quote:

Pants size
Start - 50, Current - 34 or 36 depending on style

Gym Shorts
Start - 3X, Current - M

Shirt Size
Start - 3x, Current - M or L depending on style

Awesome

Great job 911 Boss! So happy to see your results.

Great job, man! That's impressive!!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: L90814,

Great 911Boss, besides the obvious exercise routine - anything special about your diet to share?
Forgive me if you disclosed it somewhere in the previous 29 pages.
It should be obvious to all that burn more than you take is effective.

Thanks all for the comments. You may not realize it, but occasionally posting about it on SF helped me to stick with it. Silly as it seems, the virtual camaraderie helped to keep me accountable.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Great 911Boss, besides the obvious exercise routine - anything special about your diet to share?
Forgive me if you disclosed it somewhere in the previous 29 pages.
It should be obvious to all that burn more than you take is effective.

Short answer, I try to keep my net carbs 125 or less a day (type 2 diabetic). That along with portion control, usually only having two meals a day with some light snacks. Greatly increasing my water intake and intermittent fasting (16 hour no-eating window) seemed to help as well.

By cutting carbs, you not only force your body to start burning fat stores but you actually will have fewer hunger pangs as it is the drop in blood sugar as your body dumps insulin in response to carbs raising it that is the trigger for “hunger”. Body wants carbs because it is the easiest most efficient fuel. Starve it of carbs and it will start burning the reserves.
Could not have done it without the “Lose It” app and food scale. “Lose It” is a fantastic calorie tracker that makes it real easy to know how many calories you are really eating. The scale keeps you honest as to what “One Serving” really is. I looked at food as having an exercise “cost”.

If it was going to take me past my daily limit, I had to be willing to pay the price with an extra walk, ride, row, etc. I LOVE a Three Musketeers bar, would have no problem eating one or two everyday. At 325 calories though (a solid 20 minute row or 30 minute bike ride in addition to my “regular” workouts) makes me think twice about just how bad I want it and am able to say “no” more often than not.


I’ll be honest, when you are used to eating 3500+ calories a day as I was, going down to 1200 isn’t easy. Going from an average of 500-600 daily active calories with my old sedentary ways to 1800-2000 daily active calories took some time (3 months) to build stamina and endurance. That drastic swing let me lose weight fast and see significant results (5 lbs a week or more at times) which helped to keep me motivated.


It is also a huge time commitment, over this past year my average is 105 exercise minutes a day. Realistically, that is over 2 hours each and every day once you factor in getting changed, showered etc. Having the equipment at HOME to use played a big role as well. No heading to and from the gym. Time spent going back and forth is better spent doing the work. Can’t sleep? Get on the bike. Wife is out doing her thing for the day? Blast the stereo and row til I can’t row no mo’.

My most active month (Dec 22) I averaged 130 exercise minutes a day, with a high of 232 minutes (12/8/22) and exercised EVERY day that month. I found the time by cutting way back on TV - would spend 4-5 hours a days staring at the box. Realized it was time that could be better spent.



I am now eating an average of about 1800 calories a day with an average of about 1500 active calories and average of 90 exercise minutes. Still working out everyday, I break it up some depending on what I have planned. Sometimes I do a single mega-session, other times I will do an morning and afternoon session. Being retired now makes it easier to adjust to whatever else I have planned.

Once I hit my June goals of one year solid without missing any days I am thinking about having one or two “off” days a week so long as I still hit the daily calorie burn. Right now I do a couple “active recovery” days a week where I do just 1-2 workouts instead of the usual 3-5 and go just a bit over my daily calorie burn goal instead of doubling (or tripling) it. My “plan” once I get to my goal weight for maintaining it is averaging 1400 active calories and 75 exercise minutes.


I use an iPhone and Apple Watch as well as the Apple Fitness app for most of my tracking. For those familiar, with the “Rings” (Active Calories, Exercise minutes, Stand hours), my current goals are 850 active calories, 35 exercise minutes, and 12 stand hours. This might seem to be low goals given the averages I have been doing, but they are the absolute minimum and attainable no matter what (tired, sore, sick, injured) target I have for any given day.

Keep in mind also the “old” me routinely had days where my active calories were less than 500 and sometimes as low as 300+. So consistently burning “just” 850 calories is a huge improvement from where I was.

Exercise minutes isn’t just actual workout time. It register anything more intense than a “brisk walk”. So working up a sweat cleaning out the garage, doing yard work, etc will get some of the minutes for you.


