Any Fellow Blimpos Have Better Success?

[blhowes]

I've noticed lately that my shirts have been feeling tighter than usual. Clothes are known to shrink, I didn't give it much thought.

The other day I had a case of temporary insanity. I was getting ready for work, brushing my teeth, when for some reason the thought came into my mind to get out the scale. I acted on that thought and, I don't know why, stepped on the scale...

230 pounds! I couldn't believe it! I don't think I've ever weighed this much.

Sooo...I've been thinking about going on a diet to lose the weight. For me, that's no problem. I set my mind to it and the pounds disappear. I've done it before, I can do it again. My problem has always been maintaining the lower weight and good eating habits.

If there are any fellow blimpos out there, or any "once-upon-a-time" blimpos, how successful have you been keeping the weight off after you got to your desired weight?

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Bob,

I stepped on the scale on Thanksgiving Day, 1984 and weighed 194 pounds. Disgusted, I went outside and ran a mile. I lost 60 pounds over the next 9 months. I've put on some muscle weight since then but have been successful at keeping it off ever since.

My secret? I workout. It's that simple. I never give myself an excuse not to. I had a 6:22 AM flight today from San Diego and needed to drop my rental car off at 0430. I got up at 0210 and worked out for over an hour, showered, changed, and dropped off my rental car.

Extreme?

I guess. My body clock said it was 0510 since I live in EST but it's what I've been willing to do for these years. My body has become accustomed to working out. I think more clearly and get a lot of reading done on the Elliptical for those days when I'm on a machine. I also have an incentive to workout because I have uniforms that give me very little room to gain too much.

 

[VictorBravo]

Yes, work out, stay active.

But you'd be surprised how the weight stays off if you quit eating when your hunger is satisfied.

In high school I was a trim 190 pounds. Track sprinter, running back, could do all sorts of pullups, etc. By my 30s I was 225 pounds, still strong, could still do pullups, but only half as many. I just felt heavy.

At 36 I just decided to eat less. As simple as that. My weight has stayed around 190-195 ever since, and I turned 50 last May.

I still workout, but it is mostly to keep my tone up. I don't run so much any more because my knees give me fits. But I walk briskly and almost always take the stairs. Little things add up.

But the biggest thing, I think is to shrink the amount of food that satisfies you. Try eating slowly and quitting as soon as the hunger pains are gone. It takes a while, but you get used to lighter portions.

 

[toddpedlar]

Eating less is the main key for me - small lunches, small dinners (salad plate size, that our girls use) and no food after dinner. I play basketball 3 early mornings a week and take a good walk (half hour to hour) while praying the other mornings.

That's my 'lose weight plan' and I'm down about 25 pounds since late August. Once I'm down to my target weight, I'll gradually raise the lunch size to a more normal lunch, and perhaps the dinner size a little - but still, snacking after dinner has been one of the main problems I've had in "constant weight creep".

 

[DMcFadden]

In my experience, too much chocolate or fried food makes my clothes shrink like a third world t-shirt in an extra hot wash/dry cycle!

I have taken off 90 lbs with a low carb + exercise program. Exercise alone (sorry Rich) never did it for me; I still gained weight. Subtracting some of the carbs (mainly most of the rice, potato, pasta, and much of the bread) did the trick. When eating out, I now eat only 1/2 of the meal, taking the rest home for another day.

I'm a stress eater and trying to pull off a $45 million bond issue in THIS catastrophic market has been a REAL challenge (interest rates have soared from 4.5% to nearly 8%; multiply that by $45 million!!!). As a result, I have gone to weight stabilization for a few weeks, and will resume my loss program (another 30 lbs to go) after a few weeks.

Yes, those were my pants (albeit VERY tight and with substantial belly hang over the belt at the beginning of May). 55" waist down to 40" waist heading for 36". Still a little chunky for 5'11" but, hey, 120 lbs is a LOT of spare skin flapping in the wind.

 

[DMcFadden]

BTW, I used to have significant hunger pangs 24/7. Reducing the carbs short-circuits the sugar high/insulin crash cycle and makes moderate eating something you can actually do.

 

[Timothy William]

Reducing the carbs is one useful thing to do. The simplest way to guarantee that you keep the weight off is not to do anything while losing weight that you're not going to continue to do indefinitely. So don't completely cut out one of your favourite food groups, or exercise 6 times a week when you would normally only exercise twice. I'm currently losing weight - was 230 pounds, and have lost 42 pounds in 11 weeks - and I am doing it by making changes which I expect to be permanent. Which doesn't mean I might not start eating more if I find I can do so and keep the weight off, but I am not thinking "only 12 weeks and 25 pounds to go...then I can go back to eating how I like."

