Cantona
New member
**EDIT: UPDATE: Me in my old Jeans are on page 4 of this thread...**
If you’re reading this then I assume you are either on a diet, have been on a diet or thinking about going on a diet. And if you are reading this, you probably just want to see the pictures. I know having read through this part of the forum that you just want to see the results. Well if you’re just after the pictures skip down to the bottom of this post and you can see them for yourself. If you have any interest in how I got here or the story behind it, then feel free to carry on reading.
Hello, I'm Cantona, I'm 23, 5 foot 7 (or 8 on a good day) and I used to be very very fat.
BACKGROUND
I’ve been fat all my life. That is a cliché that gets said on this forum a lot, I have noticed, but it’s very true for me. I can remember being quite a chunky 8/9 year old and ever since then it’s only got worse.
Even though I was a fat child and teenager, I wasn’t depressed. I was quite happy being fat, apart from being repulsive to girls (although, this only bothered me when I had reached about 15/16). Believe it or not I never got bullied at school. When I say I wasn’t bullied, I mean no name calling or anything. It was odd, but I guess I was fairly popular. As crazy as it sounds; a part of me wishes I had been. Maybe if I’d been bullied I would have forced myself to make these changes earlier.
I don’t know how to justify how I became fat. Obviously there is no justification to being fat (probably) but it’s difficult for me to look back and pinpoint a moment when it happened. In my family growing up I had two sisters and my parents. None were massively fat, one sister was slightly larger than average. My dad got much bigger as he got more ill. But both my parents were young and slim when I was born and when I was a young child.
I didn’t live in a strict house; I wasn’t really told what I could and couldn’t eat. So being a child/teenager, I’d go to the cupboard and get snacks after school, chocolate, crisps etc and sit down in front of the TV before eating dinner. I didn’t eat healthily at all, no vegetables or fruit to speak of (or rarely).
By the time I was 13, my dad was of the opinion that a can of lager with Sunday dinner would teach me to respect alcohol more, rather than going crazy with it when I was older. This probably didn’t help my weight. By the time I was 15 I’d started wearing XL t-shirts and it only got worse.
This continued on until I was in 6th form at school (17 years old). I’d gone through stages as a teenager of being quite fat, then growing taller a bit, so I looked less fat, then eating more food to make me fatter again. Because nobody ever said anything to me, I never really felt fat. Sure, I knew I WAS fat, it was obvious, I’m not an idiot. I never liked what I saw in the mirror, but I didn’t really care.
By the time I got to 6th form, my diet had got even worse. I was going to the local shop every day for lunch and just eating junk, absolute rubbish. More and more crisps, chocolate and sandwiches. It was also at this period in my life I really discovered alcohol, the problem with educating a child on alcohol at a younger age is that they get a tolerance to it, so I could drink a fair bit more than other mates, this twinned with my size also meant that it took me more beers to get drunk. I’d be drinking quite heavily on Friday or Saturdays, sometimes both each week. The XL t-shirts suddenly got a bit stretched and new XXL t-shirts were required. I didn’t question this or myself, I just changed up as if it was normal.
After 6th form, university came along. The summer in between school and university my dad died. I don’t recall eating more in this period, I probably did drink a lot more though. My sister moved back with her partner and child due to circumstances out of their control. This meant each meal time became a sort of family gathering. For a while drink came with each dinner time. It was before I went to university that I moved up to XXXL t-shirts. Again you’d think that this would be a warning to me, but I just carried on. I was slightly scared of the impending 4XL shirts down the line, but unwilling to do anything about it.
I went to university and that life style really didn’t agree with my weight. As a student being lazy and drunk is the norm. As the other people around you eat rubbish and drink far too much, it’s hard to go against the grain. You need amazing will power to eat well normally, but when you’re living with other young people doing the opposite of what you should eat and drink, it’s difficult.
In first year university we lived quite far away from shops and food places, so I actually ate a bit better in first year as I think about it. Which is scary, because I ate a lot of rubbish. Getting drunk on lager 3 or 4 times a week didn’t help either.
By the time the second year came, we got ourselves a house. The house was in the middle of the city, right by all the KFC’s, Subways and kebab houses. I’d go through stages of cooking actual food and through stages of just eating takeaways. In the third year certainly, I went weeks with just eating takeaways for lunch and dinner and even having a “snack” of a sandwich meal deal from Tesco with a couple of packets of crisps and couple of cans of coke at around 5 o’clock. In the third year I also spent most nights drunk. I really went off the rails, drinking for no reason, seldom alone. If there was a football game on, I’d drink. Friday or Saturday night, I’d drink. Random trips to the pub/theatre/cinema/pool hall, I’d drink. I’m not sure if I was an alcoholic, but having spoken to some mates about it now, they thought I was going that way.
The nights with all the drinking also had the snacks to go with it. If I think of any time I drank, it would certainly have lots of crisps or salty snacks involved. It’s hard for me to think about how much food I actually ate during my late teens and very early twenties. If I went to the pub with mates, I’d always have something rubbish on the way home. I even remember doing this a couple of times: Leaving the pub hammered off my face at 11pm, having been there since midday sometimes. I’d then go in the first takeaway place as I walk home, order a burger and chips and walk along the road as I found a Subway. Having finished my burger and chips I then would order a footlong Subway. I’d eat that as I continued home. I’d then go to KFC having finished the Subway and order something else. Sometimes I’d have been sick in between these stops. Other times I’d jut eat for no reason other than because I could.
