Nice work...Atkins-style dieting is great if you actually eat clean. I've had so many friends that do a low/zero carb diet and just go nuts eating total garbage. They'll drop 30 lbs then blow up again. Eating clean with lots of protein and healthy fats is a fantastic way to lose weight.

Mad props on finding something that worked for you. Some folks are lucky enough to find out what works right away, others struggle and many give up. I have several friends who just cannot eat carbs...they watch me eat a piece of toast or some cereal and THEY gain 5 lbs. Low carb/carb cycling is the only thing that works for them and they are used to it now.

Eating healthy and training hard is a lifestyle, not a hobby. Integrate it into who you are and it becomes no more tedious than waking up in the morning.

What's your current diet and workout regimen?

good read. Do you have before and after pictures? Feel free to block out your face.

Congrats.

If you don't mind, how old are you?

Mainly looking for perspective on this "since I was 12 or 13" stuff.

He mentions that he was 28 in the beginning.

First of all, great read, and amazing accomplishment. I'm wondering how close are you to your statistical "ideal" weight, and do you have issues with loose skin?

Oops, missed that. Thanks.

Any issues with excess skin?

Heh this is something that I was really curious about but didn't want to ask cos it seems kind of a personal question.

This can't be stressed enough. The biggest problem with this is starting, because you need to learn how to properly make the best possible choice wherever you, and to learn how to do it habitually. At this point it doesn't take a second thought - I know what to do, and how to deal with potentially difficult situations (eating out, dealing with people who try and force "just one" of something on you and are offended if you don't take it, etc. etc. etc.). At this point it's second nature and I don't have to think about it. It's like I'm jewish and keeping kosher - it's just the way I eat, no big deal.

I'm generally only working out 3-4 times a week, and I eat slightly more carbs on a day-to-day basis, generally in the form of strawberries or the occasional sauce or vinaigrette that's higher in carbs than I'd have had in the past. Other than that, low-carb and healthy. My girlfriend cooks a lot of really good stuff, and is more into variety than I was, so I get a lot more kinds of things. Today, for example, my gf made us low carb chili with black soy beans instead of kidney beans (which are high fiber - on atkins you count net carbs, which are the total carbs minus the fiber). Friday she made us pork loin stuffed with a couple of kinds of cheese, mashed cauliflower and roasted asparagus. She's even made a pumpkin pie, and some of the different mixes and stuff you can get (we generally get it off the netrition site - the dixie diner stuff is really quite good).

Answered this in one of my previous long-winded answers...

29 now, soon to be 30. Been overweight for my entire life. I was even the fattest kid in my preschool pictures.

If by statistical ideal you mean according to bmi, I'm quite far. But I think that that's ridiculous - I have a very big frame naturally, with very broad shoulders, and I've put on a good amount of muscle...even now, people usually under-guess my weight by at least 30 lbs. I'm concerned with health and being able to buy clothes in normal stores. Modest goals, perhaps, but noble as far as I'm concerned, and more than I ever could have dreamed of a couple of years ago.

Define "issues." Do I have some excess skin? Yeah, some - especially on my midsection, thighs and upper-arms. But I've also put on a good amount of muscle, which helps a lot, and I've got decent skin that has snapped back relatively well all things considered - especially on my face/neck. I'm very young-looking - I'm the only person I've known who's gotten carded playing poker in AC (twice!!) - I've even gotten carded buying raffle tickets at a minor league hockey game. So I must not look too old and wrinkled...

Also, one way or another, I'm VERY willing to trade some excess skin for great health and no longer having that skin filled with huge amounts of fat. I'm not complaining - it is what it is.

Thanks again to all who conveyed congrats-

-bb.

bb,

As someone who has just started eating better and working out, this story is very inspirational.

Also too, I agree with what you said wrt to food addiction and stuff not really working for me. Ive done slim fast and weight watchers, a lot of things like that. I mean im still not on the best diet, since a. Im in college, so I mean drinking is a lot of calories, b. I cant just quit all the foods I love and its ingrained into my lifestyle (it is much, much prevelant).

