Had a follow-up appointment with my doctor last night. I've been off my blood pressure medication for four months now, and this was the second follow-up visit to make sure it wasn't creeping back up (it wasn't - 124/74!).
Weight at this visit? 178 pounds.
When I started this diet in January 2006, I had a doctor's appointment in mid-January at which I weighed 272 pounds.
94 pounds in a year and a half. My kids weigh ~ 50 and 40 pounds each. I used to walk around with the equivalent weight of a four year old *and* a six year old every minute of every day.
I was expressly told by my doctor that he thought I was done losing weight, that I needed to focus on maintaining my current weight from this point forward. I agree. So, now I switch from "lose weight" mode to "maintain weight" mode. I think I can do this.
I just have one last question, though. How long before I stop seeing the fat guy in the mirror?
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In that year and one half did you go through any long stretches when you did not lose a damn thing even though your eating habits were staying pretty much the same?
I seem to have hit one helluva plateau. I've lost about 55 pounds since January 1st 2007 but I don't think I have lost 4 pounds in the last two months and it is really beginning to piss me off.
I could cut down even more on what I am eating but I just am not going to do that.
Buck,
Oh yes... The plateaus... Interestingly enough, another friend who's losing weight with me also reports a plateau right around 55 pounds.
I ran into 'em too. I'd decrease the caloric intake which lessened the stretch of the plateau; otherwise you have to wait it out.
I would guess it's your body taking time to adjust to the reduced intake. There's three stages of reaction to reduced intake:
1. Initial - your body thinks it is in a "famine" stage and slows everything down. This can be maddeningly counterproductive, as you're going hungry and not losing an ounce.
2. Weight loss - once your body realizes that, yeah, he's serious about this, the pounds start coming off. Metabolism is adjusted, lowered intake leads to weight coming off.
3. Rebound: Body gets "used to" the reduced intake and metabolism slows down. There are three ways to overcome this slowdown:
a. Decrease intake further.
b. Increase physical activity.
c. Wait it out.
Glad to hear you're still sticking with it!!! And remember - 55 pounds is still a MAJOR accomplishment!
Our paths are nearly parallel. I started out on the plus side of 265 lbs Jan. 06. Sunday, I weighed in at 178. With my height, I still have a bit to go before I fully transition into maintenance mode. But, non-the-less Congrats on getting to your maintenance weight!
One thing that I love is the following conversation I have had with various people:
person: Wow you lost a lot of weight!
me: yep, around 85 lbs.
p: How did you do it?
m: Well I watch what I eat....
p: {nods head expectantly} and?
m: I exercise, alot.
p: {look of disappointment} oh..well congrats.
It amazes me how many people want the magic pill to loose weight. Even at my heaviest, I did not delude myself that losing the weight would be easy.
I think I will just wait it out. And I will try to increase my physical activity. I'll be damned if I am gonna eat any less than I am eating. When I started this thing I committed to losing an average of 1 pound per week because I figured anybody could do that. But I am going through a period now where even one pound a week is seemingly not possible.
I actually went to a doctor for the first time in about 7 years the other day. He asked me how I had lost so much weight and I told him that I had just pretty much quit eating.
He smiled and said that he did not know of any other way. He was also not very concerned about my plateau and he told me that it was quite normal. Weight loss, he said, should look more like stair steps on a chart than just a line going straight down.
But I have already exceeded my goal for this year. Anything else going forward is just gravy or icing on the cake.
And a bowl of either of those right now would be NICE!
Bravo!
I started in June '06 and have lost 69 lbs so far. I really haven't even been trying since January of this year, although I've lost ~ 20 lbs since then.
My goal is to lose another 50 and then I'll be satisfied. Once my back is healed I can go back to the gym and it will make it much easier I'm sure.
Plateaus are a fact of life in either direction. Sometimes you can be on a strict diet & have a week where you downed a pint of ice-cream & a large pizza and at the end of the week you didn't GAIN a pound (a 'good' plateau, meaning your weight gaining capabilities have been thwarted by your diet 'momentum') and other times you can do everything 'right' and have periods where you don't lose a thing.
As I always say, we didn't get from where we want to where we are in a few days, so we're not going to revert back in a few days.
