You guys have all been really inspirational to me. I cheer at your success stories, and sympathize with your struggles. This is the first time I have been able to really commit to my weight loss, and now that I’m struggling a bit I don’t want to lose that motivation.
I’m a 31 year old male. An even 6 feet. When I started my journey I weighed in at 265. I was skinny and scrawny for most of my life. I was in the Army for 5 years, and was in the best shape of my life during that time weighing a steady 168. I got out in 2003, and the next thing I know I’m huge. For a long time I tried not to think about it too much. We all come in different shapes and sizes. But I noticed that I lost a lot of my confidence, and lazy days were not just lazy days but seemed to end up involving depression and anxiety. It took me time but I realized for me, that I felt the healthiest mentally when I was at my healthiest physically. The first few times I tried to lose the weight I think I tried a bit too hard, doing as much as possible at one time. It felt futile, and I often felt hungry, weak, and discouraged.
3 weeks ago I tried a different approach. With the help of this community. Just make one change. One thing at a time, commit to that change. Instead of trying to overwhelm myself. And I am happy to say it has worked, so far. On July 20th I weighed 265. I didn’t change my diet at all, I started with exercise. Given my experience in the Army, I’m very familiar with various exercises that don’t involve any outside equipment. And I also have a good understanding of my body, knowing when to push a little more and when to stop. So I put together a short, but fairly intense 15-20 minute routine. It involved a good amount of cardio at near max heart rate, and some muscle conditioning during rest periods. And my immediate results were amazing!
I do my workout Monday through Friday and rest on the weekend. I first weighed myself on July28th. I was down to 249 in just one week. Naturally this gave me confidence that what I was doing was right, and I felt good. No pressure, and I hadn’t changed my diet so it felt like a small change that I could easily continue. I weighed myself again August 4th after another week of the same routine. 240! I couldn’t believe it I was down 25 pounds in just 2 weeks.
Now I know what you’re thinking because I remind myself of it every day. These are amazing results, and not all that common. I should be happy and very proud. And I am. This is my 3rd week of the routine and I have been weighing myself more regularly. I’m maintaining at 240-242, up and down day to day. This last week I also started to work on my diet more and counting calories. After the first week or so of working out I had begun to lose my huge appetite anyways and I was already cutting out a lot of food.
What’s happening to me now is I am getting terrified of eating. It’s like I feel guilty about wanting to eat something. When I do eat or when I want to eat, I feel like I have to work out right away or else I’m not doing myself any favors. During the first couple weeks, there was plenty of days where I was still taking in 3000+ calories a day. I’ve cut to well under 2000 a day, yesterday coming in at 1400. I know it’s hard to be exact when counting so I overestimate instead of under to keep the numbers realistic as possible. The hard part is that this is not making me want to give up, but make me want to work harder, but I’m afraid of overdoing it. Of making unhealthy choices (not overeating, but undereating) and ending up with a similar “unhealthy” feeling just on the other side of the spectrum.
So I’d really like to know what you guys think. Some tips that have helped you overcome getting “stuck” and continuing to see results as the weeks pass by. I’m super excited about the results I’ve seen so far, I just want it to continue. Thanks for reading, it means a lot.
I’m a 31 year old male. An even 6 feet. When I started my journey I weighed in at 265. I was skinny and scrawny for most of my life. I was in the Army for 5 years, and was in the best shape of my life during that time weighing a steady 168. I got out in 2003, and the next thing I know I’m huge. For a long time I tried not to think about it too much. We all come in different shapes and sizes. But I noticed that I lost a lot of my confidence, and lazy days were not just lazy days but seemed to end up involving depression and anxiety. It took me time but I realized for me, that I felt the healthiest mentally when I was at my healthiest physically. The first few times I tried to lose the weight I think I tried a bit too hard, doing as much as possible at one time. It felt futile, and I often felt hungry, weak, and discouraged.
3 weeks ago I tried a different approach. With the help of this community. Just make one change. One thing at a time, commit to that change. Instead of trying to overwhelm myself. And I am happy to say it has worked, so far. On July 20th I weighed 265. I didn’t change my diet at all, I started with exercise. Given my experience in the Army, I’m very familiar with various exercises that don’t involve any outside equipment. And I also have a good understanding of my body, knowing when to push a little more and when to stop. So I put together a short, but fairly intense 15-20 minute routine. It involved a good amount of cardio at near max heart rate, and some muscle conditioning during rest periods. And my immediate results were amazing!
I do my workout Monday through Friday and rest on the weekend. I first weighed myself on July28th. I was down to 249 in just one week. Naturally this gave me confidence that what I was doing was right, and I felt good. No pressure, and I hadn’t changed my diet so it felt like a small change that I could easily continue. I weighed myself again August 4th after another week of the same routine. 240! I couldn’t believe it I was down 25 pounds in just 2 weeks.
Now I know what you’re thinking because I remind myself of it every day. These are amazing results, and not all that common. I should be happy and very proud. And I am. This is my 3rd week of the routine and I have been weighing myself more regularly. I’m maintaining at 240-242, up and down day to day. This last week I also started to work on my diet more and counting calories. After the first week or so of working out I had begun to lose my huge appetite anyways and I was already cutting out a lot of food.
What’s happening to me now is I am getting terrified of eating. It’s like I feel guilty about wanting to eat something. When I do eat or when I want to eat, I feel like I have to work out right away or else I’m not doing myself any favors. During the first couple weeks, there was plenty of days where I was still taking in 3000+ calories a day. I’ve cut to well under 2000 a day, yesterday coming in at 1400. I know it’s hard to be exact when counting so I overestimate instead of under to keep the numbers realistic as possible. The hard part is that this is not making me want to give up, but make me want to work harder, but I’m afraid of overdoing it. Of making unhealthy choices (not overeating, but undereating) and ending up with a similar “unhealthy” feeling just on the other side of the spectrum.
So I’d really like to know what you guys think. Some tips that have helped you overcome getting “stuck” and continuing to see results as the weeks pass by. I’m super excited about the results I’ve seen so far, I just want it to continue. Thanks for reading, it means a lot.
