Awesome.
Fred what’s yours goal weight and how tall are you?
Sure. I wasn't going to do this yet but I'm good with it.
I mentioned before that I was fat and had terrible willpower. In 2008, I ran a half marathon at about 235 lbs. After that, I was around 240 to 250 for years, but after having a kid i started to creep up past 250. I told myself that I was in the high 240s, or that i now weighed 250, as i went up. Even when I broke 260, I still saw myself as 250 but with a bit of a fluctuation recently. Then when my brother died a couple years ago, I broke 270, crept into the high 270s, and i was in a bad way. I started to get health issues. Nothing serious, thankfully, but my body was not healthy.
I decided to do a biggest loser bet with a friend of mine who was also struggling with his weight, and we both decided to lose 35 lbs. I had one last binge day on my brother's birthday (june 10th) and I took a picture on June 21st, after my big blowout it said I weighed 284.6. That was it for me. By October last year, I had lost about 40 pounds doing nothing but calorie counting. I didn't try to eat healthy foods, I had plenty of pizza, buffalo chicken and takeout food, but I tracked them closely and went from run walking a minute or two of running then walking, then another couple minutes of running, then walking, to being able to run a mile, then a couple miles.
I maintained most of that weight loss through the holidays, got a gym membership and started to run further and faster. I was running a 5k, then a faster 5k, then 5 miles, and also rowing and adding in a little weight lifting, although I didn't really have a plan. I learned about body recomposition and decided that it made sense to improve my fitness level. Then the pandemic hit, and I started to get more serious. My weight went from the high 240s to about 242 as I gave up booze. This was when we were talking about some of those monthly challenges like tracking calories. Lent ended and I started drinking again, and my weight bounced up a pound or two, but not too bad. Then I got a bad case of poison iivy and it messed me up. I couldn't run, the sweat made me itch like crazy. I could barely sleep. I started drinking heavier just to fall asleep, and my weight went into the higher 240s. But I got back to it, was able to get running again, and got myself into the low 240s.
On August 23rd when you and I agreed to give up drinking and go on a serious diet, I weighed 242 and change.
This morning I weighed in at 226.8, and I'm 3.5 weeks away from my two month "stretch goal" of 220, which will put me at 65 lbs down from my peak. Then I will switch to maintenance mode and put a couple pounds back on. I am not planning to stay under 220 during this time.
My next goal is not weight loss, but body recomposition. I will continue the pushups and focus on my core, because losing a lot of weight means extra skin unless you give it time to shrink to fit and fill it up with some muscle. So far, I think it's working- my chest looks a lot better with all the pushups, and I have gone from really fat to fat, and from fat down to a heavier dad bod, but my after picture looks a lot like otherdad'sbefore pictures. I would be comfortable shirtless at the beach now compared with where I was a year and a half ago. I know it's gross to talk about but I've been using firming lotion on my gut, which is about 90 percent bull#### but helps a little, i use my hypervolt/theragun on my low belly to break up the fat because I saw a study that suggested that it actually helps with the appearance of loose skin, and I'm going to switch gears to the two things that are shown to work, strength training and gradual weight loss - not losing more than 10 percent of your weight at a time, then taking a few weeks or months off to let your skin adjust.
So between now and Christmas, if i can stay under 225, I'll be happy. I am already the lowest I've been in years, and while I'd love to cross the finish line now, I actually really don't want to. I'll set a new goal like 210 by 2/10, or 215 by 2/15, making a hard push of about 10 or 15 lbs, not 20 plus. And then level out, and make another push to get under 200. And then decide. 184.6 by June 21st would be awesome, just to say I did an even 100 in 2 years. And if i can lose 20 plus in two months, I should be able to do the final 35 in the next 8 months. But I'm more interested in the health and aesthetics, and some light strength training combined with gradual weight loss is my best hope for getting there. So I'll have to see how my body is responding.
For guys who are in that 50 plus, 80 plus, 100 plus overweight range, I would strongly recommend learning as much as possible about these things Ilike did so you can make a plan that works for you.