Pete's Diary - Cry For Help

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Peter Thomas

Peter Thomas

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Hello everybody,

I feel kind of strange sharing personal things online like this but the community looks friendly and helpful and I most certainly need some help

I will try to be as accurate as I can whilst giving as much detail as possible

This is my story...

I am a 43 year old male, currently weighing in at 16 stones 2 pounds and 6ft 1"

For a long time I was bullied at work places with some really harsh things said, I wont share what was said but it was pretty vile regarding my weight. At this point I was just under 24 stone in weight, I looked and felt dreadful all the time, I just wanted to give up and not wake up again and if it hadn't been for the support of my wife I may well have given up.

It was at this point I walked out of my job and after a few weeks of nothing I decided to do something about it. The date was May 2014.

I cut my calorie intake back to a very dangerous level of anywhere between 300 calories and 700 calories per day, I walked approx 3 miles each day at the start on some pretty steep hills where I live. After about a month of this I introduced a static cycle (exercise bike) to my daily routine, starting at an hour a day and building up to 2 hours a day (in 30 minute segments), at this point I brought my calorie intake up to 1200 calories a day.

I stuck rigidly to this diet and exercise regime for a solid 2 years, only breaking my food habits for Birthday and Christmas day, every other day was the same food, always.

My dad was really ill and in the October of 2015 I ran a half marathon to raise money for the hospice that was caring for him, to be honest it was more a wanting him to be proud of me than anything, which of course he was and I managed to finish it in just under 3 hours. At this point I was down to 14 stone and had lost over 10 stone in weight, I felt amazing and was so proud of myself for the first time ever and so were my family.

Around the end of December 2015 I changed my exercise routines, I switched to swimming every morning instead of the static bike, I started off around 60 lengths and built up to an every day 100 lengths which is approx 1.1 miles (every day = monday to friday). I continued with this 100 lengths ever since and kept the same diet.

In January of this year I had to visit my GP for something and she wanted to weigh me (she had been really supportive of my weight loss) and to both of our surprises I came in at 16 stone 8 pounds, we were both shocked, especially as I was doing 100 lengths every day and eating a really low calorie intake. We both put it down to her scales being wrong. So I went home and the weight was the same, so my diet was the same but the only thing that had changed was no longer doing the 2 hours of static bike and switching to 100 lengths of swimming which takes me around an hour to complete.

So at this point, January 17th this year I decided to tweak my diet (I will paste it below for others to break down) with a reduction to 1200 calories a day, to continue my 100 lengths and do between 30 - 45 minutes on the static bike each afternoon.

So I weighed yesterday (I like to space out the weighing) thinking yes I am gonna see a massive weight drop but alas I lost only 6 pounds, down to 16 stone 2 pounds, I was really upset and couldn't hold it in, all that hard work and strict eating and the 'going without' was too much...

So now I need some serious help, I am exercising as hard as I can (to the point where I am exhausted and sometimes feel ill) and can't go without any more food. I am thinking there must be something wrong with my diet OR I am just destined to fail.

Some random comments... After the 10 stone loss I didn't have that much loose skin, my arms are skinny but pretty tight from the swimming (as is my chest), my legs are fine apart from some loose skin at the thigh area which is nothing extreme and I am happy to live with this.... My stomach is what is upsetting me, I still have a large belly out of proportion with the rest of my body, it used to be 'hard' fat but is very slowly turning to 'softer' fat, I am worried this belly will never go away and it's pretty hard to take at this point.... So It will be 3 years doing this on May 1st, the weight loss is ok but not as good as what it had been, I feel really healthy and don't feel like a fat person but my belly tells a different story... At no point over the pasy 3 years have I done anything with weights at the gym... I am at the end of my tether now, I don't want to give up what I am doing but I need guidance.

I take all this very seriously, it's why I have signed up and shared my soul with you, I am hoping someone will see my mistakes and be able to help me

There are things I cannot do, I can no longer run (my knees are really painful most of the time), I find it hard to bend due to a lower back problem

There are certain foods I cannot eat such as Tuna, Tomatoes, Cucumber, sea foods and some others.

Below is a copy of my daily diet, some figures may well be inaccurate, but it's as close as I can get

If you made it this far, thank you for reading :)

MY 1500 CALORIE DAILY DIET

FIRST BREAKFAST
===============

Banana - 85 calories 0g fat
Pack Of Breakfast Biscuits - 152 calories 1g fat
Glass Of Smootie (half bottle/carton) - 180 calories 0g fat

Sub Total - 417 calories


LATE BREAKFAST (AFTER POOL)
===========================

Banana - 85 calories 0g fat

Sub Total - 85 calories

LUNCH
=====

Uncle Ben's Express Golden Vegetable Rice - 390 calories 6g fat
Birds Eye Chicken Chargrill Original (2 x) - 308 calories 17g fat
Glass Of Diet Drink - 0 calories 0g fat

Sub Total - 698 calories

DINNER
======

Special K With Red Berries - 130 calories 0g fat
Bowl Of Semi skimmed Milk (2 cups) - 236 calories 6g fat

Sub Total - 336 calories

TOTAL CALORIES PER DAY = 1536 calories

++ NOTES ++ No Cakes, No Crisps, No extra Items Including Sugar & Fat

*** Apart from the glass of smoothie getting out of bed and the 1 glass of diet pop at lunch I drink between 2.5 and 3.5 litres of water a day
 
Welcom
Your new plan looks much better than what u did b4. I've tried the starvation diet and it simply doesn't work; at least long term.
See ya
 
Peter Thomas said:
, I am exercising as hard as I can (to the point where I am exhausted and sometimes feel ill) and can't go without any more food. I am thinking there must be something wrong with my diet OR I am just destined to fail.
Click to expand...

