Diary of a Big Man.

[JMike]

I weighed myself today. I am 351.4 pounds.

I am 5'11 and active.

I plan on weighing weekly and will give updates

Gonna try to write down what I eat in here every day, I wont lie and I wont omit unless I just couldent get to a PC that day

I round my caloric intake from each food up to the next hundred. If I have to guess I will guess high. No underestimating here. I work third shift so breakfast lunch and dinner come at odd times. I drink nothing but water unless otherwise specified in an entry.

Today:
Breakfast 1 can campbell's chicken noodle soup with 1 can of chicken breast
added + crackers. 700 calories.

Snack: Container of Milk 300 calories.

Lunch: 2 low calorie hot dogs(100 calories each) and 2 buns(100 calories each) no condiments. 400 calories.

Drank an energy drink at work-200 calories.

What I plan to eat before sleeping: 12 raw oysters(got them yesterday, 200 calories) and a 300 calorie TV Dinner.

Total: 2100 calories.
Goal: Keepin it below 3000 till 330 pounds, then I'll assess. May lower at that point.
Total exercise: 20 minutes heavy bag work(cardio)

Edit: Also ate a packet of oatmeal and a teaspoon of peanut butter. + 300 calories.
Also went for a 1 mile jog followed by a 1/2 mile walk.

New total: 2400 calories
Ran one mile.
Walked 1/2 mile.
20 Minutes hitting the heavy bag.

 

[burneeed1]

gl to you, if your the size you are you should prolly aim for 2k calories per day and not 700 calorie meals.. something of less calories but more meals per day so your body digests it faster than something of large quantity.

 

[JMike]

Vegetables

Ok so when I woke up this evening my stomach was roaring so I ate 2 hot dogs.

400 calories.

About 2 hours later I ate a bowl of oyster stew. I am not sure on its calorie content but being that it had 4 cups of whole milk, 1 cup of crackers and about a dozen oysters, I can estimate 800 calories safely without going under.

1200 calories within 3 hours of being awake

I am still gonna stay under 3k today and im considering going down to 2.5k within a week. Its gonna be a rough day for me though. I know my goals should be 2k-2.5k tops but right now im getting there slowly. This is coming from a guy who 2 weeks ago would have eaten the entire pot of stew and regularly ate 2-3k in one meal.

Thats the bad news. The good news is, I ate a vegetable and it wasent as bad as I thought it would be. Seriously, I am a carnivore, if I eat vegetables they are mixed with a meat dish like soup, chili, stew, a pot pie or the entree in a frozen meal.

So there I was at 1 in the morning, I woke up at 7pm, ate 1200 calories and i'm already starving again. Stomach is yelling "EAT EAT EAT!" but there is nothing in my kitchen I can justify eating after my morning screw up. Then I remember I bought an assortment of spiced canned greens with only 1g sugar(collard, kale, mustard, turnip, mixed) I hate greens, hate the smell, the texture, but when I put vinegar on them all that changes and they are great.
Guess what?

No vinegar.

So I was considering going to the store, but I was so freakin hungry I couldent wait that long. I opened the can, smell was horrid, I read the can, 20 calories per serving, 3 servings per can, at 60 calories a can how good can they be? I tasted them cold, horrible. I drained the water, dumped them in a bowl, microwaved..tried them hot..not that bad. After the first 3 bites or so I got used to it and they actually resembled meat. By the time I finished them I was thinking that my old self would go open up another can, and have at it again.

So these greens were good, they weighed in at 3/4 of a pound, with only 60 calories. They have iron, vitamin A, and low sodium. I think I can use these things to help me get through hard patches.

Will tell you how the rest of the day goes after it happens!

6 hours in, 1300 calories already down. 12 hours to go and 1700 to spare.

My maintenance is 3300 by the way, which is why im thinking of dropping to 2500 very soon.

 

[[Focus]1]

BMR != (does not equal) Maintenance calories. Basal metabolic rate refers to the amount of energy you would require to maintain your weight if you did nothing but lie in bed all day.

I put your BMR at 3000. Now we take that number and we multiply it by your activity level, which is probably a 1.55. That gives us 4650 calories for your maintenance. Less 20% is 3720. So at 3720 calories you will lose weight at a nice, healthy, sustainable pace. And you won't wake up starving. So, eat that amount, until your results start to slow. And that will take a long, long time.

Of course there is the question of whether what you think is 3700 calories is actually 3700 calories. But starving yourself doesn't work long term. Not for anyone. Not ever. Especially if you're active. So, don't feel bad about the 3000 you are aiming for. That's already low. Chances are if you make a lot of errors on the side of underestimating (and most people do), that will end up being more like 3500-3750, which will do well for you.

And yes, green vegetables are great to load up on. They're full of nutrients and sparse in calories. The same is true for squashes (including zucchini), cauliflower, eggplant, etc. I'd recommend avoiding tubers (potatoes, sweet potatos/yams, carrots) if you can. If you can manage to make your meats lean and your carbs from vegetable or whole grain sources you will find 3000-3700 calories much more filling than on hot dogs and oyster stew. Just sayin'.

It's a process. Take a little ground, work on keepin' it, take a little more. Before you know it, you'll have conquered it all.

 

[JMike]

Of course there is the question of whether what you think is 3700 calories is actually 3700 calories.

Thanks for the advice, I don't feel so horrible now, and maybe I will stay at 3k for another week or two and see how it goes.

As for the calorie counting, I will have always ate less than what I say. I round up, and I'm brutally honest. My frozen dinners have 260 calories, I count them as 300 each. You'll see that when I added the greens to my total I added 100, not 60. I go up to the next hundred, keeps things simple and keeps me in check in case I do decide for some dumb reason to cheat If it has 110 calories I write down 200, 230=300, etc etc.

 

[JMike]

Ok so I'm going to bed now, here are the final results for the day.

Breakfast: The Oyster Stew/Hot dog incident. 1200 calories.

Snack: Can of greens 100 calories.

Lunch: 2 packets of oatmeal and a teaspoon of peanutbutter. 400 calories.

Dinner/Snack before bed: 1 hot dog+bun. 200 calories.

Total 1900 calories.

Exercise: Walked 1 and 1/2 miles, 20 minutes light heavybag work.(Focus was form, not cardio)

Wow did I really only eat 1900 calories? I'm not hungry, thats crazy.

 

[Kaitie]

Here's a little recipe my hubby likes: There are some yummy tasting turkey hot dogs at the grocery store that are only 60 calories each!! My hubby takes two of them, cuts them up and adds some red beans to make a yummy, protein filled snack for about the same as your two regular hot dogs. The protein is really helps fuel your muscles.

Sorry if I gave info. when it was not wanted.

 

[JMike]

Here's a little recipe my hubby likes: There are some yummy tasting turkey hot dogs at the grocery store that are only 60 calories each!! My hubby takes two of them, cuts them up and adds some red beans to make a yummy, protein filled snack for about the same as your two regular hot dogs. The protein is really helps fuel your muscles.

Sorry if I gave info. when it was not wanted.

Thanks for the info, those turkey dogs are the ones I eat. I think they taste better than regular hot dogs and are bun-length too!

As for mixing with red beans..Ive never been a bean person but maybe I could use kidney beans, throw in a chili spice pack and make sort of a chili. Good idea

Everyone feel free to post anything you want in here, its nice to know people are reading

 

[[Focus]1]

Corn, also, I wouldn't count as a vegetable.

Might be a bit much for you right now, but here are a couple articles I enjoy re: 'ideal nutrition' (by John Berardi):

Lean Eatin' Part 1
Lean Eatin' Part 2

As you can see, while people around here will tell you over and over again that "a calorie is a calorie", that isn't really true. It's true in that as someone new to the game you don't want to be overwhelmed by "extraneous" information, and in a limited fashion as applies to Thermodynamics, and can generally be assumed for the purposes of convenience, yes, but objectively, it isn't. If you're not really interested in the why you can just fast forward to the latter half of Lean Eatin' Part II (starts at "Choosing Your Food Wisely").

Hope everything's going well.

 

[JMike]

Dear diary(lol) Today was a hard day, I work in a convenience store and last night I was stocking all of the candy bars and muffins and scrumdiddlyumptious goodies that I know I shouldent eat, and man I really wanted a soda, and not the diet kind. I fought the urge to eat said goodies, though it did not help that I had nothing prepared for dinner before I left the house and was forced to pick up something there. I settled on a Snicker's Marathon Protein bar (300 calories) and a turkey club sandwich(300 calories). I ate them 4 hours apart. I drank my 1 litre of bottled water and then caved and drank half of a 16 ounce cup of coke(100 calories). I was working pretty hard moving alot of heavy stuff, I think I did O.K with my choices, but we will find out a bit farther down when I do my tally for today.

Speaking of tally:

When I woke up:1 bowl of oyster stew(Im almost out of this stuff, this is what happens when you buy a bushel of oysters)- 800 calories.

At work snack: Snickers Energy Bar- 300 calories

At work snack: Turkey Club Sandwich- 300 calories

At work drink: 8oz fountain coke.- 100 calories

On the way home from work: Chick-fillet sandwich- 500 calories.
Large Lite Lemonade-35 calories.(Im not rounding double digits to triple, gotta be somewhat fair to myself here.)

Ok so the grand total is...2035 calories. Yay! I made it through another day and I even ate fast-food! I think I will have most of a cup of milk before bed, so lets round that off to an even 2300.

 

[JMike]

Corn, also, I wouldn't count as a vegetable.

Might be a bit much for you right now, but here are a couple articles I enjoy re: 'ideal nutrition' (by John Berardi):

Lean Eatin' Part 1
Lean Eatin' Part 2

As you can see, while people around here will tell you over and over again that "a calorie is a calorie", that isn't really true. It's true in that as someone new to the game you don't want to be overwhelmed by "extraneous" information, and in a limited fashion as applies to Thermodynamics, and can generally be assumed for the purposes of convenience, yes, but objectively, it isn't. If you're not really interested in the why you can just fast forward to the latter half of Lean Eatin' Part II (starts at "Choosing Your Food Wisely").

Hope everything's going well.

Thanks for the info, I will read it tonight and give you some feedback, right now im too tired to engage in anything too in depth. I just found out that my favorite chicken sandwich(chick-filet) has 3g trans fat That stuff really -is- as bad as I think it is right? Ive always thought of it as an artery clogging ingredient not naturally found in the body..kinda like pouring plastic into your veins!

 

[maleficent]

trans fats are something you really should avoid... that's the worst possible kind of fat

however you can make your own



gottalove copy cat recipes

 

[JMike]

Ok So yesterday I tried going out to eat for the first time since my diet, ahem, lifestyle change, started. My friend and I went out to eat sushi. I have no idea of my caloric intake, but I only drank water. I had one half of an appetizer which consisted of mainly just seared tuna, and then one very large roll consisting of avocado, tuna, cucumber, fish eggs white rice, seaweed, eel in the middle and eel on top. There were also two fried shrimp in it, and a sauce of unknown origins. I kept track of my caloric intake up until then, and I knew I was going so I kept it low. So here goes:

When I woke up: 1 Michelina's lean gourmet dinner- 300 calories.

Before work: 2 hot dogs- 400 calories

At work: 1 energy drink- 100 calories

At work: Met-RX protein plus bar- 400 calories.

Total before Sushi- 1200 calories.

I'm pretty sure I stayed under 2500 and 100% sure I stayed under 3k

So another day down!

Also a scale I weighed myself on at a Sharper Image store told me I was down to 345.2, but im not going to change my ticker until I have my own scale. I had to take the previous one I bought back because it started acting screwy, pressing buttons I wasn't touching and so on.

 

[veronandez86]

I work third shift so breakfast lunch and dinner come at odd times. I drink nothing but water unless otherwise specified in an entry.

I work the same shift, kinda. I'm at work from 8pm to 8am. Do you often find it hard to find the time to eat or finding good things to eat working the hours we do?

I round my caloric intake from each food up to the next hundred.

I've found the rounding to be a great idea and I too use it sometimes. Oh, if you dont have a calorie book to check the things you eat like Sushi and stuff, while on the internet search calorieking and it will come up with an online calorie counter thingy.

Anyway, good luck! I honestly think you are on the right track. OH and I remember reading somewhere that canned vegetables are lacking some of the nutrients you would find in fresh veggies. I'm unsure if what I'm saying is correct, but I figure it's worth mentioning.

Later!
Veronica

Oh, I read in your introduction post that you are a fighter. What type of fighting? MMA? Boxing? Just curious.

 

[JMike]

I work the same shift, kinda. I'm at work from 8pm to 8am. Do you often find it hard to find the time to eat or finding good things to eat working the hours we do?

Well It's hard for me to say as I'm new at this and I'm not so much watching what I eat as how much I eat, but yes the other night I was in a 24 hour convenience store and realized that it is indeed hard to find healthy snacks at these sort of places. I've once went with canned tuna, and I also like energy bars. I was also pleased to see that rockstar energy drinks, the no sugar kind, only have 20 calories and taste decent.

Oh, I read in your introduction post that you are a fighter. What type of fighting? MMA? Boxing? Just curious.

I box, but not really, its more of a hobby. It gives me a reason to do cardio and a way to see my results but I dont plan on being the next Mike Tyson or even winning a golden gloves for that matter, but its fun. I entered a toughman competition which is more like a slugging match than real boxing, and I hadent trained properly and was very much over weight, I ran out of breath in round 2, took way too many hits to the head, and finally went down. But it helped motivate me. Here are the videos if your interested:





I'm the one in white and I was in the 360s that night weight wise.

Thanks for coming by!

Youll notice that I'm alot bigger there than in my avatar picture. I am wearing a huge lower body/kidney/groin protector but also in my avatar I am 330 pounds.

 

[JMike]

Ok so I didint get to a pc for a few days but heres yesterday and today!

Yesterday, I horribly under-ate, and it wasent intentional.

First meal: Lean Gourmet meal-300 calories.

Before work: Energy bar- 200 calories.

At work: Turkey Sandwich 300 calories

Last Meal: Small tuna roll(sushi, 6 pieces) with some fish roe and a raw quail egg. Dont know my total exactly but willing to bet its under 1500. Oops.

 

[JMike]

Today:

First meal: Lean Gourmet meal/Energy bar: 500 calories.

Snack: Can of greens: 100 calories

At work: Ham Sandwich- 300 calories

At work: Energy Bar- 300 calories

At work: Energy drink: 100 calories

Just now: Roast beef sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes-Roughly 700 calories.(no mayo or anything like that)

Exercise: Walked 2 miles.

Drink: 32 oz G2(light gatorade)- 100 calories.

2100 calories. I'm getting better at this.

 

[JMike]

Hey Diary!

Sorry I've been a few days without posting, this is my first day with more than 5 minutes at the PC!

I have to admit that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday didn't go so well for my diet. One of my best friends turned 21 and we spent Monday into Tuesday eating night club food and imbibing alcohol. Wednesday I just didn't feel like keeping up with stuff. I by no means binged but I did lose focus and most likely over ate by at least 1k. Alcohol has a high calorie content too so Monday and Tuesday I had to be way over.

On to the good news, Ive stepped on 3 different scales and they all tell me the same thing within a pound. So my weight has dropped to 345 pounds even. I'm going by the scale I just bought last night so I could keep up with my ticker.

Yesterday I ate:

Energy bar-200 calories

Light TV Dinner-300 calories

Energy bar-200 calories

Sandwich-300 calories

Candy bar-500 calories

2x small burritos-300 calories

Hot dog-300 calories

And umm..hmm I'm obviously forgetting a meal and a snack because I have my intake figured at 3100 calories yesterday. Sorry diary I slipped but at least I have the amount correct! Maybe I drank some milk and had an extra Lean Gourmet dinner. Anyway, update ya again tomorrow!

 

[JMike]

Corn, also, I wouldn't count as a vegetable.

Might be a bit much for you right now, but here are a couple articles I enjoy re: 'ideal nutrition' (by John Berardi):

Lean Eatin' Part 1
Lean Eatin' Part 2

As you can see, while people around here will tell you over and over again that "a calorie is a calorie", that isn't really true. It's true in that as someone new to the game you don't want to be overwhelmed by "extraneous" information, and in a limited fashion as applies to Thermodynamics, and can generally be assumed for the purposes of convenience, yes, but objectively, it isn't. If you're not really interested in the why you can just fast forward to the latter half of Lean Eatin' Part II (starts at "Choosing Your Food Wisely").

Hope everything's going well.

Read part 1, good stuff. Especially if you pan the math out over say 10 years of eating.

 

[JMike]

Yo diary,

Yesterday I overate, found out I cant cook a whole pizza if i'm gonna be home because I cant let the leftovers sit around. Heres what I ate.

Breakfast: 2x energy bars- 400 calories

lunch: Whole pizza-2000 calories

Dinner: Tuna roll- 300 calories

Snacks/small meals:

Energy drink: 200 calories

Milk: 100 calories

Turkey Sandwich: 300 calories.

Total: 3300 calories. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be but it still can't be healthy to eat 2k calories at one meal.