Weight loss/ lifting/ dieting thread

[Tpoppa]

I went from 187 to 165 while increasing core & upper body strength.   I improved my cardio and am making much better eating choices.

I'm at my goal weight and feeling quite a bit better.   

[blue03636]

1 hour ago, Tpoppa said:

I went from 187 to 165 while increasing core & upper body strength.   I improved my cardio and am making much better eating choices.

I'm at my goal weight and feeling quite a bit better.   

This is about where I'm at. I started mid January at 192 and I'm currently at 185. My goal is 165 but I don't expect to hit that until next year, maybe sooner if the weather is nice this summer and I can ride my bike to work.

[TheBrown57]

I'm doing the same thing as What as far as trying to make more of a lifestyle change than just going head first into it. Been working on my diet portion since around October and about mid January I started to hit the gym a few days a week to break in my muscles and about 3 weeks of 3 day gym visits I have now been going 6 days each week for the past 3 weeks. I was able to do a 10 min mile yesterday for the first time in years and still have energy left over and my weights have been increasing as well. I use an app called Bodyspace by bodybuilding.com to track my lifts and picked out a lifting plan through it as well. 

My goal is overall health due to my family having a risk of heart disease and my last check up had me high in pretty much everything. Feeling better each day!

[what]

Good work errbody

[ScubaCinci]

In 2006-7 I lost nearly 100lbs...then I went back to school almost full time while working full time and my diet and exercise went to shit and I gained it all back. After school, throw in a few knee surgeries, achilles surgery and an extremely demanding work schedule for a good while and I haven't gotten back on track since. However, in Jan I got fed up with being out of shape and since the end of Jan I've lost 25 lbs and still going so hopefully in a year I'll be back where I need to be. Been using myfitnesspal to track everything I eat, my workouts, etc which is really good for me and keeps me on track. At work they put in walking desks (treadmills that top out at 2mph with a desk attached to the front so I walk on there an hour at least 3 days a weeks (they book up fast) which is super helpful.

[ScubaCinci]

Well as of this morning I'm down 30lbs since 2/09/16. I'm not doing anything complex...just stuff most weight loss program sources will tell you.

• Tracking all of my food intake with MyFitnessPal app. Trying to stay under 1000 calories between lunch and breakfast and eating the balance for dinner, snacks. My snacks are generally nuts, yogurt, fruit or veggies.
• Eating at or a little below my BMR (~2300) in calories per day (I had it measured at a health fair at work). I never eat below 1800 calories a day. If I'm truly hungry, I eat. I'm sufficiently chubby enough to eat below my BMR and still put on muscle. You can have yours measured by a dietician relatively cheaply. It's super helpful to have a calorie goal per day.
• Staying away from high glycemic foods for the most part (white rice, bread, pasta, sugary foods). I still eat the occasional white potato (hate sweet potatoes).
• Amped up my activity. Been walking A LOT - I get in 10k steps or more every day. I walked 8 miles last Saturday in the cold misty rain. Hitting the weights 3 days a week too.
• I'm not being overly obsessive about my diet, and instead make concessions. They brought in pizza to work the other day and I had a few slices (not 4) and stuck with cheese slices (not pepperoni or meat).
• I have a realistic weight loss goal though no real timeline to reach it. I'm ok with slow and steady even though I've made a lot of progress in a short period of time. It's easy to lose weight when you have a lot to lose. I fully expect the rate of loss to tail off exponentially as I near my goal. Once I meet that, I'll probably set a new goal.

I did the low carb diet and it worked really well for me (see above post) but more and more I was finding it too difficult and unsatisfying to stay on long term. I do a lot of business and social dinners/lunches and much of the time it's extremely hard to stay low carb and still get enough to eat.

As a side note, I've done a lot of lifting in the past. I'm pretty strong (bench 300+ when my shoulders feel ok) and have a fairly good build (under the fat). Adding muscle and strength always seemed to take a long time in my 30's but I'm finding I'm adding strength and muscle much easier now and I think it's because I'm not lifting as often. In the past I think I was lifting too frequently (I'm in my 40's now so I really need the extra recovery time). I'm lifting only 3 days a week one day chest/tri's/shoulders, one day back/bi's/abs and one day legs - rest days in between. I've read in the past that many people overtrain and don't make the gains they should and I'm seeing that in my case. So, if you are lifting and not making a lot of progress, maybe back off a bit.

 

[ScubaCinci]

Wow, great job

[2talltim]

Ive lost 30 lbs since Feb 15th. It's going to be more of a life style change than a diet this time. My wife who has always battled her weight and things just don't work for her(even a personal trainer told her that her goals were unobtainable giving her family history and genetics) has decided to opt for weight loss surgery. So with that her life style and what she can eat will greatly change. So she (we) decided why wait till she has the surgery, lets start now. And since she has to change everything I might as well too.  My short term goal is to lose 50 lbs by the middle of May but not sure if ill get that low by then ill just keep on trucking along. Now when vacations and bike trips come I'm still going to enjoy myself and eat what I want but still cut back a little, kind of like a reward for all the work I put in.

