I'm gonna hop in on this.
Height: 6'2"
Age: 34 next month
Starting weight:205ish
All-time low as adult: 155-160# in 2016 after having abdominal surgery due to Crohn's disease-more on this below
More "normal" range: 190-200ish#
Lifetime high: 280# senior year of high school (late 2004)
Goal: 15-20# off for a total weight of 180-185# to remove love handles and belly
Current progress: 197.8#
Background:
I was overweight/fat for the vast majority of my childhood from about 7/8 years old up to the beginning of college. My diet was crap, and I wasn't physically active. My self esteem was very low, and although I knew I needed to make some changes, I never did. Simply enough, I was just a lazy kid. I had ballooned up to 280# by the fall/winter of 2004, which was my heaviest.
That winter, our school began making announcements for lacrosse sign ups. This was only the second year our district was offering lacrosse as a sport. I wish I had been aware of it my junior year as well, but alas... I decided to sign up for it since it was a new sport to our area, and I wouldn't be too far behind the curve in terms of the game itself. Obviously I was way behind the curve physically. I also had a freshman friend joining as well, and the girl I had a crush on (never got out of the friend zone, for the record) was playing for the girls' team. All of these factors encouraged me to join the team. Thankfully, there were no try outs since it was a newer sport, and the number of players wasn't high enough to warrant cutting anyone.
We began conditioning late that winter/early spring, and I was easily the most out of shape player on the team. However, simply getting off my butt began working wonders, and I had lost 30 pounds before the season started. I don't remember making any significant changes to my diet, but I'm sure it wasn't as crap as it used to be. Anyways, I continued to lose weight throughout the season and decided to keep running after graduation. I ran constantly with said girl who friend zoned me. We ran around her neighborhood nearly every night.
By the time college started the next fall, I was down to about 220ish or so. I never stopped running and got more active and eventually evened out around 180-190 in college. Most people talk about gaining the freshman 15, but I lost it. Anyways, I found that if I stayed active, I could pretty much eat whatever I wanted back then. This had some to do with my metabolism, but I found out years later in 2014 that I had Crohn's disease, which I believe played a role in this as well.
In the summer of 2014 I ended up in the hospital with a bowel obstruction and was diagnosed with Crohn's. I was put on meds and was being treated until 2016 when I had my resection. The surgeon removed a portion of my terminal ileum where it attaches to my large intestines and my appendix. The surgery was necessary because my stricture had become so severe that I could only eat very easily digestible things like soups, white breads, and Ensure type drinks. I had dropped a ton of weight in the couple of months leading up to surgery due to this, hence my lowest at about 155-160.
Post surgery recovery, I began lifting weights somewhat seriously (not competitively or anything, but consistently through the Starting Strength program) and eating pretty heavily to put on muscle quicker. I was accustomed to not being able to gain weight, but with my stricture removed and my intestines healed from the inflammation (Crohn's is chronic, but I've been in remission since the surgery), I was putting it on much easier than in the past.
I had leveled out around 190-195 after a couple years, but over the past year or so I've been very slowly gaining more fat around my midsection. My love handles and gut have slowly gotten bigger, and I'm simply not happy with the way I look and feel. My diet isn't terrible, but I snack too much at night and in general. I'm also getting older, so I know my metabolism isn't what it used to be.
My cardio has also suffered since my running days. I quit running due to knee pain several years go (and because it's boring), but still try to do fast incline walking and jump roping occasionally. I also enjoy hiking/backcountry fly fishing, but don't do it enough for it to be a regular exercise regimen. My sleep is also crap. I get about 6 hours a night because I can't put my phone down, which is another issue I need to tackle.
I still lift 4 days a week and continue to see the weight on the bar slowly increase, and I'm not opposed to the weight on my body increasing as well due to muscle gain, but it's gotten to the point where I'm not happy with the fat gain. I've had to increase my shirt size from L to XL due to the tire around my midsection. I'd like to say I had to switch from L to XL due to the size of my chest/back, but alas that wasn't the case, so here we are.
For the record, although I used to have high cholesterol (my pediatrician told my mom it was the highest she'd ever seen in a middle schooler), it and my other labs have been well within the healthy/normal range since college, outside of Crohn's flare ups.
Strategy: My wife, who's birthed 2 kids and is a type 1 diabetic, decided to start Weight Watchers a few weeks ago because she was approaching 200#. She carries a lot of muscle from doing cross fit for a few years before the kiddos came along, but her diet had also been crap and she'd put on weight from the pregnancies and her poor eating habits. She's also a nurse who works 7pm to 7am two-three nights a week and found herself snacking a lot at work, and the flip flopping sleep schedules/lack of sleep during work stretches probably play a role.
She's tried other diets in the past like Paleo and Whole30, which worked well for her, but were not sustainable for her. She's lost nearly 15 pounds in the past month on WW and by going to the gym religiously. Our dinners have been all WW recipes she's found, and are actually pretty dang good and filling. She's really inspired me to make some changes, so I decided to start WW with her.
I started last Wednesday and have lost about 2-3#s as of this morning. Since I want to continue getting stronger, I need to be sure to incorporate enough of lean protein into my diet while staying within my allotted "smartpoints." I've been eating more fruit/veggies and less processed grains/sugars and more whole wheat alternatives. I've dropped most pastas, as their very high in points.
I'll give WW a try for a few months and see what happens in the gym and around my midsection. I'm not going to rely terribly on the scale, but more so on how I feel and look and how my clothes fit. Their point system is pretty flexible and is essentially a simpler method of counting macros, which I've found tedious in the past and haven't kept up with after a couple weeks. This seems much easier for me to stay on track with. It's also forcing me to break some habits like excessive nighttime/weekend snacking, more fruits/veggies, and drinking more water, that'll hopefully carry over when I'm at my goal weight/physique.
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Originally Posted by Diamondback
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