Weight Loss Thread

Nice work. Keep it up.

Ubi,

What's your gym routine look like? I have a fat friend who is concerned about losing weight and having loose skin. My personal opinion is that he should be more concerned about [random negative health risk of obesity] than loose skin, but... *shrug* I've been telling him if he just lifts heavy and eats well, he'll end up looking good.

I don't know what ubi did, and I *think* his starting weight was higher and age may also play a factor but... I went from 280 to 180 in about 10 months when I was 20 years old and never had loose skin. I had stretch marks which have slowly gone away but never loose skin.

I was lifting 6 days a week and also doing cardio in intense, short bursts over the period of hours every day (if we're being honest I played DDR about 2-3 hours every day).

Loose skin depends on genetics, your pace of weight loss, and also where you carry your weight. If you carry most of your weight in a big ol' belly then you'll be more likely to have loose skin than someone who has their weight more evenly distributed. If someone is 400+ pounds I really don't think it matters what kind of workout routine and diet someone has because there is going to be loose skin.

Eidal_sl said:

Ubi,

What's your gym routine look like? I have a fat friend who is concerned about losing weight and having loose skin. My personal opinion is that he should be more concerned about [random negative health risk of obesity] than loose skin, but... *shrug* I've been telling him if he just lifts heavy and eats well, he'll end up looking good.

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I would echo your concerns. That is what got me started. I would rather be alive and active with loose skin than a dead full skinned fatty.

Anyway, 5'9" started at 283 lbs in June 2013. So lost around 105 lbs in 16 months. Don't think it was too fast, some could argue going over 1lb. / week increases risk of loose skin.

First 9 months of weight loss wasn't a gym, just getting my shit together. I did Keto / Bulletproof diet and DDP Yoga at home. Started at 2 - 3 times a week and peaked around 5 times. The program is small to start, you do 20 - 30 min routines that build you up to a grand finale 50 minute routine. That got me to around 220-230.

March of this year I started doing BJJ 3 - 4 times per week. Usually 1 - 2 hours per session of various physical activity. I haven't figured out a great way to track it, but it is stretching, light cardio / warm up, drilling (light activity), and rolling (super going-to-die activity). Class composition varies based on the mood of the instructor. Weight started absolutelymeltingoff at this point. Just to maintain weight while doing BJJ I could eat around 2.7k - 3k calories per day. I stick to 1900 calories and I lose generally 1.25 - 2 lbs. per week.

I have stretch marks (stomach, love handle area, lats a bit). I don't really care about stretch marks at the moment. They are kind of like badges of honor for a fat guy now thinner. I have loose skin around my stomach and a little on my upper thighs towards deeze nuts. I do not think the skin on the upper thigh is going to be a problem at all, it seems to be tightening up as time goes on without a problem.

The stomach is the problem area. Picking things up without a shirt on is the worst of it. General day to day walking around I just have a bit of a gut that hangs off of my abs and whatever the V / lovehandle muslces are, delts? It is an odd scenario, if my skin was tighter I would have a more pronounced gut as it would be held out in front of me. Instead it just hangs down a little further and is flatter against my body. If I remember when I get home I will snap a pic, it isn't terrible given where I came from, but I don't like showing it off.

Besides, just tell him he is still going to wear clothes when he is thinner. This is me around 10 lbs. ago wearing a coat my wife bought me 7 years ago and I have never been able to fit into. I am going to look better than I did in my 20s pretty soon. The only person that will really see loose skin is my wife and she would also rather me be alive and thinner even with some loose skin.

If you have the money to burn you can always have the loose skin fixed by a surgeon.

Khane_sl said:

I don't know what ubi did, and I *think* his starting weight was higher and age may also play a factor but... I went from 280 to 180 in about 10 months when I was 20 years old and never had loose skin. I had stretch marks which have slowly gone away but never loose skin.

I was lifting 6 days a week and also doing cardio in intense, short bursts over the period of hours every day (if we're being honest I played DDR about 2-3 hours every day).

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I was around 240 at my fattest at 6' and have a little bit of loose skin. I carried most of my weight in my stomach and have a short torso, though, so things like that also play a part.

Having said that, loose skin will always look better than fat. They even have some pretty good laser treatments now that take an hour or so and you don't have to take time off work or anything. The results aren't as good as a tummy tuck, but still pretty good.

Your fat friend probably just wants an excuse to stay fat

Alright, remembered this morning. This is what I am working with after 100 lbs. Warning, shirtless hairy guy with a great farmers tan.

I still have a bit of fat to lose so I am expecting some continued shrinkage. However, the 'loose' effect seems to be becoming more pronounced faster than the shrinkage, if that makes sense. I think if I get to the goal of around 8-9% body fat and hold it for 6 - 12 months I will see about 60-70% of where I would be finally and can make a decision.

