How much support??

[pharmamarketer]

My wife is supportive as she is into training as well. Friends. Not one lifts and I get shti now and then. I stand out amongst them. Only because I have some muscle and they have lots of fat. I laugh because they think I am a fanatic. They have no clue

[itsagoodday]

The woman I was referring to in my post had other choices.She is 25,and was 30kg overweight

Wow, that's really surprising she made that decision at her age and with that little to lose. Maybe it's just here in the US, but I thought you had to be morbidly obese to even be a candidate for the surgical options?

[JLP200311]

Was at a party this weekend, all the hens (while drinking heavily and stuffing face) were cooing over some of the flock that had just gotten some appetite killing weight loss injections. Supposedly living on 500cal/day and only allowed to eat white food and clear liquid. No inclusion of exercise or post-treatment diet\lifestyle change. Thought to myself "this won't last long."

Wife was buying the whole thing.

All I could do not to interject:

"Proper diet and exercise.I know a good website."

I know I would have gotten looked at like I was using monkey poo for mouthwash and kepy my mouth shut.

Good to have a community that respects and understands the work we put in!

[itsagoodday]

Was at a party this weekend, all the hens (while drinking heavily and stuffing face) were cooing over some of the flock that had just gotten some appetite killing weight loss injections. Supposedly living on 500cal/day and only allowed to eat white food and clear liquid.

White food and clear liquid? WTF? Is that so it won't stain their white rugs when it comes back up?

[EB68]

I think if you only ate 500 calories per day you would lose weight even if it were all from sugar. But unfortunately people fall for every gimmick out there in their desperation to lose weight without doing any actual work.

[Black Sunday]

I hope your wife feels better soon.Black Sunday,I hope you are feeling better as well.

Please understand I was not implying that surgery should not be an option,in some cases it is necessary.The woman I was referring to in my post had other choices.She is 25,and was 30kg overweight,but whenever I spoke to her she was always stating she was having trouble sticking to diets or any exercise plan.She looks great now she has lost the weight,but I feel she cheated herself.

I suppose some doctors don't do enough to dissuade patients from this type of surgery. Knowing what I know now, there's really no way I'd do it for weight loss, not even laparoscopic. I'm so tired of surgery I decided against repairing my torn bicep. My operation was pretty much a life saving one. A no brainer. The complication rate is fairly high, don't remember the numbers exactly and it's been a long time since i looked it up, but between incisional hernias, blockages, sterility, ED and maybe infection was in there as well I believe the rate was somewhere between thirty and forty percent. A friend had a resection done laparoscopically for diverticulitus and almost died from the infection.

While it may seem like a copout I don't know if I'd call it cheating. I think i saw an operation once on TV and said no way I'd get sliced like that for weight loss. I think they cut the sternum as well as slicing down the middle. A friend of mine had it done, but he weighed a little over eight hundred pounds. He lost quite a bit of weight, but contracted HIV from the transfusion. That was before the blood was tested.

I feel fine most of the time and then out of the blue my intestines will get kinked or twisted and I'm off to the hospital for a five day stay. It sucks, but that's my life now.

[JolietKev]

Ihave always had a really active lifestyle and have never had a prolonged period of inactivity. My family and friends have never had any reason not to be supportive. After all physical fitness is a positive activity. I am sure that some family and friends may be hesitant about someone's changes if they are insecure themsleves. "If so and so starts looking too good, they may not be interested in me" kind of a thing. Also, misery loves company and many do not want to see others achieve what they may achieve yet are unwilling to attempt to do so. Makes them look worse.

[Krash23]

After reading all the comments, I feel really blessed. My 3 kids all workout. My oldest son is a BEAST!! 6' 2" 235 and strong as an ox...he got me off the couch and back into the gym. My daughter is a senior in college on a volleyball scholarship and works out like an animal. My youngest daughter is in the Coast Guard and is a crossfit nut...loves it.

My challenge is the wife...she's an amazing cook and it's hard to so "NO" to her food!

BTW - I know a couple of people that have done the lap-band thing, and they have all gained the weight back because they never changed the way they eat or think about themselves...SIGH!

