Dear Diary: 370 to 228 (and hopefully to 186)

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kiramon

New member
I am posting this in the diary section so I can keep my Before and In-Between thread a little cleaner, as I tend to ramble on there, and I guess I shouldn't! So I'll do it here :).





Backstory

I have been working on losing weight since oh sometime around last August.

I started off at a measly (lol) 370 pounds at 6'1" and 24 years old. I lost some weight just through a general increase in activity, eating way more salad and no fast food, and walking daily for several hours at a time (woops :p). After the winter, during which I walked mostly to my college and up the stairs instead of taking the elevators, I ended up at a nice 280 pounds. :)

When the Summer started, I tried my hand at walking, running, and interval stuff. I went from 280 to 260 relatively quickly, but then I kinda stopped losing anything. After that, I got a great offer from a friend to go to the gym, so I started to do that. My workout schedule is 2 hours every morning M-F, though the gym doesn't contain cardio. I lost very little weight from doing the gym stuff -- but I also began to do my own funsies, which means I started Rollerblading (what a nerd) for 1.5-3 hours two times a day, along with the occasional walking and general activity increase -- as in, I'm home for maybe 3 hours a day that doesn't include sleeping time, lol. I lost 30 pounds during this time, which brings me to today...

Today I weigh around 228 pounds, although most people are like baffled by that number. I feel (and I think I always will feel) way bigger than I am, though I know I certainly am not tiny, lol. I know I have some loose skin on my arms, and I'm pretty sure I have some on my stomach, though it's not all that bad there, but it's definitely not normal fat. I also still have an extra chin or something that makes me look like a goose from the side. :p

Anyways, I still rollerblade and go to the gym. I have begun to eat more because I got yelled at for not eating enough (and thus having very little gains in the gym). My arms have gotten slightly bigger ;). I still eat relatively way too little (and I am sure most people would tell me to eat more, as I'm probably at about 1000 calories less than I should be eating daily...). I don't eat so little because I'm trying to lose weight, now, though -- it's just become habit. Probably another bad one like overeating... I fill in most of the calories now with protein shakes.


ANYWHO.


The Nightmare
I still have really big man-boobs. Urgh. They haunt me. My friend was actually commenting that it might be gynecomastia and not just fat, though I don't know. He thinks they should be smaller by my weight than they are right now. Ugh. My chest area is my largest area (and it makes finding shirts hard...), and it's not cuz I have a manly chest -- definitely booby, lol. I went from a 54 inch pant to a 36, and 4XL shirts to 1X (mostly the boobs lol).


I still rollerblade, I still go to the gym. But I am no longer losing any weight. I have been at 228 for 3 weeks now, and it's not budging. My original goal at the start of the summer (when I was 280) was 225, but I feel like I should be able to at least go down some in a month. My ultimate goal is 170, though my more realistic goal is 186.




Catching Up With Today (9/7/2011)

Today was an interesting day :(



School started, so my day consisted of waking up at 6:45, going to the gym at 8:15 and finishing at 10. Then I showered and headed to school, where I park in the parking structure which is about a 15 minute walk from my class. I ended up walking to my car and to class a total of 4 times, and then I kept going up to the 4th floor via the stairs, which I 'run' up and down, 3 times. I also pretty much walked all over campus :p. Unfortunately that is pretty much all of the exercise I got today, because it's nasty and rainy out X_x. I feel like crap not being able to do anything... grr.



The highlight of my day: Fitting into the desks with PLENTY of room to spare. I used to feel so bad about the desks because I was always right at the edge (they are like high school one sided desks), and I wondered how the other people had so much room. I had a ton and they were comfortable (they used to be super uncomfortable for me).







The negatives of my day: I saw an overweight guy squeeze into a desk in the back corner of a room because there were no chairs for the bigger desks with the wheel out chairs. I felt really bad and wanted to go into the other room to get a chair for him so he could at least be a little more comfortable, but the class was full, and I didn't want to embarrass him. :( I don't know if I should have gotten a chair or not.



The other big negative is about me. Aside from the fact that today I ate more than I usually do (I ate a 'normal' amount of calories for someone losing weight, which is way more than I typically ate and it makes me feel like a pig. I hate like 1900 calories today as opposed to my typical [1000 calories under normal calorie consumption levels]. It just feels like I ate too much, even though I know it wasn't actually that much. It depresses me.


