Weight Loss Thread

I haven't posted an update in a while but I figured I would drop in. As of the start of March I am down to 217, 66 lbs. lost, 18 to go.

The end of last year / start of this year have been a bit of a challenge. I basically lost most of my willpower. Not enough to gain weight, but enough to basically sabotage my progress on a weekly basis. I stopped doing Yoga for no good reason during this time period. Thankfully, I had drilled my diet into my head enough that I kept on top of it. If anything, the past couple of months showed me how I can eat if I just want to maintain weight so it is not a total loss.

Anyway, I managed to get off my ass and sign up for an Intro to BJJ class at a local gym. The gym is three miles from my house so that should work out rather well when it warms up. The first class was last night and was pretty embarrassing. I was gasping for air after the 15 minute warm up. I have not done a combat sport before, but this was fun. I think it is going to be enjoyable. This class goes for 4 weeks 2 times per week and then you start working with the normal folks once you have some confidence built. Will hopefully have more to report when the month is over, I am hoping for steady progress to the point that I can complete the hour without feeling like I need to vomit.

Overall in my weight loss goals, I am now behind schedule. I think if I can focus on the next 2 - 3 months of being more strict with my diet and hitting these classes twice a week I will reach 199 around Junish.

Awesome work. 66lbs is a lot of weight.

Okay, so update for you bros. Down to 259 from 278 since I started my workout regimen around two months ago, and my mostly strict diet around 3 weeks ago. During that two months, I didn't exercise at all for 3 weeks until the Doc cleared me for leg days after my clavicle surgery. I've been told I'm not allowed to use my left arm to handle any weight, and I won't be able to start lifting again with my upper body for another two and a half months.

So... Besides leg presses on a machine, hamstring retractions, quadricep extensions, and calf lifts is there any other exercises you can think of I can do? I'm still doing crunches and using the machine for lower back/upper glutes.

Springbok_sl said:

I have a serious question for the guys that are overweight or rather, were overweight and now aren't. When you are doing one of these body transformations, is the last 10-20lbs not the hardest to lose? Like, if you were 300lbs @5'10" and wanted to get to 180 or something - how do you burn the last little bit? I've got a guy working for me right now who was damn near 300lbs and pretty short (5'8 or so) and he's lost 100 lbs - which is absolutely amazing. But I was talking with him today at lunch a bit and he was pissed that he couldn't lose that last 20 or so pounds to get "cut". I didn't want be a prick, but is that no just excess skin?

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It's not just excess skin no, it's physiology. When you are 100lbs overweight you can look at someone funny and lose 5 lbs. Once you get closer to an ideal weight it becomes a much finer line you need to tune. Getting "cut" is hard no matter what. Even if you aren't "overweight" and just want some more definition that shit takes time and dedication. He's probably used to losing weight relatively easily, now he actually has to try. It's pretty much as simple as that. I used to weigh 280lbs. I'm sitting at 177 right now.

Also, weight loss diet for a 300lber might be a maintenance diet for a 200lber. Hopefully the guy feels great with his transformation and is keeping up the excercise and good dieting. Tell him he looks great and he should keep it up, but ya, his goals should now to be closer together and take longer to achieve. If he's expecting to look like a magazine cover model, that's a whole different type of regiment, and is usually just temporary/extremely hard (and possibly dangerous) to maintain.

Springbok_sl said:

I have a serious question for the guys that are overweight or rather, were overweight and now aren't. When you are doing one of these body transformations, is the last 10-20lbs not the hardest to lose? Like, if you were 300lbs @5'10" and wanted to get to 180 or something - how do you burn the last little bit? I've got a guy working for me right now who was damn near 300lbs and pretty short (5'8 or so) and he's lost 100 lbs - which is absolutely amazing. But I was talking with him today at lunch a bit and he was pissed that he couldn't lose that last 20 or so pounds to get "cut". I didn't want be a prick, but is that no just excess skin?

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I'm at 200 right now, 240+ was my heaviest, so not quite the total body transformation that other people have had. But to maintain this, I have to do a certain amount of working out a week, and eat a certain amount of calories and I'm mostly maintaining. If I wanted to drop more, I'd have to increase my workouts or lower my calorie intake. Neither of which is appealing to me because I'm basically happy with my body...

But it's a very different mindset than I had when I was slowly accumulating weight over the years, when I just didn't care what I ate or how nutritious it was, and I absolutely didn't work out at all...

But maybe make it less about a specific weight goal... and instead make it about a fitness goal or a calorie goal. If he's currently maintaining at 200 lbs and working out 2 hours a week (say, 3 days a week of weight lifting). And he's eating 2000 calories. His "goal" should be working out 5 hours a week (adding in cardio to his days between weights). or his goal should be eating 1500 calories while still getting the motivation to go workout at the same amount that he is now... and his body will adjust itself.

Make your weight a result of your goal, not your goal. So if your goal is to get him to "drop that last 20" what you really should be doing is finding out his current workout routine, and encouraging him to add additional workouts to it.