Interestingly enough (by-the-by, I'm thinking about revamping my place into nothing but fitness, my kids and an online 'diary' chok-full of useless knowledge) I reached a plateau on my 'plan', as well, and changed dramatically this week. For the last 18 months or so, I've been on a 'get big, get bigger, get monstrous' quest to gain as much muscle as I legitimatally could. Well, to gain muscle you must consume large amounts of calories and while I most certainly did see a dramatic change in my overall muscularity, I also packed on a bit of poundage around the dreaded waist area (my arms, shoulders & back are ripped, go figure. My love handles have turned into a 215/75R14 tire that sit above my belt while I can see the separation in the other areas....genetics, I tell ya, genetics) and I'm darn near bursting from my pants. My plateau revolved around my weight (upper 230s for most of 2007) as well as my overall size as I haven't changed much since around February, which means it's time for me to shock the body.
Soooo....I've gone to a high-protein/VERY low calorie diet and I'm readying to see some fast results in the % fat loss department. I've basically cut my calories in half while maintaining the same amount of protein (200+ grams/day), which means I'm drinking a lot of protein shakes and eating stuff that I normally would never touch, but that's how it's gotta be. I think I'll be in these revolving processes of 'gain muscle, then lose fat' until father Time decides that there'll be no such thing as 'gaining muscle', which is a scant few years away & then I'll have to decide on what to change. So, for the next 12 weeks or so, I'm doing the Vision Quest thing and expect to see a smaller waist around Labor day, or at least that's my hope, while trying to keep most of the size that I've gained elsewhere (the struggle will never end, trust me).
You & Buck (and now smijer, while trying to stop smoking) give me a mental boost, really. Every little bit helps and even if it means that I know that I'll have to comment that I'm backsliding on your sites, that's enough of a carrot to keep my charging ahead. So, please keep up the updates and congrats on the great report!
Congrats on all the weight loss, I might have missed it, but what did you do to loss the weight?
(by-the-by, I'm thinking about revamping my place into nothing but fitness, my kids and an online 'diary' chok-full of useless knowledge)
Glad to hear that. I'll be lookin' for it. As I have already said more than once, you and Jay were the sources of my motivation.
And by the way Jay. Pay no attention to the man in the mirror. Just focus on the numbers on the scales. I know from a lifetime of experience that keeping this weight off is gonna be harder than taking it off.
michael, that is interesting about the parallel paths.
I've also noticed the same thing. In fact, I've started jotting down notes in the insane hope of publishing a book about this (hey, why not cash in) titled: "How I Did It". Because, as you allude, that's the first question people ask...
buck, waiting it out is a fine plan. Alternately, one of the small changes I made was doing things like raking the lawn rather than using the bagger - any time you can get more physical activity in, whether it's bona fide "exercise" or not, is a good thing.
Also, I've found that it becomes a LOT easier if you give in to those temptations every once in a while. You just have to do it smart - rather than sitting down with a large (16 oz) bowl of ice cream, fill a smaller (8 oz) bowl the same way. Visually it looks the same - a full bowl - but with ½ the calories...
hollyb, congrats on the loss! 69 pounds is MAJOR! One of the other things I've noticed is that my back (which has sustained numerous injuries) feels so much better now that I've lost the weight - nowhere near as much stress from lugging aroung my fat gut all day...
ricky, I have the utmost confidence that you'll do fine. You were a good chunk of my motivation (the majority were my kids, of course) for doing this - the fitness updates at TitA helped me decide on my course of action.
Getting "buff" is the next stage. Last year I lost the weight. This year I started exercising regularly. Next year's goal is adding on muscle.
We'll see how it goes, but you can count on updates. :)
bradley, in a nutshell, before I started dieting at all, I spent about two weeks carefully detailing every single thing I ate. I looked at areas where I could cut calories and areas where I could make substitutions. I was consuming an average of 3,500 calories a day and leading a VERY sedentary lifestyle. I dropped to 2,000 calories a day, and eventually adjusted downwards to 1,750 and then 1,500 calories a day.
One of my examples for substitutions is my morning coffee. I drink a large travel mug every morning (approximately 4 cups). Before I started my diet, I would use 2 tablespoons of sugar (!!!) and a healthy splash of ½ & ½ - for a total of ~ 200 calories. Now I use Splenda and a tablespoon of Cremora (or a splash of 2% milk) and it's only 30-40 calories. That's a savings of > 150 calories a day, and the taste is indistinguishable.
I've made hundreds of small changes like this as part of this diet. The trick is to NOT starve yourself on a "diet", rather to change the way you eat - change how you eat rather than what you eat...
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