I also came home and saw my giant man boobs in the mirror and instantly felt like I hadn't accomplished anything thus far. I know everyone in my life keeps seeing changes, and I can see some too obviously, but when I see the moobs it just feels like I haven't done anything at all. They are so haunting and just... ugh. Why are they so big and so.. droopy lol. What I would give to have the chest of a 'man.'



It's supposed to rain all the next few days, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do for exercise. I could go to the gym and go on the treadmills and stuff, but that's so boring that I'd almost rather go in the rain. All I knows is, it's getting really hard to keep doing so much and seeing so little happen in return. I wonder what's stopping me from losing my last 40 pounds...
 
Mm


Another Rainy day.


Oatmeal breakfast,

Protein Shake,

2 Slices of Pizza (Yup, I fail)


We'll see what I eat for dinner, but it likely won't be much :p.


Did normal activity today, up stairs, down stairs, walk to and from car, run around campus. Expect to go walking later maybe run or some other stuff if its been dry out for a while.
 
First of all..... GREAT JOB so far!!!!!!!


Second.... I know how you feel about "feeling" bigger than you are! I am like that too. My wife bought me some new shirts... size large! I told her... um although I appreciate it dear, I wear an XL. After some convincing, I tried them on and they fit!


You are doing great! Keep up the GREAT JOB that you are doing..... I am pulling for ya!
 
Originally Posted by iq_rider


First of all..... GREAT JOB so far!!!!!!!



Second.... I know how you feel about "feeling" bigger than you are! I am like that too. My wife bought me some new shirts... size large! I told her... um although I appreciate it dear, I wear an XL. After some convincing, I tried them on and they fit!



You are doing great! Keep up the GREAT JOB that you are doing..... I am pulling for ya!
Click to expand...



Thanks for the reply and encouragement!


I';m really sleepy today so I think I have to nap lol
 
Brother comes over today and is like 'hey try this shirt on.' It's a large, and of course I know I won't fit into it. Not because it's a large, but because it's a Large... dress-type shirt (the long sleeve button up) from Buckle, where everything is made small. But he insists, so I do.


Low and behold it's too tight (well, tighter than I would ever wear). Annnnnnd he goes 'I don't know how you're still so fat.'




Feeling pretty fat right now.
 
I went for a run last night. Was fun. Ran the entire mile pretty quickly.


Not bad for not running in 3 months.
 
Running in the morning.

Rollerblading after that.

Will go running later assuming this rain cloud above us keeps moving.


Scale moved down 2 pounds. Wee. :D Change. <3
 
So today was okay


Food

Breakfast: Oatmeal

Lunch: A bowl of broccoli (I was actually hungry for broccoli :eek:)

Dinner: Hamburger (X() and noodles


Morning: Ran for a mile

Afternoon: Rollerbladed

Night: Walked -> Ran for a mile


And then the Food went right through me, lol.
 
ARollerblading definitely sounds fun, though I must admit I haven't seen anyone doing it in years :D

What is (X() if its an emoticon, then I guess I haven't seen em all , which is surprising considering the amount of time i spend on forums :p
 
Hah i've seen a few people rollerblading besides myself... emphasis on a few.


it was an emoticon inside ( ) lol
 
The funniest thing about rollerblading is all the little kids look at you and have no idea what is on your feet lol
 
Breakfast: Oatmeal 180 calories?

Lunch: Broccoli. No this wasn't planned. It's so good lol. 100 Calories

Dinner: MANWICH lol (who knows)


Total Calories today: Not near enough. :(



Roller bladed, ran a mile then ran home from park.



News: Down to 224~.Which is amazing because I've been stuck at 228 for so long :D:D
 
Oatmeal

Broccoli

Rice stuff my parents made


Roller Bladed, ran a mile then ran home from park.


Scale is becoming an enemy!
 
Hi Kiramon, I can't remember if I ever commented on this already in another thread, I think I intended to but lost the post mid-typing for some reason, anyway...regarding the man boobs, have you tried tension (weight) training?


