New Member, life-long struggler

[MAR1984]

New member here saying Hello!

My name is Matt. I'm 25 years old, ~6'5" tall, and currently somewhere in the 320-330lb range.

I've been having some success recently losing weight, but I found this site while searching for information to make sure I was losing weight efficiently and permanently. In short, I don't think I am, so I'm hoping the information I have been reading on this site will get me on the right track.

Here's the abridged version of my weight loss history. I've always been big. When I graduated high school, I weighed ~350lbs. During college, I motivated myself to lose weight. I changed my diet, cut calories, and started running. I managed to lose 90 lbs in about a year, dropping down to 260. I even joined the college cross country team. Afterwards, I fell off the wagon. I stopped working out, and went back to fast foods, pop, beer, etc. - basically, went back to doing what I did before. I started gaining weight back. I wasn't weighing myself so I was unaware as to how quickly the weight was coming back. After about a year and a half, I weighed myself and found I was ~370-380 - I had gained more back than where I started from! I tried to get back into running then and turn it back around, but I couldn't motivate myself. A couple more years go by, I graduate, get a desk job, and keep gaining weight. I started having trouble just walking around - just taking the dog for a short walk around the block would hurt my lower back. I was in trouble.

Last summer, my fiance made me the happiest man on earth when she said she'd marry me. We met ~5 years ago when I was smaller, and she stayed with me as I gained weight. I decided I was going to get myself back into shape so I would look good in my tux for the wedding. On septermber 1st of last year, I started. I couldn't run (I love running), so I started out on the recumbant bike. I couldn't even weigh myself at the beginning, but after a month of working out, I got on a scale and realized I was 430lbs! I estimated I was 450+ when I started working out.

Well, here I am nearly 10 months later, my wedding day is this sunday! and at 320lbs, I'm down ~130lbs. My goal was to be under 300 by the wedding, but I'm not too worried about that extra 20lbs right now. I while back, it stopped being about looking good for the wedding, and it started being about making a permanent change this time. As a modest goal, I want to get down to 250, and then reassess and decide where I want to go from there.

So how did I do it? Well, before, my diet consisted of fast food and soda's, mostly. I probably got close to 1000 calories per day or more of just mountain dew! So, naturally, the first thing I did was cut out the fast food and soda, and replace it with healthy choice frozen meals and propel fitness water. If I want some pop, usually I'll grab a sprite zero, occasionally a coke zero. Obviously, there's a lot more to it than that. I found some healthy snack for in between meals, and I still allow myself to cheat 1 day a week if I really want to. I also do lots of cardio - 30-60 minutes, 5 days a week. I've worked myself back into running, and I can do a 3 mile run now in ~30 minutes. When I don't run, I do the recumbant bike. Other times, my fiance and I enjoy playing Dance Dance Revolution together on the PS2 - we can go for a couple hours before we realize just how long we've been going. I always end up soaked in sweat, so I imagine 1 DDR night is burning more calories than any cardio session.

Anyways, Now that the wedding is here, I've taken stock and decided to make some changes, mostly due to what I've been reading on this site. On July 13th, I'm going to start lifting weights (I've weight trained before back when I used to play football, but I've always had a hard time motivating myself to work as hard lifting as I do with cardio). I plan on doing the 3x5 routine of the core lifts, similar to what I've seen the member steve post around here somewhere. I've also realized that I've probably been eating too little calories for my weight, and not only that, frozen meals probably aren't the best. So my fiance and I got an Eat Clean cookbook, and we're going to try to try something new at least once a week. The goal is to eat more real foods, and less frozen meals. I also just started trying to wean myself of the sprite zero (2 cans per day). Instead, I drink a bottle (16.9oz) of propel every morning, and then keep it with me at work and try to fill and drink a bottle full of pure H2O every hour, to make sure I'm getting the ammount of water I should be drinking every day. Its hard to drink a lot of water...


So thats a pretty basic introduction I guess. I'm going to cut myself off now before I start to ramble on - I tend to do that. I have a couple questions, and those answers will probably lead to more questions, but I think I'll hold off on the specifics for now and just ask if anyone has any general tips or advice for me?

Thanks in advance, and I'm looking forward to getting to know the community around here.

 

[Kyoropaladin]

That was the abridged version? Really? Haha, just kidding, sorta. Well met, Matt. You didn't ramble on, to me, but I have a habit of typing to make up for my lack of verbal skills. Seriously though, that's a very wide range of weight you've gone through, and congratulations on shedding that ~150 or so. That's quite impressive! Back when I was at my peak weight, I would drink a case of root beer a day. I don't know how I got to drinking water instead, but I drink so much a day it's insane. You'll get used to it fairly quickly I think.

I have a friend who is a lot like you were, up there in the 400s, and it's disheartening to hear him talk about his knee and back problems. Going for weight loss to "look good" might be a bad thing (I'm no saint), but losing that weight to get healthy and avoid the numerous risks that accompany obesity is a good idea. Good luck to you and welcome to the forum! Hope to see you around.

Jake

 

[Ramzey]

Hey Matt,

Your story is definitely an interesting one. Welcome to the board. I hope you get from it what you need.

I do have a question to ask you, though. Have you ever had problems with shin splints when you've been running? If so, how have you been able to get around it? I think I would very much enjoy running, but every time I start getting into it, I'm usually sidelined with shin splints for a few days before they go away.

Any suggestions?

 

[MAR1984]

Haha yeah, abridged. Well, the first post is always the biggest.

