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I lost 100 pounds!

Discussion in 'Physical & Sexual Health' started by BobObob, Jun 10, 2017.

  1. BobObob

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    When I stepped onto the scale this morning, it told me that I weigh 100 pounds less than I did 1,070 days ago! More than half of that weight has been lost this year, thanks in part to a job that often lets me work from home, and pays me enough money to splurge on a 'deskercise' bike and height adjustable desk that I can use while working and/or playing on my PC at home. Thanks to my job usually letting me work from home a couple days a week, and the fact that I'm not currently that incline to leave the house for other reasons (I'm not a very socially active person), I end up spending about ~16.5 hours a week peddling on my exercise bike, which is something most people can't easily do.

    I still have a long way to go. I still need to lose ~35 pounds before I'm no longer considered overweight according to the BMI, which is my current goal. Since I've lost more than 10 pounds per month for the last 4 months, I'll probably hit this goal sometime this year so long as I maintain my current habits. I didn't think that I'd make it this far when I started.

    Looking back at when I put on the weight, it's amazing how much of a difference life circumstances make. So many people tend to assume that if someone's fat, they must be lazy. Yet, I wasn't lazy when I put on the weight (well, maybe a little, but not anymore than I am now or when I finished my master's degree). My religious beliefs at the time deprived me of a lot of the motives for wanting to be healthy, and I was in a situation that encouraged a really unhealthy diet (being a college student on a meal plan that provides junk food filled with subsidized corn). On the other hand, I'm not any more hard-working now, yet the weight is easily and quickly coming off because my life circumstances have given me the means, motive, and opportunity to do so.

    I just wanted to share this on here, but I'm also curios as to how many others can relate to this. Has anyone else been in the same boat (in any of these stages)?



    Side note: Overall, I feel better since starting to lose weight more aggressively earlier this year. My mood has improved a little, and I think that my weight loss may have cured undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea, as I've been dreaming a lot more often and feeling more rested as of a month or two ago. I have recently experienced some mild symptoms that could be a sign of a serious problem caused by rapid weight loss. My doctor, who was aware that I lost 50 pounds since my last appointment earlier this year, had a few tests done on me that didn't find any evidence of a serious problem. He said that it's safe for me to continue with my aggressive exercise and weight loss habits.
     
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  2. OnTheHighway

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    That is FANTASTIC!!!

    Be sure to adjust your lifestyle to keep the unhealthy weight odd. Might be easier said than done. But given the progress you made, seems like you have the conviction to do it.

    Well done!
     
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  3. Jax12

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    Please tell me your secrets. I must know.

    What lifestyle changes have you had to make to get this far? 100 pounds is fantastic to hear. Have you been doing mostly cardio?
     
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  4. Chip

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    That is such incredibly awesome news! You are already so far past the major hump... nothing but good things ahead. It can be really hard to get the last 10 or 20 pounds off but if you stick with it... you'll get there.

    As you may or may not know, there's an internal mechanism, that isn't well understood, that seeks equilibrium, and essentially messes with the metabolism when someone loses a lot of weight. There's a TED talk about this somewhere that is awesome, and intersetingly, one of the keys to keeping the weight off is keeping up with the emotional piece that usually comes with weight loss (there's nearly always some layer of emotional protection in the weight.) I don't have the link right offhand but if I can find it I will post it.
     
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  5. Shorthaul

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    Congrats, that is a great acomplishment
     
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  6. BobObob

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    Thanks everyone.

    Right now my plan is to only slightly ease off of the aggressiveness after reaching my ideal weight range, and to gradually transition from losing weight to losing bodyfat percentage. Perhaps I'll go in cycles of losing 5-10 pounds to lose fat, then gaining that weight back to try to gain muscle. The good news is that my current strategy is to maintain habits that, while aggressive, don't rely on passion. Passion comes and goes, but I think the fact that I'm able to maintain a consistent calorie deficit without much 'willpower' greatly improves the likelihood that I'll keep the weight off.
     
  7. BobObob

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    I think the particulars of what's the best approach will vary from person to person and situation to situation, but here are some general strategies that I would suggest others consider if they want/need to lose weight:

    1 Keep track of things.

    I used the Fitbit app (without owning a Fitbit device) to count calories in vs calories out and I tracked my weight. There's a large margin of error when trying to guess how many calories you're burning, but eventually you should be able to determine roughly how many calories difference it would take to, for instance, lose a pound a week. Note: 3500 calories very roughly translates to a pound.