As I understand it, when you diet (especially if you lose weight quickly) a lot of that weight you're losing is actually lean body mass, lean body mass is pretty much anything that's not fat, a lot of which is muscle. Remember the goal of "weight loss" is really "fat loss", you don't want to be losing lean body mass. It sounds like you've had quite a strict calorie limit (about 1000 cals?), it may have been a bit too low.


What happens with a really low calorie diet is your bodies starvation response kicks in and your metabolism shifts to compensate, the amount of calories your body naturally burns per day starts to go down, so your NET calorie deficit actually starts to drop, your body also starts to burn off muscle to provide more energy which is why you start losing lean body mass.


What this means is that the percentage of body mass which is fat doesn't decrease as fast but your overall size does, leaving you with more fat for your body type/size than you'd normally have, I think this is what leads to man boobs.


What you need to start doing is building some of that muscle back, I'd first recommend that you increase the calories you're taking in to at LEAST 1300 per day, I'm currently at about 1550 and trying not to go too much lower than the 1600 minimum recommended for men. Be prepared to see some bad effects on your weight loss for a few weeks, with your metabolism suppressed the net deficit might be zero, you might even put on a little weight, but you need your metabolism to straighten out a bit, it should normalize after a while and you'll return to losing weight and be in a position to gain some muscle.


To put on some muscle make sure to have a decent amount of protein in your diet, I actually spend a large amount of my calories on meat, quite a lot of red meat (I love rib eye steak SO MUCH!), I'd recommend getting some cheap weights, I bought a pair of dumbells for very cheap, they don't need to be high quality or anything, I started on something like 7-8kg on each arm and now I'm up to about 15kg all on one bar. Work on your upper body I just do real basic curls and variations of that, it's nothing complex at all just aim for something like 3 sets of 10 reps with a brief break in between, if it's too easy add more weight. Always give yourself a day rest in between workouts, you need to give yourself a full day to let your muscles recover, and be prepared to ache a lot the first week or so of doing it, that gets easier the more you do it.


Another thing to keep in mind is that muscle is much more dense than fat and you don't need to build much muscle to put on weight so if you're working out a lot then your weight loss is going to seem to slow down because of it, at this point you'll start finding that weight (as a measurement) on its own becomes a bad measure of progress because you'll notice things like you'll be dropping size in your clothes but with little to no weight loss, your overall weight is dropping much slower but the proportions of that weight are being changed, it's being converted from fat to lean body mass, the man boobs should start to go down and working on the arms also works your shoulders and chest and some of that loose skin will be filled in with muscle.


I've been working on my arms ever since I started my weight loss and they're really starting to look good now, my weight loss seems painfully slow at times but I know that I'm not incurring this sort of debt as I lose weight where body composition is too much fat, and I've managed to avoid man boobs thus far :)
 
Hey thanks


I've actually been working out at the gym pretty heavily on the weights (as in no cardio) for 3 months now -- M-F 8-10 am, I had already lost around 100 pounds when I started, though... so yeah.


My calorie intake has become sorta just my routine; I don't try to eat so little calories, it's just what I end up eating. I don't really know how to fill it up. I'm not exactly well-off in money, and I don't have tons of food sitting around ready to be eaten.



Some days I eat meat (when I go over my parents' house and they make something lol) like Steak and other good meat, but most of the time I don't have that luxury. I've been at a much better calorie ratio (though I was still told I don't eat enough for proper muscle gains), mostly because I was having 2 protein shakes a day which were filling in the difference.


I didn't really lose any weight during that, but my arms got better :p
 
Hey there! You are doing awesome! Actually having a 1900 calorie day or a few is probably good for you to get over plateaus. Bumping up calories (not too high but an increase) then going back down can help so your body doesn't get adjusted and stuck at only burning 1000. As for rollerblading that's not dorky it's cool! :hurray:

I think it's more motivating to have fun while exercising... to me a gym gets really boring, I like to be outdoors. :) Reserve your right to play like the kids who think you're crazy for being an adult rollerblading it keeps you young!!!


