Hi guys. Throughout most of this current year I've really been putting my nose to the grindstone in an effort to improve my fitness, my weight, and myself in general so I thought I'd share my recent progress with you guys. On the 5th of April this year I weighed the heaviest I have ever weighed at 16st 8lb. Now don't get me wrong I've been fairly heavy since I was around 15 years old and discovered weight training. By around the age of 18 or so I was about 14st with very little body fat and at my young physical prime. Fast forward 5 years and various things have happened; I was diagnosed with epilepsy (resulting in me gaining some unwanted weight via my medication); I ended up meeting the woman I plan to spend my life with and subsequently we had a child (so I started to slow things down due to responsibilities and getting a bit lazy); and I general I let everything slip too much. I was still able to do most of things I've always been able to (long distance running, martial arts practice, hit the weights at the gym) albeit with increasing difficulty and longer recovery times. So anyways back on point. I eased myself back into the gym from around December last year to get myself together and get back into a decent shape. I started weighing myself from April to now so far. I changed my eating habits, drastically reducing my intake of all foods and also changing the amounts of macronutrients I was consuming (the standard less carbs and fats, more proteins thing) but also making sure I wasn't starving myself so I still had my treats here and there. I weighed in today at the gym after my session (I usually weigh in around the same time of day each time and it's always after I finish my session) and I'm currently sitting at 15st 2lb! My goal is to hit somewhere around the 14st 8lb mark but I'm not too fussed as long as I keep feeling great doing what I'm doing! I thought I'd never shift the weight when it was there, it just didn't want to go and to be honest I was being lazy far too much. So I've buckled down, forced my **** into training proper and I'm feeling much better for it. If I can do it, anyone can! Hpe you're all doing well guys and if you have any advice that could help me, feel free to chime in.
you've set a goal, that's a great start. I find with weight gain or loss, it can be difficult to gauge progress on a short term basis; certainly for me I find 1-2lbs a week target can vary over a month, with some weeks being 0-1lbs and others being 3-4lbs. This is with consistent workout plan and diet tracked throughout. It is probably worth keeping that in mind for those "slow" weeks which can make you feel bad about progress, or even those big loss weeks that might make you feel that you need to ease up on the regime. If all else fails, I have consistently found that having wisdom teeth removed will take about 7+lbs off in a few weeks
If anyone male is interested in a sensible (non-diet) approach to weight loss, there is a website called Man v Fat . The founder was aware that every weight loss thing that exists seems to be aimed at women and there was little aimed specifically at men. He is also very wary of the diet approach and, like me, doesn't see it as a long term strategy for weight control. Back in 2014 I was their first Amazing loser when they launched. I had recently started my BJJ journey and I'd lost over five stone just before starting BJJ. I'm heavier now than the lightest I got to but the new weight is muscle. I've managed to maintain the weight loss for four years now. As VoidKarateka said: "If I can do it, anyone can!"
5 Stone!? That's incredible man, truly inspiring! Axel, I'm sort of ranging between those 1lb - 4lb per week losses. I haven't come up against any major obstacles yet other than the low days when I feel like I need to eat a few whole roast chickens for dinner. I dunno about having wisdom teeth removed but I had my tonsils out a few weeks ago and that resulted in a 7lb loss in the first week simply because I couldn't eat properly at all and was subsisting on water and soft bread.
I had a few middle-aged friends about that time who lost weights from 9 stone to 3 stone (most of them about 3 stone). We had all done it at the same time by pure coincidence but a food diary of some kind and some exercise of choice were the key elements for all of us. I was the only one who went the martial arts route. Others did cycling or zumba or park running. To the best of my knowledge most of us have managed to keep most of the lard off, I believe because we didn't do diets but changed our lifestyles. I NEVER want to go back. It was like being suddenly 20 years younger again.
