The RacerX weight loss thread

[Mordor]

Hey, I've not seen this post til now! That's why you ate salad yesterday!
Good luck dude! And remember, it will be hard in the beginning, but once you get used to the new lifestyle it will be better! Keep us updated!

[Inazone]

Maybe this thread will motivate me a bit. I've been a thin guy most of my life, reasonably tall at 5'11" and generally hovering in the 140-150 pound range through my mid-20s. But in the past couple of years, I have started putting on weight, which I suspect is mostly due to changes in metabolism. OK, so I got married in 2004, but although she loves to cook, my wife doesn't have time for it...so I can't blame her! I eat a more balanced diet than a few years ago, having virtually eliminated fast food and caffeinated beverages, eating entire pizzas, and so on.

Most of you would probably call me crazy, complaining about weighing 155 instead of 145, but as proven by most of my male relatives, we do NOT wear extra pounds well! My problem is that I'm not that active, and never have been. I spend a lot of time walking at work, but that's the extent of it. I have an exercise bike gathering dust in my living room, yet lack the motivation to hop on it. I have an Ab-Toner/Roller/whatever and it has been sitting in the garage due. Really helpful in there.

My greatest weakness is cheese. Seriously.

[Horse Called War]

weight Loss

Try and cut sugar,caffienne, and as much salt out of your diet as possible. Always have a good breakfast and smaller meals throughout the day.Take it slow and start with walking and maybe some bike riding. You will see results in about 90 days. I went from 210 to 175 this way.

[zeegler]

Hey Ron. Good for you man. It's great to see someone kick themselves in the ass and get motivated. It takes a lot to do sometimes. I recently started it myself. I'm only 6'-2", but I weighed 240lbs, and felt flabby, and gross. I have been working out regularly (twice a day with freeweights) and riding my bicycle every other day. I've also had to kick the fast food. My job involves a lot of sitting in front of my computer, or sitting in my truck, so I don't get much exercise. Couple that with the fact that I would also regularly eat McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, KFC, or whatever, and it's not very healthy. Now my lunch consists of a can of tuna, or a salad. For dinner, I'll have broiled, skinless chicken breast, or pork chop, with steamed veggies or rice. I know it sounds kinda boring, but there are tons of spices, and low calorie sauces that make a huge difference. In the last 3 weeks, I have lost 15 pounds, and everyone says I look better already. I still allow myself beer and wing night every thursday, and maybe pizza or something on saturday night.

You just have to find what works for you, and have the will power to cut out the bad stuff. One of my big things was cutting out mayonaisse. I don't miss it at all.

[jackson1]

At your size, I recommend a fast paced walk. You're just asking for knee and ankle problems at your weight by playing tennis. Give the walking and low calorie consumption a chance before becoming too active.

This fine advice by seegermany needs a bump here. If you're 325 and a heavy computer/JCF nerd, don't start running 30-40 minutes a day. Do that much later in your Weight Loss Plan.

Good luck, Ron. I never called you "Ton", but I've been tempted

[Soap]

Weight loss?
How I did it and it wasn't easy either...

History:
Around 36 or 37 I started noticing a difference in my metabolism rate, it is slowing down. Thus, the food I ate wasn't burning up as quickly as it use to, it stayed with me. I kept an uninformed understanding about this change. In other words, I don't think much about it. Wrong attitude, because it caught up with me.

3-4 years later, it was obvious my wrong attitude was self evident, I put on the weight. In all honesty, I had a insensitive attitude toward heavy people and thought I had my weight concerns under control. What a hypocrit I was! I began to experience a few of the issues that many have had with weight problems. Mild depressing,(this got worse due to lack of job opportunities and family matters and etc, I really went into a black hole of depressing) no self disicipline and I just kept eating which made matters only worse. I lost confidence in myself and didn't feel like anything was worth fighting for, if you know what I mean. Depression is a very self destructive matter that takes a long time deal with and get over. many don't get over it and depression has very negative effect on every aspect of ones life. It just makes everything else worse going on in a persons life.
Depression causes one to think of things they would never think of. Looking for a way out was constantly on my mind in those unfortunate days. I'm not talking about moving and leaving things and people behind, but talking about suicide. Depression changes everything in ones life.

The breakthrough/turning point:
I just got tired of being tired of everything.
Theres alot of stuff I could share here that contributed to my turning point, although it wasn't any one thing, it was many. However for the sake of space and time and just to personal to share I'm gonna skip alot here. Snapping out of it didn't occur overnight, I had to relearn how to take back control of my life and this was work I struggled with. I had to learn to manage myself again, mentally, emotionally and physically.

The workout and eating: The physical side of weight loss.
Remember, what works for one may not work the next, nonetheless, this is what I did.

Exercise/workout:
Treadmills are heaven sent for very private people like myself.
Oh, there times when I did a neighborhood jog, but the treadmill was huge for me and my main workout. I didn't join no gym or exercise class, I'm a very private person and I didn't want to make my problems other peoples problems and vice a versa. I did everything at home. Also, with running the treadmill I did setups and pushups and that was my physical out. I did this starting out 3 times a week, monday, wensday and friday.

Eating:
This was the hardest part of all of it for me.
To say no to food can be hard to do more so for others than some.
I was one that struggled with it.
I ate twice a day only and that was it, no big secret or secrets, just twice a day. I didn't do alot thinking about the plan or stratedgy, I just did twice a day and it worked. Breakfast and and an early evening (6ish or so)meal. In time, along with the workout and eating only twice a day I started to see results, results I liked. I notice pants hanging back in the closet I was able to wear again and that gave me a huge confidence boost. Unfortunately, I got cocky and had a relaspe. I quit working out and went back to eating all the time. I got back on the horse and stayed with it and didn't fall off the second time around.