Look up Bulgarian Split Squats, Aamry. Step ups are pretty good, too, but might be on the easy side of things without some dumbbells.

Springbok_sl said:

I have a serious question for the guys that are overweight or rather, were overweight and now aren't. When you are doing one of these body transformations, is the last 10-20lbs not the hardest to lose? Like, if you were 300lbs @5'10" and wanted to get to 180 or something - how do you burn the last little bit? I've got a guy working for me right now who was damn near 300lbs and pretty short (5'8 or so) and he's lost 100 lbs - which is absolutely amazing. But I was talking with him today at lunch a bit and he was pissed that he couldn't lose that last 20 or so pounds to get "cut". I didn't want be a prick, but is that no just excess skin?

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The last 10 - 20 pounds are certainly extremely hard to lose, but that's the case for anyone trying to drop just a bit of weight. The less fat you have, the harder it is to lose. That said, depending on his genetics, he may or may not have much (or any) excess skin. I was fortunate that despite losing nearly 100 pounds I never suffered from any loose skin. I still have a bit of a gut/stomach, but it is most definitely stubborn fat hanging around and not saggy, loose skin.

I echo Antarius' advice of setting goals other than weight when you're down to such a small amount of fat to cut. My goal was 180, but once I got to sub 200 I basically stopped weighing myself and set goals of wearing a certain pair of pants or lifting a certain amount of weight at the gym. It was much more rewarding working towards those than seeing the insanely minuscule decrease in scale weight week by week.

I cannot add anything that these guys already haven't for the last bit of weight. Around 10 years ago when I lost a bunch of weight the first time, I was able to get to about 180 pretty quickly / systematically. Past that point, things just got weird. I decided to not stress about it and just keep improving my program and eating healthy. Eventually got down to 167, just had to take my mind off of it.

My current weight loss goal is getting close to leaving the numbers game to move to the accomplishments game. I feel like number crunching won't be successful long term. What I did was set my initial goal higher than I would like because I know it could be accomplished and be rewarding. But when I hit that goal, I want to just move on to 'normal' living where I have an active hobby and eat well and hopefully the rest just falls into place.

McQueen_sl said:

Look up Bulgarian Split Squats, Aamry. Step ups are pretty good, too, but might be on the easy side of things without some dumbbells.

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Thanks, I'll look into that.

My squats are coming along quite nicely, did a 5x225 today reasonably comfortably. Would of liked to go higher but have a possibly sprained/fractured thumb so didn't want to overdo it and drop the bar.

Gonna be so fast this season.

fifey_sl said:

My squats are coming along quite nicely, did a 5x225 today reasonably comfortably. Would of liked to go higher but have a possibly sprained/fractured thumb so didn't want to overdo it and drop the bar.

Gonna be so fast this season.

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Weight x sets x reps

What you wrote is essentially 225 reps at 5 lbs.

Obviously I understand what you wrote, but you should learn the convention.

No.

So at the gym today, I asked if they did BMI's. They have this little machine you hold and it gives you a somewhat accurate reading, he said it's off my about 3 give or take. I read out at 26.1% body fat, approximately 68 pounds. I weigh 260 right now, with muscle building and fat loss I hope to get to a lean 220.

Those bulgarian split squats are hard when I can only hold weight in one hand, it really sets me off balance. I can do 450x10x2 (Thanks Elurin) on the leg press smith machine though, and full stacks of 255x10x2 of extensions and retractions. In between machines I do 20 crunches, and finish up doing 20 lower back/glutes extensions on the machine.

My legs will be swoll, but my upper body is shrivelin' bros.

Being tall I have a hard time keeping good form while doing barbell squats, so instead I just do large reps of air squats.

Anyone know of any alternatives to barbell squats that they enjoyed? I've got great size and leg definition from doing air squats and other general leg lifts but I've been plateau'ing bad with just the body weight squats.

Swagdaddy_sl said:

Being tall I have a hard time keeping good form while doing barbell squats, so instead I just do large reps of air squats.

Anyone know of any alternatives to barbell squats that they enjoyed? I've got great size and leg definition from doing air squats and other general leg lifts but I've been plateau'ing bad with just the body weight squats.

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Have you tried goblet squats?

Aamry_sl said:

So at the gym today, I asked if they did BMI's. They have this little machine you hold and it gives you a somewhat accurate reading, he said it's off my about 3 give or take. I read out at 26.1% body fat, approximately 68 pounds. I weigh 260 right now, with muscle building and fat loss I hope to get to a lean 220.

Those bulgarian split squats are hard when I can only hold weight in one hand, it really sets me off balance. I can do 450x10x2 (Thanks Elurin) on the leg press smith machine though, and full stacks of 255x10x2 of extensions and retractions. In between machines I do 20 crunches, and finish up doing 20 lower back/glutes extensions on the machine.

My legs will be swoll, but my upper body is shrivelin' bros.

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10 sets of 2 reps? Or did you mean 2 sets of 10 reps? Because 10 sets of 2 reps on multiple exercises with heavy weight sounds like a great way to exhaust your muscles and injure yourself.