kahuna]

In the beginning it`s really now problem to eat some fruit i did it and lost alot of weight. But now i know alot more of the mechanic and further weight loss (with a certain pace) is much more afford, and i wouldn`t eat much fruit, except berries with low carb. If you have to eat apples, i would suggest as dessert after lunch, because usually you have some carb on lunch anyway, and in the evening very few carb so you can burn alot of fat during the night.

While the 4HB is proably great, i still suggest you start with something sustainable, which you can put on autopilot after a time, and then when you feel comfortable, you can try some extreme stuff.


@rawxstasy: Thank you as of 4.4. it`s now 95,3 kg (190,6 pounds).

@ssandra:"Right now I'm 66,6 kilo's (as of this morning ) which is the thinnest that I've been since a few years."
Maybe it`s time for a new avatar with your new presence?

In two weeks i lost 2cm navel circumsflex. I think a gained a little bit of muscle too. Today is cheat day so the metabolosim dosn`t shut down, and i will have some pasta with a nice sauce and some chicken. And maybe i get a tasty fruit which is non berrie.

I`ll check next monday, if it continue to be more then 1kg (2 pounds) a week i`ll try to eat a little more, some i`m not that hungry at times.

[ssandra]

Originally Posted by KaleidoskopicVision

And you are sure it's the apples that are responsible? Did you eat them on an empty stomach?

Sometimes on an empty stomach, sometimes during the day... it doesn't seem to make much of a difference...

What I meant to say was (it was very late yesterday for me ) is that everybody reacts differently so if you are hitting a platau it is always good to just test out some things for yourself, to see if they have an effect.

For me, having a pear and apple for breakfast keeps me full for a long time. But in the evening I then crave sugary stuff.

Now that I've cut out the fruit, I'm loosing weight a lot faster, while still eating the occasional cookie.

[lifetimelearner]

Originally Posted by invisiblehouses

Here's the official BEFORE photo.

Weight: 272.9
Neck: 18 in.
Chest: 48.5 in.
Waist: 50 in.
(Which is not to say I wear 50-inch pants...I don't hike 'em up that high!)

Let's see if I can make some progress by April 30, 2011...

with your ht your weight does not look bad -but I know you want to be healthy
my best advice is to be nice to yourself or else you will not succeed

and don't go on any crazy fad diet !

exercise more and cut out sugary ,white floury foods

you can do it !

[Painted Eyes]

Originally Posted by invisiblehouses

Weighed in yesterday morning. For about the fourth week in a row, I have now either gained or lost the same two damn pounds. Yesterday it was "gained." I was back up to 272.9.

I am officially sick of those two pounds, along with about 70 or so of their friends. Yadda, yadda, grateful for the lessons being overweight has taught me, etc. etc.; it's time for 'em to go.

I know there are some people here who have gone from "fit" to "incredibly fit," but who has experience going from "quite large" to "in pretty decent physical shape?"

I'm 6'1" and broad-shouldered, so even though my weight may seem very high, I'm not built like a Biggest Loser contestant; I look more like a strapping not-quite-young-per-se lad with a large stomach. I actually like to exercise, I just traditionally fail to make it a habit.

Running is out of the question for a while, though; I have gout, and though it's well-controlled with medication at the moment, I'm not interested in pressing my luck just yet. Trauma DOES cause attacks, I don't care what the doctor says. I'll get a blood draw this summer and see what my serum levels are, and then we'll see about running.

I'm not a weight loss guru, but I thought I could provide to you my personal experience in losing weight.

I started at about 250lbs (6ft tall) feeling lazy all the time and with no motivation to lose the weight. I was almost conditioned so that I thought I wasn't really "that" overweight, but when looking at the stats and discovering I was considered not only overweight, but "obese", I decided I had to do something about it. There are a few things I believe contributed to my success:

-Having the support and motivation of someone who also had to lose about the same amount of weight (irl)
-Becoming employed in a physically intensive job
-Refusing to purchase pre-made meals and instead opting for only fruits/veggies/white meat/breads
-Always choosing the stairs and jogging when I could have walked

I also made my goals public, posting in these forums the weight I wanted to be on certain dates. Sometimes I would fall behind, but having those expectations made me aware of when I was falling behind, and I would take it a step further with going to the gym or watching more closely the size of each meal.

I never calorie-counted, but I bought a scale and weighed myself every morning. I wouldn't mark these weigh-ins down, instead they kept me in the know so that I could adjust accordingly.

Having someone who was also losing weight was certainly encouraging, as at some points it was almost competitive to see who could lose the most in a certain time period.

I also think it would have been much more difficult if I didn't work in a physically intensive job. Having that allowed me to expend calories during the day, and if you don't have that, I suppose you would have to be more disciplined in going for a jog or bike ride every night.

It doesn't have to be complicated, and eventually this sort of lifestyle became the norm for me. I would hardly be concious of the fact that I was losing weight after a while.

Over the course of the year, I lost 70lbs, bringing me to my current 180lbs. I would still like to lose a bit more, and add some muscle - this is where I'm finding it difficult, since I've plateaued around this weight and need to change things up.

I guess my overall advice would be to leave the sweat for the treadmill, not the details.

[ssandra]

Originally Posted by Kahuna

@ssandra:"Right now I'm 66,6 kilo's (as of this morning ) which is the thinnest that I've been since a few years."
Maybe it`s time for a new avatar with your new presence?

My avatar picture is about 5 years old But I still look more or less the same. I'll try and find a more recent picture one of these days...

usually my face doesn't change much when my weight changes. A little bit when I was 85 kilo's (which was about 10 years ago), but not much.

It is more my hips and stomach that change in size.