From Obese to Healthy Journal

[sandor1312]

I guess in reality I started this journey in September of last year. I joined a gym for a year, cleaned up my diet, and lost 35 pounds. That sounds like a lot but for me it wasn't. I weighed 385 pounds at the time and got down to 350. I already looked better. Then, my work schedule changed. I began having to operate on much less sleep and like a fool I stopped working out. The good news is... I still haven't gained a pound since I stopped. The bad? Nor have I lost any.

That changes as of tomorrow. I went to the grocery store today and bought healthy food. I still consider myself a newbie at this. Any help would be excellent and appreciated.

I am 6'5" 350 pounds. I've read the stickies I know the calories needed - 500 formula. A diet close to this one that I am posting is what worked for me before. If it doesn't work this time than I'll have to edit it to follow the stickies more but we shall see.

Planned Diet for tomorrow Monday April 9th

First meal - 3/4 cup of whole wheat cereal 1/2 cup skim milk. 1 Green apple

Second meal - 4oz ground turkey on 2 pieces whole wheat bread w/ mustard 1 cup mixed vegetables

Third Meal - 2 oz lemon pepper starkist tuna on 1 whole wheat pita bread w/ lettuce, mustard and 1 tbsp soy sauce. 5 baby carrots.

Fourth meal - 2 cups salad (lettuce, carrots, peppers) 1 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 tbsp olive oil, 4 ounces of tilapia

Fifth meal - 1/4 cup brown rice, chicken breast (I have them measured and wrapped in aluminum foil they range from 3.9-6.1 ounces), 1 cup mixed vegetables

Totals 1601 calories, 33g fat, 147g protein, 186g carbs

I want to add protein to my breakfast but I have yet to buy the whey protein. If any of you know of a whey protein that would fit my needs (bringing the protein even with the carbs) and tastes good with milk and whole wheat cereal I would love to have your input.

Now for the workout. My schedule is hectic with work and college. Sleep is divided into 2 blocks for most of the week. 2-3 hours before school 2-3 hours before work. Fitting in the workouts will be the hardest part but I will do it. Weightlifting for three days a week. Tues, Thurs, Saturday.

Tuesday Workout

Bench Press 1 x 15, 1 x 12
Smith Machine Shoulder Press 2 x 12
Shrugs 1 x 15, 1x12
Tricep Pushdown 2 x 12
Crunches 2 sets until failure

I'll post my other workouts later. I also plan on doing AT LEAST 30 minutes of cardio for those three days and on other days IF time permits. As I get better, I'll add to the workouts but for now I want to keep it simple and quick.

I'll post pictures and measurements at some point. Until then critique away, tell me I am stupid, a genius, offer advice or whatever else.

[solstice]

... I may be way off (I'm pretty much a newbie here) but it doesn't seem like you're eating *enough*... At 350lbs, eating 1600-ish calories seems excessively low... Where is your body going to go once you start losing more? In order to keep losing- you're going to have to keep decreasing the caloric load gradually- you'd be throwing your body into starvation mode... ESPECIALLY if you're working out and active...

Adding protein powder is good- but why not just scramble some eggs/whites to add to that breakfast? Cheaper and IMO tastier too

[sandor1312]

Originally Posted by solstice

Adding protein powder is good- but why not just scramble some eggs/whites to add to that breakfast? Cheaper and IMO tastier too

Mostly because it would require me to cook on 3 hours of sleep before I'm awake. I wanted something quick that required no effort. All my other meals for the week were made today. I just have to throw them in a lunch box and go.

As for eating too little. Its very difficult for me to eat more than that. I think I mostly got this big by eating the wrong things. 1 whopper isn't a massive meal but its a helluva a lot of calories. 1 calzone isn't huge but its 2000 calories. If I stick in starvation mode or don't lose any I'll try to up the load. Money is also an issue. Working only part time and going to college doesn't exactly give me a ton of money to buy more of the healthy food. I could double the amount of chicken breast at that one meal perhaps but even that would only increase it a couple hundred calories. I also think I read that while losing this much weight you shouldn't eat below 2500 in the first place?

What if I added 2 tbsp of natural peanut butter on 2 slices of ww bread for breakfast? That brings me up to 1929 calories but throws off my ratios a bit. 39/35/26 according to fitday.

[Quickxi]

your calories are way too low. You will lose weight on this diet, however it's going to be MUSCLE. If you stick to this diet, you'll have a huge rebound effect when you quit.

you need more protein, every meal needs a healthy dose of it. Starvation diets are not the best way to hit your goals. You've figured out the calories minus 500. I think for people who are bigger you can drop the calories more than 500.

I would probably suggest looking at 10X your weight; so try for 3450 in 6 divided meals of 575 each.

Congrats on the original weight loss, get your diet in check and watch that fat melt off !

[sandor1312]

Originally Posted by Quickxi

your calories are way too low. You will lose weight on this diet, however it's going to be MUSCLE. If you stick to this diet, you'll have a huge rebound effect when you quit.

you need more protein, every meal needs a healthy dose of it. Starvation diets are not the best way to hit your goals. You've figured out the calories minus 500. I think for people who are bigger you can drop the calories more than 500.

