CL's Weight Loss Tracking Thread

[ChronicLunacy]

Okay, so here's the deal. I'm really disgusted with my weight right now and I've decided it's time to change that. Since I rely on peer pressure to keep myself on track, I've created this thread so that the entire Playground can watch my progress. Feel free to give me advice, offer suggestions, or give me a compliment, it really helps! That said, it's not necessary. This thread is primarily for me to keep public track of things and embarrass myself into keeping going.

This is DAY 1. July 7th, 2008 is the official start. I intend to post something about my progress or even lack of it every other day, even if it's just to say I avoided the chocolate cake. You'll be seeing my workout routine, a brief list of what I've been eating, and any other notes I feel like making to myself. I figure I should start with my statistics:

Height: 5'11
Weight: 258 lbs.

According to a random BMI calculator on the internet:

Your ideal weight, CL, is 165.7 lbs.
Your bmi is 35.94.
You have an excess of 92.3 lbs.

For posterity, here are pictures of me at the moment:




Today's Positive Actions: Stopped drinking anything but water, juice, and gatorade, with severe limitations on the juice/gatorade. Before I came to the realization that I need a change, I ate a breaded chicken sandwich on a hamburger bun with a soda and doritos. Feeling disgusted afterwards, I threw the soda in the trash. For dinner I'm having chicken fajitas on whole wheat tortillas and lots of veggies while drinking only water. Going to start my cardio workouts and see about joining the YMCA or 24 hour fitness tomorrow.

If you ever notice this thread too low on the board, bump it and yell at me not to slack off! Also, anyone else wanting to track their weight loss or muscle gain progress, feel free to post your own and do this with me!

[xPANCAKEx]

a worthy endevour! make sure you get plenty of fibre into your diety to er.... "unclog the pipes" so to speak. You'd be suprised by just how much poop some people carry round inside them when not eating properly

If you can lose 10 pounds in the next 6 weeks, that would be a great start. It wil show to yourself (and any doubters on here), that you can improve and will if you put yourself to it. Rapid weight loss has its problems, so its best to take it slow and steady. 10 pounds is a nice round figure to aim for, and 6 weeks is an easy enough pace. It could be done in less time but would require radical life style changes. But don't worry about your BMI. Its not an accurate system for what is healthy (body builders regularly fall into the unhealthy catagory due to muscle weight - its silliness). Set yourself an attainable goal and go from there.

The key to weight loss really boils down to this: diet and excercise. No fad diets, no silly regimes, and definately no purging (if you find yourself purging after a meal, seek immediate psychiatric help - thats no joke). Switch to wholemeal foods, cut out "snacks" like chips/cookies/candy/soft drinks - switch to fresh fruit, and trim down your portion sizes. Another thing i'll suggest is start cooking for yourself. You'll appreciate and understand your daily diet so much more in the long run if you do. Sounds like a no brainer, but really, its a total winner.

it might also be worth going to crow's excercise thread and asking for an excercise plan. Im sure crow or someone else can come up with something to ease you into a new healthier lifestyle

but the best of luck with it all!

[ChronicLunacy]

Thanks for the advice, Pancake! 10 pounds seems like a pretty good goal for starters. I didn't come into this with any specific goals, but by six weeks if I've lost LESS than ten that's a problem. If I've lost MORE, I'll just keep on driving to fifteen or twenty. No reason to rest on my laurels, after all.

I used to look my personal best my senior year of high school when I had played Varsity football all the time. I weighed in around 200 pounds and felt pretty good about myself after losing all my previous fluff during training. Of course once I hit college, and especially recently, I ballooned back up.

D'oh!

I pretty much planned on doing everything you suggested about diet and exercise and I have never "purged" without copious amounts of alcohol involved and never willingly. Well, unless I was working out waaaay too much and got exercise induced nausea. Oh, and I cook most of my own food, except for dinners which are a family thing. Once I head back to school I will be doing all my own cooking once again. As for Crow, I'm going to go ahead and get started on my own but if I run into problems/plateau he'll be the first one I go to.

Of course, if he wants to stop by my thread and offer some advice, I'd be all ears.

[SquirrelKing]

I wish you the best of luck, CL, and look forward to seeing positive results in the coming weeks! I, too, wish to lose some weight. I've never had a poor diet, but my activity level is rather low of late. I don't know if you partake in any sports, but they're great for weight loss. I've very recently gotten back into tennis (a couple years ago I used to be a tennis instructor, no less, but changes in job and location made it difficult to find people to play with...at least that was my excuse to myself. Now I realise it was just that: an excuse.), as I cannot stand going to the gym. My goal? To get near to my tennis weight again.

My 'tennis weight' was what I weighed when I was actively playing tennis and giving instructions: ~180-185. Currently I'm at 220, down from 230. It can be done, but at times it's not easy....hang in there, CL!

