Weight loss results so far...

nesf

Right bit of an update thingy, I got an accurate scales and body fat measuring thingy today to help me keep track of my weight loss and force me to do something about it. It will kinda serve as a reminder that I am overweight and need to do something about it!!

Anyways, my last accurate weigh in was in November when I went into hospital. So the change is as follows. (Keep in mind I'm only 6 foot and 23)

In November I was 17 stone 4 pounds, I had a blood pressure of 160 over 112. My pulse was 124 at rest.

Today, I was 15 stone 8 pounds, I had a blood pressure of 147 over 94. My pulse was 105 at rest.

In just over 5 months I have dropped 24 pounds and my blood pressure has gone well done, and my pulse is coming back towards double digits

The changes in the past 5 months weren't much, all I did was:

I went for an hours walk every day without fail and traveled everywhere reasonable on foot (reasonable being within an hours walk).

I was also taken off some medication that had possible weight gain as a side effect.

Finally in the past 3 months I got out of the depression I was in for the previous 3 years, and I've been a lot more active and have energy again Gym here I come....

On the bad side my body fat percentage is just under/over 30%, so I defo need to be getting an hour to two's cardio in at the gym in the next week or two (to start with, I'm going to start small and slowly build up my hours put in, I'm hoping to be putting in at least 6 hours a week in 6 months). I'm not going to make any drastic changes to my lifestyle, I'm going to slowly and carefully improve it. Small achieveable steps is the way to go

Anyways, I was fairly chuffed about dropping all that weight Just thought I'd share the news.

Edit: My blood pressure and pulse are higher than they should be because of certain drugs that I am on. I've talked to my doctors about it and they told me not to worry about it too much as it pretty much happens when you are on the dosages I'm on apparently. I am well aware that having a pulse at rest of over 100 at the age of 23, is nothing to sing about, but for me this is a fact of life for having to deal with the drugs I'm on. Just to stop the "OMG your pulse is SO HIGH you should see a doctor!!!" posts before they start.

Chad ghostal

Nothing to add other than well done, congrats on getting out of the depression and keep it up

Dizzyblabla

well done! and keep it up! Just be careful that you don't obsess over it, and eat sensibly too, no fads, just everything in moderation... I think weight loss is one of the biggest confidence boosters EVER!
do you know how the scales accuratly measure the body fat? humm.. I should try and get my hands on one...

CathalMc

Thats class, good work! Its tough to keep a lifestyle routine like that going, I applaud your effort!

rasherboy

has to be said nice work!! and it does pay off! i was obese to for a few years! its amazing what a little effort can yield!
well done

nesf

Dizzyblabla wrote:

well done! and keep it up! Just be careful that you don't obsess over it, and eat sensibly too, no fads, just everything in moderation... I think weight loss is one of the biggest confidence boosters EVER!
do you know how the scales accuratly measure the body fat? humm.. I should try and get my hands on one...

The scales measure fat by you entering your height, sex and age and by an electrical current it can test the resistance of your body and from that combined with an accurate measurement of your weight make out your body fat percentage. I'll try and find a link after I post this and edit it in.

As for the fad diets and the like, bleh I have no interest in them. I used to be quite fit and very interested in fitness up until I was 20, then a sequence of accidents and illness caused me to lose my fitness and I fell into a depression not long after all of this happened, this ended up with my lifestyle going to ****. My diet went from one mainly consisting of stir frys and the like to one laden with junk food. I also started smoking much heavier, I went from 20 a week when I was 18-20 (started at 18) to at my worst 60 a day. I'm down to 20 a day for the past month and a bit, so I'm making progress.

EDIT: Linkage...
Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA)
With this method, a device sends a tiny electrical charge through your hands or feet and uses the data to determine how much of you is fat and how much of you is water, with muscles and lean tissues being mostly water. To do the calculation, the unit needs to know your gender, age, and weight. These units should not be used by anybody with a pacemaker, but should be safe for most others.

