2012 Fall Fatty ChallengeFollow

Alright, fellow fatsos, fall is quickly approaching, and I'm throwing down the gauntlet. Maybe you didn't stick with your New Year's resolution. Maybe you didn't get in shape for the beach this summer. Here's another opportunity to drop some pounds and feel good about yourselves.

It's about 13 weeks until Thanksgiving (also my birthday), and I'm starting out at around 240 lbs at 5'8". My long-term goal is not a specific weight, but I'd like to get back down to a 33" waist and a size medium t-shirt, as those are where I reacquire the most pants and shirts, which will probably be at around 175 lbs on my frame, if I remember right. Short-term, I'd like to average a loss of 1.5 lbs per week. That would be almost 20 lbs by my birthday, and I think it's definitely doable. For next spring, I'd like to run in a 5k.

My biggest enemy by far is beer. When I look at my food intake, I'm not doing too bad except on the occasions where I binge, but that's down to once a month, maybe. However, I have been in the habit of having a beer when I get home from work, a beer while cooking diner, a beer while eating dinner, and maybe 1-3 more while watching the baseball game. This isn't the amount I drink every night, but 20-30 in a week isn't exactly uncommon. Of course, these aren't MGD64's I'm drinking, either. A lot of the time, they're craft beers at 200+ calories per bottle. Even a regular summer beer tends to be over 150/bottle. That is a lot of excess calories to be taking in every week, never mind the detriment the alcohol intake provides. I've been trying to get into the mindset that beer is not a thirst-quenching drink, but more of a food product, like a snack. If I reduce consumption to one per day, with maybe 3 on a weekend day, I've cut down considerably.

Some resources I've found to be helpful are a few of the communities on Reddit. Mainly:
r/loseit
r/fitness
r/motivation

Anyway, I know there are some users here who would like to lose some weight, be it 5 pounds or 50. If there's any interest, we can update the thread weekly or bi-weekly. If not, we can just let it die and go back to the usual SSM and abortion debates.

Edited, Aug 19th 2012 9:20am by Spoonless

Pot and veganism.

Actually, the best thing I can tell you to do is start out slow. Start out by cutting out x, y, z - beer, soda, fast food. Something like that. By denying yourself just a few things to start it's easier than saying, "Okay, it's time to really bust down!" Though, if you are really serious, you'd probably be really surprised what a total diet change and exercise starts doing to your body in just a week, just in case you do get to November having had no self control and are face to face with defeat.

Anyway, good luck, keep us posted.

I decided to start doing a simple exercise, burpies, to get back into basic shape. 5'10" and around 188 lbs (177cm and 85kg for our metric friends) so it will do me a bit of good to loose about 20-30 lbs. I haven't exercised in years (about a decade, easy) so I need to stay away from the urge to do too much at one time.

On the bright side I don't have the alcohol problem nor do I eat out but once a blue moon. I have a feeling it is because of that is why I am sub200 atm.

Sounds like progress has already been made, keep it up!

Honestly, giving up animal products isn't easy, but after I quit smoking at the beginning of the year, it stopped what I guess was the path of self-destruction. After watching Forks Over Knives and learning about the China-Cornell-Oxford Project, which was a very large, long-term study that basically found the incidence of cancer and other degenerative diseases are mostly affected by what we eat - animal and dairy fat. My whole life I've thought that it was guaranteed that I would eventually die of cancer, a stroke, or a heart attack. But when presented with numbers that basically a long-term plant-based diet eliminates the almost inevitable potential for degenerative disease it was a no-brainer. I enjoyed my 20-30 cigarettes a day way more than the one steak and two burgers I ate a week.

Food is such an instant-gratification anyway. You taste things for mere moments before you swallow it. People have a real reliance on the food as a mood altering substance, which makes it a drug, which is addictive and people are dying because of it.

It's hard to deny ourselves food cravings in our society, but these are some things that I remind myself. I may be a special case because my relationship with food isn't the norm (I don't eat when I'm stressed - which is actually a problem) but I do understand the satisfaction of instant gratification. Really, in my experimenting to make things taste good without the obvious (cheese, mayo, cream) I've made some seriously delicious stuff, rivaling the taste of when I'd make it fully loaded. There are still some things I haven't been able to accept - mayo substitute and most cheese substitutes, as well as dairy-free margarine are things that I can't do yet. I do use a lot of olive oil and avocado also satisfies cravings for fatty food in a pinch.

I'm at a steady 175-180 after my diet. I cut out all non water beverages and cut back my portion sizes. Lost roughly 80 lbs over 8-9 months, and have since held it off and am eating sensibly now. Dropped almost 6 inches off my waistline. I drink water and zero calorie colas now.

It does get easier to follow a change if you can stick through the first few weeks.

I was not a big drinker, I'd have maybe 4 beers throughout a year, so that was not a hurdle I had to overcome. But, I was a soda drinker, which may be as addictive mentally. I made sure not to carry spare cash on my person (avoided vending machine temptations) and I didn't buy any junk food or snack food to avoid boredom snacking. If it wasn't sitting in the cabinets, it wasn't there whispering for me to eat it.

I'm still struggling to get myself up and out doing exercise in my spare time. I don't do as much as I should, so while I'm much thinner than I was and my blood pressure has dropped significantly, I'm not as "in shape" as I could be if I exercised regularly. But at least I do get some physical activity, my job isn't a 100% sit at a desk job, I do plenty of strenuous physical activities during the 9-10 hours I'm at work.

