I've walked this path for a long time....time to start running.

**RockyTop1982** · 12-11-2016, 03:42 PM

Hi folks, it is time to kick it up a notch.

My name is J.P. and I am a recovering fatass. I was really good at it. I am currently 34 years old, 6'4, and 326 lbs. That's still a lot of fat, but I used to be over 500 lbs, topping out at almost 520. In the last couple of years I've lost most of it, and since the middle of May I'm down almost 100 lbs. For the first time in a very long time I am no longer morbidly obese. My BMI is 39.something, and I've never been happier to be obese.

This is all well and good, but the reason for this post is that what I've been doing is no longer enough. I've been doing cardio 5 days a week, first the recumbent, then couch to 5k, then back to the recumbent when I tweaked my knee. I've been eating clean as hell, only 1700-2000 calories a day. It is working. I am losing 10-15 lbs a month consistently. I know lifting is important, but I've been more focused on the weight loss than building/maintaining my muscle. It was kind of a shock when I looked at my arms the other day and my forearms and wrists look small. I can see my collarbones. I've realized that even though I still want to get down to 199.9, just to say I did it, I want to do it with muscle. Then I want to bulk back to about 225 and stay there for the rest of my life.

So here's my current routine: I have a bench at home and I bench three times a week, 125-145 lbs. 5 sets of 5. I have dumbells that I do curls and presses and rows with that are about 25 lbs. I just started kickboxing, twice a week. My diet is 200g protein, whatever else I want, as long as I keep the calories under 2200(usually 1800-2000). I don't do fast food, drink very seldomly, don't eat garbage. I do intermittent fasting M-F and only eat between the hours of 6-10pm, then on the weekend I try to hit 2200 calories and I eat breakfast. The only supplements I take are fish oil and a multivitamin.

What is my goal? Well, When I started losing it was just not to be a gigantic fat guy. When I hit about 360 and realized it was no longer IF I'm going to lose the weight but only a matter of when it turned into "Well, I want to feel good, be healthy". Now I'm closing in toward 300 and it's starting to dawn on me that if I can work out almost every day, I can follow any dietary restriction I want, if I have the discipline and the passion, that's not the best I can do either. My goal now is to be the fittest, happiest, fastest, strongest person I can be. That means no more playing around at home with my own weights. No more winging it. It's time to science the **** out of this.

So here's my plan. I'm sticking with the kickboxing because I enjoy it, because my balance sucks and it should help with it, and because I want to develop more explosion and be more coordinated overall. Even though I've lost a ton of weight I still feel heavy footed, not agile at all, clumsy. I'm going to limit my other cardio to 3 days a week, and I'm going to start lifting for real at least 3 days a week, 4 if necessary. I joined a local gym and I'm in the process of coming up with a plan that I will follow/tweak as results dictate.

What I want out of this thread: Accountability, support is always appreciated, and most importantly your feedback. I am new to all this, and there are definitely things I struggle with.

Problem areas:
I have terrible balance and specifically my core and hips seem weak/inflexible. I cannot, for example, do a squat without raising my heels. I can't get low into proper dead-lift position for the same reason unless I bend at the waist, which is obviously a big no no. I've been doing third world squats while holding something for support because I heard it builds the needed muscles to do a real squat, I'm trying to improve my flexibility, but this is still an issue. Trying to squat with a bar right now would end with me tumbling over backwards or collapsing and blowing something out. I need to be able to deadlift and squat, so this is priority #1.

Diet, supplementation. I currently am operating on will alone a lot of the time. I work 45-50 hours a week in a desk job, and I'm eating at a major deficit. My job isn't overly stressful, but it's mentally draining. I can and will continue to do this, and it's never gotten to the point I feel lightheaded or weak in the knees or anything like that, but I am often tired. Not fatigued, tired. Anything I can do to alleviate this outside of sleeping more(I get a solid 8 hours a night) I am open to 100%. My diet consists primarily of bacon and eggs on the weekend for breakfast, then for dinner I always do lean protein(turkey, chicken, venison) 1.5-2lbs, a smoothie(frozen blueberries, spinach, protein powder, psyllium, chia seed), and then I add veggies to my protein. Open to critiques. I don't drink calories.

Anyway, really looking forward to implementing a firm plan and not just winging it. Winging it has worked but this is more about educating myself about bodybuilding, coming up with a process that works for me, then refining the hell out of it. I appreciate any feedback, and I can't wait to get started.

**belly100** · 12-11-2016, 04:26 PM

First of all, wow, great job so far. That's an impressive loss already and great habits put in place.

I can say from my experience when i started lifting i couldnt squat properly. I decided to go into a powerlifting gym and get some coaching. I ended up using specialist bars that are still a struggle but allowed me to squat. That has helped me no end. But good luck! Ill be keeping a close eye on your thread

**cherrygarcia80** · 12-12-2016, 12:48 PM

Wow, congrats on the epic weightloss so far and making the decision to completely transform your life! A real inspiration, thanks for sharing your story and will be following too, all the best!