Anyways, thanks for the congrats! I still have a long way to go though, and I don't want to let it get to my head. I think that was part of the reason I failed to keep the weight off the first time. I got content. Not this time. It was heartbreaking to put the weight back on before, because after all my hard work, it felt like it was for nothing, and I felt like I could never go through all that again. I don't intend to have to do it a third time.

Yeah, my knees and back were really hurting last year. Thats really when I knew I was out of control and had to do something. Now though, I feel great! I can even outpace my 135lb fiance on walks/hikes now She's not too happy about that hehe.

About the water... my god I don't know if I can do it every day. Today I managed to drink a bit over a gallon of water. It had a couple of unintended side effects as well. Firstly, every hour on the hour, I had to get up and walk to the water fountain to fill up the bottle. Not a lot of moving, but better than just sitting at the desk all day. Plus, about 45minutes after filling every bottle, I was heading to the bathroom! Is that normal??? Either way, its nice to have good excused to get up and move around and get away from the desk twice an hour.

I also did a "practice" HIIT session today... I think . First I ran 2 miles, and actually, I tried to incorporate some normal intervals into it, jogging and sprinting. Still feeling pretty good afterwards, I decided to take it to the next level. You see, my gym has an indoor track (1/9 mile per lap). So, I first sprinted a lap, then walked a lap, then sprinted, etc. I managed to do that 5 times :shrug: I find that it takes me ~45seconds to sprint a lap right now (I think - i didn't have a stopwatch and i couldnt watch the clock while I was running). I was probably relaxing a little too much on the walking laps though. Anyways, it was only practice to see if I can handle doing a full HIIT workout a couple days a week. I think I convinced myself that I can.



Ramzey: Fortunately, I've never been bothered too much by shin splints. I won't pretend to know any of the science behind it, but I suspect its because despite being large, I've always been athletic. I played lots of sports when I was younger, and have always done a ton of running.

However, I have felt (what I think) is the start of shin splints before. Not recently, but my first attempt at losing weight, I ran literally EVERY DAY. 7 days a week. I found starting out, after a couple weeks, I would get them (I think, I'm not sure). I figured it was from pushing too hard and not giving my legs any breaks. A couple days off usually was enough to get them to go away.

So, my best hypothesis is that the pains I was feeling was my body's way of telling me not to do too much too quickly. This time around, I didn't just jump right back into running at 450+ pounds. I did the recumbent bike. After a typical workout, I'd go out on the rubberized track at the gym and run a couple laps - I started with just 3 laps for a few weeks, took me a couple months to get up to even a mile, and now I can do 3 miles just fine, but I still only do 3 times a week, and the bike the other 2 days. Weekends always off (or maybe some Dance Dance Revolution with the fiance).

My best tips? Get new running shoes, for starters. They wear out quickly when you're big, so I've found its not too important to get the most expensive best quality as it is to replace them when they wear out. I also have big feet, so I was ecstatic when I found a $40 pair of adidas in my size. They got good use, and now they're about shot as far as running support goes. Also, most of my running is on a rubberized track. Its alot easier on the joints than running on pavement. Thats the main reason I keep going to the gym to run through the summer rather than outside. When running outside, running on grass is better than the sidewalks, and if you can, run in sand! Not only is it easier on the joints, but you get a much better workout, IMO anyways.

Just my $.02 from a big guy who actually enjoys running.

 

[Kyoropaladin]

That's a good point; don't want to get too content when you've still a ways to go. But you're over halfway and that's no small feat. As for the water, yes it is quite normal. On an inactive day, I'll drink the same amount of water as on an active day, and I'll urinate 3 times as much. It's annoying as all get out, but I can't stop from drinking just because I'm being lazy one day.

Shin splints, eh? I had a friend who got those after about an hour of racquetball, every time. I dunno what the deal was for him. Personally, I've never felt anything remotely like shin splints. But I run on the balls of my feet, and even barefoot often, because of karate, so that lessens the impact quite a bit. Gotta have strong arches though. Good running shoes could help; like Matt, I'm no expert. But running on the balls of your feet is harder, but less demanding on the joints, as I see it. Good trade-off, much like running on sand.

Anyway, glad you like running Matt, and interval training is the best. See you around.

-Jake

 

[MAR1984]

So, here's an example of perception vs. reality...

Although I've lost a ton of weight already, I know I've been eating too little. This weekend, I upped my calorie intake, and have been eating more, but of real food instead of frozen meals all week so far. Lots more protein and veggies, too. I've also been drinking at least a gallon of water per day, if not more.

Well, one half of my brain tells me this is illogical. That upping my calories would slow my weight loss, or worse, cause me to gain weight, and that by eating more and drinking more water, the damned scale would show me gain a bunch of weight quickly, and I would be demoralized! I was proven right when after the first couple days, I went from 318 on the scale to 328. I could have given up right there, decided I was making more progress doing things "my way", but I didn't.

See, the other half of my brain fights back. It knows that even if I drank 10 gallons of water a day, water can't make me grow more fat, and I also know that more food in the bowels showing up on the scale isn't "gaining weight" either. But what takes the most work is convincing myself that at my current bodyweight, I should be able to eat 3000 calories a day and still be in at least an 800-1400 calorie defict per day (including my excercise), and still lose weight! It goes against everything I've been told my whole life. Eat less, not more. FYI, I'm still not up to the right ammount of calories yet, but I'm working my way up to it.

Anyways, what helps is that last night before bed, I stepped on the scale to find my weight on the scale had dropped back down to 320, despite all the eating and the gallons of water I've been drinking. So, even though it goes against all my perceived logic, at least that gives me the motivation to continue upping my calories to an appropriate level, without worrying that it would make me put more weight back on.