    2 Experiment with lifestyle changes to get the best weight loss for your effort.

    Following the above suggestion helps this a lot. If you know where your calories are coming from and what options there are to burn more calories, you can try to experiment to find lifestyle changes that give you the best calories difference to effort ratio. If you know that you're consuming 500 calories via drinking (e.g., sodas, juices, etc), you could try cutting these calories out by switching to drinking water instead. Or, if it's a big sacrifice to completely forgo sweet drinks, you could experiment with compromises such as drinking diet drinks instead of sugary ones (although water would be preferable to diet drinks).

    I think it's a good idea to experiment with various lifestyle changes, because the ease or difficulty of each change will vary from person to person. I quickly found that cutting calories by drinking only water and diet drinks was fairly easy for me, and prevents me from consuming a lot of calories. I also had a habit of eating a snack/small meal of up to 500 calories soon before bed out of fear that feeling hungry would keep me awake. I had had several times in which feeling slightly hungry going to bed kept me awake, only for me to get hungrier and hungrier until I could fall asleep until I went through the trouble of eating a snack at 3am and brushing/flossing. I experimented to find that I could get this down to ~200 calories instead of 500 without causing this trouble. A few months ago, I ceased eating after dinner altogether, and have found that I won't feel hungry when I go to bed if I drink more water.

    For a couple years, I tried walking for ~1 hour every evening to burn calories with some success. However, my willingness to do this greatly depended on the weather and whether I felt like leaving the house, and required me to make some sacrifices such as giving up watching Youtube videos, watching TV, posting on Reddit, and working during that time. But when I had some money burning a hole in my pocket, getting an electronic sit/stand desk plus a 'bike' like this one gave me a way of conveniently exercising without these flaws. This way, whether or not I exercise is not contingent on things outside of my control (such as whether), I can multitask without giving up other things (exercise when I'm working from home in the afternoon, playing games, etc.). The habit I've had over the last ~4 months is to burn at least 500 calories (as measured by the bike) in each exercising session, and to have 11 exercise sessions per week (1 every evening, and 1 on each of the four afternoons that I'm at home).

    Also, because I wake up a bit late and my employer serves lunch early, I found that I'm usually able to get away with eating nothing more than a <300 calorie salad for breakfast.

    3 Avoid feeling hungry.

    It's going to be hard to maintain a calorie deficit if your current approach to achieving that deficit requires you to feel hungry. Plus, if you're feeling 'toxic hunger', it may be a sign that your body isn't getting enough of some certain nutrient(s) (which can happen even if you're consuming a lot of calories).

    4 Rely on habits, not passion.

    Passion comes and goes. Good habits are much more likely to stay. If you're taking an approach that requires you to pour a lot of willpower/passion into it, you're probably not going to sustain the changes indefinitely. If, on the other hand, you find an approach that allows you to make it part of your routine without spending much effort on it, you're a lot more likely to sustain the behavior.

    EDIT: As an addendum, I hate it when someone take the position, "Losing weight is easy, just eat less. Fat people just are lazy/undisciplined." I suspect that most people who think like this do so because it is really easy for them. Perhaps they naturally don't have a very big appetite. Perhaps they naturally enjoy exercise. For people like this, not getting fat probably takes little or no effort, and they lack the empathy to imagine it requiring much willpower for others. The above strategies (massively helped by favorable life circumstances) I think helps to make weight loss easier for those who otherwise find it difficult.
     
    #7 BobObob, Jun 13, 2017
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  8. BobObob

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    I have a lot more than 10 or 20 pounds to go. If I believe the scale, I have about 30-35 more to get under the cutoff between healthy weight and overweight (according to the imperfect BMI). If I go by, “Do I look fat when I see my naked body in the mirror”, I'd guess that I have at least another 50 pounds to go. But I'm sure I'll sustain my current habits and get there. In fact, if I continue at the pace I've been going for the last 5 months, I'll hit the cutoff between healthy weight and overweight in October.

    I'm not sure what you mean by “some layer of emotional protection in the weight,” but if your general point is that emotion plays a major roll in weight loss/gain, I agree. While I talk a lot about calories in vs calories out a lot in my above post, I've lost weight faster (~2.0-2.5 lbs/week) than my calculated calories in vs calories out calculations indicate I should (~1.5 lbs/week). So perhaps I've benefited from a fast metabolism, in spite of my family history suggesting I should have a slow metabolism (most of my mothers siblings are or have been morbidly obese). While I'm sure that being young helps in this regard, I wouldn't be surprised if my emotional state, influenced by good life circumstances (good job, good standard of living, etc) indirectly improves my health.

    Regardless of metabolism, one's emotional state can greatly influence behavior (and vice-versa). For a long time, I would be really discouraged whenever I even though about weight or losing it with things like, “You're too far away, it's never going to happen,” and, “You're forever cursed with nasty stretch marks anyways, so you won't be happy with your body anyways even if you lost the 150 pounds.” This kept me from even attempting to lose weight for years, and hampered my weight loss attempts in the first year or two. But now that my general life circumstances have improved, it's made weight loss lot easier, which in turn has improved my mood.
     
