This is my one year lifestyle change report.

I started my lifestyle change in late September of last year. I was somewhere around 280 to 285 pounds.


This was me at my absolute worst in the fall of 2020. I was probably 295 to 300 pounds at this point...


I cut out as many carbs as I could. I gave up bread, any food that had sugar or artificial sweeteners, pasta, potatoes, corn, and high sugar fruits. I also eliminated any food that had maltodextrin, seed oils and other forbidden chemicals.

I limited myself to leafy greens, eggs, butter, ghee, tallow, cooked low-carb veggies (bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, etc...), beef, pork, chicken, cheeses, heavy cream, sour cream, avocados, salted nuts and fish. The only fruits I ate were blueberries, black berries and raspberries, and even then, it was only a handful a day. If I ate out, it was at Longhorn Steakhouse, and I would order their half pound bacon cheeseburger but without the bun and I would substitute the fries with broccoli. I also gave up caffeinated coffee.

I also implemented intermittent fasting. I skipped breakfast and only ate between the hours of noon to 6PM. I also kept to under 2,000 calories and tried to keep my daily step count to over 10,000 steps a day. I limited myself to under 50 grams of carbs (from veggies and nuts) a day. I also used a calorie/carb tracker app like Lose It or Carb Manager.

By the end of October, I had lost 30 pounds. By December, I had lost 20 more pounds. Over the last 10 months, I lost another 20+ pounds. I'm now down to about 212 pounds.

This was me at 250 pounds at the end of October...




These images are the latest pictures where I'm around 215 +/- a pounds or two...










I still have 30 more pounds to go. I'm shooting for a final weight of 185 pounds, or 20% body fat or less.

Clothes:
When I started, I was realistically a size 40 pant size. I was squeezing into 38's though. Today I wear 36's and I can squeeze into 34's. I only had five shirts I was wearing regularly, as the rest were too tight. I was a 2XL. Today I'm either a L or an XL size. All the clothes in my closet fit very loose. I only recently purchased two pair of size 36 pants. I gave away a lot of shirts already.

Health markers:
I was on Metformin, Lisinopril, Amlodipine, and Furosemide for A1C (5.9 at the time), hight blood pressure and edema.

During my last visit, we dropped all other medications except Lisinopril. My A1C was 5.4 durning my last visit and I had already stopped taking metformin 4 months prior.

My neck size reduced dramatically and according to my family, I don't snore anymore.

My planar fasciitis has pretty much completely disappeared.

Before I lost weight, I was having severe heart palpitations, shortness of breath and I would wake up with panic attacks. I had one palpitation that was so bad, it felt like someone punched me in the chest really hard. All that is gone now. My heart rate has also slowed down on average 20 BPM. I don't feel any shortness of breath any more and I go to sleep just fine now and stay asleep.

The only exercise I get is daily walking and theme parks with my son every week or two. I can do a full day at a theme park and walk 22,000 steps or more with no problem.

My cholesterol is elevated, but that's expected for someone who is fat adapted. I can also now fast for two to three days with no problem and no fatigue. I don't feel fatigued until the end of day 3. During those days, I still manage to walk ~13,000 steps a day. I haven't made it to 4 days of fasting yet, but I'm working on it. There are so many health benefits when you go on an extended fast.

In the beginning, I stayed on my diet very strictly. Only recently have I allowed myself to have a cheat meal, and it's once every 2 weeks. I don't have cheat days at all, just a single meal. I haven't eaten anything bread related since last Thanksgiving or Christmas. My cheat meal is usually at a Mexican restaurant, and it's the tortilla chips and dip that I eat that are the cheat part of the meal.

Here are some other tactics I use. I will fill up at an all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse and go two days without eating my next meal. I sometimes eat just one meal a day. I also cook whole packer briskets and eat 1/3 of it over two days and the other 2/3rds get frozen for later consumption. I also render all the beef fat and make my own beef tallow from the brisket trimmings and I use the tallow to cook my veggies and eggs every morning.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Tony.

Outstanding, a personal accomplishment of which to be proud.

Congratulations, very well done, my goals are similar to drop down to about 215/220 and get off similar meds.

Way to go Tony. I bet you feel a lot better.

Congrats

Lookin' great!

Nicely done. Congrats!

WTG Benny, what a difference.

Thanks! I forgot to mention, I also gave up alcohol.

Tony.

Congrats! Low carbs is the way to go.

That is really great benny. Congrats that is a huge accomplishment.
Trying to determine what to eat is a huge hurdle to overcome. Many don't want to use apps and don't have access to a nutritionist. Suggestions.

Awesome job.

You are 100% on target and I am amazed that there are so many people who have not discovered this.

I have been on the same diet for 3.75 years now although I didn't need to lose a lot of weight. I won't distract from my transformation but now I am back to the gym regularly, I am struggling for weight gains now. I am going to have to keep up with the protein, creatine and fats. I do a full 24-hour intermittent fast once a week but might change the day to a no-workout day.

The sad part is that my GP doc doesn't understand anything about nutrition as mentioned the LDL went up for me too but the other real markers improved dramatically, yet she all she wants to do is prescribe statins, completely ignoring all of the other important markers. I even have to insist on the improved Lipid Panel Test that measures more than the very insufficient basic Lipid Panel. I need a new Doc.

However, you hit it right on the head, I do the exact same but still have a cup of coffee everyday and "try" to eat as much as I can.

If anything I have moving a bit more to carnivore (not going all the way as I need the variety).

Congrats and keep it up!

Great accomplishment. Congratulations, Tony.

Great job, and you must have a tremendous amount of self control.

It would be easier if you eat more in the morning, and less at 5-6pm. Ideally you would wake up hungry every morning. If not, you ate too much the night before.

Protein and fat give carb specific satiety, which makes it easier to stick to your plan.

Damn...those first pix are of your long lost brother right? LOL

Seriously bravo zulu (well done!)

Tony - Congratulations on the lifestyle change. You've inspired me to reevaluate my situation. Keep up the hard work and thank you for sharing.

Fantastic! I wish I could achieve results like yours. When I lose weight, I lose considerable muscle as well which is not good for me (already weak). It's been a struggle for me. At this point, I'm trying to maintain about the same weight but lose more fat and gain more muscle.

You look like you've lost weight but kept muscle which looks very healthy on you. Excellent!

Great job.
I'd like to lose another 15-20 and already lost 10 in the last two months (my all time high was 192).
I was already getting a decent amount of daily exercise for a 65+ year old so that wasn't my issue. A few years before had completely stopped any alcohol.
Now I check the calories of everything I eat and have almost no bread or fried foods.
That's an inspirational story so if I find myself unable to continue the downward trend I'll try a version of your diet to finish the job.

Very impressive. It does appear you've managed to lose fat while maintaining muscle mass.
I don't need to lose weight, but like the idea of fasting for its health benefits. I have not successfully fasted for more than a 24-hour period. I blame it on my activity level.

You can have my bread when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

Good job Tony. I experimented with keto for only a month a few years back and 25g/day. The first couple of days were a little rough, but once I figured out what I could eat and not eat, it wasn't difficult at all and I was never hungry. Lost 20 pounds that month...not that I needed to, it was just an experiment.