I would probably suggest looking at 10X your weight; so try for 3450 in 6 divided meals of 575 each.

Congrats on the original weight loss, get your diet in check and watch that fat melt off !

Ok, well heres the deal then. I've been to the store made all my meals already so I've gotta do a quick fix for this week. I'll go by wal mart and see what I can pull off tomorrow and let you guys know my editing plan then!

[Quickxi]

keep posting! There are people in here who can help you with everything: from diets to workouts! Good luck!

[sandor1312]

Originally Posted by Quickxi

keep posting! There are people in here who can help you with everything: from diets to workouts! Good luck!

Ok, I've heard you guys eat subway a good bit. Lets say I added 2 6 inch (well a foot long divided in half) steak and cheese sub double meat two of the meals? That adds 1080 calories take that plus the pb sammich to meal 1 and we have 3050 I think thats the best I can do for this week. Then if I buy the whey protein to go with meal one (I realize that will take 2-3 days.) That should solve the issue or at least be close enough right?

[brsd4f]

you got to eat. ur 6'5" so u arent looking at a massive weightloss to look good. if you did everything right you could look really good at anywhere between 220-260 depending in how u look right now. Eggs take no time to cook....u could boil 50 eggs one night and eat 1 whole egg and 10 whites at breakfast....or anytime of the day. Eggs are cheap too.

If you eat that amount of calories you are going to have to lose more weight to look good. Muscle is what makes people look good, not weighing a certain amount. You are a large dude eat like one. I don't know the exact amount you were eating before, but you were def. eating more than 1700 cals. Subway is a ok choice. I would go with chicken though. It would be cheaper to spend that 8 bucks on a bag of chicken and cook it all up. Chicken here is like 7 bucks a bag for roughly 250 g's of protein. You weigh 350 u need atleast 250-300 gs of protein a day. Some will say you need atleast 350 gs of protein a day.
Also the most important part of reshaping your body is working your legs. Work your legs twice as much as your work anything else. Work your legs to the point that you can't walk and right when you are getting over your soreness.....work them again. At one point you will fall in love with it and the pain. This will make or break how your body looks once you strip the weight off.
Take it or leave it...but if you look at the really good transformations on this site.......from fat to buff. Look at the legs....it might tell u something

[TheKansan]

Ok here is a question. I weigh around 450 pounds. The normal math equations don't exactly work for someone my size. How do I figure out how many calories I need to consume each day? 10 X my weight - 1000 even seems awfully high.

I am not trying to starve myself, but I have been going for 3 months on 2000-2500 calories a day and at the same time lifting weights. I have become noticably stronger with muscle growth too, so i doubt I am losing muscle. Still I don't want that to happen.

[sandor1312]

Originally Posted by brsd4f

you got to eat. ur 6'5" so u arent looking at a massive weightloss to look good. if you did everything right you could look really good at anywhere between 220-260 depending in how u look right now. Eggs take no time to cook....u could boil 50 eggs one night and eat 1 whole egg and 10 whites at breakfast....or anytime of the day. Eggs are cheap too.

If you eat that amount of calories you are going to have to lose more weight to look good. Muscle is what makes people look good, not weighing a certain amount. You are a large dude eat like one. I don't know the exact amount you were eating before, but you were def. eating more than 1700 cals. Subway is a ok choice. I would go with chicken though. It would be cheaper to spend that 8 bucks on a bag of chicken and cook it all up. Chicken here is like 7 bucks a bag for roughly 250 g's of protein. You weigh 350 u need atleast 250-300 gs of protein a day. Some will say you need atleast 350 gs of protein a day.
Also the most important part of reshaping your body is working your legs. Work your legs twice as much as your work anything else. Work your legs to the point that you can't walk and right when you are getting over your soreness.....work them again. At one point you will fall in love with it and the pain. This will make or break how your body looks once you strip the weight off.
Take it or leave it...but if you look at the really good transformations on this site.......from fat to buff. Look at the legs....it might tell u something

The fact is I don't particularly like boiled eggs but I will eat them. The other fact is I've already cooked for this week and I don't have time right now to cook as dumb as that sounds. Its the end of the school semester and I'm doing papers, studying, working and I'm not going to be able to cook until Sunday. I'm even typing this during class... which I probably shouldn't do. I cant eat 1040 calories of chicken breasts... thats 9-10 breasts. Good lord.

Anyway, so far so good. 1st meal I did the cereal thing and an apple with the pb sandwhich. I'm full. Got my lunch box filled with the other food. Good times.

[sandor1312]

Originally Posted by TheKansan

Ok here is a question. I weigh around 450 pounds. The normal math equations don't exactly work for someone my size. How do I figure out how many calories I need to consume each day? 10 X my weight - 1000 even seems awfully high.

I am not trying to starve myself, but I have been going for 3 months on 2000-2500 calories a day and at the same time lifting weights. I have become noticably stronger with muscle growth too, so i doubt I am losing muscle. Still I don't want that to happen.

Well, I'm a newbie but I would start at 3500 and see what happens. Then wait a couple weeks and if you don't notice a change deduct a little more. If you do see a change then your on the road to good health!