One thing that would be great to consciously eliminate eventually (as in, I'd challenge Tirth to take the next step now) - is to eliminate artificial sweeteners, which are really one of the worst things we consume. Artificial sweeteners actually increase the craving for sweets, since the body is told is it receiving sugar but doesn't process any, it reinforces the pathways telling you that you need more. Not only that, but artificial sweeteners are so sweet (as in, 200x+ more sweet) that "normally" sweet foods like fruit taste much less sweet, because the tastebuds that react to sweetness are so overstimulated. I try to avoid one of my big weaknesses (Dr. Pepper) as much as possible, and when I indulge I seriously notice a difference in how everything tastes for many hours after it is consumed. Almost everything is blander after dozens of tablespoons of sugar.

I'm very much over weight but I'll play for fun. I reached the point through years of laziness where I was beginning to have difficulty walking short distances without experiencing back and leg aching so bad, I would have to rest. I mowed the lawn one week earlier this year and had to stop four times (thirty minute job). I don't know what my starting weight was since the scale at Anytime Fitness only goes to 400lbs. I started doing back extensions, lat pulldowns, using the rowing machine, and the leg press there to strengthen my muscles. It took a long time but at the start of June, I started very slowly riding a stationary bike we have (wind fan, push both peddles and handles).

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and feeling lots better. Work is having a biggest loser contest where the first/second/third/biggest loser get cash prize. Still wasn't able to weigh in even though they have a scale that went to 440. Went to the doctor and got a physical last Monday, 453 is my starting weight. I am now up to forty minutes every day on the bike with many 70-100% intervals tossed in the mix. I feel about a billion times better and am giddy to weigh myself next week since I know I've lost 20-30 pounds this week. I am wearing jeans I haven't worn since last June.

My diet is now typically in the 1500-2000 calorie per day range and I assume I was over 500 pounds when I first started. Keep in mind this is the yo to my first yo. I was always big growing up and was above the 400 pound range until I turned 18. I started playing disc golf in the Summer of 2000 and over a year and a half or so, I dropped down to a low weight of 230. Then I moved downtown with access to only public transportation and picked up MMO's. Over the next seven years, I gained everything back. It got worse when I started with HP/DHS in 2010 because it was the first time in my life where I was working at a job where I was sitting eight hours a day. My muscles literally started wasting away since I had no physical activity during my day.

I am 6'5" so I looked similar to Hellboy in size at my largest if you have seen pictures. I quit smoking cigarettes a year ago (August 15) and I think I am now addicted to cardio exercise. I've biked over an hour on a few days. My schedule is definitely going to change at the end of this month when I start school back up in addition to work, but I think I can hit at least 350 by Thanksgiving. That would be just above moving me down an obesity classification.

Edited, Aug 19th 2012 3:36pm by Paskil

I've dropped about 25 pounds in the past six months. From 220-225ish to 195-198ish depending on whether my shoes are on and how long ago I ate a large meal.

In my case it likely was mainly a change in diet brought on by my new job. There's few options near my office my my gyro or Italian beef (which came with a pound of fries) was replaced by a small chicken patty sandwich or sloppy joe which is maybe a half cup of beef on a small bun and comes with a bag of chips. I won't pretend that chips are "good" but they're better than a pound of greasy fries.

Added to this was the discovery of a nature preserve with a one mile path going through it. Weather permitting, I get lunch, eat at the park and then walk the path before heading back to the office. Gives me a chance to unwind and a bit of mid-day exercise. Sadly, I had to forgo it much of the summer since coming back to work after walking a mile in 103 degree heat wouldn't have been fun for anyone but now that it's cooled down I've restarted the practice.

I wasn't super concerned about where I was so I never did anything drastic but I've had some decent weight loss, dropped from a 38 to a comfortable 36 (and into a 34 on a good day) and probably substantially reduced the grease content in my veins. I'm missing out on the chance to look like a SNL Superfan though.

For the majority of my 20's I hovered around 215-225lbs, at just a smidge under 6'4.

I hit 30 though and it kicked my ***, By the time I was approaching 31 I was all of the way up to 270lbs. My brother had gone through the same point & had hit 300lbs. So the beginning of this summer I made some small changes mostly on the diet side, cutting out pop entirely, reducing portion sizes, dramatically reducing the amount that I eat out. Also eating breakfast which I swear I skipped for a decade.

I am just over 240 right now. I am sure if I did more than walk a mile or two a day that I would probably be doing better, but it is hopeful to see that small changes have had a somewhat positive effect. Allegory made a good point, as he often does. Small changes, and the whole out of sight out of mind mentality. Hell I even changed my route home to avoid a restaurant that I am terrible for stopping at for dinner when I am too lazy to cook. I don't even walk down the aisle with pop/snacks when I shop anymore.

Anywho, back to lurking but best of luck to anyone that is trying to lose weight!

Edited, Aug 19th 2012 7:08pm by bodhisattva

Any possibility of squeezing it in before work? I think you'd be pleasantly surprised at the energy boost you get through the rest of your day, and then you get it over with before you're even awake!

My biggest issue is the lack of exercise. My diet could use some tweaking, but if I got up and moved more, I'd be in much better shape. So starting tomorrow, I'm going to start walking around our complex. Once I get that down, I might add in some actual working out. But for now, walking a lap or two will be much better than what I'm doing now, which is nothing.

I like Gaxe's suggestion about exercise every hour. My greatest issue at the moment is lack of muscle mass.

Woke up this morning; didn't hit the gym (it was locked and I don't remember the passcode for the door >_>), but I did take a good 45-minute walk around the neighborhood. Definitely feeling more awake than usual. I'll need to see how tired I am tonight and tomorrow, but it's not a bad change so far.