[ChronicLunacy]

DAY 2 - July 8, 2008

Okay, so today I had some grilled curry chicken for lunch, whole wheat spaghetti for dinner, and little juice and yogurt, and a lot of water. As for exercise, I went mountain biking with my dad. I only went about a mile and a half, but this wasn't like riding on a nice, flat street, there was a lot of ups and downs, pretty intense. My knees were screaming afterwards.

I'm going to weigh myself weekly so if I make any jumps I'll be able to see it. I don't think there's a point to weighing myself daily. I think I'd just be disappointed when I didn't see anything happening right away. Heh.

Anyway, sticking with it for the second day!

[Pocketa]

I noticed that I'm slight naturally, but when I have sugary drinks, including Gatorade, even just a little, I expand quickly. It seems to me that the drinks are absorbed faster than the foods! So try laying off the Gatorade and getting the nutrients and vitamins in a healthier form (vegetables, etc.). Keep the diet balanced!

[ChronicLunacy]

Only thing I'm using the gatorade (or better yet, something like vitamin water) for is for replenishing during/after workouts. If I feel like drinking a gallon of something I'll stick to water, but I've heard that if you have gatorade or the like in moderation and only for use with workouts, then it's fine.

[Crow]

I noticed that I'm slight naturally, but when I have sugary drinks, including Gatorade, even just a little, I expand quickly. It seems to me that the drinks are absorbed faster than the foods! So try laying off the Gatorade and getting the nutrients and vitamins in a healthier form (vegetables, etc.). Keep the diet balanced!

That's because sugar converts to fat more quickly than almost anything else you can put into your body

[Pocketa]

@ Crow: No, I meant the liquids. Sugary liquids are absorbed faster than sugary solids (i.e. Coke vs. donuts), at least in my case, so cutting down on Gatorade and juice is very helpful.

[Dragonrider]

CL, 165 pounds sounds a little low for a 5'11" guy. It totally depends on your body type and whether the calculator you used distinguishes between male and female...because my dad is 5'9", really broad-shouldered, and his ideal weight is around 170, despite what the BMI says.

Also, a word of caution: avoid black-and-white generalizations about food - it's not healthy to typify certain foods as "good" or "bad".

(I have spent the last several months recovering from an eating disorder that started as a diet and so I probably shouldn't be in this thread, because a) I now have a really jaded view of diets and b) it's probably not good for me mentally)

(/will shut up now)

[Mustiado]

Hey CL,

I'm in the same spot you are. Trying to lose some weight, especially after getting out of the hospital. The best advice I can give you is don't go overboard on the water, even though its the best thing for you. You should weigh yourself daily, if you're doing well, you can see changes from day to day, and It'll keep your motivation up. Always weigh yourself at the same time of day. And remember, losing a lot of weight really fast is gratifying initially, but its hard as hell to keep it off. Better to lose it a bit at a time. It took me a year and a half to lose 20 pounds (no joke) but I've kept it off with lifestyle changes, and I've lost another 12 pounds in the last two months. It'll come in plateaus. If you don't lose anything for a while, don't get discouraged! Just keep at it, and the weight will come off.

[valadil]

Only thing I'm using the gatorade (or better yet, something like vitamin water) for is for replenishing during/after workouts.

I haven't verified it myself, but I hear the Vitamin Water is terribly sugary too. Like, it's not all that many calories, but a huge majority of them come from sugar. I've since sworn them off and am still weaning myself off the gatorade.

How bad for you are diet sodas anyway? I wouldn't have one in the gym, and I know they aren't very caloric but I wonder if any of our residential fitness experts have an opinion on them.

[Crow]

I know guys that mix their supplements in diet sodas...but they work out hard (competing bodybuilders). If you do the calorie free stuff it can't hurt fat-loss-wise...but I don't know what all those chemicals do to you.

[valadil]

I know guys that mix their supplements in diet sodas...but they work out hard (competing bodybuilders). If you do the calorie free stuff it can't hurt fat-loss-wise...but I don't know what all those chemicals do to you.

If they do any harm, it's probably harm I can afford to take, at least compared to excess calories.

[ChronicLunacy]

DAY 4 - July 10, 2008

Rode my bike again today. Hoping I can start to get back into the groove where hills don't kill me as much eventually. Drank a glass of red wine with dinner but otherwise it was water all the way.

Who else is seeing Hellboy 2 tomorrow? I'd go tonight for the midnight show but that would involve me going all by my lonesome.

[Ranna]

I always am fascinated by peoples diets and weight patterns this will definatly be a thread on my to watch list!

I think its little things that you need to catch - drinks can take quite a bit of your days allowences up and be careful with portion sizes.

Listen to your body and try to stop eating before you feel full OR (much easier) find a skinny mate and only eat what they eat, I do that with my 12 year old sister all the time I just follow her portion sizes it trims you up in no time and if I am trying to loose weight cereal is my god I love it.

