I Lost Over 240 Pounds in about 10 Months

                                October 2017                                                                                      October 2018

My Story…. How, I did it and some things to consider.

Don’t worry, this isn’t one of those stupid, I’ll tell you keep listening things.  I hate those.  I wrote this because I really want to help some people. Maybe inspire you or at least get you to think and give you some tools.  Take knowledge from where you can get it.  I think a Dali Lama said that you should share your knowledge, it is a way to immortality.  Not so sure about that one, but when you lose don’t lose the lesson and when you realize you made a mistake, take immediate actions to fix it are both wise.

I had decided to lose weight in October of 2017 because I had gotten to over 550 pounds. In November of 2017, my now ex-wife said she wanted a Divorce.  I had gotten Lazy, Fat and hadn’t been the man I should have been.  I looked at weight loss surgery.  I didn’t like what I saw.  The side affects were not particularly appealing and the fact that a large percentage of people who do it gain all the weight back.  Why?  Because they never changed what got them there in the first place.  I looked at diets various ones from Keto, to Adkins, Mediterranean, Weight Watchers, the list goes on.  Even tried some of the more famous pre-packed meals, would rather eat the box they came in, personally.  Came to the conclusion that they will all work to a varying degree, but whatever you do you have to keep doing it.  Otherwise, you just gain it all back.  And who wants to live like that all the time.  It must be a lifestyle change.

I recently got to know an incredable amazing person, who actually caused me to change the way I think.  Admittedly not the easiest thing to do.  I made a mistake.  I didn’t have the courage to say something I should have said to her and now that isn’t possible.  All I can really say is that sometimes even a Knight can Falter and their courage isn't always what it should be. I wish that I could change many things, but nothing as much as this.  So, I say to you have courage and fix things that you can fix. 

Back to the Ex-Wife part.  With significant hesitation she had given me a list of things to do to try to work things out.  Lose weight was number one, several others, that actually should have been doing anyway as well.  Now, I had this mission to lose weight and save my marriage.  I did what I did for all the right reasons.  And if you ask her, I’d bet she’d tell you that I succeeded at everything but saving my marriage.  I failed because I didn’t find a way to make her feel and smile like I did when we met and if I’m honest I probably hadn’t for a long time.  In truth, not sure I really ever understood what love really is until recently.  I’m not sure I can explain it, but Love is wanting to make someone smile, not just for how you feel when she does, but because her smile makes the world better.  You should want to be the one to make them smile every day.  If you don’t feel that way about the person you wake up to or they don’t about you then maybe weight isn’t the only thing you should lose or change.  

But any way back to the mission…Weight Loss.  I kicked it in to high gear.  I lost 96 pounds in 7 weeks, I lost over 240 pounds in about 10 months.  I even won a Healthy wage individual challenges, although I didn’t do it for that or the money.  Oops, I never collected my winnings.   Long story though and this one is probably long enough already.  I decided I had to change my lifestyle, but how do I lose weight?

Simple, Calories and ultimately no matter what plan you use the truth is calories are what matter most for weight loss.  A Calorie is a unit of measure of energy and with a Chemistry degree I can tell you that it is the amount of energy required to raise one gram of water, one degree centigrade.  Does that really matter?  Nope.  What you need to know is that it is all about energy.  If you don’t use all the energy that you take in it stays as FAT, because your body stores excess energy as FAT for a future use.  The problem is you don’t ever use it and it just keeps storing more.  If you want to lose weight no matter what diet you use, fad or otherwise, you have to create a calorie deficit in order to lose weight.  You have to get your body to use its stored energy.  The only way to make that happen is to take in less Calories than you need.  Diet is the most effective way of doing this.  In fact, weight loss is mostly diet.  You can increase activity and increase weight loss only if you control your diet. 

So how do I know how much Energy, Calories, I need?  Well the science guys talk about Basal Metabolic Rate.  That is essentially the amount of energy required to maintain you body mass, weight.  You mostly just need know this is your starting point.  There are lots of calculators on the web if you search,” Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator”.  There is a link to the one I use under the link tab.  For me at 6 foot 3 inches, male, 48 years old and 550 pounds depending on activity level my Basal Metabolic Rate required between about 5200 and 6500 Calories a Day.  I recommend using the sedentary activity rate because start at a lower number.  For me that is about 5200 calories a day to maintain body weight.  So how do I lose weight?  Well a pound is about 3500 calories, so in order to lose one pound you have to create a deficit of 3500 calories.  A decrease of 500 calories a day will be a pound per week.  A decrease of 1000 calories a day is 2 pounds per week.  Pretty simple. 

Now as you lose weight the Basal Metabolic Rate will decrease, which is why as you lose weight you lose less.  It gets harder.  If your 550 pounds it melts off.  If your 220 pounds, it’s slower.  You can gradually increase your activity level as you go to offset this problem, or you can eat even less.  I just increased my activity level as I got lighter, it got easier.  You have to eat less than the basal metabolic rate to lose weight.  How low is too low-calorie intake wise? The recommended daily caloric intake on average is 2000, the lowest most people should go is between 1200 and 1500 depending on sex according to what I read

So how much can I safely lose.  Most references will say use 1-2 pounds per week as healthy weight loss.  I lost considerably more that that.  I limited my calories to 1500 per day on average so I created a deficit of about 3700 a day.  I was losing over a pound per day for a while there I lost about 13 or so pounds per week.  At 1-2 pounds per week it would have taken me 2-3 years to lose over 240 pounds.  Most will say 1-3% per month is ok.  For me that would have been a little over 4 pounds per week. What I did can be done, but this is where I say, “you should discuss it with your physician.”  The concern is that if you decrease your calories too much and lose weight too quickly you may not have essential nutrients which could cause problems.  The key is balancing diet and remaining hydrated.  There is an increased risk of Gallstones with rapid weight loss.  So, if you are obese (BMI>30) you can lose more weight than that because the balance of risk between being obese and risk of problems from rapid weight loss favors more rapid weight loss.  My BMI when I started was just shy of 70.  My waist was 62 inches and my neck was close to 24 inches.  I can now where a 42 pant, have an 18-inch neck, and my BMI is less than 40. The point is if you are obese or have issues like diabetes or others, speak with your physician. 