I applied some old fashioned leadership training from years gone by to my routine as well. Goals need to be attainable to be reasonable. If my goal is to hit a certain minimum each and every day, that minimum needs to be attainable no matter what. It isn’t reasonable for me to hit 1500 active calories EVERY day. But with a hard minimum of 850-900/day and burning 1700-2000 on other days, averaging 1500/day is pretty easy. Having this hard minimum is especially important with an arthritic knee that likes to complain occasionally and needs to be babied at times.

One of the articles I came across regarding the Rings and an approach to be successful at closing them every day is here:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/...-me-moving-all-year/

Seeing those rings closing every single day is a motivator for me and helps to start focused. YMMV


Bottom line, be honest, figure out what works for you and stick with it. If it isn’t working, change it up and find something that does. I have learned one thing if nothing else in my 59 years, I ain’t that special. If I can do this, anyone can.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 911Boss,

911Boss - thank you for sharing your progress. Congratulations on your accomplishments and I wish you all the best on your journey.

Boss -

With your increase in physical ability and loss of weight, are you still in the pre-diabetic range or has your A1C been lowered to the normal range?

quote:

Originally posted by marksman41:
Boss -

With your increase in physical ability and loss of weight, are you still in the pre-diabetic range or has your A1C been lowered to the normal range?

I went from 8.8 in Sept 2020 (while taking 2000 mg/daily of Metformin along with 4-6mg of Glimepiride) to 5.9 in Sept 2022. At my Sept appt, doc took me off Glimepiride and cut the Metformin to 1000mg. After an A1c of 6.2 Dec 2021, he took me off the Metformin completely.

Haven’t been tested since, I am due for another check in the next month or so, hoping to be <6 at that point. So at the “pre-diabetes” stage at this point. My monitor/app “estimates” your A1c based on your testing, it is usually telling me the 5.8 range. Will see how accurate that is once I get my next test.

My morning fasting values are still usually in the 110-125 range. During the day, after exercise and before meals I am usually 110 or less. Two hours after meals (if I have been good) I am getting readings of 95-120 most of the time.

My understanding is that diabetes, once diagnosed, is never “cured”. If you get it under control and off drugs, it is considered to be in “remission” so will always be something to keep my eye on.

"cured" is not a word used a lot in our medical system. However, "reversal" is. Sarah was a pioneer in the concept of T2D reversal. She helped shatter the disease management model of T2D. unfortunately, the low carb community lost Sarah last Monday after her 5 year lung cancer diagnosis. Her legacy is strong.

quote:

Originally posted by L90814:
Great job, man! That's impressive!!!

fantastic sculpture

Starting on the 5 pounders. My shoulders need lots of work.

Lost 36 lbs. In 90 days.
Counting 1800 calories per day.
No pop, 99% less candy and ice cream ,pizza.
Almost no exercise.

4/5 less pasta and breads.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:

No pop, 99% less candy and ice cream ,pizza.
4/5 less pasta and breads.

Good job, keep it up. What you are doing was key for me. Cutting sugars, anywhere they are added, even in things like ketchup and BBQ sauce, and cutting breads and pasta. I am holding firm at 60 lbs of weight lost.

Just searched up this thread again for inspiration. I’m up about 17 lbs from my best weight (200 lbs). Not as bad as it could be but I gotta get back on track. For me the booze has been the issue. Not just alcohol but the bad food choices that go along.

Seems our entire social life involves drinking and I need to fix that. My worry is that people like drunk Jim more than sober Jim. So I have to deal with that.

But I had somewhat of an epiphany drinking a vodka soda at the airport (8 hour flight delay, so lots of drinking). I was on vodka soda because it’s low carb. But one was made especially strong. It literally tasted like I was drinking poison chemical. Of course that’s actually accurate right? All the things I do to make wonderful mixed cocktails is basically to hide the flavor of poison. I gotta stop. At least it’s gotta be a once in a great while thing, not 3 nights per week.

Anyhow got the flu in Florida so that’s helping me eat less and not drink. I’m about 217. Will be updating. Doing basically low/no carb keto type diet. I did great for about 2 years but it’s easy to slowly fall into a carb based diet. I guess it’s all or nothing and I’m realizing, unfortunately, booze may be the same.

Working on 3 weeks of intermittent fasting. Finally got tired of the weight enough to do something.

Last fall a workplace wellness medical group (aimed specifically at cops as our mortality rates suck compared to national averages) came in and did advanced cardiac screening and metabolic testing.

Despite my weight my labs were fantastic. Cholesterol was great, A1C was fine, insulin was apparently 2 points above normal range, so they weren't concerned. I was very deficient in vitamin D so they suggested more sun plus a high grade vitamin d supplement and a high grade fish oil. Been doing that.

