That is badass cwebbster. It's awesome to see people take control of their health. I know one guy in real life who went through a similar transformation to what you did. He was a mean **** when he was huge, and has mellowed out considerably since he lost the weight.
Doctor scared the hell out of me yesterday (by proxy). My wife has Ulcerative Colitis and because she has been on steroids for so many years to try and control it, her natural blood glucose control has been wrecked. She has been weaned off of the steroids and is on another medication to get the UC under control but has developed diabetes. Yesterday the doctor told her that her fasting blood sugar was 365. He said that if she doesn't make a drastic change immediately she will be on dialysis by the time she reaches 40 (she is 34 now). Obviously she is going to have to get healthy immediately. But this was a major wake up call for me too because she can't do this on her own. I am going to have to make a change as well. My schedule completely sucks right now, leaving the house at 6:45 am to drive downtown to work 40+ and then go to school most nights until 9:45, then get home at 10:30 pm to eat and go to bed (lather, rinse, repeat) has caused me to gain 40+ pounds in the last 4 years. I canceled my gym membership because I never went and I eat from a drive thru window more than half the time. I am starting with the basics. Step one: bye bye Dr. Pepper, hello Ozarka. Step two: cut down on the portions, change my intake. I need more food in my food. A lot less drive thru fair. Step three: move around a bit, tubby. We'll see how it goes from there... cwebb is my inspiration. If he can do what he did, surely I can do this.
Glad I could be of some inspiration to you man!! If you need any help let me know!!! I am still not where I want to be, but I am getting there. Its alot easier than you think. Start making healthy choices! To be honest with you, once you start eating better, you will feel better, and that healthy food will taste a whole lot better than fast food. I tried to have a hamburger from JITB the other day, and I got sick to my stomach! I was glad for that too, I cant stand greasy, nasty, fast food!
You are definitely on the right track with the loss of weight. As you know, this will help your BP drop. You mentioned having a little bit of white coat's syndrome. I'm the same way with doctors. I always get terrible BP readings. I suggest buying a home BP monitor to take your readings at home. All my readings at home are in the normal range. This will give you a better understanding of your BP and help determine your work out routine.
Sounds like you're on the right track my man, keep up the good work. And to CWebb, amazing stuff dude.. congrats
You're both giving him bad advice...okay, here it goes The amount of calories one takes in to lose weight depends on different factors including BMR (basal metabolic rate), number of calories burnt during exercise, and physical activity during the day. Also when people are eating healthier, they don't take into account the higher amount of calories lost in the digestion process since things with dietary fiber like complex carbs, fruits and veggies actually burn many more calories than things without fiber like sugars and flour based carbs. From any person's perspective, the ideal way to lose weight with minimal muscle mass lost is to create a 500-1000 calorie defecit per day. Often times, people create a caloric deficit that is much higher than that and it puts them in a catabolic state unable to lose fat and burns muscle off. When you're doing strength training and your caloric deficit is too high, often times you 'plateau' early because you keep rebuilding the same muscle that you break down for energy since your body doesn't drop bodyfat when it feels it is starving itself. The woman I helped to lose 107lbs at age 50 was eventually eating 1800 calories per day. So it works quite the opposite that people think. To keep losing weight, you actually have to eat more. If one does not eat this way they often times they lose too much lean body mass without the fat loss. That is not a good thing. Lean body mass (or muscle) determines your basal metabolic rate. This is the amount of calories your body will burn per day. When the deficit is too great and you are burning muscle off you are lowering your metabolic rate. This is the reason that when one loses weight the wrong way (caloric deficit greater than 500-1000) it is easy for people to put weight back on quickly and often times more than they had to start unless they maintain the reduced calorie diet. I actually eat 3500 calories a day to maintain my weight. Is that a lot? Not taking into account my bmr, calories burnt during exercise, physical activity expended during the day, and the calories lost eating heathy whole foods like chicken, oatmeal, fruits, veggies etc... Hoped this helped somebody.