Cut and Pasted from here.

Transform

Congratulations!!! Now thats what i love to hear - stories of people who are out there doing it.
Lets have more of this on the board - how many times do we really need to know how to drop body fat?

"The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want."
- Ben Stein

BrianD3

Well done. It's good that you've started taking your health and fitness seriously at age 23 which is still very young. Many wait till their late 30s or 40s and then get into a big panic.

PS I nearly had a heart attack myself when I saw your RHR and BP Good thing you explained about the medications

BrianD3

nesf

BrianD3 wrote:

Well done. It's good that you've started taking your health and fitness seriously at age 23 which is still very young. Many wait till their late 30s or 40s and then get into a big panic.

PS I nearly had a heart attack myself when I saw your RHR and BP Good thing you explained about the medications

BrianD3

Yeah I reread the post and thought,

"Hmm, If I saw a post on here with a guy who was 23 saying he had RHR and BP that high I'd be screaming at him to get to his doctor as quickly as possible."

So I thought I'd put people's minds at ease and let them know that my doctors were aware of it. It was actually quite amusing. I was at my parents about 6 months ago and my dad had gotten a blood pressure monitor a few years back because well 1) he's a big guy (my weight but 2 inches shorter, not fat, just big) and he has a very stressful job so he wanted to keep an eye on his blood pressure now that he's passed 50, and 2) he loves his gizmos as much as I do! .

Anyways, he had taken my blood pressure for all the family every 6 months or so, more for his own amusement than anything else. His blood pressure is slightly high but nothing to worry about, the rest of my family, mom especially, have excellent BP and himself and myself were shocked when my blood pressure made his look low! So next time I saw my psychiatrist, I said to her that my BP and pulse were crazy and was it to do with my meds. She decided at that point that she was putting me into hospital for a few weeks for observation (I had been trying to stay out of hospital upto that point, hospital is fine when you are physically sick, but I'd been sent in because of psychological reasons when I was still lucid before and it really stressed me out and made me anxious and twitchy).

So instead of psychiatric hospital where I'd be confined (not pleasant) she agreed to put me into a nice private hospital in Cork that is mainly used for post operation recovery and for people who needed a rest. They monitored my BP and HRH for a week aswell as doing copious blood tests, kidney tests, MRI scans etc. They found that I was reacting to one particular drug that I was on (an anti-psychotic) quite badly. My liver enzimes results were a long way from a blood test I'd taken 6 months previously, I'd gained about a stone in the month and a half I'd been on the drug and my sleep pattern had gotten worse. On the plus side they found that my kidneys were doing fantastically and I was flushing the large amount of drugs I was taking out of my system completely within 24 hours of taking them. This is particularily important for lithium because of it's high toxicity levels. My BP and HRH also apparently was fine over the day, it turned out that while I slept, and early in the morning my BP and HRH was down to 120 over 80 with a pulse of 80 odd (rough figures) and that my BP only rose very high in the latter part of the day.

I was changed to a different anti-psychotic which kept my weight very high (appetite gets messed up when your on anti-psychotics, you can be starving one day and eat 3-4 dinners, and then eat nothing for the next 2 days). I got taken off the second anti-psychotic in the end of January because of my weight and my lack of postive response. I've pretty much lost the weight since then because my appetite stopped being so ****ing messed up and I got exercise every day.

It's amazing what a little walking can do to your weight when you are far heavier than you should be for the amount you eat.

Mr E

Great progress, nesf! As a previous poster said, it'll do wonders for your confidence. The worst part about it is having to buy a new feckin wardrobe of clothes

seamus

TmB wrote:

The worst part about it is having to buy a new feckin wardrobe of clothes

Amen to that. I'm in a similar position to nesf. Started last August at 17 stone, 5.5lbs. I had always fooled myself into the usual thinking when I ever weighed myself - "My clothes add a stone to my weight", "I've just eaten dinner, that's half a stone".