But the biggest lesson they provided was fat burning efficiency. They hooked us up to a ecg, put on a air mask to measure VO2, and then had us pedal on an exercise bike. The result was a specific HR where we burn fat most efficiently. For most of us it was around 100BPM which was an eye opener. The doctor heavily suggested dropping the higher intensity crossfit type workouts if the main goal was fat loss and instead just take nice and easy walks at least 4-5 times a week.

Now that the ankle injury is about 95% better, and the workers comp doctor saying it wouldn't get any better until I loose weight, I got to it. 6 days a week of fasting, one of those days (Thursdays, aka, my Monday) are for 24 hours. Walking of at least an hour 6 days a week... once or twice a week I work in some squats and deadlifts because I enjoy them.

I expect some results will start to be noticeable in a few more weeks but I'm enjoying having a healthier routine.

Last posted a year ago. I was 260 then. I'm at 255 now without really counting calories. I have been walking to and from work sporadically which is a total of 5 miles.

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:
But the biggest lesson they provided was fat burning efficiency. They hooked us up to a ecg, put on a air mask to measure VO2, and then had us pedal on an exercise bike. The result was a specific HR where we burn fat most efficiently. For most of us it was around 100BPM which was an eye opener.

Yes: That's the Oxidative System: Low-Power/-Intensity. Aka: Aerobic. It's called oxidative/aerobic because it uses the breakdown in fat, combined with oxygen, to produce energy.

"Ok," you think, "since fat's what I want to burn, that's the most efficient, right?"

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:
The doctor heavily suggested dropping the higher intensity crossfit type workouts if the main goal was fat loss and instead just take nice and easy walks at least 4-5 times a week.

Wrong!

That's outdated thinking.

The problem with that is it takes a lot of Low-Intensity Steady State (LISS) training to burn much fat. The average adult, walking at the average speed, will burn about 100-150 Calories per mile. A small McDonald's meal (Big Mac, small fry, small Coke) is 970 Cals.

You do the math.

Furthermore: Once you stop walking the mild calorie burn increase stops immediately.

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), conversely, burns calories at several times that rate. E.g.: When I did HIIT on my rower, last time, the calculations claimed I was burning 870 Cal./hour. (Objections noted.)

But, even better, the calorie burn rate remains elevated for some time following HIIT, and there are additional fat-burning benefits as well (increased Human Growth Hormone production, improved insulin sensitivity, and increased lean body mass [muscle]).

In short: LISS cardio is, far-and-away, the absolute least efficient fat-burning exercise there is.

Even better than HIIT is high-stress, low-volume strength training. In my fitness/fat loss program I dropped cardio entirely, for about two months, to focus on strength training. I lost over 2% body fat during that time. There were no appreciable changes to my diet.

Low-volume, high-intensity strength training has additional benefits: Increased strength, bone density, and connective tissue resiliency--all of which make one less susceptible to injury.

Lastly: Diet is king. All the exercise in the world can't beat a bad diet.

Here are a couple articles for you:

Understanding Energy Systems: ATP-PC, Glycolytic and Oxidative – Oh My!

The Science Behind the Afterburn Effect

Gear questions:
Do you prefer a vest or a belt for adding weight to pull-ups, dips, etc.?

Got a link to your fave?
Thanks

Hey, look at this thread!

Back from when I got from really fat down to 200. Since then I got this new job, and the pandemic, and put ~60lbs back on. Yay! Been struggling with some health stuff and treading water on that, not gaining more weight.

Back when I was swinging a hammer as a one-man-band contractor, it was easy to just make some minor dietary changes and boom... because I pretty much was working out all day. Now I spend a piece of each day at a desk, but I do walk a lot any given day... my caloric needs decreased and I didn't decrease the intake.

This really is simple math, and there are a lot of ways to get it done. "OMAD" is now something I've been doing for years. I still don't think it's "intermittent fasting." Needing three meals a day is a myth propagated by people who want to sell you various foods. The folks who eat 8-10 small meals a day don't seem to get the "you're damaging your body" comments I have.

I still maintain that if humans needed 3 meals a day, how did we make it those thousands of years there were no supermarkets? Before herding or farming? The answer is that you can survive for days without food, just not without water. I'd call that actual fasting, and wouldn't recommend it as "weight loss."

I still say find what works for you and do that. Be disciplined but don't beat yourself up. The world is dummer about healthy weight, and drives me nuts that it's focused on women. Overweight can be normal, but it's not great for you. Obesity will shorten your life but can indeed outright kill you in a variety of ways.

BMI is dumb and needs to be abandoned, I learned from the doctor that my ideal weight is 169. I'd have to get cancer and have no muscle to get there. I've put on some weight and am not contracting, but I still work on my own home and took my own chimney down by myself... "Normal" beanpoles are accounted for in BMI, not anyone with some physical power.

Keep at it, at least don't gain more if you're not losing.