I'm not trying to cut weight, but I do try to watch my sodium. One thing I've notice is that there's a ton in most bread. So I use corn tortillas instead. Which also reminds me, if you're worried about sodium, choose corn tortillas over flour ones. Check out the different daily values of a slice of bread from the grocery store and a corn tortilla. A corn tortilla has 8g of carbohydrate (3% DV) and 9mg sodium (0%). http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/baked-products/5119/2 A slice of bread has 18g of carbohydrates (6% DV) and 230mg sodium (9%). http://www.nutritional-information.info/item43740.aspx So if you eat a sandwich, switching to corn tortillas for the bread (I make sandwich tacos that I toast) frees up a whopping 18% of your daily sodium and saves you carbohydrates too. Also, drinking lots of water can help 'flush' the salt out and mitigate its effect on your BP.
Keep it coming...All the motivation helps! The pointers help too. What we need is a Clutchfans "belly off" contest. Winner gets 2 floor seats to a Rockets game (if people are willing to pitch in and be honest). ...off to the gym!
Damn CWebb. Simply amazing. Same to the OP. My dad died at 53 from heart disease. He more or less lived on an east-Texas diet of fried EVERYTHING and never ate anything green until after he had his first heart attack somewhere in his early 40's. Now, I've eaten healthier than my dad ever thought about eating, and I've done so virtually all my life. I'm not perfect by any stretch: I love burgers, hot dogs, nachos, and all that crap, but I've always eaten salads and vegetables and I've never had a sweet tooth. Still, those things combined with being a bit lazy had me at 203lbs. three weeks ago. I'm about 6' tall. I'm not fat. Not by any stretch, but I definitely have weight to lose and need to get and stay in shape. Despite my relatively good diet, my whacked-out genetics had my total cholesterol at 305 and my triglycerides over 500. I think the results might have been a bit skewed because I only fasted 8-9 hours before the labs rather than 12-15, and I had too much wine the night before. So....I cut any booze for three weeks, fast-walked every day 1-2 miles, and started doing push-ups, sit-ups, and lifting with dumb bells. I've lost about 12 pounds in these last three weeks and had my labs redone today after a 15-hour fast. I have no illusions here: my genes basically say that I'm going to have to be on meds to keep my cholesterol under control. I can accept that, but I'm REALLY hoping my numbers have dropped significantly. Here's to keeping my fingers crossed.
hmmm. you look about the same to me. j/k...that's incredible dude. so, let's hear your diet and exercise routine. always interesting to hear people's methods.
I watched "Supersize Me" the other day. Interesting show. While I never had a weight problem, I've been more conscious of my diet lately. My soda intake has been cut down some, and I have had nothing but water, milk, and juice the last 3 days. Well water....mmmm.....
March 08 last summer a year and a half ago I have a bit of a success story and I hope it will encourage others to do what it takes. Just over 2 years ago I weighed in at 300lbs. Today I weigh 186lbs. When people ask how I did it; I tell thim all the credit goes to God. Because without his grace shown on me through his son Jesus Christ I could have never done it myself. I work out, run, swim, play tennis, ride my bicycle, play hoops, lift weights, and do kickboxing and yoga. Any physical activity that interests me I just go for it now unlike just a few years ago when I would have said, "Na, I'm good." I drink about 100 oz of water a day. I eat an adequate and varied diet. I still eat foods I really like(cake, and other sweets) but because of my physical activity it falls right off.
Just a suggestion Its going to be tough quitting sugary drinks like Dr. Pepper all at once. You will have withdrawal symptoms. I would suggest switching to some 100% fruit juices, and then after a while switch to water completely. Your taste palate will get used to not having as much sugar then you can slow down to no sugar. I've been through this phase of not touching soda. Its difficult, but can be done. I have't had a soda pop in about 3 years now. I only drink water and for me a satisfying drink is ice cold water.
I lost 20 pounds in a month eating only red meat, fish, chicken, veggies, and by drinking like a whole case of water bottles a day. I think the most important thing for me was cutting out sugar completely (even fruits) and switching to wheat bread instead of white.