But your exercise plans sound really good just do little and often and make sure you have fun doing it, take the stairs whenever you can - yes even if you work 5 floors up just head to work earlier and it'll really help out.

I don't try to weigh myself everyday I find that it depresses me but I weigh once a week and every little pound is a good step.

[ChronicLunacy]

Okay, so as of the week mark I've lost three pounds! Been slacking off a tad on food this past week so I'll need to tighten that up again, but I've been going mountain biking nearly every other day. Each time I go I like to go just a little farther down the trail than the time before so I continue to push myself.

Thanks for the support and suggestions, everyone! I really appreciate it!

[xPANCAKEx]

3 pounds is great so far! keep up the cycling and tighten up on the food regiment and you'll soon be shedding the pounds

[ChronicLunacy]

Right, so update!

Just got back from another mountain bike ride. Been doing a lot of vacationing before school starts and you know what that means...lots of eating out. So, here's me getting back on the proverbial horse. I'll weigh myself next weekend, for better or worse.

Wish there was a way I could stop rationalizing that I'm "too busy" to keep my workout schedule. I know I'm just being lazy and that I can spare an hour to ride my bike, but I decide not to anyway. Bad, CL! Bad! No ice cream! Seriously!

[TheBST]

Best of luck, chief.

Remember- the hard part isn't losing the flab. The hard part is being thin, looking at your salad, and thinking 'oh god oh god oh damn this is my life now?!'

[ChronicLunacy]

Best of luck, chief.

Remember- the hard part isn't losing the flab. The hard part is being thin, looking at your salad, and thinking 'oh god oh god oh damn this is my life now?!'

Haha Oh, to have such problems. It'd save me money anyway. Half of the reason I'm bigger than I should be is simply because when I eat, my portions are waaaay too big. I used to eat an entire oven-made pizza for lunch and think nothing of it. It's only recently I've started to cut back and really look at what I'm shoveling into my maw.

Ranna's suggestion is a great one for me, since it's so simple. If I eat like a skinny person, I may yet become one. (Not to say I'm going to eat like my brother's girlfriend. Two carrots and she's full.) I just have to stay away from the skinny people with high metabolisms who eat more than I do...like my brother. Damn him.

[Crow]

Portions are nothing. I've eaten a whole chicken so far this week (2 lunches).

A whole chicken.

And that's just for lunch.

Hanging out and eating with skinny people has never worked for me. It just ends up with me saying "Are you going to eat that?".

[ChronicLunacy]

Okay, so I've had to rethink my schedule with the addition of college classes, but I've kept up the mountain biking. As soon as I count how many push-ups, sit-ups, and squats I can do in a minute and PM Crow I'm going to start one of his exercise routines about three days a week.

I think that going back to school will only help me here. I'm literally SURROUNDED by model-quality SoCal women and for anyone with good game it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel. My game is...lacking, but even so I may be able to wing one or two fish if I'm lucky. Haha With my last relationship falling apart pretty spectacularly over the summer I need to get back out there and meet some people. Losing weight and looking good will only help.

[ChronicLunacy]

So after my vacations and general falling off the wagon I'm back where I started at 258 pounds. I'm going to start Crow's exercise routine on Monday and I've been going mountain biking every chance I get. Guess I'll be skipping desert for the foreseeable future as well.

[soozenw]

Have you tried sparkpeople? I recently joined that site (on Wednesday actually). It is really great. It has a program for counting calories (really one of the only ways to healthily lose weight), personalized workouts, and tons of exercises to change things around to suit you. And the community support is amazing.

[Crow]

CL, I'll be in S.D. in September if you want to go work out sometime. I've got family in Mission Bay, and my Sister is going to UCSD.

[ChronicLunacy]

I'd be down, dude. As long as you're willing to wait for me to catch up. I live in Del Mar, by the beach. Remind me when you'll be around and I'll PM you my cell number.

[Crow]

Del Mar is cool. Once i know closer to when I'll be there I'll try to give sufficient notice. You'll have to find us a place with pull-up bars =)

[Felixaar]

Ah, Weight Loss. Well, I've lost an estimated (I haven't weighed myself in a while, no scales around) 10KG in the last (2? 3? 2 1/2?) Months, and to be honest it's simply a case of eating less and excercising more... me I cut back to two meals a day and started doing daily excercise. That's the only flaw I see in yours so far is that your excercise is just three days a week or something... you need it every day to build up those glorious muscles! Well, I think so anyway. Best of luck! And Never Give Up!

[ChronicLunacy]

Well I'm doing Crow's exercise routine three days a week, but I mountain bike just about every day that I'm not doing that. The only days I don't get much done are Tuesdays/Thursdays, when I have classes from 7am-8:30pm.