Throughout my life I’d hide how much I’d eat from other people. I’d get comments occasionally on how little I eat and how the hell I was the size I was. It’s all part of the obsession with food. Being greedy, but knowing that being greedy is wrong.
After the third year of uni, I went on a work placement (this ended in August just gone). I chose to live at home and work near my home rather than university. This was a cost issue rather than anything else. I think living at home this year has really helped. I would never have cut the weight down living with my mates.
I couldn’t tell you how much I weighed before last October. I know that I weighed myself when I was about 18 and I was about 18 stone. I think I basically weighed the same as my age in stone, quite bad.
It isn’t until I’ve gone through my lifestyle change that I can look back on how poor my life was. It felt normal to me.
HOW DID MY WEIGHT CHANGE COME ABOUT?
During the summer of 2009 I spent it learning to drive. I live in the middle of nowhere, so finding a job was made more difficult because I couldn’t get anywhere. After spending a few months sat on my arse everyday, I decided to go out for a walk to cure some boredom. I’d seen Stephen Fry on TV, after having lost quite a bit of weight, saying he did it by walking and listening to audiobooks. I went on itunes and found some good podcasts, downloaded them and went for some walks. I started going for one everyday, and was feeling pretty good in myself. It was when I started doing this I decided to try and eat a bit better, going the whole hog on an actual “diet”.
I did this for a couple of weeks and realised that I needed to weigh myself. If I wanted to make some actual progress, I needed to know what I started at. I stepped on the scales and got a shock. 20 stones 7 lbs. 287 lbs (Although my scales were actually broken, so in reality it was 21 stones. 294 lbs). I worked hard and got myself down to 20 stones 7 lbs. I had my driving test and failed. I went mental that night, started drinking and ate loads. I mean A LOT. I don’t think I can convey how much I ate and drank. But when I tell you that the next DAY I’d put on 7lbs, that probably covers it.
So I carried on walking. I didn’t say “never again” to the bad food and alcohol, but I certainly said “not for a while”. I took it up to 3 walks a day. I’d get up early in the morning, go for a walk, have breakfast, go for another walk, have lunch and then go for another walk.
FAT PICTURES:
Me 2005:
Me 2007:
Me 2008:
Me 2008:
Me 2009:
CONTINUES IN POST 2:
I have far too much to type clearly.
If you’re reading this then I assume you are either on a diet, have been on a diet or thinking about going on a diet. And if you are reading this, you probably just want to see the pictures. I know having read through this part of the forum that you just want to see the results. Well if you’re just after the pictures skip down to the bottom of this post and you can see them for yourself. If you have any interest in how I got here or the story behind it, then feel free to carry on reading.
Hello, I'm Cantona, I'm 23, 5 foot 7 (or 8 on a good day) and I used to be very very fat.
BACKGROUND
I’ve been fat all my life. That is a cliché that gets said on this forum a lot, I have noticed, but it’s very true for me. I can remember being quite a chunky 8/9 year old and ever since then it’s only got worse.
Even though I was a fat child and teenager, I wasn’t depressed. I was quite happy being fat, apart from being repulsive to girls (although, this only bothered me when I had reached about 15/16). Believe it or not I never got bullied at school. When I say I wasn’t bullied, I mean no name calling or anything. It was odd, but I guess I was fairly popular. As crazy as it sounds; a part of me wishes I had been. Maybe if I’d been bullied I would have forced myself to make these changes earlier.
I don’t know how to justify how I became fat. Obviously there is no justification to being fat (probably) but it’s difficult for me to look back and pinpoint a moment when it happened. In my family growing up I had two sisters and my parents. None were massively fat, one sister was slightly larger than average. My dad got much bigger as he got more ill. But both my parents were young and slim when I was born and when I was a young child.
I didn’t live in a strict house; I wasn’t really told what I could and couldn’t eat. So being a child/teenager, I’d go to the cupboard and get snacks after school, chocolate, crisps etc and sit down in front of the TV before eating dinner. I didn’t eat healthily at all, no vegetables or fruit to speak of (or rarely).
By the time I was 13, my dad was of the opinion that a can of lager with Sunday dinner would teach me to respect alcohol more, rather than going crazy with it when I was older. This probably didn’t help my weight. By the time I was 15 I’d started wearing XL t-shirts and it only got worse.
This continued on until I was in 6th form at school (17 years old). I’d gone through stages as a teenager of being quite fat, then growing taller a bit, so I looked less fat, then eating more food to make me fatter again. Because nobody ever said anything to me, I never really felt fat. Sure, I knew I WAS fat, it was obvious, I’m not an idiot. I never liked what I saw in the mirror, but I didn’t really care.