Also too, the worst part about being fat is flying and knowing everyone around you is praying you arent sitting next to them. Its just as bad for us. Big and tall stores suck too. Their selection is getting better but im starting to fit into 3xl shirts pretty well again, and my pants arent staying up so thats a plus.

My goal is 5 days a week but its hard, im averaging like 3 a week, which is a lot more then I ever did in the past. Im very thankful for 2 of my friends that got me going and one in particular that helps me keep track and motivate me. I typcially do about 25 mins of cardio and then 6 exercises of 4 sets. Ive recently added in one day of pure cardio, probably will add in a second day. I will say that I do feel a lot better both about myself and just in general.

Thanks for hte good read and motivation

I've lost weight following the rules from the south beach diet, which is basically the same thing and I've also lost weight using a purely calories in calories out formula.

Using both methods, I lost weight. I think detractors of the atkins diet try to make the point that point that people eat less under the Atkins diet and thats why it works. Even if that is true, the reason people eat less under the Atkins diet isn't simply that they have less options or get sick of eating meat. Its that if you eat a no carb diet, you don't get as hungry and you don't need as many calories to function normally.

My understanding is that when you eat sugar and starch, your blood sugar gets immediately spiked. This spike releases insulan which removes the sugar from your bloodstream. Now that your blood sugar is depleted, your body suddenly needs more sugar. I think we've all felt this, you eat some sugar, you have a ton of energy for an hour, or however long, then you crash and need another hit.

I found that when I stopped eating sugars and starches, after a couple days, my body adjusted, and I never felt the energy fluctuations that I had previously felt. Limiting myself to 1,500 calories eating anything was a struggle. I constantly felt hungry and tired, but by eating just meat and vegetables, I probably consume less than 1,500 calores(I don't count, I just eat what I want) and I rarely feel hungry or tired.

Congrats, just a quick question for you. Im back in uni after a year off when I worked construction so I was always very acive, outdoors 10-12 hours a day, since the first week of Sept when I returned to school, I have put the weight back on that I lost while working. Now I'n not fat per se (6'1", ~198lbs), but I want to lose a bit of weight. How were you able to keep yourself motivated in working out, eating right etc. I signed up for a gym and have been once but thats it. Any help would be very appreciated.

very inspiring post op

Nice work doing what you've done. I do have to say something about this, though - a. I drink Jack Daniel's regularly - no carbs. Same with all spirits. Although alcohol can stall you if you do it all the time, I've not abstained from alcohol in any way - I still have beer at a ball/hockey game (Miller Lite's the lowest carb choice), and I still have Jack regularly, and when I do, well, let's just say that I don't hold back.

b. It's not that you can't, it's that you choose not to. That's a far more honest choice of words. I don't judge you for it, but I also don't believe in "can't." On my other board, my tag line is "own your decisions." It's okay that you're choosing to do whatever it is you're doing - God knows I make tons of choices all the time that might not be ideal for what I'm trying to accomplish. But I never say that I "can't" do something, or that anything is being imposed on me. I am VERY conscious of the fact that my choices are my own, and I need to live with them. It's an idea commonly expressed in AA as "There are no victims, only volunteers."

That's awesome! Good work. I remember getting down into 3x for the first time, and it really is a pretty good dividing line. It's where your selection in the big and tall gets a little better, and where you can start to buy some "normal" clothes, too - like Hanes tagless t-shirts in different colors.

When I was really big, as I've discussed, I couldn't get clothes other than, basically, what a 60 year old golfer would wear, or ghetto clothes (which are more likely made in big sizes, but which I'd never wear) or plain white t-shirts. So in order to at least be able to wear something somewhat individualistic I used to make my own t-shirts using inkjet iron-on transfers. Being able to buy shirts in different colors (at 1/5th the price off of amazon) was really, really cool.

Keep to it - you'll be done with the Casual Male before too long (and flipping it off every time you drive by, like me... ).

-bb.

