I'll start off by saying I really, REALLY wish I would have taken progress pics when I was 230. No matter how bad you think you look right now just take the pics! You'll thank yourself later.
Pics (shirtless male, decide if that's nsfw):
195 (May 23rd, 2018) https://i.imgur.com/I8aKWtn.jpg
162 (Nov. 21st, 2018) https://i.imgur.com/X2MefW4.jpg
Side by side: https://i.imgur.com/cUAQXF2.jpg
So this all started about 18 months ago when I decided to go to rehab for alcohol. I'm an alcoholic and that's where a lot of my weight came from, both the drinking and the poor eating and nutrition habits that come with it. I used to run a lot and lift weights, etc. but about five or six years ago I fell back into drinking and it escalated until I needed treatment. I've been sober 16 of the last 18 months and that two month binge in Feb/March actually led to a 15 to 20 pound weight gain as I'd gotten down to between 175 and 180 then ballooned back up to 195 (the picture above).
After I'd been sober for a few months I decided to lose the last of the weight for good. I bought a gym membership and started doing something dumb: Trying to walk the line between building muscle and losing fat. I ended up doing not much (or not enough) of either as my calorie range was basically just below maintenance. I did lose around 7 pounds in two months but then at the end of July I decided to use that gym membership to focus on cardio, which I performed on an elliptical machine two or three times a week. I also have a part time job in a warehouse that I'm sure helped immensely but really it all boiled down to this:
CICO
I got the LoseIt app, put in my stats and tried to find foods that I liked that would fit into those calorie goals. That's the easy part. The hard part is having the discipline to follow through. I was basically on a 1500 to 1700 calorie plan that consisted of:
-15 ounces of 1% milk in an iced coffee for breakfast (150 calories)
-600 to 700 calories of homemade soup (chicken potato or chicken chili) for a mid day meal (I made this my main meal, calorically speaking)
-Protein bar, banana and 10 ounces of skim milk (400 calories)
-A deli meat wrap using a low carb tortilla with lettuce and brown mustard OR a spinach salad with light ranch dressing and bacon bits with deli meat chopped up in it. (Carl Buddig deli meat is good to use because it's cheap and all around 90-100 for two ounces.) (300-400 calories)
I'd throw in an apple, or some carrots dipped in light ranch dressing to have another fruit or vegetable (100 calories)
My only supplements were a multivitamin, vitamin d and fish oil
I would splurge once a week, usually on a box of cereal because I FREAKING LOVE cereal.
And that's it. Now I'm transitioning back into weight training. I started doing push-ups every other day a few weeks ago (I have the Perfect Push-up thing...it works) and I lifted weights in the gym for the first time in nearly four months today.
My plan right now is to do what I did those first two months so I can still shed a little fat and ease back into strength training then around the middle of December I'm going to up my calorie intake and really hitting the gym hard, try and pack on some muscle.
One note: Yes, that stuff hanging off my lower belly is mostly loose skin. That's the price you pay when you've gained and lost as much weight as I have as many times as I have (this is my third time losing this much weight). But we'll see how I look once I fill out with some muscle mass. I'm not too bent out of shape about it. Yeah it sorta sucks that I'll never have visible abs probably but I still look pretty damn good in a slim fit shirt.
I was nervous about posting this so...thanks for reading.
EDIT: Thank you to this subreddit in general, it helped a lot. Made me keep things simple.
-> Learn the easy way to loose fat
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