**RockyTop1982** · 12-13-2016, 07:27 PM

Originally Posted by cherrygarcia80

Wow, congrats on the epic weightloss so far and making the decision to completely transform your life! A real inspiration, thanks for sharing your story and will be following too, all the best!

Thanks for the support.

Did about 90 minutes of kickboxing yesterday. I can't do a number of the warmups(50 pushups? nope. Lunges? Nope), but I do what I can and I enjoy training a skill rather than just doing mindless cardio. Had my first sparring session and that left me dead in the water. Muscles in my upper back just wasted, all from trying to keep my hands up. Was sore this morning, but that just means it's working.

Came home and had dinner then went to lift. Did bench(5x5 repping up from 125 to 145), and was in the middle of flies when I got called back into work. I'm also doing third world squats for 1 minute each morning and evening with the support of a door frame just to try and loosen up my hips so I can do real squats. Definitely seeing improvement. Diet is 100% on point, as that's one area I pretty much have on lock down. 200+ protein, all clean food, no cheat days. 1700-2200 calories of good stuff a day. I even ate half calories the day before Thanksgiving so I could indulge a little bit. Having done this for over a year it's completely second nature, and I've gone 30+ hours without eating before without even feeling overly uncomfortable.

One thing I've learned with weight loss is that time is a sunk cost. I got up to 500 lbs, so I have to spend a couple of years having less fun than I otherwise would have to get to where I want to go. I'm okay with that. the purpose of lifting and kickboxing and probably yoga soon is just to have other methods of gauging my incremental progress other than the scale and each time I make a new hole for my belt.

Cheers to everyone, hopefully I can do an uninterrupted lifting session tomorrow after kickboxing. I am really hoping with high protein I can actually build some muscle and get some strength gaines while I lose the rest of the weight.

**RockyTop1982** · 12-16-2016, 04:35 PM

Originally Posted by RockyTop1982

Thanks for the support.

Did about 90 minutes of kickboxing yesterday. I can't do a number of the warmups(50 pushups? nope. Lunges? Nope), but I do what I can and I enjoy training a skill rather than just doing mindless cardio. Had my first sparring session and that left me dead in the water. Muscles in my upper back just wasted, all from trying to keep my hands up. Was sore this morning, but that just means it's working.

Came home and had dinner then went to lift. Did bench(5x5 repping up from 125 to 145), and was in the middle of flies when I got called back into work. I'm also doing third world squats for 1 minute each morning and evening with the support of a door frame just to try and loosen up my hips so I can do real squats. Definitely seeing improvement. Diet is 100% on point, as that's one area I pretty much have on lock down. 200+ protein, all clean food, no cheat days. 1700-2200 calories of good stuff a day. I even ate half calories the day before Thanksgiving so I could indulge a little bit. Having done this for over a year it's completely second nature, and I've gone 30+ hours without eating before without even feeling overly uncomfortable.

One thing I've learned with weight loss is that time is a sunk cost. I got up to 500 lbs, so I have to spend a couple of years having less fun than I otherwise would have to get to where I want to go. I'm okay with that. the purpose of lifting and kickboxing and probably yoga soon is just to have other methods of gauging my incremental progress other than the scale and each time I make a new hole for my belt.

Cheers to everyone, hopefully I can do an uninterrupted lifting session tomorrow after kickboxing. I am really hoping with high protein I can actually build some muscle and get some strength gaines while I lose the rest of the weight.

Ate a brownie at work today. I am an abject failure. Time to binge uncontrollably.......

Or forget about it and lift heavy things.

**RockyTop1982** · 12-18-2016, 05:53 AM

I go on vacation in 2 weeks. Gonna try out this PSMF thing for those two weeks and see how much I can lose. 324.8 starting today.

**RockyTop1982** · 12-19-2016, 04:15 PM

Day 1 PSMF

Baked Chicken 26 oz, 169g protein, 780 calories, + mushrooms, broccoli, flaored with sriracha
Smoothie: 1 cup spinach, 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk, psyllium husk, 1 scoop protein powder

Total:
203 g protein, 13 carbs, 9 fiber, 15g fat, 1000 calories.
Supplementing with 6 capsules of fish oil, multivitamin, and ordered potassium/magnesium supplements off Amazon.

We'll see what I weigh tomorrow.

**RockyTop1982** · 12-20-2016, 03:53 PM

Weigh in, 323.5, -1.3.

Exact same thing for dinner tonight because I found out the ground turkey I bought even though it's 90/10 is still full of fat in a way I did not anticipate. Almost as much fat as protein.