Exactly. You eat less because you don't feel like you HAVE to eat more. It is fantastic, and for people who are EXTREMELY addicted to carbs (like me), it is literally a godsend.

Again, I'm not saying that it's perfect for everybody, but for some people - like me - it is. People with insulin disorders or carbohydrate sensitivity really, really benefit from it.

-bb.

I can't give it to you.

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that you are USELESS trying to motivate others. They absolutely, positively must do it for themselves. I wish it were otherwise, but it's not.

As to my motivation? Well, at first it was just blind terror. I thought - more accurately, felt 100% positive - that I was going to die. The way I was going, I thought I'd be dead by 30, and there was no way I'd make 35. Seriously, I felt unbelievably bad - ALL THE TIME. I know what it's like to be trapped inside your own body. To get down on the floor and really have to fight to get up. To come home from work and not have the energy to do anything but lie on the couch and watch tv, because physically you're in such rough shape, and mentally and emotionally you're so drained from dealing with people who look down on you, all the while feeling completely, totally hopeless and helpless because you've tried everything you can try and you just can not tame this thing that's afflicting you.

I didn't want my nephews to put me in a box. I love those kids, and they love me, and the idea of them having to bury me is truly terrible to me. I didn't want to die without having done a lot of the things I wanted to do. I didn't want to be miserable. I wanted a life, desperately. You know those people on tv who have shows where they're so overweight that they've become shut-ins? That is, without a doubt, where I was headed. When you're wearing a 6x, you're literally getting to be too big for the big and tall, as 6x is roughly where even they stop carrying stuff. I had just started going from a 5x to a 6x when I started this. I was in bad, bad, bad shape.

So when this worked, I grabbed it with both hands and absolutely did not let go. I am still terrified to this day of going back there. I can not let myself do that. The terrifying thing is that it's not just possible, it's likely - the majority of people who lose weight - even triple digits weight - gain it all back and then some. That scares the living hell out of me. I would literally rather be dead. If I get back to the point where I'm shopping in the big and tall again, I will die.

So fear and desperation is a big motivation for me. Now I also have the added motivation of not only feeling not-bad, but actually feeling great. I want to continue to feel great - maybe more than others because I know what it feels like to feel really, really bad.

Your motivation, however, is your own, and nobody on earth is going to give it to you but you.

-bb.

Incidentally, in my incredibly-long-winded OP, I forgot to mention how I honestly think that I couldn't have done this without poker. While I know that "poker as life" analogies are generally trite, annoying and corny, I do feel that there's a parallel in the skill set I use playing cards to the one I use losing weight. This thread's kind of my way of giving back for that, as well as for turning me on to kettlebells and to hopefully shed some light on a somewhat taboo topic of what it's like to be super-morbidly obese, and to lose that weight.

When you're losing weight - especially when you have a lot to lose and it's taking a long time - your body often does not comply on any given day. Sometimes you'll gain a couple of pounds for no discernible reason, or drop a bunch suddenly when you weren't doing anything out of the ordinary. This is just the way it is - your body tries to hold on to weight as a survival method, then gets convinced it's okay and lets it go. But all the while, you need to stay on course. For this reason, the idea of avoiding Results-Oriented Thinkind (ROT) is, imo, INCREDIBLY valuable in losing weight. Here's (a somewhat changed version of) something I wrote about the topic on my other board. Keep in mind that it was targeted towards people who don't play...don't feel talked down to or anything :

BB, great post and congratulations. One thing that I found interesting here is that it seems you were always very honest with yourself about everything. I think that is something that most people trying to lose weight are unable to do. ("can't" vs "won't" as you mentioned earlier)

Another thing is the scale. I went a long time without using a scale and then read about some study that said it was important to weigh yourself frequently b/c it gives you the quickest feedback (and most honest, I would add). Anyway, I agree with the study.

this is a great read and very inspiring. I have a few Q's though:

Did you experience any knee or leg problems? Shin Splits, etc?