  9. Chip

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    That is really awesome to hear. From some,of the newer research I've seen, there appears to be a biochemical link between mood and cortisol, which is deeply involved with weight loss. And other studies show that may be just the tip of the iceberg. So whatever you are doing, yu seem to be doing it right :slight_smile:
     
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  10. johndeere3020

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    CONGRATS! I have made about 125lbs but have 50-60 left to go. :frowning2: It help you so much esp as you age.

    Dean
     
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  11. MaoKingofcats

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    Wow congrats! : O ^3^
     
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  12. BobObob

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    I just weighed in at 199.6 lbs tonight, which is barely considered to be a 'normal' weight for someone of my height (6'3") by the BMI! Considering that I've been overweight for well over a decade, even weighing 333 lbs at a point, it's amazing to think that I've managed to get to a point where I'm no longer overweight at all*.

    *Well, at least on paper a half hour ago when I was a little dehydrated under conditions ideal to get a low number.
     
    #12 BobObob, Sep 15, 2017
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2017
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  13. BobObob

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    I just weighed in at a new low of 184 pounds tonight. A few weeks ago, my doctor told me that I was at a weight that was okay medically, but that I could still benefit a little from a little more weight loss if i wanted to. He gave me the soft target of 175 pounds as where I should stop before I lose too much weight, so I'm selecting that as my target for when I'll stop losing weight and start trying to lower body fat percentage at the same weight. Given that the BMI defines ~148-200 pounds to be a "normal" weight range for a guy of my height (6'3"), his recommendation of 175 as a soft target seems in line with what most medical professionals would recommend.

    My doctor said that after maintaining a stable weight for three months, I can then get for a plastic surgeon to potentially have post weight loss surgery (to take care of some loose skin).
     
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  14. Elendil

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    Hey, fantastic news BobObob! :slight_smile:

    I used to be heavy and its a lot of work to lose the excess weight. But like you said, changes in your daily habits are the key to losing weight and maintaining your health.

    Keep up the awesome work, mate!
     
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  15. BobObob

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    I finally officially reach the bottom of my weight loss. On Tuesday morning, I weighed in at my healthcare provider at 173.5 pounds, slightly overshooting my target of 175 pounds because I tried postponing my breakfast on that day to get a low number. Unfortunately, I've been unlucky enough to have some health issues this year having to do with inflamed gums and reactive lymph nodes in the neck. The cause hasn't been figured out yet after a few MD appointments, dentist appointments, an MRI, and a fine needle biopsy, but the biopsy didn't find any cancer. Hopefully, my upcoming biopsy of the gums will find the cause of these issues. Assuming these health issues get fixed soon enough without costing too much (and it could cost a lot if they end up removing a lymph node just to find out what is wrong), I might be able to have plastic surgery to get rid of loose skin later this year!
     
  16. Chip

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    This (the weight loss, not the health issues) is so wonderful to hear! I hope you find success in identifying the health issues. Inflammatory conditions can be enigmatic to identify and treat; if you don't find success, PM me, as there are some pretty credible alternative treatments (mostly dietary-based) that often work with difficult-to-diagnose and otherwise untreatable conditions.
     
  17. BlueNeon

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    I don't have much to say here except congratulations. Losing that kind of weight is a serious accomplishment, and you should be quite proud of yourself.
     
  18. BobObob

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    I appreciate the willingness to offer solutions, but if by 'alternative treatments' you're thinking of treatments generally not accepted by the medical community, then I'll be unlikely to go that route. I think that if there is very solid evidence showing a treatment is more effective than a placebo and is sufficiently low risk, then the medical community will probably accept it. This reminds me of the beat poem "Storm" by Tim Minchin: "Do you know what they call alternative medicine that's been proved to work? Medicine!"

    That being said, you're certainly welcome to suggest treatments for which you think there's very good evidence that demonstrates that it's effective.
     
  19. Chip

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    The treatment I'm thinking of is well documented and has been around for decades, but is decidedly not mainstream. That said... I have a feeling that there's a hostility toward non-mainstream treatments, so perhaps you're best finding the solution you feel most comfortable with.
     
  20. BobObob

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    There's nothing intrinsically wrong with non-mainstream or unusual treatments, so long as there's sufficient scientific evidence demonstrating that it's effective enough and low-risk enough to be worth it.

    Regardless, an ENT doctor told me a couple days ago that I'm all clear with regard to the enlarged lymph nodes. I'm still having dental issues, but the ceiling for seriousness of the dental issues isn't as high as for the enlarged lymph nodes, and I'll be seeing the dentist again in a couple weeks.