Rich, you got down to 134 pounds? That's really light, how tall are you?

 

[kvanlaan]

I was at a high of 263 pounds this past April and am down ~30 pounds to date. It's opened up a whole new world of pants to me to be down around 230. My problem was that I went from my time of military training (where you could eat as much as you wanted, but fast, because it all got exercised away/turned into muscle) to university (where I continued to eat the same because I was lifting weights five or six days a week) to being married and not working out at all. BUT I ate the same once I was married as I had when I was lifting and my weight climbed from 210 to 260 - bad, very bad. My reduction method was steak, eggs, and watermelon. The first two in moderation for needed nutrition, the last to get that 'full' feeling. Sometimes half a watermelon at a sitting. But it worked. I'd still like to lose another 20 lbs. but even now I feel much better and can exercise/do heavy manual labour for a significant period of time, especially compared to where I was last April. Still, it is something I struggle with daily.

Edit: Oh yeah, I'm 6'1" and built kinda big, so 200 is a good weight for me. Looking at previous posts, height matters.

 

[Pergamum]

I have often been referred to as a "Brick....err......hmmm....outhouse" and have never been slim, but always very strong, benching 375 in college and squatting 415 lb free for reps of 15-20. I am almost 5'9 and so I am very thick.

If I ran too much I lost this strength and much muscle mass, so I went from 189 wrestling weight in high school to about 195 army weight.

I am now feeling too thick at 205 lbs. Too many cases of malaria, worms and amoeba to run a lot; though I did run up and down hills yesterday for cardio.

I work out about about 5 days per week now and a lot of my "ministry" requires trekking; which is, I guess, a workout, but seems to break me down rather than build anything up (days and days of sleeping on the floor gives one a stiff neck and back).



I want to get back down to 195 - but when I find good food here in my preent location, there is NO WAY I'm gonna pass it by!

Had some beef freshly killed last week and ate sate 4 days last week because sometimes the meat is old and/or scrawny. When it's fresh.....well, WATCH OUT IT'S DINNER TIME!

 

[Pergamum]

YIKES! I'm the Mac Daddy!! Just saw that..... ha, oh well....that is nice compared to what you could call me I guess....

 

[blhowes]

Bob,

I stepped on the scale on Thanksgiving Day, 1984 and weighed 194 pounds. Disgusted, I went outside and ran a mile. I lost 60 pounds over the next 9 months. I've put on some muscle weight since then but have been successful at keeping it off ever since.

My secret? I workout. It's that simple. I never give myself an excuse not to. I had a 6:22 AM flight today from San Diego and needed to drop my rental car off at 0430. I got up at 0210 and worked out for over an hour, showered, changed, and dropped off my rental car.

Extreme?

I guess. My body clock said it was 0510 since I live in EST but it's what I've been willing to do for these years. My body has become accustomed to working out. I think more clearly and get a lot of reading done on the Elliptical for those days when I'm on a machine. I also have an incentive to workout because I have uniforms that give me very little room to gain too much.

That's encouraging to hear - it can be done. I really should exercise more, though its been a habit not to for so many years.

 

[blhowes]

But the biggest thing, I think is to shrink the amount of food that satisfies you. Try eating slowly and quitting as soon as the hunger pains are gone. It takes a while, but you get used to lighter portions.

Yeah, my mind agrees, but boy when my eyes look into the fridge and see all kinds of good stuff...

Thanks for the good advice. Eating like I'm in a race and eating when I'm not really hungry are things I'll have to make a conscious effort to change.

 

[blhowes]

That's my 'lose weight plan' and I'm down about 25 pounds since late August.

Way to go! Congrats. Keep up the good work.

Once I'm down to my target weight, I'll gradually raise the lunch size to a more normal lunch, and perhaps the dinner size a little - but still, snacking after dinner has been one of the main problems I've had in "constant weight creep".

Ah yes, snacking after dinner. Another things to watch out for. (I never realized I had so many bad habits to change )

 

[blhowes]

Yes, those were my pants (albeit VERY tight and with substantial belly hang over the belt at the beginning of May). 55" waist down to 40" waist heading for 36". Still a little chunky for 5'11" but, hey, 120 lbs is a LOT of spare skin flapping in the wind.

Now THAT's encouraging. Way to go!