So, what did I do exercise wise?  I simple started walking 20 minutes every day before breakfast 6 days a week.  I took Sunday off.  I figured I’d follow God’s example on that one.  Yep I believe in God.  Solid in my belief and won’t apologize for it.  Any way I just walked 20 minutes a day every morning but Sunday, gradually increasing speed and incline.  I think I only walked about 6 tenths of a mile the first day.  Now I can walk a mile in under 12 minutes at a 6% grade.  The key is gradual so that you don’t hurt yourself.  Then as I got more fit, I started swimming and hiking and biking.  Added light weights as well eventually.  You don’t have to kill yourself it’s a process not a race.  How much you do depends on your fitness level.

Those are the basics of weight loss.  May look overwhelming or not but is simple in reality, just lots of big words.   The hard part is keeping track of calories, but even that is easier with some apps these days.  I used MyFitnessPal app.   Read labels and learn portions.  Takes a little work at first but you get good at it after awhile and do it intuitively later.

Now that you know how much energy you need daily and have lowered your calories what else can I do?  Next are some tactics that are useful and work.

1.  Coke and Pepsi and those guys are going to hate me for this but get rid of the soda. Don’t drink any of it, don’t switch to diet.  None of it is good for you.  Drink water, or maybe a few ounces of fruit juice in the morning, I did grapefruit juice, but make sure you don’t have a medication that you shouldn’t drink that on.  Remember to count the calories for the juice.  Coffee is ok but remember cream and sugar are calories.
2. Get a good night’s sleep, 6-8 hours.  Sleep is when we recharge.  Good sleep is essential to a healthy and happy human being.
3. Don’t eat 3-4 hours before you go to sleep.  I quit eating after eight pm.  I read about a trendy diet called intermittent fasting.  Latest and greatest?  Not so much.  If you get 6 to 8 hours of sleep and you don’t eat 3-4 hours before you sleep.  You just fasted for 10 to 12 hours. It’s not new.  It’s naturally how we are designed to work, LOL.
4. Exercise in the morning before you eat.  Eat a good breakfast.  Eat more of your calories in the morning.  Lighter lunches and dinners.  Mom was right good breakfast is important.
5. You don’t need to go Keto, but you should eat less carbs such as bread, rice, and pasta.  Smaller portions and less often.  They are high in calories anyway.  More fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins.  Lower in calories so you can have more, feel fuller, and less hungry. Pay attention to calories. Read labels.
6. How do you deal with hunger?  Get a zip lock baggy and a couple protein bars.  Preferably one with less carbs.  No more than 2-3 grams if possible and in the 200-calorie range per bar.  I like the pure protein brand, found they tasted good and weren’t terribly expensive, but up to you.  If you want to spend money on one of the expensive supplement ones go ahead.  You mostly pee those things out so, you get more expensive pee.  Anyway, if you get hungry take a bite of the protein bar and drink some water, don’t eat the whole thing.  If you get hungry later take another bite and drink a little more water.  It does 2 things keeps you from getting ravenous and actually is a small meal.  Keeps your metabolism up.  More smaller meals are actually better for weight loss than 3 big meals.  Easy trick that works.  Small fruits or turkey jerky also isn’t bad for snacks.  Key is self-control.
7. Quit eating out.  The stuff isn’t good for you and you can make lower calorie alternatives at home.  Cook what you eat.  Fish and turkey are good lower calorie lower fat options.  Eggs aren’t bad for you either.  Yep all the Fast Food Guys are cringing.  I will tell you so that you don’t get shocked.  Eating healthy does tend to cost more than your average Fast Food Meal Deal.  But think of it as an investment to lower future health care costs.
8. I did take a generic multivitamin when I remembered which truthfully may have just been giving me expensive pee again, but entirely up to you.  And is probably more important as we age.
9. Get a scale, track your weight every day or every other day.  I know other people say pay attention to how your clothes fit don’t fixate on the scale.  This is total crap.  Don’t fixate on it, and don’t stress if it goes up here and there as long as the trend is downward.  If you notice the trend is not downward then you need to adjust something.  There are apps that work with some of the fancy scales.  Not sure that is as valuable as simply writing it down with pen and paper.  It gets you more involved.  Set a small achievable goal of say 20 pounds.  As you achieve those goals set small new goals.  Write down the date, your weight, the change form last weight in and how far to whatever goal you set.  This helps. 
10. I kind of wish I had taken more pictures and maybe journaled, but that’s up to you.  Oh and to maintain it all you have to do is figure out your Basal Metabolic Rate at your final weight and average around that amount of calories.  

This is basically what I did, not rocket science.   I guess I could have written a book and included lots of fluff like recipes and stuff but that isn’t the point the point is to help you get to your goals.  Why give you the personal information?  Because I could?  Nope.  Because it may help you to learn from my mistakes and help you to avoid some of them and get you where you need to be.  Thinner, healthier, and just quite possibly happier.   A little knowledge, courage and determination are all you really need to achieve most goals.  

PS-This is Free and my experience it should work for anybody, but before starting diets or exercise you should talk to your Doctor.  I don't want to make money from something freely given so no advertisements on my site.  If you think its worth something, pay it forward and donate something to your favorite charity or St. Jude