Throughout the time I've spent on this planet, I've fulfilled a stereotype that is nearly crucial to every social circle. We exist as a mechanism to afford others the chance to point and laugh. We're funny, but mostly because we're like Chris Farley.
I'm fat.
It's been apparent to me for years that I'm overweight, unhealthy, and not a likely candidate for a long existence. But it was only after I became single again that i realized how bad it had gotten. This is why I've started a thorough diet and exercise program, and I've seen amazing results so far, and I'm pretty sure I'll continue to see pretty amazing results for some time to come because of my persistence.
At my peak, I weighed between 250 and 255 lbs, at least when I last used a scale before the lifestyle changes, and I stand at 6' tall. That's a big problem. I'll let you go do the BMI calculations based off of height. Yes, it's scary as hell.
The cornerstones of weight loss are all there for me. Diet and exercise. This isn't that difficult. I got some estimates on what my BMR probably was and created a nice caloric deficit. I was sitting at around 2500/day for maintenance. Going down to 1250 or 1500 a day won't be a problem, right?
Oh how I was wrong.
See, in all of the weight loss information available to the public, there's a serious lack of information, as well as a serious amount of misinformation. Here's the low-down: the amount of calories you take in to your body must be less then the amount you expend. Plain and simple. However, it is possible to go too low. That 1500/day made me groggy and put me in a sour mood. My weight also didn't move the 2lbs that week that I'd hoped for. I thought "Maybe the first week is just like that", and for some people it is. But I then found out that I'd made a serious mistake. I was eating too little, and my body had gone into starvation mode. Suddenly, it was doing everything it could to expend as little energy as possible, as well as converting as much food as possible to fat while going to my muscles for energy.
This alarmist attitude may be a little extreme for a single week's worth of dieting, and I have no idea if it actually had that much of an impact. But the fact that I realized this earlier, rather then later, has been key to everything up until now because it helped me realize that this isn't that hard.
That caloric deficit doesn't mean you need to eat less. It could also mean that you just need to exercise more. Or you could do a bit of both - give your body proper, balanced nutrition, and exercise regularly.
So then what's your success been so far?
I've lost 20 lbs so far. A lot of that has been water weight, but a lot of that has been fat, too. I've also put on some muscle, and I feel far better then I did before. While these are extreme results, they have slowed down quite a bit. Once I see the scale stabilize a bit more on a day-to-day basis, I'll be moving to weekly weigh-ins. I've also started taking pictures to visually quantify my results.
Soon I'll post some stuff soon about the three cornerstones of my success: diet, weightlifting, and cardio. I'll give you my personal advice and hopefully give somebody out there some ideas about how simple this is.
Until next time.