I Am On A Weightloss Journey
So all through my life, with exception of when I was a rather chubby toddler, I had been a skinny guy. Not skinny in a weak looking way, but in a lean, semi-athletic way.
You'd think this would have been something to be happy about. I could eat anything, any quantity, and my body wouldn't gain weight. I was this way up till the age of 22, all through college too.
I was never really thrilled with it though. I mean how I looked. I had always wanted a bigger (which then I thought meant tougher) physique. Unfortunately, I could never commit to going the gym for more than a few weeks before getting bored with it. So what do I do? I decided, in all my 21 year old wisdom, that if I couldn't be a big, muscular guy... I would just be a big guy.
I concluded after about half a day of internet browsing, that it could be accomplished by forcing myself to eat twice what I ate then. Good lord, I was dumb. :/
In any case, I carried that plan out faithfully. I wasn't eating junk food though. All good, home cooked meals... with fresh produce... just a lot of it. Plus beer. That was mostly for fun, I have to admit.
So what happens? In 8 months... I go from a mostly healthy 170 lbs guy... to a 250 lbs guy. Yup, I gained 80 lbs in 8 months.
In the beginning, I was thrilled with the whole thing. It felt good to be 'big' for the first time in my life. People didn't bump into me on the street like before, and there was a sense of caution from strangers... which I had never experienced as a thin (healthy) guy. For some stupid reason, these were real important things for me back then. Dumb, dumb youth.
I'm sure you can guess where this story is headed. After a couple of years, my joy in my new size diminished. Mostly because everything was just harder now. Moving around, walking, sitting, bending, and let's not even attempt to think about running. The joint pains were a surprise.
Now you might be thinking, "Well, 250 lbs is not that huge."
Aha, but here's the thing. My body was not equipped to handle that weight naturally. I had been a skinny guy all my life, remember? I just force fed myself into this over a few months.
My body wasn't adjusting very well, to say the least. In turn, I kinda went with it, and grew even less physically active.
This was my situation for years. I also put on more weight and hit 260 lbs at some point.
I am now 31. A few months ago, I decided to just do something to combat the sluggishness I was feeling all the time. Still not the weight though. I had kinda given up on it.
I just wanted to increase my energy levels. So i slowly stopped reducing my carb intake. This was, by no means, a well planned diet or anything.
I'd just eat a little less carbs, and then even less every day. Until I basically had one good carb meal a day, and the rest of the meals I'd chose to eat anything else. Protein.. fruits... whatever.
I had done no research on this. I was just going by the 'feel' of it.
To wrap up this ridiculously long story... 6 months ago, I weighed 260 lbs or thereabouts.
When I checked 3 days ago, I weighed 216 lbs. Fingers crossed I can finally reverse the effects of a stupid, stupid choice I made 9 years ago.
I mean, you know... it would be nice to be able to move around again without feeling like crap. :)
You'd think this would have been something to be happy about. I could eat anything, any quantity, and my body wouldn't gain weight. I was this way up till the age of 22, all through college too.
I was never really thrilled with it though. I mean how I looked. I had always wanted a bigger (which then I thought meant tougher) physique. Unfortunately, I could never commit to going the gym for more than a few weeks before getting bored with it. So what do I do? I decided, in all my 21 year old wisdom, that if I couldn't be a big, muscular guy... I would just be a big guy.
I concluded after about half a day of internet browsing, that it could be accomplished by forcing myself to eat twice what I ate then. Good lord, I was dumb. :/
In any case, I carried that plan out faithfully. I wasn't eating junk food though. All good, home cooked meals... with fresh produce... just a lot of it. Plus beer. That was mostly for fun, I have to admit.
So what happens? In 8 months... I go from a mostly healthy 170 lbs guy... to a 250 lbs guy. Yup, I gained 80 lbs in 8 months.
In the beginning, I was thrilled with the whole thing. It felt good to be 'big' for the first time in my life. People didn't bump into me on the street like before, and there was a sense of caution from strangers... which I had never experienced as a thin (healthy) guy. For some stupid reason, these were real important things for me back then. Dumb, dumb youth.
I'm sure you can guess where this story is headed. After a couple of years, my joy in my new size diminished. Mostly because everything was just harder now. Moving around, walking, sitting, bending, and let's not even attempt to think about running. The joint pains were a surprise.
Now you might be thinking, "Well, 250 lbs is not that huge."
Aha, but here's the thing. My body was not equipped to handle that weight naturally. I had been a skinny guy all my life, remember? I just force fed myself into this over a few months.
My body wasn't adjusting very well, to say the least. In turn, I kinda went with it, and grew even less physically active.
This was my situation for years. I also put on more weight and hit 260 lbs at some point.
I am now 31. A few months ago, I decided to just do something to combat the sluggishness I was feeling all the time. Still not the weight though. I had kinda given up on it.
I just wanted to increase my energy levels. So i slowly stopped reducing my carb intake. This was, by no means, a well planned diet or anything.
I'd just eat a little less carbs, and then even less every day. Until I basically had one good carb meal a day, and the rest of the meals I'd chose to eat anything else. Protein.. fruits... whatever.
I had done no research on this. I was just going by the 'feel' of it.
To wrap up this ridiculously long story... 6 months ago, I weighed 260 lbs or thereabouts.
When I checked 3 days ago, I weighed 216 lbs. Fingers crossed I can finally reverse the effects of a stupid, stupid choice I made 9 years ago.
I mean, you know... it would be nice to be able to move around again without feeling like crap. :)
36-40, M
