Sup H&F it's me again. I've had a number of failed logs and I've been gaining weight for 5 years. I am now so heavy that I'm starting to feel terrible almost day and its affecting my whole life. My poker skill and volume is suffering and my social life has been almost non-existent. I was planning to live at home for a few months after the WSOP while I rebuilt my bankroll and figured out what to do with myself but I haven't made any progress towards moving out yet. My primary excuse for not trying was to focus on making money but at this point it seems even stupider not to change my life.

Starting Stats:

Age 22
Height 5'11
Weight: 330
Ideal Weight:190-220 depending on how strong I am at the time

My Plan:

Keep it reasonable- There's no point in trying to eat the perfect diet or exercise 2 hours every day as I'll just be back to getting fat within 2 weeks. Also I hate cooking so it's unlikely I'll be able to avoid eating out, but I could easily go to healthier places and make heathier choices there. I'm going to make realistic changes to my life not build a new one from scratch

Limit Carbs- I have been very addicted to carb heavy foods, mainly pizza, fried foods, rice and pasta. I am unable to eat mainly carb based meals and lose weight as I need superhuman portions to fill me up and I'm very weak and talk myself into eating carbs when I'm not hungry or after I'm already full. I think it's unsustainable to use Atkins level of carbs, but I will abstain from meals which are mainly carbohydrates while eating wraps or buns so long as there is lots of meat and protein in the meal

Don't Eat Until Stomach is Growling- I can't trust myself to gauge my own hunger anymore. Also I'm such a pathetic fatty that I swear sometimes my mind tries to force this when I'm not yet hungry, usually when I've just eaten but didn't stuff myself. I'll use common sense here as well.

Eat Human Portions- Again I can't trust myself to determine when I'm full so I'll just use common sense and try to keep meals under 1000 calories. I rarely eat more than 3 meals a day, most often it is 2 enormous meals so if none of them go over 1000 I will at least lose a small amount of weight at my size.

Slow Buildup of Exercise- I am very out of shape and fairly weak for my bodyweight. I may be above the average morbidly obese man but I still have a lot of extra weight and not much flexibility. So I'll start with either walking or the elliptical, 30 minutes a day 6 days a week. I won't exercise many Sundays as I play tournaments all day. When I hit 300 I'll start with SS minus power cleans and when I'm repping more my weight in squats again I'll give power cleans a shot. I'll continue cardio on non SS days. It might hurt my lifts a little but my fat ass needs the exercise

Log Every Day

No matter how terrible I'm gonna put down what I do for the community to see. Hopefully if my initial enthusiasm fades I'll be able to keep going knowing that I can't disappoint myself and the community yet again.

No Excuses; No Qutting

This was posted in one of my other logs right around when I gave up

I do agree that so far this has been true. Considering how fat I am I do have the knowledge to succeed. So far I quit every time and make dumb excuses. I'm going to have bad days. I'll most likely have have some pizza, chicken wings, General Tsos chicken and beer along the way. If I quit every time that happens I'm going to be fat forever

I forgot to mention that I also want to cut back a lot on soda. I have been good about drinking diet instead of regular for years, but Diet Soda seems to go well with terrible foods and makes me crave them as well as cause dehydration so it is almost as bad as the regular stuff. I'll be taking caffeine pills cause I am hooked on caffeine and drinking some water, diet green tea and low calorie gatorade(200 calories per gallon)

Good luck, man. What you have seems pretty reasonable. I'd very strongly recommend that you actually figure out what you have been eating daily so you don't cut too much and go crazy trying to starve yourself. I'd also recommend scheduling cheat meals/days. That keeps you accountable to yourself so you can't just have an easy out of 'oh I guess I'll just have another cheat meal now'.

You are aware that the amount of carbs increases substantially after the two-week initial period, right?

I won't proselytize, but you are the perfect candidate for Atkins, imo.

My average calories when not trying to lose weight was likely something around 5500. I ate a ~3k calorie meal almost everyday. I would go get 3 items from Taco Bell in the morning start playing poker at some point and when finished with a tourney session I'd be starving and eat a large Meats Pizza from Papa Johns or a quart of General Tsos with the rice. If I did eat a homecooked dinner I would usually still eat this meal or at best another Taco bell trip. I was actually not terrible with snacks candy and ice cream but when I did go for them it was 1k+ calorie portions. I also have a high tolerance for alcohol so I usually don't drink in moderation when I do

what is the difference between atkins vs keto.

I'd strongly suggest trying to cook some basic meals for yourself. You can make a lot of really healthy food in bulk that tastes good. If you stick to mainly lean proteins and vegetables it's going to be very healthy and filling so its going to be hard to overeat.

Cheat meal sounds like a good idea, but my cheat meals would be really bad so I'll still try to keep it within reason. Maybe I'll do it on Monday's after the hell that is grinding Sunday tournaments. First one will be Five Guys fries I think Should curb the carb craving pretty well without being so terrible that it wrecks a weeks worth of work

Tuesday 11/3

1 PM Woke up

3PM-15min elliptical- tried checking out the local Rec Center gym since its free and I dont need a squat rack yet but the elliptical was really crappy so I cut the session short. Embarassing how tired and sore I was from this. Will prob check out Gold's Gym or just walk outside tomorrow.

