Bogus's Journey (-20%BF and -50Lbs)

[bogus83]

My weight is down to three pounds lower than before I left for the trip, and for the first time since getting back it has been roughly stable for two consecutive days. Looks like that's the end of the precipitous drop, now it's back to the regular grind.

[bogus83]

I figure it'll take two weeks to drop the water weight and then maybe another 10 pounds in the remaining five weeks.

Well, I was spot on with the first part. As of today I'm back down to the lowest that my weight was before the trip, 162.9, just over two weeks from making that estimate. I should drop under 160 by the end of the month, be right around 155 by Thanksgiving, and with a bit of luck, just under 150 by the end of the year. It's exciting to be so close to a major goal after working on it for over a year... I just need to be a little bit careful over the holidays.

[bogus83]

It's Thanksgiving and I weighed in this morning at 158. I've been dropping more like one pound per week rather than two, but that's still pretty good progress.

There are five more weeks in the year from this Saturday; I may not quite reach 150, but if I get to 155 that'll be 75 pounds total, 60 pounds down for the year, and an average of a little over a pound per week for 52 weeks.

[bogus83]

I hit 155 this morning. Ok, 155.1.

Can I drop five pounds in just under three weeks? It's gonna be close...

[bogus83]

153 today. My watch, which gives less favorable body comp readings than my scale, shows my body fat percentage under 20% (19.8%) for the first time since I've had it, so that's cool. For comparison, my scale has me at 14.4%, which I think is probably not very accurate.

[Vetlus]

Just wanted to say I just found this thread and read it from start to finish. Very motivating, thank you for sharing!

[bogus83]

Well, looks like I messed up any chance of reaching 150 by the end of the year. I went out with my family for a movie and dinner on xmas, shared a popcorn with the movie and had some seafood for dinner... and gained six pounds overnight. I wouldn't believe it if it hadn't happened before (see also: post #50, where I ate a bowl of soup and gained five pounds, or the recent Hawaii trip where I gained and lost ten pounds in a week). I know it's just water weight, and I know that means it's temporary, but it's disappointing nonetheless. My weight went from ~152 to 158, and is now down to just under 156. Hopefully I'll be back on track fairly quickly, and I can focus on the next goal:

130, or as close to it as possible, by 4/8/23.

Why? That's my 40th birthday, and it'd be nice to celebrate it by completing 100 pounds of weight loss.

But I'm trying to be realistic about it as well. There are 14 weeks between 1/1 and 4/8, which means I'd have to lose around 1.75lbs/week consistently to reach 130. Also, I'm not even sure I need to go that low. And if I'm being honest, I can't freaking wait to be done losing weight. I have the self-discipline to keep doing it, but that doesn't mean it's easy or fun, and by April this weight loss phase will have been ongoing for 20 months. So I think maybe I'll re-evaluate the goal sometime in mid-February, when I should be close to 140. Though I suspect that being so close to the end date and weight, I'll probably just want to keep going...

Anyway, thank you to everyone who's still reading this. I hope you have an awesome new year.

[bogus83]

Alright, I hit exactly 150 this morning. Not bad considering I was up to 158 on January 1st (thanks, NYE party).

12 weeks to go.

(Edit: Can't believe I forgot to mention... that's 80 pounds down from when I started!)

[bogus83]

149.1.

My weight is now lower than the lowest I recorded when I started this thread the first time. Which means it's the lowest I've been in at least twelve years, but probably closer to 20+.

[bogus83]

Ending January at 147.7. That's ten pounds down from January 1st, but only five down from the recent December low of 152.x.

I've been doing well with my diet and staying active, and I'm losing less than expected. Work-related stress may be a factor, and possibly just metabolic fatigue from doing this for so long. I don't think I'll be able to reach 130 in nine weeks at this rate but I'm going to give it my best shot.

There's a super bowl party coming up in two weeks. The first time I started my weight loss journey (12 years ago!) I quit after a super bowl party. Granted, I'd already put 20+ pounds back on and wasn't doing very well. This time it'll be an opportunity to prove to myself that I can stay on track. I'm not getting derailed now, when I'm this close to the goal.

[bogus83]

145.8.

Thats a little less than two pounds in a little less than three weeks. It's clear that I won't be getting to 130 in the next seven weeks, but I may be able to get under 140. And that's still pretty incredible considering where I started.

[bogus83]

So, I gained nearly ten pounds over a long weekend again. I know it's almost entirely salt-related water weight and extra food mass, and it'll go away in around a week. But the mental health aspect of long term dieting is starting to get to me; restrictive eating in order to lose (at this point) a fraction of a pound per week, only to gain several in a day, and then repeat... it's beginning to feel like a pattern of disordered eating, and that's not a path I want to go down. My goal was to reach a a healthier weight, not lose weight at the expense of my health.

Which means it's probably time to start wrapping this up and move on to a different approach. I think I've come pretty close to the limits of what I can achieve through diet alone, and dropping close to 90 pounds has been a significant transformation. I think I'll continue on until my birthday as planned, a little under four weeks from now, which should be enough time to shed the water weight and get back to the mid 140s, and then spend a few weeks "reverse dieting" back to my maintenance level of calories, and then begin a strength training and recomp program. That's essentially what the plan was anyway, I'll just be starting it at a slightly higher weight than I'd anticipated.