This little piggy stayed home [Start: ~350lbs / Goal: ~175lbs]

[DisasterCase]

Hey all,

My name's Joe, and like many of you when you made your first posts... I'm here to make a change.

I'm 32, which means I've been overweight and getting progressively worse for about 20 years now. As with many of you, I've done every imaginable diet, I've spent thousands and thousands on different attempts to lose weight over the years with varying degrees of temporary success and my weight has fluctuated dramatically - it's been quite normal for me to drop and regain 30kg in a 6 month period.

I've now reached the heaviest I've ever been - I don't actually know how much that is because my scales stop at 330lbs and that was 9 weeks ago. Based on my eating habits since then and the speed with which I usually gain weight, I would say it's safe to assume I'm around the 350lb mark right now. Ideally, I'd like to be half of that at 175lbs.

Of course I've always been restricted by my weight. Never knowing if I'll be able to close the airplane seatbelt, avoiding theme parks because I won't be able to ride anything and always having to assess the structural integrity of anything I sit on in public. Recently though, the impact of my weight has become overwhelming. I can feel sensations in my feet that suggest Type 2 Diabetes, my relationship suffers because my partner and I can't share the lifestyle we would like (it upsets him that we can't go for a bike ride together for example) and I'm worried I won't be able to renew my work permit because I won't pass the medical (which would mean potentially having to even move country due to my weight).

The reason I have reached this heaviest point is because about 8 months ago, at the start of COVID, I was concerned about the financial impact of COVID so I took a second job - this meant working 60 hours a week from home. Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm. Essentially, for 8 months, the only exercise I've done during the week is moving 6 feet from the bed to my desk and back. Then on weekends, I've been so stressed and exhausted from work that all I've wanted to do is let my hair down - so most weekends have consisted of excessive drinking, being hungover and eating everything in sight.

I've accepted now that living this way will kill me. I've agreed a substantial pay cut with my employers in order to reduce my hours and I now finish work at 5pm every day, which gives me more time to move in the evenings.

My initial plan: Walk everyday after work, 10k steps a day would be perfect. Intermittent Fasting - eat between 12noon at 8pm. 2 meals plus a shake - a healthy breakfast at 12noon, a nice dinner around 4 or 5, go for my walk at 5 and then have a shake (meal replacement or protein) when I get home around 7. Weekends and holidays be a little more flexible, but at the very minimum stick to this routine on work days and try to keep the walking going on days off too.
My initial goal: 330lbs in order to be able to measure my weight again using my home scales.

Once I'm comfortable with walking long periods, I'd like to review the plan and adapt it as my body changes. Once I feel like I have some fitness back, I'd like to rejoin the gym and get a personal trainer to help me with starting weights. First though... let's conquer putting one foot in front of the other.

Starting point:
Weight: 350lbs-ish
Chest: 51"
Waist: 58"

I'll be posting updates regularly here to help with staying on track and accountable - I look forward to following some of your journeys too!

[DisasterCase]

So it's the start of day 4 and things have been going pretty well.

Wrongly or rightly, I haven't strictly calorie counted every meal. Basically I've been having around 800 calories between breakfast + dinner, and then at lunch I have what I consider to be a 'healthy meal' but I usually get it delivered so don't know the calories... so I'm going to estimate my calories range between 1300 and 1700.

I realize it would be far better to have an accurate picture of calories, and as I lose weight I intend to move closer to that, but if I'm ranging 1300 to 1700 then I know I am far below maintenance for my weight so I'm confident that it will move in the right direction if I stick to this for a little while.

Monday 14 December
- Overnight Oats (3/4 cup Oatmeal, 1 cup water, 2 tsp Chia Seeds, 2 tsp Maple Syrup, 1 tsp Vanilla Flavor, 1/4 tsp Cinnamon, approx 1/3 cup raisins, 200g mixed berries), 580 calories
- Beef lasagna with sweet potato fries, calories unknown (delivery)
- Ensure chocolate meal replacement shake, 220 calories
- Walked 9.5km

Tuesday 15 December
- Overnight Oats (3/4 cup Oatmeal, 1 cup water, 2 tsp Chia Seeds, 2 tsp Maple Syrup, 1 tsp Vanilla Flavor, 1/4 tsp Cinnamon, approx 1/3 cup raisins, 200g mixed berries), 580 calories
- Sweet pepper wrap with some fries (approx half a small portion) and a few small falafels, calories unknown (delivery)
- Ensure chocolate meal replacement shake, 220 calories
- Walked 7.5km

Wednesday 16 December
- Overnight Oats (3/4 cup Oatmeal, 1 cup water, 2 tsp Chia Seeds, 2 tsp Maple Syrup, 1 tsp Vanilla Flavor, 1/4 tsp Cinnamon, approx 1/3 cup raisins, 200g mixed berries), 580 calories
- Small cauliflower base chicken pizza, calories unknown (delivery)
- Ensure chocolate meal replacement shake, 220 calories
- Walked 7.5km

On each of these days I also had a multivitamin and ~2 diet cokes. The walks were continuous, intentional walks (rather than steps accrued over the whole day).

Not quite as scientific as it should be but I don't feel the need to measure every meal strictly just yet when I know I'm running at least 1000c under maintenance.

On day 1 I had a bit of a scare. During my walk I decided to visit the hospital that does my work medicals and ask if I could weigh on their scales. Well it turns out that even they don't have scales that weigh above 150kg (being above that weight in Cambodia, where I live, is extremely uncommon so I think they'd never encountered this issue).

Anyway, this means the scales just read 'overlimit' which would mean they can't record a weight - in short, it would definitely result in my medical failing and I wouldn't be able to get a work permit renewed to continue working in the country.

The good news is that today, at the start of day 4, my scales show that I've got down to a weight they can already read. So I can confirm that as of this morning, my weight is 150.8kg.

I'm a little nervous about the weekend approaching but feeling positive!

[MJWeightloss]

Good job, keep it up!