My dad is overweight and even had triple bypass heart surgery last year because he eats like sh.it but he has bad knees and it's hard for him to walk or run anymore. What do you suggest I tell him to do to get off his ass as I'm concerned for his health as he's a diabetic as well.

Have him do an aqua-aerobics class or something. Super low impact and it'll wear him out. If he lost weight it is possible that his diabetes symptoms would become less severe.

great job! You really are an inspiration. Plus, you're a pretty good writer, too.

You say you don't look down on people who aren't trying to lose weight because you know how hard it is to live as a fat person. What do you think of those who have come to accept or even celebrate their obesity? The whole "Fat is Beautiful" mindset, I guess. IMO, they are deluding themselves and ignoring very likely future health problems. It's great that they're not depressed, but they're just about as likely to have other health problems. What do you think?

This is a great story, nothing to add except thanks for sharing.

James

Honestly, imo this is the most important thing you can do - and it's a fundamental baseline of all the people I've known who've been successful. If you make a sub-optimal decision, YOU are making the decision. It's not being made for you, YOU are doing it. And you need to be willing and able to accept it.

That doesn't mean that it's not okay to make sub-optimal decisions - it happens. But do it CONSCIOUSLY. Recognize and acknowledge what it is. Again, this is somewhere that my poker experience really helped me - objective analysis of a potentially emotional decision-making process. You need to learn to disassociate food from emotion in pretty much every facet of your life. For this reason I don't allow myself to judge my self-worth by the food decisions I make. To me, your self-worth is measured by how you treat people, how hard you work - WHO you are. What you eat is just that - it's what you eat. Nothing more, nothing less. Because losing weight is so hard, people really fetishize the whole process, and that can get unhealthy because they allow it to get so emotional. On my weight loss board, someone got the stomach flu and had to go back onto eating carbs just to get by. They then had a post where they talked about how they "blew it," which is ABSURD. People can use falling off for any reason - out of a simple poor decision or even out of necessity, as in this woman's situation - as a reason to quit. Because they get wrapped up in the emotion of it, rather than just seeing it as a series of decisions that you're making to realize a goal. Here's my response to her from that board. Incidentally, the acronyms WOE and WOL are commonly used there - they stand for Way of Eating and Way of Life. People don't usually call it a "diet," because it is not that - or at least not if you want to be long-term successful. A diet has an endpoint, a WOE or WOL does not. It's an important distinction. That doesn't mean that you'll never increase your carb level - if you follow Atkins properly, you eventually do, and you basically end up eating the commonly prescribed "lots of fruits and vegetables with lean meats" diet, albeit with less grains and no refined sugars. But it is a commitment to NOT going back to your old, ineffective way of eating:

I totally agree with that. I now weigh myself daily, and plan to do so for the rest of my life. I didn't from age probably 11 or 12 until last year, when I bought the scale. I hid from the truth of the situation, because I felt so powerless against it.

One thing I will say, however, is that I believe very strongly in using multiple forms of feedback. I use the scale, the tape measure, a hand held body fat analyzer and, when I'm really trying hard to lose weight, ketostix (which measure the amount of ketones you're expelling, a sign that you're in lipolysis, as described earlier). I do NOT put too much emphasis on any one form, nor on any given day's specific readings. Your body is just too damned stubborn and weird for that - you can be up or down on any given day for no good reason at all. Here are a couple of graphs from people who've successfully lost weight and kept track of it in a spreadsheet (not me - I didn't keep track in anything but my head):





Note how much both of them bounce, both up AND down. The ultimate goal, however, is what's going on - it's a downward trend. The day-to-day readings don't mean anything, it's the long-term trends that matter. I need multi-day trends across multiple forms of feedback that coincide with some kind of change in my routine before I start to even consider changing anything up, because the day-to-day jumps and dips are virtually meaningless. And if I'm gaining weight but losing inches or body fat %, I am HAPPY, not concerned - it means that I'm losing the thing that I want to lose, which is fat. I don't care as much about losing weight. I do know, however, that the weight will eventually come off if I follow what I need to follow. It can't but come off.

-bb.