Oh and I also quit fast food and it helped me lose weight.... and I'm never going back because I want to keep it off. SO HIGH FiVE to a FellOW FAST FOOD QUITER (Clean off fast food since May 2009)
 
lol I'll try increasing my calories for a bit and then going back down again, lol but it scares me :p


I had like 1500 today so yeah. lol
 
AEat what you feel comfortable with man. "Starvation mode" is a myth...not so much that it is fake but the effect is greatly exaggerated. As long as you don't start blacking out or anything you should be fine.
 
Originally Posted by Daybehavior

Eat what you feel comfortable with man. "Starvation mode" is a myth...not so much that it is fake but the effect is greatly exaggerated. As long as you don't start blacking out or anything you should be fine.
Click to expand...


It's not a myth, it's a well documented natural body process - see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation_response



It's just that most people don't understand it very well. It's not some response like an allergic response where your body all of a sudden switches gears, it's a slow change over time, you're slowly training your metabolism to survive off less calories on average and it makes up the difference by burning off lean body tissue like muscle for energy.


It takes a while to recover from, the most common approach i've read is to eat your daily maintenance for about a week (about 2500 for a man), during this time you're going to put on some weight because your body doesn't switch back immediately, it's the price you pay for having a bad diet I'm afraid, suck it up. Then you can return to a calorie deficit of something like 1600 calories and you'll go back to losing weight.


I know it seems counter intuitive but you have to understand that simply going less and less calories isn't sustainable. Remember it's the calorie DEFICIT that matters that means both your input of food AND the outgoing matters, it actually matters how your body is burning calories, if your body slows down in response to starvation then you're basically making your goal harder and harder to hit until eventually it's impossible.




Originally Posted by kiramon



I've actually been working out at the gym pretty heavily on the weights (as in no cardio) for 3 months now -- M-F 8-10 am, I had already lost around 100 pounds when I started, though... so yeah.



My calorie intake has become sorta just my routine; I don't try to eat so little calories, it's just what I end up eating. I don't really know how to fill it up. I'm not exactly well-off in money, and I don't have tons of food sitting around ready to be eaten.



Some days I eat meat (when I go over my parents' house and they make something lol) like Steak and other good meat, but most of the time I don't have that luxury. I've been at a much better calorie ratio (though I was still told I don't eat enough for proper muscle gains), mostly because I was having 2 protein shakes a day which were filling in the difference.



I didn't really lose any weight during that, but my arms got better :p
Click to expand...


I know it's routine and routine is hard to break, that's what made us fat in the first place we had bad routines which caused us to eat more than we need and we couldn't break from it, you have to understand that while you can eat too much you can also eat to little and that doing either routinely is bad, you have to learn moderation.


Honestly you shouldn't have any excuses, you can get meat and other source of protein cheaply, it doesn't have to be an expensive rib eye steak, you can get chicken and mince incredibly cheaply. Your body needs a decent amount of protein to build muscle, weight lifting without a decent amount of protein is pointless, you also suppress muscle gain with a very low calorie diet, your body is burning off muscle to make up the additional calories it needs so you're essentially treading water there.


Raise your calories up back to maintenance for about a week or 10 days, you want to be eating a good 2500 per day, it doesn't matter if you don't feel like eating, don't make any excuses just trust me and do it. You'll gain weight during this period but tough luck it's necessary to correct your diet. Once that's done, drop back down to a more reasonable daily calorie limit I suggest 1600 calories which should give you the better part of a 2lb a week loss if maintained.


You need to learn moderation, not just to correct your diet now but also so you can safely come off your diet when you reach your target weight, remember you're eating for a loss right now but you'll need to learn how to eat your daily maintenance when you reach your goal weight, so you have to be able to change your diet and not be a slave to routine.
 
ALet me clarify....Yes, the starvation mechanism does exist. However, the impact and effect of this process is greatly exaggerated, as I mentioned above. Many people are under the impression that your body will shut down or drastically reduce its metabolic function after a day or week of eating a restricted calorie diet. This is simply not true. The fact is that the greatest recorded reduction in BMR is 40%, which occurred during the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. And this was after around six months of eating below baseline calories.

It would take a very extensive time period before your BMR suffers to a great degree due to under cutting your calories. Granted, I'm not suggesting anyone starve themselves but I think there is a lot of fear mongering and alarmism in the weight loss circles.
 
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