The trick to eating for me was, eat only twice a day (eat what I want) and not to eat at all during the rest of the day untill the last and final 2nd meal came at evening time. In other words, I did no snacking of anything at all during the day regardless of what I was doing. Ex. Whatching a movie it was a habit for me to gorg myself with snacks and junk food, it was part of the movie experince. I stopped doing that and it made a sigificant difference. OR, if I did a movie in the early evening than I would enjoy the snacks during the movie BUT that became my 2nd and final meal so to speak of the day. No more eating untill morning time.

Fountain cokes at the local pantry was and is still a major weakness I have.
When I cut back to one day, this also made a huge difference. I researched this fountain coke thing and learned these puppies will put on quick weight because they are loaded with everything that makes the body fat.

Smoking:
This was the time when I also gave up smoking.
I thought these cancer sticks sure can't be helping me any and gave it up along with all the working out and eating twice a day. This was a huge obstacle to get around and it made me moody, but I stuck it out.

Looking inside:
Doing all of this caused or forced me to reconnect with myself would be a better way to say it. Old habits were replaced with new habits and it was tough to keep on keeping on, but I knew it would be worth while, I just had to keep telling myself it would be, and it was. Mental self discipline is a killer especially when any type of depression is present. It doesn't make matters any better or easier. Its true, you have to coach yourself into a new way of doing things and be willing to age gracefully. Also understand your not gonna look like you did in high school when your in your later 30's and 40's.
Don't fight or resist the true and definite change that happens to us all. You can be in good health and physical shape in our middle age years without having false and unrealistic expectations of ourselves.

Conclusion:
Find what works best for you, go for it and stick with it.
Yes, thats easier said than done,
but you can do it, and you got to WANT to bro you got to want it.
I learned some very important life lessons about myself and family and other stuff to personal to discuss, which ALL added to my success.

[fuel0707]

Hi, Ron. First of all, best wishes on getting healthy and getting your weight down. It IS worth the effort.

As you wanted advice, I'll tell you what worked for me. About 8 years ago, I went from about 203 lbs down to about 135 lbs. I wasn't really trying at first, until my wife noticed the difference. I stuck with it and have keeped the weight off for the most part. Currently, I'm in the low 140's.

What I did was similar to what several others have said. I ate low-fat foods, trying to always keep the ratio of fat calories to total calories below 40%, preferably lower. I also watched my total calorie intake and kept it reasonably low. In addition, I cut out soft drinks. And as strange as it may sound, along with eating more times throughout the day, trying eating SLOWER. I found that by doing that, I ate less and still felt satisfied at the end of a meal.

Probably the one most basic fact about weight loss is that if you want to lose fat, you must burn more calories than you are taking in. So definitely, exercise is just as important as eating correctly. I would also recommend that you do a lot of stretching and movements to target your abs. When I was pretty heavy, I tweaked my back in a hockey game. The sports therapist I worked with after that event determined that what caused my back trouble was not only being "hefty" but also having weak stomach muscles that forced my lower back to carry too much stress. Ever since then, I've done a 10-12 minute stretching and exercise routine for my abs and back one to three times per day. The result is that I rarely have any back pain and my stomach muscles are tighter. If you don't exercise your stomach muscles, they won't look decent even after significant weight loss.

As for motivation, I found a scale very important. I'd weigh myself in the morning, after getting home from work and before going to bed. Because your weight will vary somewhat over the course of a day, it's important to keep an eye on the trends as well as the actual numbers. I'd also highly recommend keeping some photos of yourself at your current weight to re-inforce the discipline to keep yourself healthy. I know that I don't like to see how I looked in the mid to late '90's.

My best wishes to you, Ron. Keep focused on your goal and think about everything you're doing from eating to exercise - if something's not helping you towards your goal, don't do it.

[Crankdaddy]

You can do it, Ron.

I'm living proof. I've been up and down all my life. Last September, I decided to change the way I eat. I ate smaller portions, cut out processed foods, cut WAAAY back on my favorite salty snacks (pretzels, chips) and started eating breakfast. (I used to think coffee was all I needed).

It was a life change, for sure. But it had to be done. My cholesterol was awful, my blood pressure was borderline high, and I was on Lipitor.

In addition to eating differently, I started going to the gym. First with cardio, then I started adding in some Nautilus training.

Since I started, I lost about 70 pounds. I dropped over 10 inches around my waist. And my cholesterol and blood pressure are ideal. My doc even took me off Lipitor.

I've never felt better. But you know what the best part is? Looking in the mirror and NOT being mad at myself. That and being able to buy nice clothes in regular stores, as opposed to the Casual Male Big and Tall.

It's not easy, but it can be done.

[toejam]

Drink lots of water or Crystal Light, don't eat after 8 p.m.

[guitarsjb]

You can do it bro!!
Lots of great advice here.

[Norton]

I need to lose weight,too.I think I'll stop drinking coca-cola and stick with eating vegetables.(I hate vegetables )

[fett]

It's easy. I think. Consume fewer calories than you burn. Park way away from where you are going and walk. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Dance around the house. Take power walks and look silly. Use it and lose it. In other words, eat a lot of roughage and get the shit out of there.

[Jack The Riffer]

Good Luck Ron!!! I've lost about 15 lbs since I quit drinking. Beer gut is just about gone.

I know you can do it, I have confidence in you bro!

[Carbuff]

Good luck Ron! Heres a good excercise regiment. Every other day go to the local walmart and try to find something in the store made in the U.S.. By the end of the month you will be hiking miles up and down the aisles trying to find something.

[Soap]

Good luck Ron! Heres a good excercise regiment. Every other day go to the local walmart and try to find something in the store made in the U.S.. By the end of the month you will be hiking miles up and down the aisles trying to find something.

Lol