Firstly, welcome to the forum. We have many knowledgeable people here (I'm not one of them!) that will be along to help you, I'm sure. I don't know much, but I do know that you should not be exercising to the point you feel ill nor should you be eating 1200 calories a day. I'm losing a lb a week at 5'10 and 180ish pounds eating between 1200-1600 a day..

You may be gaining muscle with all the swimming?
 
Sunflower_ said:
Firstly, welcome to the forum. We have many knowledgeable people here (I'm not one of them!) that will be along to help you, I'm sure. I don't know much, but I do know that you should not be exercising to the point you feel ill nor should you be eating 1200 calories a day. I'm losing a lb a week at 5'10 and 180ish pounds eating between 1200-1600 a day..

You may be gaining muscle with all the swimming?
Click to expand...

I have some muscle from the swimming but to me it doesn't seem like a lot, my chest is nice and tight now, which I never had before. My biceps are very small but fairly defined now that the fat is gone from there and my legs (upper and lower) carry some muscle..

It's such a mine field Sunflower_ and I just felt I needed some help as my belly will just no go away the same as the rest of the body did

Thanks for the reply and welcome btw :)
 
Muscle weighs more than fat, I think - so the scales might just not be reflecting your losses the way you want as you're gaining weight in muscle.. I don't know. The experts will be along at some point to guide you!

How long did it take to lose that 6lbs you were talking about? Since Jan 17th? We all lose weight from different areas at different stages - your tummy might just be the last bit to go! I wouldn't worry until you're at your goal weight. I'm always last to lose it around my hips so end up with a dinky waist and then big hips..I had to get really, really close to my goal weight before they looked in proportion. Don't worry about that right now.

Maybe you need to mix up the exercise a little - do you like anything else aside from the swimming and bike? Your metabolism might have got used to the low calories/same old exercise.

Do you not get bored having literally the same food every day?
 
The 6 pounds took 6 weeks to lose, so a pound a week, which is ok when you look at it like that, I just set my expectations too high I guess.

I think you could be right in what your saying about my cardio work and mixing things up, I am most certainly open to tying new suggestions and yes I do get bored of eating the same thing day in day out but I am wanting to lose the belly so badly
 
Pete, I'll be honest and say that some of your behavior is a little worrying to me. I'm a 5'6" woman who has similar exercise habits and I'm eating more than you (and still losing weight). A man of your height, weight, and age should lose a pound a week eating around 1800 calories and this is assuming you are sedentary and do no exercise, which clearly isn't true. Given your exercise habits, 1800 calories a day should probably put you between 1.5-2 lbs per week depending on the intensity. I would DEFINITELY not restrict any lower than you are doing right this second (and would probably recommend you eat a couple hundred calories more). And exercising until you feel sick is a terrible thing to do to yourself. I say this as a person who loves to exercise and pretty much gets one to two hours every day. I'm not trying to be harsh or critical, but you can't sustain something over the long haul that makes you miserable.
 
Thanks Stan and -Cory- for the replies

-Cory- I hear what your saying there and perhaps need to take a step back from what I am doing, when I see it all on a screen like this things do seem a little bit clearer.

I suppose I need to be even more patient, I just figured that holding that diet and exercise this past 3 years I would have got the belly gone by now or at least deflated it more than it has

Thanks for taking the time to reply
 
Pete, it's easy to get so focused on the number that you forget that it's still important to care for yourself while you work on this. I've fallen into the same trap before. Keep in mind that we all want to be healthy at the end of this, not just skinnier with a different set of problems.
 
Thank you both Cate and Cory, your help is really appreciated

I think having listened to what you have both said along with what one of the people at the pool I go to has said I think my metabolism is probably shot because of the way I have been treating my body the past 3 years

I am going to try the following...

Slowly increase my daily calorie intake, I don't want to do it too quickly as I fear putting on too much weight, eventually bringing myself up to the 2500 calories I have been advised I should be taking in

Secondly I am going to slightly vary my diet, I need to introduce vegetables as soon as possible, perhaps cutting back on the high carb rice and using it that way

Finally a change to my exercise routines, continue with the swimming each morning (I need this for social interaction and keeping my mind healthy), but ditching the exercise bike at home in the afternoon's and instead going back to the gym (there is one at the pool) and perhaps doing say 15-20 mins of bike to warm up and then using exercise machines and weights to help build some more muscle. I think I read somewhere once that the 3 ideal ingredients are aerobic / diet / weights

I am needing to give the above 3 steps a try, unless yourselves or anyone else has anything they would do differently or add to this. I feel pretty comfortable with the above changes and kind of looking forward to some change
 
I think working out your own plan is the best idea & it sounds like a good plan to me. Building more muscle will also help raise your metabolism. You may find that 1600-1800 cals a day will work for you. It may be more. Doing it gradually & then seeing what happens is smart. I think most of us have switched things about fairly often. Whatever happens, don't be disheartened. You'll work this out.
 
I think this is a good plan. You can always change things up if you feel it isn't working. That's the thing about weight loss. No one thing works for everyone. I also completely understand about the social aspect of the gym. I moved to a completely new town last year and wouldn't have made any friends if it hadn't been for my gym time.
 
That's great advice Cory. The hard part is if something doesn't work to not get disheartened by it. If you find yourself there Peter, just cross it off the list and move right on to something different until you find the one for you
 
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