3:30-Meal- Chinese food- small/pint of Beef and Mushroom. Gave the rice to my brother. I don't think this is too bad for a take out option but I'm not sure. Doesn't seem to be too big a portion or anything terrible in it to me

4PM- Walk ~3/4 mile. Not quite as tiring as elliptical

8:30 PM- Meal- 2 Pork chops and ~1cup green beans

10PM-3PM-Poker- decided I'll log how much poker I play because I'm hoping to increase my volume as I feel better and happier from losing weight. Was in a pretty good mood through the session though I was a little drowsy and my back was a little sore from the exercise

3:30AM- baby carrots <100 calories of dressing and some kind of lowfat yogurt~110 calories- I'm going to try to eat smaller meals right before bed as all I really need to do is avoid being too hungry to sleep

Maybe not enough food? But as long as I'm not starving I want to do as little as possible at first

Basically Atkins is one type of ketogenic ("keto") diet. The short version is that ketogenic diets are very low-carb diets. The long version, from one of Lyle McDonald's books:

"Atkins" is one type of ketogenic diet, one where the intake of carbs is generally lower (and at the start, much lower) than the 100g/day threshold. Dr. Atkins views the low initial amount of carbs and the gradual ramp-up as necessary to break cravings- it's more aimed at behaviour than ************ physiology directly. It's also designed to be very high-fat, with 65% of your daily calories coming from fat at the start of the program. It also involves a lot of veggies, which most people don't realize.

So, there are many variations of diets that can be called keto. Atkins is just a particularly well-established and well-practiced version of one. It was an absolute lifesaver for me and for several of my friends, and while I don't know if I would have had the same results on a general "keto" plan, I can't recommend Atkins highly enough for very heavy people who have blood-sugar issues/are addicted to carbs.

.

gl with this bobbo

gl bobbo. i'm a little taller and weigh a little less but most of your post is exactly how i feel. i've gotten to the point where when i eat bad food my body reacts badly and i dont crave it anymore, but still dont have the willpower to exercise as regularly as i need to. i have a roommate that i met aug of 2008 who was huge, bigger than i was. we moved in together in sep 09 and hes lost well over 100 lbs just from gymming/diet change without anything particularly radical. its pretty inspirational, you can def do it. i'd be down to ball or work out when i'm back home for the holidays if you want

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/a-g...exible-dieting

you can aquire this online much cheaper than 39.95

tyty..getting started on it now

Idk how you feel about fruits and vegetables, but Ive been eating way more. Helps me feel fuller if i start each meal with them

Thursday 11/4

It was raining today and that usually puts me in a lazy mood even though I don't go outside very much. Didn't feel like playing poker but was able to get in exercise and eat okay.

2:30PM-wakeup

7 PM- Meal 1 Five Guys Bacon Burger all the way no cheese no top bun- this one feels a little too stupid to eat regularly, especially the mayo which tastes great if you want to be a degen fatty but makes it feel rly unhealthy afterwards. Pretty sure I snuck it in around 900 calories since some of the mayo stuck to the top bun. If I eat in the future I'll get no mayo and pick between bacon and cheese

9:30 PM- tried to check out a new gym that is open 24 hours, but apparantly only members can get in for most of those hours. It doesn't look like it has enough SS stuff longterm but was gonna milk the free week while Im only doing cardio. Only posting this because I overcame an excuse and got something done later

11PM-Meal- 2 large grilled chicken breasts with BBQ sauce and buttered peas

12PM- 30 minute, 2 lap walk- glad I didnt use rain as excuse and instead simply waited till it was over. Though Im embarassed that I'm sore just from walking its pretty easy. I will likely bump this up to 3 laps which will be about 2.25 mile

What does not have enough SS stuff long term mean? Does it have a barbell and a powercage only for the short term?

I'm guessing it doesn't have enough weights, so that when he starts lifting more he'll run out of plates. Just speculating though.

GL Bobbo

they may not even have a real squat rack and almost certainly no bumper plates. I meant for a longterm gym I'll need SS stuff but I could do a free trial or a couple guest workouts at a wimpier gym

There is no such thing as a wimpier gym.

The gym I go to is full of roid heads and I'm talking the kind of guys who are addicted to the things and look ridiculous. I'm probably one of the smaller guys there (5'11 77kg) No one gives a **** what the other person looks like they are just concerned about getting their workout in and going home.

People have this weird idea that if you go into a gym your going to be judged immensely but ime you never are and once you go in you will feel completely comfortable remember everyone started somewhere fat or skinny. I would get yourself to a decent gym straight away and sack the crap gym off.

I might have just rambled for no reason but whatever.

Have fun.

Fri 11/5

Pretty lazy day no poker couldn't get myself out to a gym. I was really thirsty for water last night and today and wound up drinking a lot more than usual. Also I felt really light this morning fwiw

2:30PM wakeup

5PM Italian sub w/ ham salami oil vinegar veggies- Looked like a lot of bread so I took half the meat and put it into other half to keep carbs down

10PM 2 pork chops and peas

11:30PM ~45 minutes walking

I like to sip water or tea/yerba mate pretty much throughout the day. Tends to keep me busy/not thinking about food, and I get some extra activity because I have to run upstairs every time I need to take a piss.

Sat 11/6

wound up being in live tourny all day no exercise

11:30am wakeup

12PM- 8 breakfast sausages

1PM to midnight- live poker + about 10 whiskey & diets...

1AM - Taco Bell steak quesadilla extra steak

Sunday 11/7

2nd straight day of no exercise and calories prob around maintenance

11:30am-wakeup

1:30pm-12:30am-long online session. too much tilt and bad play though I did feel good at the beginning of session and way at the end

2PM- Chinese delivery-large beef and broccoli no rice. might have went over the calories but this doesnt give me the **** me feeling I get from my usual Chinese meal so I dont think its that bad

7PM- ~7 oz burger w onions ketchup mustard no bun

2AM- thing of low fat cottage cheese 540 calories

and prob ~350 calories of whisky at the end