I think that's 25 people which is amazing. I'm excited to see all this interest and looking forward to hearing about progress.
Reminder that if you're doing your post Thanksgiving grocery shopping this weekend,
the best way to keep yourself from eating junk and drinking too much booze is to not have it in the house. Start thinking about healthy, low calorie meals and snacks that you enjoy.
(Bulletin Board material)
For people who don't diet often or don't necessarily have a plan, there's a few good options that seem to work well for people.
Low carb/keto diets work well for a lot of guys because you can see quick improvements, you get to eat lots of delicious meat and you can have some types of booze in moderation. I can't do it - I don't like cutting out crunchy foods which are all high carbs. There's a lot you should learn about before starting keto for the first time to do it safely.
(I'm with BF on this, not a good one for MoP but I know many who go this way and see success early which can be a motivator)
Intermittent fasting(EXPLOIT) works great for a lot of people too. 8 hours of eating, 16 hours of fasting- so you might eat your first meal at 10 and finish dinner by 6 and then not touch a bite the rest of the night. There's also 5:2 fasting which is 5 days of eating and 2 days of nearly (but not totally) going without food. A couple hundred calories for the day gets you your whole caloric deficit for the week, as long as you're eating normally the rest of the week you should see results. Again, not for me. (
The Obesity Code) is a good book on all of this.
I do CICO - measuring Calories In vs Calories Out. I use the free myfitnesspal app or you can go to
http://www.myfitnesspal.com and learn about it. They have an enormous database of foods including restaurant foods so if you get a slice of pizza from a local chain restaurant you can type in the name and probably find out how many calories it has. They have a bar code scanner too so you can find foods without typing anything in. It really is super easy to use and it's changed my life. I will talk about how I use it a lot, so if you're interested in trying it out you can follow me. (
I heavily endorse this as well. Started doing it during Covid onset and have done it previously in my life but not with as much commitment as I have with the "Otis Group")
I'm also doing a combination of running, rowing, bodyweight exercises and yoga. I like burning extra calories each day because I let myself eat whatever extra I earn. That's very motivating for me but some people prefer to just keep their calorie goal higher and use their exercise to lose weight.
If you find an approach that works for you, more power to you. I would love to hear about it. It helps me to get better and it might help someone else here too. But don't just trust random people on the internet like me. I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Consult your doctor before beginning this or any diet or exercise program. Check forums like r/loseit and read their
quick start guide for ideas. There are a ton of free resources for people who are trying this out for the first time in a while.
Good luck fellow fatties. We can do this together.
thankfully, the kidney stones were a rare occurrence. the gout was not. prior to finding out about the kidney issue(they're connected) i went through a 3 year period where, i was having attacks, way too often.
my kid's 14 and using her text speak, always cracks me up. you have my number, feel free to call. or ask me anything on here. and check out the otis thread on here. lotta dudes, working their way through getting older, and not wanting to get fatter. 