Baked Chicken 26 oz, 169g protein, 780 calories, + mushrooms, broccoli, flaored with sriracha
Smoothie: 1 cup spinach, 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk, psyllium husk, 1 scoop protein powder

Total:
203 g protein, 13 carbs, 9 fiber, 15g fat, 1000 calories.

Going to meet a buddy and his wife I haven't seen in years tomorrow, but aside from maybe a beer I'm sticking to it. The goal is to test this out 100% so I can figure out how often I want to mix it in once I get back from vacation.

Going to go lift, less than 6lbs to 200 lost from my absolute highest.

**RockyTop1982** · 12-21-2016, 03:45 PM

Day3, 323.1, -.4.

Got my protein but had some carbs and fat. Counting it as one of my two free meals

**RockyTop1982** · 12-23-2016, 02:55 AM

Day 4: 322.6, -.5, 2.2 lbs total.

Bad diet night. I am not a regular drinker but I went to a party and drank many many light beers. Also danced, and I don't dance. I'm sure the two things are entirely unrelated. Didn't eat anything til midnight, 1lb of ground turkey. Macros non-optimal, but the good thing about being this fat is as long as I don't eat an entire moderately sized mammal or a tub of ice cream I'm going to lose weight.

MOAR

**RockyTop1982** · 12-23-2016, 03:21 PM

Day 5: 321.3, -1.3, 3.5 lbs total

Baked Chicken 26 oz, 169g protein, 780 calories, + mushrooms, broccoli, flavored with sriracha
Smoothie: 1 cup spinach, 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk, psyllium husk, 1 scoop protein powder
Carb Smart Ice cream bar, because I want it

Total:
205 g protein, 26 carbs, 9 fiber, 26g fat, 1150 calories.
3.3lbs to 100 lost since May 15th.

My size 48 jeans that are two months old are loose, the size 44s sitting unopened are going to be opened soon. This should be almost all fat as I was already dieting and shouldn't have had much water bloat. Gonna lift heavy tomorrow morning and then enjoy family and friends.

MOAR PROGRESS

**Compy386** · 12-25-2016, 02:11 AM

Just please stick with it. What you've done is amazing.

IF until 6pm. I might steal that. Maybe some good old IF is what I need..

**RockyTop1982** · 12-25-2016, 11:00 AM

Originally Posted by Compy386

Just please stick with it. What you've done is amazing.

IF until 6pm. I might steal that. Maybe some good old IF is what I need..

Thanks man. Sticking with it isn't in question. I've changed a ton of things in my life in the last two years. I've lost almost 100 since May. I played life on hard mode for a long time, I'm going to get all this weight off and enjoy playing it on easy for a while.

320.9 this morning, -.4, 3.9 in 6 days.

**RockyTop1982** · 12-26-2016, 05:31 AM

Day 7, 319.9, -1lb, 4.9 since last Monday.

Did a cheat meal yesterday with Christmas breakfast with the family. Ate 140+ carbs and around 1200 calories. Then I ate my normal dinner. Did not lift because I was being lazy. I was 418 on May 15th of this year and I was almost 520 at my highest so this is getting into exciting territory. I haven't been under 300 since sophomore year of high school.

2017 is going kick so much ass I can barely think straight. Hope everyone had a merry Christmas, hell to the yeah.

**Compy386** · 12-26-2016, 09:34 PM

Nice. Getting to the 2's is really an amazing feeling. You feel like you're starting to not be a "fat" dude anymore. When people talk about fat guys, they usually go "yeah man, he was so fat...I bet he was like 300 lbs!"

Well you know what? In a short while that WONT BE YOU ANYMORE

You can say naw dawg, I weigh 290.....

Pretty soon dudes in the gym will start asking you advice on how they can get bigger.

You're killing it....keep it up.

**RockyTop1982** · 12-27-2016, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by Compy386

Nice. Getting to the 2's is really an amazing feeling. You feel like you're starting to not be a "fat" dude anymore. When people talk about fat guys, they usually go "yeah man, he was so fat...I bet he was like 300 lbs!"

Well you know what? In a short while that WONT BE YOU ANYMORE

You can say naw dawg, I weigh 290.....

Pretty soon dudes in the gym will start asking you advice on how they can get bigger.

You're killing it....keep it up.

Thanks man. Lifts not really going up due to my deficit but I don't care. My doctor told me today to come back at 6 months and reassess where I'm at in relation to my goal weight. My intention is to be at my damn goal weight in 6 months. 93 lbs to go(pre-skin removal, guesstimating).

Day 8 Weigh in for the day, 318.7, -1.2, -6.1 for the PSMF. About to eat dinner, baked turkey with veggies and smoothie. 1100 calories.

MOAR.

**RockyTop1982** · 12-29-2016, 08:40 PM

Day 10, had a big social carbathon last night. Showing 319 but I'm sure it's mostly water. More accurate weight tomorrow I'm sure.