[drarmament]

My wife lifts with me and so does my daughter,

[Frnkd]

I am very much supported by friends, and family who I see. I have yet to see my younger brother who use to lift and now looks like he use to lift. Im expecting a snide comment from him, but he is always giving snide comments. I enjoy the complements I get from my friends and am humbled by their well wishes. More so when the younger people I know is inspired to take working out seriously that motivates me to keep it up.

What I do like is when people whom I know would ask what am I doing. And they are pretty attentive to my brief explanation, "I started working out, change my diet and eat lots of broccoli, and this is the results" LOL.

My wife, well she is 100% for it, actually it was she that got me started. Now she is into bikram yoga, and is a diabetes prevention advocate, so if anyone says that they have to watch their blood sugar, oh no here it comes.

finding this site have also been my support and motivation.

[djflex]

My wife is supportive, but she always thinks im gonna hurt myself.

If my friends give me any grief, i immediatly punch them in the head.

Not srs, i actually have almost no friends irl...

[RdRacer]

Very active family here, so I have all the support I could ever want. My wife teaches Yoga, Tai Chi, and Pilates the gym I workout at, and my wife, daughter and I all take Aikido together 2-3 days a week.

Best way to get the family support you are looking for (IF you are looking for family support) is to find some way to get them involved in the lifestyle...

[StressMonkey]

My wife is supportive as she is into training as well. Friends. Not one lifts and I get shti now and then. I stand out amongst them. Only because I have some muscle and they have lots of fat. I laugh because they think I am a fanatic. They have no clue

Did you see this study? I couldn't enough at it.

[igsm1969]

As I started to lose weight about 4 years ago, I thought my family was supportive. My parents and the rest of my family have turned on me. I get put down all the time and anytime I have had a new personal record in lifting or have learned a new exercise movement, they tell me they are not interested in hearing about it. I was even accused by my mother of trying to be "tough" because I lift now. I have had to live with them due to previous choices I made that were not wise and although I am attempting to get my life together and have a career by going to college (and even succeeding in the three semesters I have had so far) and getting NSCA certified, my parents think it is inconvenient for them and a dumb idea. Almost a daily basis, I get some kind of put down from the both of them. Right now, living here is my only choice. I don't freeload off of them....I have made many sacrifices and support myself especially through the loan refunds I get each semester. I have been dealing with severe depression for some time and am amazed that I have lasted this long. I am amazed that I still pick myself off and get in the gym (although there are days I don't even want to get up). But then, most of the time when I am at the gym, I am focused way too much on how great it feels to move the way I do when four years ago I struggled to do that. And I don't know how long that will get me through. My school does not support my goals, even though I have done well. In fact, I made a mistake in confiding with a student course assistant in our personal training program when I feared that I would not get to work in our school's new fitness facility after getting certified. She went back to the director and told him everything and now he refuses to let me work....but he never liked me in the first place. So, I have been feeling rather useless, and it does not help that my parents kind of have this "we told you so" attitude. I felt that getting certified with NSCA was a huge accomplishment for me (aside from escaping super morbid obesity), but my family acted like it was just another day. My parents asked, "what do you expect? Do you think we are even going to celebrate?!"

So, no. I don't have much support. I have even lost people I thought were friends. I have never been a braggart or over confident. But I did learn this....I am just as unlikeable now as I was then....and even more so. :/

Do your family and friends support your "journey" in training/transformation?? Curious as a close family member had gastric band surgery around 6 mths ago,lost weight,and got massive amounts of congratulations!!For surgery!!This after she asked me my thoughts,to which I replied,"Proper diet and exercise.I know a good website."

Too hard,so she paid thousands of dollars to have surgery and is being praised for it,yet can't sit down to a decent feed if she wanted!!

So I shared my experience of training,diet,and general life changes,and not one person made one remark.Not one person commented on the commitment I have made over the last couple of years,yet get a plastic band put in your gut and you have done a magnificent job!!!

I am glad I found this site.

I am glad I have a "community" here that recognizes the work that "WE" do here.

I am glad for the support I have received here.

'Cos it aint comin' from anywhere else!!