I'd been overweight since I was around 11, I broke my kneecap and spent six weeks sitting on my ass, eating crap. When college started, and I started driving, stopped cycling, and my weight went up again. Though so gradually that it didn't alarm me. I knew I was overweight, I didn't like it, but I always had a "I'll sort it out later" attitude. Excuses got in the way of everything. Really what I wanted, like everyone else, was an easy way of losing weight, without letting anyone else know about it. I was embarrassed to admit to myself that I was too heavy, because that would be like standing up in front of the whole world and shouting, "I'M A FAT BASTARD".

Then I left college, got a nice sedentary job of 8 hours in front of a computer all day, and I jumped almost a stone between April and August. It wasn't until I saw those scales (an accurate, digital scales) push waay over 17 stone, I got a serious fright. It was like a little fuse blew in my head, disabling all the excuses and inhibitions, and saying "**** me, this can't go on".

So, 9 months later (and it doesn't seem even nearly that long), I'm down 39.5lbs (to 14 stone 8lbs) and I reckon I have maybe 8-9lbs to go until I'm at the "normal" range, though I might go a little further. My waist size has dropped from 39-40 inches to around 35-36 inches. The first 6 months were where the bulk of the weight was lost. For various reasons, I've managed to trim only half a stone in the last 3 months, but it's something.

I think the best parts (the parts where you really see the difference) are -
1. Finding clothes that got commissioned to the back of the wardrobe after they stopped fitting and realising that they're now too big for you.
2. Your pants falling off when you remove your belt
3. Seeing a gradual increase in muscle definition, without even doing anything.
4. Being able to jog 2km non-stop after just three weeks in the gym, when 6 months ago, I'd be knackered after 200 metres.

I'm at a point now where I have two pairs of jeans, 3 going out shirts and a couple of jumpers in total that fit me correctly. Oh, and my shoes of course .
Pretty much all of the clothes that I ever bought before January this year just don't fit me any more. It's going to be an expensive summer

nesf

Congrats Seamus, you're doing very well mate!!


The strange thing about me is this, even though I dropped 24 pounds I didn't need a new wardrobe

My waist has been at 36 inches since I was 17 when I was doing kickboxing and TKD training 3 times a week! I was around 200 pounds even back then. See in my family we have very high bellys. It's strange and looks really weird to be honest. I put on a load of weight but my measurements didn't change much, I didn't have "man-breasts" or fat on my arms or legs. All the fat just gathered in my belly and my belly is naturally tensed and is above my waist line. It looks ****ing odd to be honest, I can't wear shirts tucked in and have to wear very loose upper body clothes beacuse of the inch to two inch difference between my belly and my waistline!

Other things that changed were my neck got a lot thicker over the years, I'm at 17 inches at them moment. But theres no fat on my neck, just muscle! I have a ****ed up body now that I come to think about it.

I don't swim out of embarrasment over my body to be honest about it. Picture this, a large high belly right like any overweight guy but combined with legs which are toned and muscled and a normal chest with strong arms again with little fat on them. My back is just muscled and toned Then a thick muscled neck with a fairly chubby face on top. I look like a freak to be honest. A common comment by women is

"Well apart from the belly you have a nice toned body. You're strange."

It's a nice incentive though, because when I start dropping weight the only thing that really changes is my belly and I can see the difference there quite quickly.

daveirl

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nesf

daveirl wrote:

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Yeah, I think 30% sounds about right though, judging from my belly. I don't think anyone would honestly tell me that I couldn't stand to lose a stone or two!

Dizzyblabla

But I LOVE the shopping for new clothes, not going into a shop and buying something cause the buttons will tie, but buying them cause they look good on, and the shop actually having my size - another confidence booster! - but really bad for the bank balance!

daveirl - what would you suggest instead of the body fat monitors instead then?

daveirl

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kjt

Well done, Glad to hear your doing so well