3 month - Fitness weight loss check in

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Summerof79

2,500+ Posts
Well it's that time again for me to check in with some of the other folks that decided to try and go for a lifestyle change in recent months. I am pretty sure the first day I went for a walk was January 8th around the neighborhood. I was tipping the scales at 245, and if my memory is correct my new fangled COSTCO body comp scale had me at 45% body fat. I was basically a brisket.... and a fatty one at that....

Well three months later I am SOOOOOOO much more fit than I was at the beginning of the year. My main goal was increased fitness, because I knew if I became more fit and active the pounds coming off was going to be a natural by product. More importantly I just wanted to feel better and getting more fit was the only way to do this. Simply dieting was not going to work for me any better than it works for most folks. Now this is not to say I don't watch what I eat a bit more, but I haven't except for a couple of weeks at the beginning radically altered my general lifestyle. I still have margaritas every Friday, and party on the weekends but I don't consume quite the volume I did before. And if I know I am going to party like a rock star on Saturday night I make damn sure I get a good workout in to ever so modestly offset the caloric booze intake. I rarely eat the chips and salsa anymore, and tend to graze over the course of the day eating several smaller meals and snacks rather than the traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner. I now keep snacks on me nearly all the time, usually granola bars. Another thing I now keep in the fridge is naked Juice with is basically a smoothie in liquid from of fruit/veggies. Really good for a quick gulp and staving off the hunger while putting in some good nutrition. GRADUAL weight loss combined with increased fitness was the goal. I set a very modest(I thought) goal of losing 7 lbs per month as a fitness byproduct.

Now on the fitness side I try to go to the gym every day usually for at least an hour. thankfully my schedule is flexible and I can go spend an hour and a half at the gym in non-peak hours either walking/running on the treadmill, or swimming or lifting. Unfortunately I pulled (partially tore) my calf the Sunday before last and the running walking has been eliminated, but hoping to walk easy today. Injured myself in a pickup soccer game at my daughter's middle school. What was the real bummer is I was having a frigging blast up until I went down in a heap. We were going to stop in about 10 minutes too, adding insult to injury.

So anyhow here is the basic result thus far
-weight down to 215 lbs from 245.
-body fat down from 45% to under 35% (still a fat ***)
-heart rate now 63 bpm vs 82-85 bpm
-blood pressure 124/72 vs 134/85
-three notches off the belts and about to have to buy new belts, and fitting into several year old dress slacks, jeans now hanging off me. Now my body profile is the gut variety where my legs look pretty fit, but I have the beer belly look still. As my workout buddy said now you just look like a guy with a gut. whereas before you were sort of a big barrel.. "
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Before my calf got hurt two weeks ago I was going for an hour on the treadmill and had moved from walk a quarter, run a quarter to walk a quarter, run a half mile. On my big days I would go 3-4.5 miles on the treadmill then swim 1000 or 1500 yards afterwords. That's a nice overall body workout! Yesterday, I swam 2000 yards straight, nice and easy and I could have gone for 3000 easily as I wasn't even really getting tired at the moderate pace. I couldn't have swam 250 years uninterrupted when I started swimming in mid February. People who haven't seen me in a while all comment on my weight loss, but to me the fitness is what's the best part. Gonna try the calf out today for the first time of the treadmill and go easy and see how it responds to the stress.

Anyhow I am basically a little bit ahead of schedule on my goals without really doing a whole hell of a lot other than regularly exercising (vigorously) and trying to make better food choices. I don't beat myself up if I go nuts at a party, I just try to compensate the next few days with a little extra effort int he gym and a little better eye on the food intake. So it's really been relatively painless. Slow and steady is how the weight went on and the fitness declined and slow and steady is how I have chosen to try and move forward.

I know I could bust *** this week and probably drop 5 pounds and get to 210 by Monday, but I think the slow and steady route is the best one. Hopefully I can start to "double up" with the run/swim scenario again as that really cuts down on the booze... as I am asleep at 9...

Anyhow just wondering how some of the rest of you have fared. My goals are long term rather than short term so the slow steady approach is what is best for me, as it comes more from a lifestyle change. Should be right at 200 pounds come Memorial day, feeling a lot more fit than I have in quite a while. THEN I will aim at a triathlon or other endurance event and bump up the fitness training another notch as the days get long in Summer.....
 
The pace at which you lose weight is definitely about to slow, especially if you're lifting and eating right (read: enough)...however, like you said early on, don't sweat the pounds, if you're living right the weight will take care of itself...congrats, and good luck...
 