**Compy386** · 12-29-2016, 10:06 PM

Man I love gaining 10 lbs of water in a day. Carbs are evil.

You gained 1? No problem!

**RockyTop1982** · 12-30-2016, 03:35 PM

Day 11, 100% lockdown dietwise. 317.8, -.9, 7lbs for the PSMF.

1 Week til vacation, should be under 315 easily.

**RockyTop1982** · 12-31-2016, 04:40 PM

Day 12, I haven't ate yet, 315.4, -2.4, 9.4 for the PSMF.

Doubt 2.4 lbs is all loss, probably some water but who cares. 90 lbs to go. Have a happy new year ya'll.

**Conditioned2Win** · 12-31-2016, 07:57 PM

following along. keep going until you get there.

**RockyTop1982** · 01-01-2017, 08:28 PM

316.4, lb up from yesterday. That big a loss had to be water. Diet 100% on point, lifted today. Gonna go through Thursday and then I'm on vacation.

Also, I wrote a thing, basically a blog post. PM me if you'd be interested since I can't link it.
If you want to see progress pictures, a broader look at how I changed my life, philosophical musings of a fat man, etc check it out. Still trying to decide if I want to share it with people who know me in real life, so feedback is appreciated. I can honestly say this wouldn't have been possible for me as an isolated portion of my life. I had to make wholesale changes across the board in how I lived my life. Very pleased with the results thus far.

Here's to 2017.

**RockyTop1982** · 01-03-2017, 05:14 PM

316, -.4. Diet has been 100% on lockdown(under 1100 calories, 200+ protein, supplements, tons of water) but I've stalled a little. Doesn't matter, calories in calories out will always win out eventually. Size 44 jeans fit easily, lifts are inching up, killing it at work, life is good.

I honestly see goal weight and skin removal surgery just around the corner. And after that.....oh baby. Time to get jacked and live the hell out of the rest of my life.

MOAR

**RockyTop1982** · 01-04-2017, 06:31 PM

315.4, 9.4 lbs for 15 day isn't bad. One more day and I go on vacation. Be nice to hit 10lbs lost but whatever.

**vadsie** · 01-04-2017, 09:01 PM

Hi there! I would like a link to your blog.🙂 Man you're a fat losing machine! I can see a jacked bodybuilder in you in your future! Don't want to make you stumble or make you second guess yourself but if you find yourself going too hard take a break. Burning out is real and a break is helpful physically and mentally. Jmo, I wish I had your drive man. All the best.

**RockyTop1982** · 01-05-2017, 03:25 PM

314.9, -.5 9.9 for the 16 days. Tonight will be the end of this PSMF, I'll start again when I get back. Really enjoy the PSMF, it's not overly difficult, very easy to follow, and the results speak for themselves. If I could lose 15 lbs a month getting to my goal weight in 6 months is imminently doable.

Cheers

**RockyTop1982** · 01-07-2017, 06:48 AM

Funny observation. Plane lands, I go to my hotel, drop my crap off, immediately head out to the nearest bar. Drink a few, start chatting with some people, end up staying most of the night. Anyway, just as kind of celebratory thing I decide I used to love pizza so I'm going to have some terrible, greasy, horrible for me but delicious pepperoni pizza. Over the course of a few hours I ate at least a whole pizza. Now, it's all I ate all day so still probably only 3000 calories even with the alcohol, but that's not the point. The point is I woke up this morning and I feel 100% fine. I used to indulge like that and wake up the next day feeling terrible, stomach would hurt, indigestion, guilt. Even more though is the fact that it honestly wasn't as good as I remembered, and even though I had planned to indulge a lot this week(and I still will to some extent) I think I've learned that I just don't have any interest in going to that level of binging anymore. I would have enjoyed it just as much if I'd ate two or three slices. I don't feel bad about it, I just feel kind of ambivalent, "that was pointless".

People say weight loss doesn't change the person you are, but it fundamentally does. I respect myself a lot more, I know I have a level of discipline and will that I can channel into other things I'd like to accomplish, etc. I just don't think about the word the same way anymore. It's awesome but also kind of trippy.

Anyway, jetlagged and up at 6 am and it's raining. Might as well go work out. Cheers.

**RockyTop1982** · 01-16-2017, 08:34 AM

Just got back from vacation. 310.4, -4.5 for the trip, primarily due to walking 20000 steps a day I'd wager. It's almost exactly 1 month til my birthday, I think I will safely be under 300 by then.

MOAR.

**RockyTop1982** · 01-18-2017, 04:53 AM

308.9 this morning. Restarting PSMF today. Haven't been under 300 since sophomore year of high school.

**RockyTop1982** · 01-20-2017, 05:36 AM

307.4. Back on PSMF although I cheat occasionally.

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