Edited April 1, 2016 by 2talltim

[motocat12]

On 3/8/2016 at 0:04 PM, what said:

Down another 20lbs since Jan 17th. Should be down another 20 by late May if I keep this pace, will put me at around 140lbs total loss. 

WHAT? or,  what!

[what]

1 hour ago, Isaac's Papa said:

clearly and contently. 

[Al Z. Heimer]

Congrats to all of you. Great job. Personally I am bulking up for retirement. I won't be able to afford to eat. 

[Helmutt]

56 minutes ago, Al Z. Heimer said:

Personally I am bulking up for retirement. I won't be able to afford to eat.

Me too, I've been stocking up fat reserves for years.....just 22 years to go and I can retire!

[Tpoppa]

Not as much as some but, I'm a few pounds below my target weight now.  And even manged to gain some muscle in the process.  I'm going keep going for a while longer.

[imagineer]

Just noticed this thread, so I figured I’d chime in . . . Late September 2015 (51st b-day), passing by a large mirror, noticed I was more jiggly and rounded than I cared to be.   Per the scale, I was up to 204lbs.    I set a 3 month goal of losing 14lbs, targeting 190lbs by year end.   

6 mornings per week, I did 20 minutes of cardio (treadmill or elliptical) and 5 of those morning, also did 20 minutes of weight lifting (different muscle group each day).   This, along with a sensible food choices, I still missed my year end goal by 5lbs.   (I partially blame having 2 food-centric holidays in 4^th quarter).

So I increased the time slots up to 30 minutes each and set a 1^st qtr 2016 goal of 185lbs.   Happy to say I clocked in yesterday at 184lbs.     I really don’t have more time to dedicate to working out (because I don’t want to wake up any earlier), so rather than increase overall time working out, I’m stealing 10 minutes from weight lifting and adding it to cardio time.    It works for me because I really, I don’t want to build a lot of muscle.  I would rather just tone up what I already have in the course of losing weight.     I should include that I've dropped from 36w pants to 34w, and am back to wearing 'Large' shirts vs XL.

The next goal to hit, by end of 2^nd qtr 2016 is, 175lbs.     There’s no reason I shouldn’t reach that mark, because when I got married 23 years ago, that’s about what I weighed (and was 15lbs less than that when I moved to Ohio in '90).   A additional, but lesser goal for this summer, is to run an under 30 minute 5k.     I’d like to try running a 10k, but I doubt my right knee will cooperate.

[TheBrown57]

Starting week 7 of my lifting plan and going strong. Had to postpone leg day earlier this week till today due my knee acting up. My weight has pretty much stopped dropping at 260-65lb but I have been able to lift more and I am slimming down. Even had a random person at one of my accounts notice and that made my day for someone who didn't know about my working out to notice a difference.

Going to see if I am able to break the 200lb mark on bench here soon as well, when I first started I was barely able to do 135lbx3 and recently I was able to rep 155lbx10, my previous max was 285lb so the closer I get to that number the better I feel.

[ScubaCinci]

36 minutes ago, TheBrown57 said:

Starting week 7 of my lifting plan and going strong. Had to postpone leg day earlier this week till today due my knee acting up. My weight has pretty much stopped dropping at 260-65lb but I have been able to lift more and I am slimming down. Even had a random person at one of my accounts notice and that made my day for someone who didn't know about my working out to notice a difference.

Going to see if I am able to break the 200lb mark on bench here soon as well, when I first started I was barely able to do 135lbx3 and recently I was able to rep 155lbx10, my previous max was 285lb so the closer I get to that number the better I feel.

Sometimes when you hit a plateau, it's your body's way of saying you need to change it up a little. Lay off the weights for a week and do some extra cardio or lighten up the loads and go for high reps. I like to do that where I'll switch between antagonizing muscle groups (i.e. bi's vs tri's or chest vs back) back to back without rest for 4 or 5 sets. This really works your muscles as well as giving you some good cardio benefits.

[TheBrown57]

Broke the 200lb mark at 225lb today.

Scuba, I'm pretty content with my weight plateauing for now since right now my goal is bulking. I am week 7 in this 12 week plan and once it's done I will be switching to a cutting plan to help get rid of the fat. This is all long term for me (1-2 years) so I'm fine with it being a little slow at times. I see the gains and improvements in other aspects than just the scale which is fine with me

[blue03636]

On 4/1/2016 at 9:51 AM, 2talltim said:

(even a personal trainer told her that her goals were unobtainable giving her family history and genetics)

Personally, her personal trainer is an idiot and not qualified to make that statement.

[2talltim]

Personally, her personal trainer is an idiot and not qualified to make that statement.

You obviously don't have enough information to make that statment. And I'm too polite to call anyone a idiot that I don't know.

[blue03636]

The fact that it's shitty advise from someone that isn't qualified to make that assessment is enough information. 

[2talltim]

He didn't recommend the surgury just told her that her goals weren't obtainable with what she was doing or was able to do.

Like I said too much info you don't know to assuming that.

[blue03636]

I never said he suggested the surgery.

[rawlins87]

Blue03636 diet specialist lol

[blue03636]

Not sure where you got that. Never gave any advice on diet.

[rawlins87]

Quick to shoot down others though. One in the same to me.