Yep I had a period were I was busting butt and lost 2 pounds in two weeks if even that, but that is the beauty of the body comp scale. While it's probably not perfectly accurate, it gave me feedback in that while the raw weight number wasn't moving the body fat/muscle ratio was creeping in the right direction. If I was only concerned with the weight it would have been discouraging. Heck if I woudl just go a single week without a Margarita or drop of booze and watched my diet I could probably drop 4 pounds with the pace of my caloric burn.

The good news is that since fitness is the main objective the lighter I get the harder I can push my body on land! thanks for the encouragement.
 
Keep it up. I am starting down that road (again) as well. I'm in the worst shape of my life. I'm rooting for you. And my self.
 
I went from about 250 to 205 in about four months, now the loss has slowed considerably but it doesn't concern me.
 
hell i dropped 12 lbs in two weeks simply by getting off the Prednisone that was prescribed for my inflamed kidney. pretty amazing really.

so i'm down from 226, to 214.... goal of 205. I start to get a six pack at about 195, but then my face looks like skeletor. so, 205 with a negligible gut. i'm 33, a little gut is okay.

summer, don't worry about the stomach. for guys like me, and apparently you, it is the very last place it comes off.... and it comes off slowly. it is a process. enjoy it.
 
I've gone from 222 to about 190 in a year because I ditched the car and started riding my bike to work. Been wonderful. It's nice when other people notice too. Keep up the good work, it's worth it.
 
Love these stories....

I started on New Year's Day at 251.4....weighed in this morning at 226.4. 25lbs down and I'd like to get down to 210. Slow and steady though.

Keep it up Summer!
 
December 1st: right around 250lbs

April 10th, broke the 200lbs mark at: 199.6 lbs this morning.

GOAL : 175 lbs by the end of the summer. The weight loss will slow, but if i can lose about 5 lbs a month, I will be elated.

You really really have to want it. It takes work and discipline, but reward yourself every once in awhile.
 
YoLaDu - you must have had a LOT of holiday desserts and drinks to go from 150 to 200 so quickly
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Actually your pace is a little bit better than mine, in that I don't expect to see 200 until the end of may or June.

For me the deal is the better food choice combined with the enjoyment of exercise again. At first it really was work to be honest, but I also at first was diligent in charting my workouts from a time/intensity/duration standpoint. You can more easily see improvement in improved stamina or distance covered in a given time before you start seeing any weight loss result. I still make a mental note of my workouts but I don't write down everything I do because I know I am doing more enough. probably need to start setting a longer range triathlon goal or long bike ride goal to keep the fire burning once I get down another 20 pounds.

ONE THING THAT DID HELP AT FIRST- I had a buddy that I talked into joining the Y and working out with me. i even offered to pay part of his monthly fee to get him to join, He was in better shape than me because he had started working out several months before and toned up a lot. I trained him how to improve his running form and he shed a LOT of time off his runs. So it was good for both of us. We did a triathlon about 5 years ago to get in shape, and that was the last time I sniffed 205. I think when I hit 210 I am going to circle an event date and start logging my training again.

I think for me this go round ti just might stick because I honestly don't feel like i have given up anything to lose this weight. Just gained fitness, and made wiser food choices. Not radically wiser, just moderately wiser and increased the activity. Literally I started by putting one foot in front of the other......

Thanks for the encouragement. To be honest actually starting was the hardest part, after I decided to start exercising again most of the time I really wanted to go. just starting was the hard part.
 
Having a goal and working toward it works for me. In a purely selfish level, i like looking toward events where i haven't seen friends or family in awhile, and then trying to set a realistic goal to be a certain weight by that event. Like a wedding or beginning of football season or visiting the parents.

Such a great feeling when you get compliments about how great you look from people who haven't seen you in awhile. A real boost to your self confidence and ego!
 
You are right ralphie- I can't tell you how good it felt to jog a little yesterday and NOT have my calf feel like it was about to explode. Can't wait to start racking up the mile running again... and started looking at that nifty road bike in the garage last night thinking..... hmmmm that 90 mile Austin to Shiner ride to drink beer might not be so bad...
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Nice work, Summer. Keep it going.

I was 181 this morning, down from 219 in mid Sept. Lost the first 30 the first 3 months, and just under 10 since the holidays. I have been much more relaxed in my intake routine, with wine at dinner a few times a week vs none before.

Workouts have contnued, mostly bike machine, 4-6 times per week, 60 min at level 10-11. Getting into the 170's over the next month will be great. I haven't been this weight since 1995.
 
