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PowerSauce
New Member
| Joined: | 12 Jun 2011 |
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| Posts: | 2 |
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Posted: 13 Jun 2011 12:59 am |
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Hi everyone,
Lifelong obesity sufferer here. Tried every diet imaginable from low carb, to caloric restriction, to grazing, to even the gimmicky 17 day diet (I think I got to day 13 or so before I simply couldn't handle the starvation any longer). Currently 26 years of age, 5'9'', 236lbs (on an empty digestive tract in the morning), 46'' around the bulge-iest part of the gut, and looking to lose another 15-25 lbs in the short term (next 3-6 months or so), and even more in the long term (without sacrificing muscle mass and of course not health).
I know, I shouldn't fixate on the numbers too much. But numbers are the simplest way to tell my story. My weight has fluctuated drastically throughout my life. After reaching 220 lbs in the 6th grade, I put myself on my first diet and exercise regime, successfully dropping to 139lbs by the 8th grade. I was perhaps too skinny at this point, for the first and only time in my life so far. Following 8th grade, I went through a slight growth spurt, which combined with poor diet caused me to creep up to about 230 lbs by the 10th grade. By the 12th grade, an extremely poor diet caused me to shoot past 300 lbs.
I continued to struggle with my weight in college, maxing out at 323 lbs in my junior year. I decided that enough was enough, and in the span of 8 months or so I managed to lose a solid 50lbs, dropping to around 270lbs. After graduation, in part due to the dramatic shift in lifestyle that the working world brings, my weight slowly creeped back up to around 280lbs. At this point, I vowed that I would never let myself get to 300lbs again. With the help of a personal trainer, I managed to lose 20lbs and 4 inches or so of belly fat. My personal trainer had me doing a plethora of core exercises combined with regular weight training and moderate to intense cardio.
I plateaued at around 260lbs give or take for another 2 years or so, until the summer before I went back to school, when I rekindled my commitment to losing weight and keeping it off. I dropped another 20lbs somehow (I still to this day don't know how it happened, after plateauing for so long). ...
... And I've been hovering at or around 240lbs ever since. I fear that I've hit a new plateau in my weight loss crusade. My belly fat measurements have been relatively stable as well, if not ever so slightly declining.
I've been trying for the past several months to kick it up a notch and power my way through those pesky remaining pounds in the mid-200s bracket, but it's proven more difficult than I anticipated.
The diet: my diet is by no means perfect, but I would argue that I do a pretty good job keeping it healthy. I make a solid effort to eat plenty of leafy greens and delicious fruits. I also eat lean proteins: my diet is heavy on fish and chicken and virtually devoid of beef and pork, I also eat egg whites for breakfast in the morning and have been integrating tofu into many of my dishes in place of other protein sources. I love Greek yogurt, and have found ways to make the 0% fat plain (no sugar/syrup) stuff palatable (via berries, with dill + cucumbers, etc). I opt for whole grains when I include complex carbs in my diet, but I have deriving most of my carbs from fruits and veggies lately. I enjoy nuts from time to time for healthy omega-3s, but have to be careful with finger foods as I can easily eat way too many of them. I have at least one cup of green tea every day, often after dinner. I try to cook as many of my meals as I can, but often get lazy and end up heading to a convenience store to buy something quick (the WaWa I go to has plenty of healthy options such as sandwiches, salads, etc).
The work out: lately I've been working out 3-4 times/week, often plus one or two extra cardio sessions. My work outs consist of cardio, core exercises, and weight lifting (one day I'll work out primarily the muscles on the front of my body: chest, biceps, deltoids, quads, etc, and the other day I'll work out the muscles on the back of my body: triceps, hamstrings, back, calves, etc). Every day at the gym I do core exercises, consisting of various combinations of decline sit ups, bicycle kicks, leg lifts, planks, and ball exercises. My cardio varies from one day to the next, I try to cross-train as much as I can. One day I'll do sprint intervals on the stationary bike, the next I'll be on the elliptical, and then distance running on the treadmill (I can get to about 3 miles now).
My work out, much like my diet, is by now means perfect, and may be a bit outdated for my present needs (my personal trainer was the one that gave me the idea to spit up my muscle groups into 'front' and 'back' days). I work out alone, so I don't lift to the absolute maximum, but I tend to do 3-4 sets of 15 reps for just about everything I do.
Lately, in order to burn more fat and lose more weight, I've been thinking to try and integrate more sprints into my cardio routine. I may end up cutting back on or modifying my weight lifting routine too. If I cut back on my weight lifting, it would simply be replaced with more cardio. Does that sound reasonable? Do you all have any recommendations?
Well, that's my (brief, but yet not so brief) story! It's nice to join this board, and I look forward to many interesting discussions, and hearing your stories as well!
-PowerSauce
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 13 Jun 2011 10:45 am |
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If you added up your exercise in a typical week, how many hours would that make?
You've talked about the quality of your food but you have not mentioned calories. Do you currently count them? If not, have you counted them in the past?
What did you do when you reached 139lb?
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PowerSauce
New Member
| Joined: | 12 Jun 2011 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 2 |
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Posted: 14 Jun 2011 01:30 pm |
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I virtually starved myself when I got that low. I'd eat pretty much a small bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, a small turkey sandwich on wheat bread with no mayo or cheese for lunch, and usually some 300 calorie or less weight watchers/lean cuisine TV dinner for dinner. How my parents let me get away with this at that age is beyond me.
I also went to the gym to run and lift weights, and those were the days that I still had PE class in school as well.
I don't ever want to get that low again, that was over 10 years ago, and I'd be healthier by dropping just another 40-50 lbs or so.
I don't count calories. It seems like too much of an obsession for me.
All my exercise in a typical week would probably amount to somewhere in the realm of 6-10 hours. Each visit to the gym is about an hour of weights, and an hour of cardio, give or take. And I make it to the gym 3-5 times a week, depending on how busy I am.
Thanks for your input, and hello again :).
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 14 Jun 2011 07:22 pm |
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For fastest results I would aim to consume between 1500 and 2000 calories. It may be possible to still lose whilst eating more but it would be more of a crawl.
There are different practical approaches to achieving low calorie intake. Besides the most direct approach of counting calories, you can simply change the way you eat.
For example, if the majority of food that goes past your lips is vegetables, beans and fruit then it is rather difficult to over-eat. (which brings me to comment on your teenage dieting - when I have been on lower calorie diets in the past I always made sure to base them on low-calorie foods = to avoid HUNGER)
Ultimately it makes sense to use a simple system to monitor what you are eating and only resort to calorie counting to "diagnose" why things are not working, if you get stuck and remain stuck for some time
I worked out that if you lose 50lb your BMI will be 27.5, so your doctor will still be telling you that you're overweight at that point. I guess you can always review whether you want to lose more or not once you get there!
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