Billian
New member
Hello everyone.
A little bit of background about myself, or rather, why I'm here in the first place (upon writing this, I realized it's very long. If you want the cliff notes just scroll to the bottom).
Like most of you (and maybe American society as a whole), my weight has ALWAYS been my biggest personal struggle. As a child I had severe intrinsic asthma and was placed on prednisone dozens of times early on. A side effect of this steroid is increased appetite, which in turn caused me to gain a lot of weight as a child. Couple this with poor genetics (most of my extended family is overweight or obese), and I was never able to get this issue under full control.
During my junior year of high school I finally had enough and decided I was going to lose this weight. I'll admit, a lot of my motivation came from wanting to date this certain girl, but that's a whole other story.
At 16 I was about 6' even and weighed 295 lbs. with a 46 inch waist. Over the course of time (about 8 months), I dropped 100 pounds. My senior year I was able to finally play sports and I had dramatically changed my life.
Of course, this was not meant to last. As I graduate high school and entered college I slowly began to let myself go, but I didn't get out of control. Due to personal issues I dropped out of college initially, worked full-time, and worked out. I got into the best shape of my life, and then went back to college.
I put on the weight again when I went back to school the second time. I gained about 60 pounds back over the course of the academic year. It was at this time I met someone and started dating. At the time the self-conscious feelings I always had towards my weight were put under the rug.
18 months later when the relationship fell apart I completely lost all self-control and began stress eating in response to the depression I felt.
I gained A LOT of weight and hit a figure I'd thought I'd never see: 352 lbs in 2007. Now granted, I am a bigger guy as far as body frame goes, which from an aesthetic point of view helped, but still...being 6'1" (I grew an inch since 11th grade) and having a 52" waist was not appealing.
So, after about a year of living in shame over how badly I'd let myself go I figured I would start dieting again, or rather, changing my lifestyle. So last spring, about 13 months ago, I began another program in the same vein as the one I did back in high school.
Thankfully, the program has gone well. As I ended my first year of graduate studies I had dropped 93 pounds and saw 259 on the scale.
So you might be asking yourself, "Ok, so why are you here?"
In the three weeks I've been home, I have put on weight again. 15 pounds in fact. I stepped on the scale the other day and it read 274. So, instead of wallowing in self-pity over not being able to continue the loss, I figured I'd come to a forum such as this to seek out help and offer encouragement to others in the same position as me.
Oh, and as far as goals are concerned...I have plenty. I'd like to see 200 on the scale (185 is my ultimate, super goal number though), and I'd like to have anywhere between a 34-36" waist. Also, I'd like to be under 220 pounds by the time the summer ends and school begins again (August 31st).
Cliff Notes:
I've always struggled with my weight. I lost a lot of weight in high school, gained all of it back and then some because of a failed relationship, and have recently lost a good portion of the weight in the last year. I'm here for motivation and to offer encouragement to others.
A little bit of background about myself, or rather, why I'm here in the first place (upon writing this, I realized it's very long. If you want the cliff notes just scroll to the bottom).
Like most of you (and maybe American society as a whole), my weight has ALWAYS been my biggest personal struggle. As a child I had severe intrinsic asthma and was placed on prednisone dozens of times early on. A side effect of this steroid is increased appetite, which in turn caused me to gain a lot of weight as a child. Couple this with poor genetics (most of my extended family is overweight or obese), and I was never able to get this issue under full control.
During my junior year of high school I finally had enough and decided I was going to lose this weight. I'll admit, a lot of my motivation came from wanting to date this certain girl, but that's a whole other story.
At 16 I was about 6' even and weighed 295 lbs. with a 46 inch waist. Over the course of time (about 8 months), I dropped 100 pounds. My senior year I was able to finally play sports and I had dramatically changed my life.
Of course, this was not meant to last. As I graduate high school and entered college I slowly began to let myself go, but I didn't get out of control. Due to personal issues I dropped out of college initially, worked full-time, and worked out. I got into the best shape of my life, and then went back to college.
I put on the weight again when I went back to school the second time. I gained about 60 pounds back over the course of the academic year. It was at this time I met someone and started dating. At the time the self-conscious feelings I always had towards my weight were put under the rug.
18 months later when the relationship fell apart I completely lost all self-control and began stress eating in response to the depression I felt.
I gained A LOT of weight and hit a figure I'd thought I'd never see: 352 lbs in 2007. Now granted, I am a bigger guy as far as body frame goes, which from an aesthetic point of view helped, but still...being 6'1" (I grew an inch since 11th grade) and having a 52" waist was not appealing.
So, after about a year of living in shame over how badly I'd let myself go I figured I would start dieting again, or rather, changing my lifestyle. So last spring, about 13 months ago, I began another program in the same vein as the one I did back in high school.
Thankfully, the program has gone well. As I ended my first year of graduate studies I had dropped 93 pounds and saw 259 on the scale.
So you might be asking yourself, "Ok, so why are you here?"
In the three weeks I've been home, I have put on weight again. 15 pounds in fact. I stepped on the scale the other day and it read 274. So, instead of wallowing in self-pity over not being able to continue the loss, I figured I'd come to a forum such as this to seek out help and offer encouragement to others in the same position as me.
Oh, and as far as goals are concerned...I have plenty. I'd like to see 200 on the scale (185 is my ultimate, super goal number though), and I'd like to have anywhere between a 34-36" waist. Also, I'd like to be under 220 pounds by the time the summer ends and school begins again (August 31st).
Cliff Notes:
I've always struggled with my weight. I lost a lot of weight in high school, gained all of it back and then some because of a failed relationship, and have recently lost a good portion of the weight in the last year. I'm here for motivation and to offer encouragement to others.
