The Biggest LOOSER -- running weight loss thread

That's tremendous work, HC, congratulations. I'm sure that, like me, you're enjoying every day just a little more than you did before and feeling better every step you take.

In the spirit of your post, I'll put up my before and after - outing me, I suppose.

 

I'm down to a 31-inch waist and maintaining my weight at 178 pounds. I owe it all to my fiancee.

 

Nice work both of you.

 

Awesome, bp. That's amazing!! Like I said I have a ways to go but heck, at 20 years of age I'd have been hardpressed to ride 5 kms on my bike. Last weekend, at the age of 50, I rode 120. That felt GOOD!

 

Dude, buy some new swim trunks!

 

They're only 6 months old! 8)

 

Thanks everyone!

I bet it did, HC .... At 20, I was in decent shape, but I loathed running. It was punishment for screwing up at practice as far as I was concerned. Now I actually enjoy and I can run 5 times as far as I did in high school. Feels pretty amazing.

 

As long as you understand that I get more votes because I'm .. you know .... like OLD and shit.

 

Bigpern - Can you tell us what kind of diet and exercise program you adhered to during those six months? That's a tremendous amount of progress in those before and afters.

 

As far as diet goes, the biggest thing I did was learn to read labels. You'd be amazed at the stuff that is touted as healthy that's no better (and sometimes worse) than, say, potato chips. Grocery shopping takes twice as long, but it's worth it.

I also did what my fiancee calls the healthy quickstart, which is three days of eating high protein no/low-carb foods. Chicken, eggs, cheese, etc. We didn't eat any carbs. It gets tough by the third day, but I dropped like 7 pounds right away.

I still eat a lot of what I used to eat, but the recipes are tweaked. For instance, instead of taco bell, we'll make tacos at home with whole wheat tortillas (which are phenomenal), ground turkey and 2 percent cheese. I stepped down from whole milk to 2 percent, to 1 percent to now fat free. That made it easier to actually enjoy skim milk. No more soda, instead I drink light juices (regular juices often have as much sugar as soda).

I didn't cut out carbs completely, but I drastically cut them down. Instead of two turkey sandwiches, I'd load up the same amount of turkey (protein) onto one sandwich (cutting the carbs in half).

If I ate carbs, I tried to stick to brown carbs ... wheat bread, wheat tortillas, sweet potatoes instead of regular.

I get a lot more protein in my diet (including a protein shake when I wake up and within a half hour after working out.

I also had one day a week to eat what I wanted. I didn't go nuts and gorge myself on terrible foods, but I would eat a cheeseburger at dinner or have some ice cream for dessert. The "cheat" day is great for keeping your metabolism from getting used to your diet. It kind of jump starts it all over again. I often lost 2 or 3 pounds the day after my cheat day.

You really don't have to just eat cardboard and lettuce. I truly enjoy all my meals and, by having my cheat day, I don't feel like I'm depriving myself of anything.

 

As far as working out goes, I was in the gym probably five days a week, usually for an hour and a half to two hours. As they say, the easiest way to look like you've gained 20 pounds of muscle is to lose 10 pounds of fat.

To that end, I concentrated more on cardio than weight training. If I only had an hour, I spent it doing cardio. If I had more time, then I'd get in the weight room.

The key is to keep your heart rate above its target rate (for me it's 152 beats per minute or faster) for 45 minutes.

I was heavy and hated running, so I started on the elliptical, which doesn't have as much impact on the knees and back. After awhile, though, I got tired of it and, 20 pounds lighter already, I went to the treadmill. I just gradually went longer distances without stopping and kept pushing myself (and getting pushed by my fiancee) to pick up my pace.

Now I can do 5 miles with minimal stopping, but it's still far from where I want to be.