This laser treatment you mention sounds interesting, do you know the name? There is no way I would do a surgery with multiple months of recovery unless it was a terrible scenario and I don't think I have avoided that terrible scenario.

Yea, frankly, loose skin is just one of those idiosyncratic things about a person. No woman gives enough of a shit about a man's appearance to care about loose skin -- being fit/healthy puts you so far above the "average man" and loose skin is a symbolic scar of a personal journey. I'm pretty sure a man in his 40s in excellent shape with a clean shave and a sharp outfit could be massively scarred/burnt all about his legs/torso and still be fine.

You can avoid loose skin if you lose weight at a more steady pace over time.

And there's always surgery.

Being fat sucks.

I'm looking for a little bit of advice. 2 1/2 years ago I went from 190 to 160 in a little over a month and a half. Severe calorie restriction, a ton of running, while still being a smoker. At the end I was running 7 miles every other day, and eating about 1500 calories a day. Plus work which is fairly demanding. I'm a meat manager, so lots of walking(8-12) miles a day according to my pedometer. Unloading trucks, cutting meat, etc.

I went to the doctor towards the end and he gave me a clean bill of health, but I know I lost a ton of muscle mass. So I started lifting. Got up to 180 over the course of 8 months.

At the beginning of this year I quit smoking and working out . And about 3 months ago I hit 205. I'm 5'10". I had to buy new work clothes. Twice.

I've been playing soccer for the last 2 months about 2 or 3 nights a week. I'm having a blast, love the competitive aspect. I've never played soccer until now so I want to join a league the next go around. I'd also like to be in better shape.

I want to stay about the same weight. I'm a very very strong sprinter. I know dropping weight would just make me faster. I'd rather be able to still use my weight to my advantage though.

I've been looking at different work out routines, and I've been counting calories for a week or so. It's going well and I know I can accomplish whatever goals I set for myself.

So Any advice you guys can give on what direction to go would be extremely helpful. Anyone here playing soccer in an adult league have anything to chime in? is it possible to maintain (approximately) the same weight and get in better shape? Should I say screw it and cut down back to 180 first? I will say I can't afford to put on more inches around my hips. I don't want to bump my pants size up again.

Yiliumn_sl said:

I'm looking for a little bit of advice. 2 1/2 years ago I went from 190 to 160 in a little over a month and a half. Severe calorie restriction, a ton of running, while still being a smoker. At the end I was running 7 miles every other day, and eating about 1500 calories a day. Plus work which is fairly demanding. I'm a meat manager, so lots of walking(8-12) miles a day according to my pedometer. Unloading trucks, cutting meat, etc.

I went to the doctor towards the end and he gave me a clean bill of health, but I know I lost a ton of muscle mass. So I started lifting. Got up to 180 over the course of 8 months.

At the beginning of this year I quit smoking and working out . And about 3 months ago I hit 205. I'm 5'10". I had to buy new work clothes. Twice.

I've been playing soccer for the last 2 months about 2 or 3 nights a week. I'm having a blast, love the competitive aspect. I've never played soccer until now so I want to join a league the next go around. I'd also like to be in better shape.

I want to stay about the same weight. I'm a very very strong sprinter. I know dropping weight would just make me faster. I'd rather be able to still use my weight to my advantage though.

I've been looking at different work out routines, and I've been counting calories for a week or so. It's going well and I know I can accomplish whatever goals I set for myself.

So Any advice you guys can give on what direction to go would be extremely helpful. Anyone here playing soccer in an adult league have anything to chime in? is it possible to maintain (approximately) the same weight and get in better shape? Should I say screw it and cut down back to 180 first? I will say I can't afford to put on more inches around my hips. I don't want to bump my pants size up again.

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Define better shape. Exercising in any form will get you in better shape. The way you eat will determine how you look. You can keep your current weight and be in better shape physically easily, the more you play soccer the better shape you'll be in for it. Weighing less would probably help but you'll still improve performance with regular exercise and not worrying about dieting and losing weight.

Yiliumn,

5'10 205 seems pretty damn high unless you're a walking slab of muscle -- are you sure this is optimal for you? Without seeing photos I'm guessing your BF% at 25+. What do you mean "use your weight to your advantage"?

The only other goal I can key in on in your post is: "get in better shape". But that's vague as fuck and you need to define that for yourself. Do you want to be faster, stronger, more endurance? All of it?

I will say this:

1) LISS (low intensity steady state) cardio will help build your endurance throughout a long soccer game. A LISS run would be an easy pace for a 30+ min duration.
2) HIIT (high intensity interval training) will improve your sprint and ball-handling skills. You can google for HIIT workouts. It'd look something like "30 second kettlebell swings" move immediately to "30 second pushups at a fast tempo" move immediately to...
3) medium/high intensity weight training will improve your strength and bone density. Back injury is ridiculously common in adult men due to atrophied hamstrings and ineffective core; squats/deadlifts are fantastic at building up some muscle to armor you against the world.