I started in early Sept, after a visit to my doctor indicated I should be dead (well, not quite, but muy malo), at a weight of 258 lbs. I'm a big guy, so I was plump, but carried the weight better than shorter folks. But oh, the face!! Didn't realize how bloated in the face I had become.

This morning I weighed myself in at 202. I have a chisled jawline again. I dropped 8 inches in the waist, so all my suits had to be recut and I boxed up every article of casual clothing for "permanent" storage. That was the best feeling of all. Sure, its a PIA to have to go to the tailor and go shopping to re-outfit, but almost gratifying in its annoyance.

Best part of all, went to a wedding this past weekend with family and friends I hadn't seen since last summer. Plenty of dropped jaws confirmed I was doing something right.

Now I am feeling healthier (still need to pick up the exercise, though) and eating healthier. I feel pretty confident I can make this one stick.

Kudos to all the success stories and KEEP IT UP!!! Healthy lifestyles are just that, LIFESTYLES!!! Make it a way of life, and we shouldn't ever have to worry about regressing.
 
It truly is lifestyle.... Considering I cooked a brisket, two family packs of drumsticks, and about 20 sausages for my daughter's soccer team get together, and drank all Saturday evening into the night and I survived intact says it all. I nibbled mostly, and then made a giant plate of two of the salads that were brought to the party. Drank margies Friday, and Sunday with a bunch of jack in between. However I tipped the scale at 213 this morning. mainly as while I didn't hit the gym I was hauling soccer gear from dawn to dusk Saturday and part of the day Sunday. Mainly I didn't go ape **** on the BBQ, and ate lighter after breakfasts knowing that I was going to have larger evening meals with friends.

Hopefully I can start actually running again today...heading out to the gym in just a few minutes....
 
If you are "on" a diet, eventually you wil go "off" it. It is relatively easy to lose weight, the real challenge is to keep it off. In my humble opinion, the only successful way to do that is to incorporate some permanent positive changes in your lifestyle that cause you to lose bodyfat over time and will continue to allow you to maintain that loss indefinitely. Otherwise, once you go "off" your diet and resume the same old habits, you will eventually put back the fat on. It's called yoyo dieting and is said to be very harmful to your health.

That said, some small changes over a long period of time will yield big results. A change that incorporates a 100 calorie swing will result in a little over a ten pound loss in a year's time. That can be from reducing intake by 50 calories and increasing activity equivalent to 50 calories, and almost insignificant change. This small change over a 2-3 year time really adds up and is something you can sustain over a lifetime. Two big changes I made were limiting my per meal intake to 500 calories or less, the maximum you can take in over a three hour period, without storing them and making sure that each meal has a combination of a low fat, protein source, and an unprocessed starch, along with the usual green vegetables. Having five meals of 500 calories each about 3 hours apart is much better to stabilize blood sugar, avoid hunger, and avoid fat storage.

Exercise is great but it is about 85% nutrition and about 15% working out. When I used to marathon, I thought I could eat anything I wanted. While I didn't gain weight, I sure didn't lose it either despite running 25-30 miles per week and doing aerobics.
 
I have run three marathons and i sure as hell did not lose any weight during the 6 month training times. Your body craves fuel for those long runs and you eat. And your brain justifies the double cheeseburger because you just ran 8 miles that day or something like that. People always used to marvel that i was running a marathon with this big beer gut, but you can.

My experience is that you cannot eat anything you want and think that exercise alone will take the pounds off.

Conversely, you can alter what you eat and lose weight without any exercise whatsoever. The problem is that it is hard to keep that lifestyle up; eating little and exercising very little.

My experience.
 
I agree with the Diet thing, but I also think making the smaller changes are more of a lifestyle change than trying to adhere to a diet, that is aonly a temporary thing. Also agree that 5 or so smaller meals expecially when working out works best and prevents the monster dinners after you are starved. Lots of science supports the "diabetic style diet" of more smaller meals, for weight control. I also cycle my calories, eating substantially more some days and substantailly less others.

Where I think exercise comes in is that you just feel better! you feel stronger, because you are generally adding muscle mass. Lean muscle mass is more dense and two people the same height can weigh the exact same amount and look drastically different from a fitness perspective because of body fat percentages. It take a TON of exercise to burn many calories, though the 3000 I swam today probably did some good, the lighter meal intake will do more.

Of course I guess I should say.... THE BIGGEST LOSER FINALE is tonight. And those folks are both dieting and burning a shitload of calories. The thing about exercise is that the more lean muscle mass you have on the body the more calories you body will burn whether active or at rest
 
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