 

[blhowes]

The simplest way to guarantee that you keep the weight off is not to do anything while losing weight that you're not going to continue to do indefinitely. So don't completely cut out one of your favourite food groups, or exercise 6 times a week when you would normally only exercise twice.

That's good advice. Thanks.

 

[blhowes]

My reduction method was steak, eggs, and watermelon. The first two in moderation for needed nutrition, the last to get that 'full' feeling. Sometimes half a watermelon at a sitting. But it worked.

Three things I'm very fond of. BTW, do you really get the recommended nutrition with just the first two?

 

[blhowes]

I was at a high of 263 pounds this past April and am down ~30 pounds to date..

...that's excellent. Keep up the good work.

 

[blhowes]

I am now feeling too thick at 205 lbs. Too many cases of malaria, worms and amoeba to run a lot; though I did run up and down hills yesterday for cardio.

I work out about about 5 days per week now and a lot of my "ministry" requires trekking; which is, I guess, a workout, but seems to break me down rather than build anything up (days and days of sleeping on the floor gives one a stiff neck and back).

I need to come up with some kind of an exercise plan, one that I know I can stick with long term. Right now, I'm kind of limited by a sore ankle that sometimes gets sore when I walk.

 

[kvanlaan]

Three things I'm very fond of. BTW, do you really get the recommended nutrition with just the first two?

I also took a multi-vitamin at the time. I don't think that super-long stretches of time are a good idea, but if you take a week or two break every 15 pounds (eating good, healthy food), then it seems to work pretty well.

 

[jwithnell]

There's been a variety of good advice here.

I've found that going after the fats and sugars and being careful to spread out the protein during the day (especially in the morning when I'm likely to avoid it) makes a difference. This helps to control the hunger and the sugar spikes and lows. Also, you do yourself a world of good if you switch to olive and canola oil for everything. Notice, this isn't cutting out any one food group altogether or spending a lot of time counting anything, so it is workable all the time.

I've also tried to make everyone in our family aware of what a serving size truly is -- what you get in a restaurant is often obscene. When I used to be on the road a fair amount, I'd often eat a restaurant lunch with colleagues, then just drink one of those nutrition drinks for dinner back in my hotel room.

Right now I'm dealing with the "unfairness" of still being a bit flabby from my babies, but being back at what should be a fairly skinny weight. Sigh. Back to the gym ...

 

[Ivan]

I do a lot of walking at work. I borrowed a pedometer and yesterday I took a little over 25,000 steps. I estimate that my stride is 2 1/2 feet on average. That's something like nine miles. I know that helps my weight but I eat horribly.

I'm not sure how much I weigh. Probably around 200 lbs. at 5'11". Not terrible, but not 170 lbs at single digit body fat like I was about seven years ago.

Mostly we decide want we want to do. I have to make different decisions.

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

In my experience, too much chocolate or fried food makes my clothes shrink like a third world t-shirt in an extra hot wash/dry cycle!

I have taken off 90 lbs with a low carb + exercise program. Exercise alone (sorry Rich) never did it for me; I still gained weight. Subtracting some of the carbs (mainly most of the rice, potato, pasta, and much of the bread) did the trick. When eating out, I now eat only 1/2 of the meal, taking the rest home for another day.

I'm a stress eater and trying to pull off a $45 million bond issue in THIS catastrophic market has been a REAL challenge (interest rates have soared from 4.5% to nearly 8%; multiply that by $45 million!!!). As a result, I have gone to weight stabilization for a few weeks, and will resume my loss program (another 30 lbs to go) after a few weeks.

Yes, those were my pants (albeit VERY tight and with substantial belly hang over the belt at the beginning of May). 55" waist down to 40" waist heading for 36". Still a little chunky for 5'11" but, hey, 120 lbs is a LOT of spare skin flapping in the wind.

Dennis,

I wanted to let you know that I have chosen this photo of you (and some very porcine photos taken of me this past weekend) as my inspiration. My wife and I have started on our own weight loss campaign - a modified version of the Atkins Low Carb Diet. It worked very well for us both in the past (I lost 45 lbs), but we were utter failures at maintaining what was lost. Perhaps one day in the not too distant future I too will have a similar photo to post.

God bless your continued efforts and may He establish you in maintaining your weight when you have met your goal.

Blessings!

 

[PuritanCovenanter]

Starch Carbs and processed sugar are evil. Avoid like the plague....

 

[biggandyy]

Micky D, thanks for posting that pic. I am just beginning my regimen so I have a way to go. But you can follow it here: http://fourfatguys.com