Given that the only goal you've identified is "be in shape" and implied "be better at soccer", I would suggest doing your own research on hybrid training programs. Hybrid refers to a crossover between endurance athletes (marathon runner) and strength athletes (powerlifter). I've read some stuff from Alex Viada and that would be a good place for you to start. Viada squats 700lbs and runs ultra-marathons. There are probably less than 5 people on the planet that can do that.

5 Questions with Alex Viada - Juggernaut Training Systems - Juggernaut Training Systems

EDIT: the reason I'm directing you towards Viada now is because he addresses the common issue people run into when they try to newb together a hybrid workout on their own. A newb hybrid workout is essentially a guy like you saying("Hmm I want to be faster for soccer but strong too so I'm going to take a conventional strength program and throw some runs in on the rest days.")They can't write a program for shit because they don't understand how taxing each form of training is on the body, and their end-result is to suck at everything and be in pain all the time. Soccer is immensely "expensive"; you'll need to program training AROUND soccer in a way that doesn't interfere with your game or vice versa. Highly suggest googling for more Viada stuff -- that man is brilliant and in his own class. Literally.

My body fat is definitely in the mid 20s now. I am a little wider then most at my shoulders, but I'm not a walking brick shit house.

By weight to my advantage, people I've been playing with have commented on how hard it can be to get through or around me. I know that with time comes technique but right now it certainly helps me out there on defense.

Thank you for posting about hybrid training. I had never seen anything like that before. I think I'm looking for something like that.

As far as my weight, I chased a number that I thought was decent. I got there and was disappointed with the results. Being at 200(i have lost the 5 in the last 2 months just cutting out soda) isn't as bad as I thought.

Basically, I don't have any desire to look like an underwear model (yet), I just want to gain strength and endurance. I know over time muscle will replace fat, I just don't want to chase a number on the scale.

I understand it's easy to measure gains using tangible numbers, but the intangibles are all I'm worried about. Is this misguided of me? Stupid? Serious question. If everything I read and hear says I'm wrong them so be it, I'll change my mind . I'm know I'm no expert.

Did a google image search on that Alex Viada, and holy shit does he ever look comical on a road bike. Pretty impressive what he's able to do.

Yiliumn_sl said:

My body fat is definitely in the mid 20s now. I am a little wider then most at my shoulders, but I'm not a walking brick shit house.

By weight to my advantage, people I've been playing with have commented on how hard it can be to get through or around me. I know that with time comes technique but right now it certainly helps me out there on defense.

Thank you for posting about hybrid training. I had never seen anything like that before. I think I'm looking for something like that.

As far as my weight, I chased a number that I thought was decent. I got there and was disappointed with the results. Being at 200(i have lost the 5 in the last 2 months just cutting out soda) isn't as bad as I thought.

Basically, I don't have any desire to look like an underwear model (yet), I just want to gain strength and endurance. I know over time muscle will replace fat, I just don't want to chase a number on the scale.

I understand it's easy to measure gains using tangible numbers, but the intangibles are all I'm worried about. Is this misguided of me? Stupid? Serious question. If everything I read and hear says I'm wrong them so be it, I'll change my mind . I'm know I'm no expert.

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Okay, I'm no expert on soccer, but I don't understand how your weight is contributing to people not being able to get around/through you. All I have to do is look at what a pro soccer player looks like (bf<15) to know that your 20+ is not optimal. Ultimately, its your choice... but at least be honest with your reasons and saying extra fat is making you better at soccer is probably false.

If your goal is to gain strength/endurance, then min-maxing would be:

1) Cut down to 10-15% BF at a minimum. No cardio during this time period -- do high intensity weight lifting and eat a lot of protein to maintain as much muscle as possible.
2) Eat a surplus and lift heavy to build more muscle.
3) Incorporate LISS cardio 1-3x a week when able, but only after eating at a surplus.

That being said, you don't want to fuck around with the "tangibles" so I don't think the above is a good or realistic plan for you. Just eat healthy and do your thing man. Unless you're willing to put specific goals into play ("Squat 2x my BW, run a 10k in 45 min..") then you're already doing the right shit. You have an active lifestyle and quit smoking. That's winning.

EDIT: My primary point is that if soccer and "being healthy" is your priority, then keep doing that. Delve into hybrid training and work in some weights on the side if you want to, but no one here is going to be able to give you any guidance given how varied and unprioritized your goals are.

Ossoi_sl said:

Good articleThe Fastest Way to Improve the Quality of Play in Football. ??" Strength Sensei

5 Reflections on the Football World Cup ??" Strength Sensei

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Well, this Sensei guy just states things like they're facts and everyone agrees and he doesn't have to cite any sources. Example:"The players have very weak lower backs."

That being said, if his advice is "do deadlifts and squats" then I already agreed with him... lol.