[thoffland]

My wife is more supportive now than she was when I first started. She was sure I was going to quit, mostly because I found this site and spend A LOT of time on here reading up on what I should be doing, getting motivation by everyone else's success, creating spreadsheets to calculate macros, researching supps etc. but I get the most support and compliments from my buddy and workout partner, he's always saying I'm getting bigger and stronger... and I have to say it's very motivating to hear. I like knowing if I'm doing a good job at work or not, and I appreciate it with my lifting as well. It's nice when someone else notices.

Other than that the only other things I've heard is that I'm skinny now, which is really not true... I'm more of less the same weight, just a little less flabby and a little more firm.

[lunchbreak]

My mother keeps trying to feed me but also, peversely, keeps telling me not to get big. My father keeps using me to move stuff about but otherwise isn't particularly interested. My sister is cool as we go rowing together at the club most weeks but she and most of my friends keep pressuring me to drink and eat when I don't want to. The dog doesn't care as long as she gets attention. The lodger thinks I'm nuts for weighing my food.

[lunchbreak]

its funny how those closest to us can sometimes be the most negative.

I believe it is usually resentment. You become a mirror for their own faults and failed ambitions. When faced with that most people look for something other than themselves to blame.

[rendylee]

I think up until reading this thread I may have taken my family's support for granted and just thought everyone's family would be supportive in their endeavors to become heathy and fit.

None of my siblings or parents are overweight, or ever have been. My brother and sister as well are very active and very fit....I guess me being 100lbs overweight at one time, I was the odd man out, and they have all been very supportive of my new diet and lifestyle. The only concern my mom ever expressed was when I was starting out and I had a hard time balancing gym, meal prep, and homelife and spent some evenings in tears trying to figure it all out.....had a heck of a time fitting everything in...and mom was concerned that I was burning myself out as I was pretty stressed, but I did get that in check as well ...but my mom was not trying to derail my efforts, she was just being "mom"

[beachguy498]

Everyone is good about it in my house. Most of the men in our circle of friends range from out of shape to being walking heart attacks. My wife calls me "the lean mean fighting machine" although I'm far from lean. I get only positive comments from family and friends. A few of the guys say they should join a gym soon, but they don't.

I'm considerate though about my "me" time. I go to the gym early in the morning or right after work and try to get dinner prepped before I go. All my sups come out of my own pocket money, so nothing comes out of the household.

Rob

[Nikonguy]

I don't get any flack is about the best thing I can say.

And when you've been together 28 years "not getting flack" is good.

[Firminator4]

My wife has always supported me 100%. She is into fitness as well getting up at 5:30am three days a week for her spin class. Plus she does a Pilates class two evenings per week. She is even more strict than I with her nutrition and is always looking for recipes for good meals. I can't imagine how bad it must be for those that get no support at home.

[StressMonkey]

The lodger thinks I'm nuts for weighing my food.

LODGER Lodger is British slang for a flea. Lodger is British slang for a head louse.

[dungeonmistress]

My family never understood my "odd" eating habits and need for exercise - putting these things ahead of many other things in life including family dinners and the like, meaning that I would pick and choose what I would eat and not gorge myself; I also have a "weights before dates" mentality wherein I won't give up a workout to go out and do fun things: training first, fun second. The various love interests in my life have supported me and my goals basically because most of them (thinking back...ALL of them) were gym rats to varying degrees as well.

Curiously, after literally decades of my "odd" behavior my brother told me that there really is something to all of this (meaning lifting and eating right) as he decided to give it a go too.

[lunchbreak]

LODGER Lodger is British slang for a flea. Lodger is British slang for a head louse.

Oxford concise dictionary definition:

Lodger
noun
chiefly Brit. A person who pays rent to live in a property with the owner.

Useful while I'm single, he pays enough to cover all my mortgage and bills so I can waste my dosh on other things.

[mikieson]

when i was workingout..everyone seemed to support me ok...never asking "WHY" really...they would brag about me and stuff..so thats nice i thought..

[bakedNOTfried]

[pvsampson]

Still,no rational response?Ignorance must be bliss.

[bakedNOTfried]

[pvsampson]

[pvsampson]

I will admit that you were quick,but that was because I was a little slow.