High Fives all around!

In 2012, one of my main goals was to be less fat. As of this past week, I've lost just over 60 lbs. this calendar year. I know most of you guys have never even seen me, but I'm more than a little proud of it, so I thought I'd just brag a little. I didn't even reach my next goal or anything (which is still just under 20 lbs. away). I'm just happy about it is all.

Congrats, Nate! Losing weight is a bitch, man. Keep it up, and if you need help, hit me via FB. My wife's a personal trainer and has a lot of insight into how to get past humps.

Best part of losing weight: Your dick looks way bigger.

Congratulations! I've been rather slim for most of my life but a recent change in metabolism has shown me how just how easy it can be to put on a few too many pounds. Now I'm working to get them off but it's definitely a struggle. That's a pretty massive achievement and you have definitely earned the right to brag.

Never stop lifting. It's the best way to lose weight while stuffing yourself with cheeseburgers multiple times per day.

Awesome, Nate. You, me, and Stormseeker75 should do some weigh-ins publicly to keep things going. Keeping others informed of progress and setbacks is a good indicator for weight loss success. I am 187 or so, and want to be 155 or so. I was 147 in college and that was a bit on the gaunt side. Coming down from 197, so things are a little better.

My job is sedentary. Need to work on this and set some time to move around. There's a gym on site and I play Ultimate for 60 min per week, but need to set aside time for another workout or two. Or three.

Keep it up!

I started out at 340, which was after about 5 lbs. of holiday weight put on. I'm down to 278 as of yesterday morning. The next signpost is 260, which represents my weight when I was a sophomore in high school.

Weight Watchers is telling me that my ideal is 220, but I suspect I'll probably plateau around 250 or thereabouts. When that happens I'll probably need to figure out how to crack through that last chunk of weight. I'm going to be a big guy no matter what, but I am pretty happy with my progress.

My heaviest was about 360, just after college. Turns out that ordering pizza at 11PM is not conducive to weight-loss.

That is tremendous! Grrr! Here we come, target weight!

I supported an IndieGogo for Weighthacking that has paid some quick benefits. Something I learned from the preview PDF is another good indicator for weight loss success is maintaining a food diary. I am doing one over at loseit.com. Let me know if you join up and we'll share info.

Nate: The trick to breaking plateaus is to stagger your diet and exercise on a daily basis. One day have 2200 calories, the next 1200, the next 1800, and so on. Also, one day run off 600 calories, next day do light weight training, and so on.

The magic to plateaus is that your body believes it's starving, and it resists. Changing your metabolism and energy expenditure convinces your body that it's in a war, and so it stops fighting the weight loss and begins to actively convert to lean muscle mass.

I want to see Nate Leonidas!

Good job, tubs. Look forward to the eventual Speedo-totin' pics!


Losing weight is tough stuff. wtg

SuperflyTNT wrote: Nate: The trick to breaking plateaus is to stagger your diet and exercise on a daily basis. One day have 2200 calories, the next 1200, the next 1800, and so on. Also, one day run off 600 calories, next day do light weight training, and so on.

The magic to plateaus is that your body believes it's starving, and it resists. Changing your metabolism and energy expenditure convinces your body that it's in a war, and so it stops fighting the weight loss and begins to actively convert to lean muscle mass.

I want to see Nate Leonidas!

This doesn't make much sense?

Anyway, awesome job!

I have all sorts of advice but the only two pieces that are actually worthwhile (and this is one of the things I do for a living) are

1. Every single one of us is different and we still don't really have a great grasp of the intricacies of how our bodies actually work. People will give you all sorts of advice, sometimes very scientifically grounded and sometimes WILDLY not, but the best thing is learning to listen to and understand your own body and how it responds to differing methods.

2. The BEST plan is the one you'll actually follow through with both in the short and long term. Sure you might get 10% better results if you do X, but if X really sucks for you and you give it up, you're now doing 100% worse. Create habits that work for you and you enjoy. Avoid dogma and guilt. Life should still be awesome even if you're working on making it more awesome by getting healthier. I'd rather die a few years earlier than live a longer life of terrible self denial and punishment.

Good job!

Yeah, my goal is not to be some sort of Adonis. My goal is just to not be morbidly obese. I'm on the way there. I think having kids was the big thing that pushed me over the edge. I found it profoundly depressing to be huffing and puffing, chasing after a 10-year-old in a few years. I want to be around when they have kids, and beyond that.

Most of my work has been simply eating like a normal person. Eating out a lot less, using far less fat in cooking, eating more fruits and vegetables for snacks, finding good sources of proteins and fats as necessary. And not completely denying myself stuff I enjoy (like pizza, barbecue, pie, etc.). Just have it with far less frequency and in far smaller quantities. I'm usually able to get out to exercise 2-3 times a week too.

I've done other "diets" before, like the South Beach diet. I lost a lot of weight that way, but I gained almost all of it back, because I couldn't eat like that in the real world. It's not a realistic way to live. The difference this time is that this is a lifestyle change really more than a temporary goal. This is just how I live now, not a quick fix.

Thanks for the encouragement, you guys.

My hat is off to you Nate! Whatever it is that you're doing-don't stop!

Weight is the biggest hurdle yours truly has yet to, permanently, jump.

I"ve quit smoking, since 1998, and never once had the urge to start up again, but food- especially carbs- oh man...

Congrats on the weight loss!

I do P90X earlier in the year and lost 40, going from 270 to 230. I was able to pull plenty of clothes from storage. I found that beer and huge servings of meat were the biggest contributor. Now I am adhering to weighing serving portions and such. I need to start a new round of P90X to knock off a few more pounds.

MattLoter wrote:
This doesn't make much sense?

It does if you understand how the metabolism works. It helps that my wife's a phys trainer, my brother is a health nut and former international model, and one of my good buds is a famous body builder. I learned a lot from the latter two and my wife knows quite a bit as well.

To be clear, I'm talking about a weight LOSS plateau as opposed to a muscle building plateau, which is different. Anyhow, I'll explain:

If you are on a strict dietary regimen based on calorie counting and exercise your body becomes accustomed to it. "The new normal", so to speak. That's what the plateau is: your body becoming accustomed to your normal routine. Even increasing exercise levels to "break the plateau" is not going to be effective because your body is managing its metabolism. It's called "GAS" or General Adaptation Syndrome.

Many people plateau and then stupidly lower their caloric intake and keep to their exercise and it invariably ends up with failure. Your body thinks its starving, so it reserves your energy stores. You don't lose fat nearly at the same rate, if at all. Others overtrain, which leads to injury, or worse, you don't lose the weight which leads to frustration.

To get around your body's natural aptitude for not losing weight easily, you simply fuck with that mechanism. Adjust your caloric intakes wildly (+/- 600 calories) and adjust your energy use (not as much, but adjust) and your body then goes back to not strictly managing your metabolic rate..call it "going with the flow"

As for science:
www.bodybuilding.com/fun/achieve-your-de...ficient-training.htm (Article about GAS)

Another example:
www.livestrong.com/article/53276-start-r...program-lose-weight/
(See Step 4, specifically)

Another example:
www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/avoid...s-and-see-gains.html
(more info on GAS and plateaus, more geeky sciency)

And weight watchers tips:
www.healthdiscovery.net/articles/15Plateau_tips.htm
(#12 in particular)

So, while you may look at it like "WTF?" it's simply because you probably are a lucky bastard who didn't ever have to deal with it or nobody ever told you about it.

I'm doing Lose It! as well. Just started this morning as a matter of fact so the timing is good. I've got to take some before/after pics so when I hit my goal I can compare. stormseeker75 at g mail dot com on Lose It!