By the time I got to 6th form, my diet had got even worse. I was going to the local shop every day for lunch and just eating junk, absolute rubbish. More and more crisps, chocolate and sandwiches. It was also at this period in my life I really discovered alcohol, the problem with educating a child on alcohol at a younger age is that they get a tolerance to it, so I could drink a fair bit more than other mates, this twinned with my size also meant that it took me more beers to get drunk. I’d be drinking quite heavily on Friday or Saturdays, sometimes both each week. The XL t-shirts suddenly got a bit stretched and new XXL t-shirts were required. I didn’t question this or myself, I just changed up as if it was normal.
After 6th form, university came along. The summer in between school and university my dad died. I don’t recall eating more in this period, I probably did drink a lot more though. My sister moved back with her partner and child due to circumstances out of their control. This meant each meal time became a sort of family gathering. For a while drink came with each dinner time. It was before I went to university that I moved up to XXXL t-shirts. Again you’d think that this would be a warning to me, but I just carried on. I was slightly scared of the impending 4XL shirts down the line, but unwilling to do anything about it.
I went to university and that life style really didn’t agree with my weight. As a student being lazy and drunk is the norm. As the other people around you eat rubbish and drink far too much, it’s hard to go against the grain. You need amazing will power to eat well normally, but when you’re living with other young people doing the opposite of what you should eat and drink, it’s difficult.
In first year university we lived quite far away from shops and food places, so I actually ate a bit better in first year as I think about it. Which is scary, because I ate a lot of rubbish. Getting drunk on lager 3 or 4 times a week didn’t help either.
By the time the second year came, we got ourselves a house. The house was in the middle of the city, right by all the KFC’s, Subways and kebab houses. I’d go through stages of cooking actual food and through stages of just eating takeaways. In the third year certainly, I went weeks with just eating takeaways for lunch and dinner and even having a “snack” of a sandwich meal deal from Tesco with a couple of packets of crisps and couple of cans of coke at around 5 o’clock. In the third year I also spent most nights drunk. I really went off the rails, drinking for no reason, seldom alone. If there was a football game on, I’d drink. Friday or Saturday night, I’d drink. Random trips to the pub/theatre/cinema/pool hall, I’d drink. I’m not sure if I was an alcoholic, but having spoken to some mates about it now, they thought I was going that way.
The nights with all the drinking also had the snacks to go with it. If I think of any time I drank, it would certainly have lots of crisps or salty snacks involved. It’s hard for me to think about how much food I actually ate during my late teens and very early twenties. If I went to the pub with mates, I’d always have something rubbish on the way home. I even remember doing this a couple of times: Leaving the pub hammered off my face at 11pm, having been there since midday sometimes. I’d then go in the first takeaway place as I walk home, order a burger and chips and walk along the road as I found a Subway. Having finished my burger and chips I then would order a footlong Subway. I’d eat that as I continued home. I’d then go to KFC having finished the Subway and order something else. Sometimes I’d have been sick in between these stops. Other times I’d jut eat for no reason other than because I could.
Throughout my life I’d hide how much I’d eat from other people. I’d get comments occasionally on how little I eat and how the hell I was the size I was. It’s all part of the obsession with food. Being greedy, but knowing that being greedy is wrong.
After the third year of uni, I went on a work placement (this ended in August just gone). I chose to live at home and work near my home rather than university. This was a cost issue rather than anything else. I think living at home this year has really helped. I would never have cut the weight down living with my mates.
I couldn’t tell you how much I weighed before last October. I know that I weighed myself when I was about 18 and I was about 18 stone. I think I basically weighed the same as my age in stone, quite bad.
It isn’t until I’ve gone through my lifestyle change that I can look back on how poor my life was. It felt normal to me.
HOW DID MY WEIGHT CHANGE COME ABOUT?
During the summer of 2009 I spent it learning to drive. I live in the middle of nowhere, so finding a job was made more difficult because I couldn’t get anywhere. After spending a few months sat on my arse everyday, I decided to go out for a walk to cure some boredom. I’d seen Stephen Fry on TV, after having lost quite a bit of weight, saying he did it by walking and listening to audiobooks. I went on itunes and found some good podcasts, downloaded them and went for some walks. I started going for one everyday, and was feeling pretty good in myself. It was when I started doing this I decided to try and eat a bit better, going the whole hog on an actual “diet”.
I did this for a couple of weeks and realised that I needed to weigh myself. If I wanted to make some actual progress, I needed to know what I started at. I stepped on the scales and got a shock. 20 stones 7 lbs. 287 lbs (Although my scales were actually broken, so in reality it was 21 stones. 294 lbs). I worked hard and got myself down to 20 stones 7 lbs. I had my driving test and failed. I went mental that night, started drinking and ate loads. I mean A LOT. I don’t think I can convey how much I ate and drank. But when I tell you that the next DAY I’d put on 7lbs, that probably covers it.
So I carried on walking. I didn’t say “never again” to the bad food and alcohol, but I certainly said “not for a while”. I took it up to 3 walks a day. I’d get up early in the morning, go for a walk, have breakfast, go for another walk, have lunch and then go for another walk.
FAT PICTURES:
Me 2005:
Me 2007:
Me 2008:
Me 2008:
Me 2009:
CONTINUES IN POST 2:
I have far too much to type clearly.
Last edited:
