My Recovery from Obesity

Don Keykong

New member
I've opted to keep a diary of sorts, to track how I've eaten, exercised and felt over the next several months, to help keep my focus and maybe even inspire someone else to attack their own weight problems. I'll try to write a minimum of 1X per week, but assume there will be times that I am able more or less often than that.

For the record, I have started this process on January 4th, 2013 at my highest weight ever of 457 lbs. I am a 6'3 male, 50 years of age.

As of today, 18 days after starting, I have lost 19 lbs.

I have added a simple 15-20 minute exercise regimen to my day. For now it'll have to do.

My diet formerly was well balanced, EXCEPT I also ate fast food (1x per day), drank diet sodas (32-64oz per day), ate FAR too much salty, pre-made foods (ramen, frozen burritos, chips, etc.).
I also had the bad habits of eating my first day's meal too late (often after 10-11 am, after waking at 6-7am) and eating my last foods (usually junk) after 11pm. I don't drink to excess, smoke, or do any drugs. My primary vice is food. I eat to satisfy boredom, anger and sadness, but worst of all, I eat mindlessly when I'm doing something else. I snack continually, sometimes.

My current diet plan is similar to Paleo, but not as strict. I am strict about removing most/all simple carbs and simple sugars, and greatly reducing salt. I try to remove as many processed foods as possible. I do allow some dairy, like cheese, butter and yogurt, but in limited qtys. I can eat veggies (not starchy) to my heart's content, quite a bit of fruit, and lots of proteins. I favor chicken, fish, eggs and tofu. Unlike Paleo, I do allow some legumes, like beans. To satisfy snacking, I use unsalted nuts, radishes, celery/hummus, etc.

I am trying to break down my weight loss goals into manageable pieces. To begin this diet, for example, my goal was to stay with it for a minimum of 7 days. Once I accomplished that, I reset my goal to 30 days and 15 lbs. I will revisit my goals every month or as needed. Ultimately, I want to lose enough weight to feel good... healthy... and be able to buy clothes off the rack at stores NOT designed for fat guys. Ideally, I will lose at least 200-225 lbs.

If I fail for a meal--or a day--or a week, I will accept my laps and restart to process.

I weigh in everyday, but try not to freak out if I stall out for a few days. I like the data that daily weigh-ins provide, and I manipulate it to try to "see" what's going on.

I am considering building in intermittent "days-off" to allow for carbs or sugars, to try and stave off the monotony of eating well all the time... maybe a reward day after "X pounds lost" or after "X days of being good".

My goal is to minimize feelings of sacrifice... to hopefully enable me to maintain this lifestyle long-term/forever.

Well, that's the synopsis of my efforts. I'll post soon a summary of what's occurred in the first 3 weeks... from eating to exercising to weight changes.

SW: 457 CW: 438
 
Looking back over my food tracker for the last 3 weeks, I see that I am eating FAR better than a month ago.

- Eating smaller portions more frequently.
- Carbs cut dramatically.
- Fast Food almost non-existent.
- Junk sweets gone.
- More lean proteins, greens, and fruit than ever.
- More water... maybe 4-5 24oz cups of water per day, minimum.
- NO cravings, except maybe when I see an old favorite, like german chocolate cake left on the counter.
- Feeling satisfied faster and lasting MUCH longer after meals.

Negatives are:
- Sudden loss of appetite... sometimes for 4-6 hours. I assume this is not a good thing, so I try to eat an apple or pc of chicken anyway.
- BMs are less frequent and occasionally more difficult, but nothing that eating nuts during the day doesn't fix.
- Hard to find good food on the road.

I'm averaging about 0.8 lbs/day right now. My "high" target is 20#/month, so I'm ahead of schedule. I assume the losses will be harder to come by after this initial 30-60 days. I hope is that over the first 12 months I average 10-12 lbs per month, which I'm fairly confident is doable as long as I maintain my regimen.

I'll lose everyday for 2-3 days, stall for 1-2 days, then repeat. Interesting. I find that the day before a loss of weight, I am VERY hungry, whereas the day before a stall I am frequently NOT hungry for longer periods.

I am having a HARD time NOT eating after 10pm... I usually go to bed between 12.30 and 1.30, and rise at 6.30. I need to cut eating at night and go to bed earlier, but that may be difficult to change.

Exercising in the morning seems to reap better rewards than exercising at night. More on that as I compile more data.

So far, all is well. No cravings I can't manage. Attitude is good. Losing weight. Feelings better.
 
Welcome aboard Don. First off I assume you mean you started on January 4, 2013 not 2012, right?

Anyhow, I think you have the right attitude in setting achievable short term goals and then building on them with more and more as time goes on. I also like the idea of this being a change in what you're planning on doing forever rather than a diet.

If at some point you want to get more into exercise, I would suggest making a trip to the doc just to have him/her give you the once over. I think 10 to 12 a month is achievable at your weight. I started off at less than that and I'm right at about 12 pounds a month so far (one week from completing my 7th month). The weight loss pattern you're observing has been the norm for me: weight holds the same for four or five days and then drops a bunch in the next four or five days and repeat.

Good luck and keep us updated!
 
Thanks, Mr Vee. I'll fix the date problem... I tend to do that more and more as I get older. :)

I've seen my Doc in the last few months and he said what he's said to me before... "I'm in remarkable health for a guy with such a big weight issue." He's green-lighted me for moderate physical exercise, so long as I protect my knees. I've had a surgery on each knee over the years. My heart, BP, etc are all pretty good, considering.

For the time being, I'm using a stationary bike and walking. I'll soon add some light weights for upper body, but I'll not add much more for a couple of months. I'll likely just add time to the regimen as I start feeling better.

Thanks again for the input AND for telling me about how your weight changes have fluctuated as well. That helps me get my head around the way our bodies tend to do things.
 
Welcome!! It sounds like you have a good plan!
Food & exercise - they all look good.

Good look with your weight loss journey!
 
Thank you, Justina. Good luck to you as well. I'll check out your diary after I post this.

----------------------------

My appetite has been VERY suppressed for the past few days. A friend added up my caloric intake for the day and said I'm only taking in about 1200 calories. I feel like I should be taking in more, but between my reduced appetite and the healthier foods I'm eating, that's all there is.

Anyone use a simple calculator for adding daily calories taken in? I don't want to add up "eggs, cheese, spinach, onion, etc" to get the calories in an omelet. Ideally, there's a basic method for adding a "2 egg omelet w/ 2-3 toppings" to get a rough idea.

Weighed in today at 437. That makes 20# since the 5th. So far, so good.

In 20 days, I've gained weight 3 times, stayed the same 3 times, and lost on the other 14 days. I know... it's easy to lose weight if you're fat enough. :)
Using the exercise bike has been hit or miss... I've tried using it daily, but 2X had to stop early because of a single muscle cramp in my left leg, inner thigh, right above the knee. I'm hydrated and eating foods rich in vitamins, so I'm unsure what the cramp is from.

Well, 20 pounds down, on to the next 20.


Jan 5th Weight: 457 Current Weight: 437 Next Goal Weight: 417
 
well done, 20lb down is a great achievement.

as for tracking calories there are a number of good websites for making it easier, I use calorie king (Australian version) but fitday is also popular.
 
Two eggs a slice of cheese and the butter needed to cook it are about 260 calories. Egg = 70, Cheese = 80, Butter = 40. The spinach and the onion only probably add 15 to 20 cals total, unless you're really loading up (which is hard if it's still going to be omelet shaped).

For a little while you can probably get away with 1200 cals because of how much weight you have. But that's an intake level a whole bunch of folks don't recommend for a man. You can try snacking on things like cheeses and fruits in between meals to help you. The fruits will provide some vitamins and the cheese would provide protein and calcium. If you're being really strict about low fat, you could loosen the restrictions on that a little, I guess. I do, but that's me.
 
Thanks, Trusylver, for the encouragement. I'll check out the link you provided.

MrVee, thanks for the numbers. I realized that maybe I'm being lazy not wanting to add the calories myself. Maybe if I learn the cals in 80-90% of the foods I eat, crunching numbers will become easier. Using those you provided and a few more I found on my own, then looking at my food record, I see that I've consumed between 1100 and 1500 calories per day everyday for the last 5-6 days. I haven't gone back further, yet.

Interestingly, I did find a calculator that tells me how many calories I SHOULD consume to maintain my weight, based on my height and lifestyle... 4,300 calories per day!! That's insane. That means I was eating WAY too much of VERY calorie dense foods before starting this. This process is eye opening, for sure.
 
Today's weigh-in was surprisingly good... down 1.8 pounds. That follows about 4-5 days of either holding or dropping modestly.
That brings my total loss to 22 lbs. I'm really pleased with the progress, but trying to keep my future expectations grounded.

Side note: If anyone knows how to add a "footer" or "signature line", could you please let me in on the secret? Thanks.

Jan 4th Weight: 457 Jan 25th weight: 435 Monthly mini-goal has been met, anything extra is gravy.... mmm, gravy....
 
Nice work Don! Keep it up.

The signature will show up in the setting menu (left of "log out" in the big blue bar at the top^) once you qualify. I don't know if it's based on number of posts or time that you've been here, but it didn't take long for me to get the option.
 
Thanks Quercus, I was thinking it had to be an easy solution. I'll wait for that privilege to magically appear.

Also, great job on your own loss. Sounds like you're doing well. I'll check your profile to see if you have a diary.
 
Wow you're doing really well. I thought I'd stop in and read. I love the mini-goal idea. I always seem to set up long-term goals and never small ones, so I think I might adopt that philosophy ;).

Keep it up!
 
Justina, Trusylver, thanks for the kind words. It really does help having a little positive praise to keep me steering straight.

Loch, thanks for dropping by! Mini Goals are a MUST for me... I am SO far away from my ultimate goal, that even after losing a 80 pounds in 5 months (4 years ago) I was feeling down because I still had so much to lose. This time, I'm setting a goal of hitting mini targets (20 lbs, then 30 lbs., etc.) AND never going back to those weights after I lose. I am ALL about long term weight loss this time.
 
Today's Check-in and How I'm tracking my efforts

Good weigh-in today, down 1.4 lbs. That's awesome. I'd be happy with ANY loss, but the last two days have been better than I hoped.
That makes a total loss of 23.4 lbs since Jan 5th, well ahead of schedule. This all comes on the heels of a solid week of very suppressed hunger.
I've been eating as I'm hungry, rather than forcing the issue. But I have eaten a couple of times because I thought I "should" be eating... so I ate something small like fruit or a pc of chicken.

By the way, I mentioned earlier that I'm pretty data-driven, so I track my pertinent info. I like using MS Excel for tracking simple data sets like this.
Attached are two pages of a spreadsheet I use.

The first shows my daily weigh-in data, daily change, and total loss. It also is my Food Tracker to see what and when I'm eating.

View attachment 19773

The second sheet includes two charts. The one on the left shows my total loss to date as it compares to a 1-lb, 0.5-lb, and 0.25-lb per day loss rates.
Right now, I'm tracking the 1-lb per day rate, but I suspect that will be slowing soon. MY hope is to meet or exceed the 0.5-lb per day rate over the first 4-6 months. The chart on the right shows my daily weight change.

View attachment 19774

I'm sure some people look at this kind of askew and think it's way over the top, but others may be as data-centric as me. :)
 
Well done on the drop! :hurray:
I like to weigh myself every day too - i dont log it - just making sure i m on track :)
 
Well done...

You remind me of myself with the data - except that I kept lots more stuff in my spreadsheet that I kept during my big project a few years back... LOL I recorded stuff like exercise, health and toilet habits in there...

I was keen to really understand better why things fluctuated the way they do...

I weigh every day too... I post my daily weighing in the "weigh every day" club... I did so in my big project too...
 
Justina and Omega, thank you for checking in and the positive comments!

Yep, weighing in everyday is a must for me... at least right now. I get good feelings from any loss, and try to use a gain day or days to motivate me to stay on track. Omega, like you I want to try and connect the dots... I want to know if one day's eating, bowel movements and exercise have a necessary direct correlation with the following day's weigh-in. All I've seen so far is that if I am NOT hungry all day, it appears to mean I'm not burning excess calories and my next day's weigh-in will likely be modest at best.

By the way, Omega, I DO track my exercise and water consumption on this spreadsheet (elsewhere) and ALMOST added bowel/bladder movement counts, but thought it might be ... too much. :)

Today's weigh-in was good. Down another 1.6 lbs to 432. That's a full 25 lbs since Jan 5th. I'm a bit surprised, because I wasn't that hungry at dinner but still ate a big meat loaf dinner with veg sides.

Jan 5th Weight: 457 CW: 432 Next Mini Goal: 428 (that's the halfway point between my SW and 400)
 
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