I lost four pounds!

[Otto]

I joined a gym last week and started working out Friday, because, well, I am a lumbering behemoth. Weighed in on Friday (with fear and trepidation). Went in today and I wasn't going to weigh myself because I didn't really feel any results. Decided to do it anyway, and I was down four pounds. I'm friggin' ecstatic. Still a behemoth, but a little less lumbering.

[ShibbOleth]

I think I found them. Do you want them back?

[bobo]

Originally posted by ShibbOleth
I think I found them. Do you want them back?

you might have found a couple of mine... I've dropped about 35 in the last 7 monthes... from 225 to 190... keep up the good work Otto

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

Way to go!!! Even though 4 lbs might seem like a paltry amount to some, it's enough to already make a difference in appearance and the way one's clothes fit. Way to go! Celebrate by having a big peanut buster parfait on me! Wait, scratch that.....

[Persephone]

bobo, I think yours are over here, hangin' off my fat fanny. I'll keep them warm for you, 'kay? :D

[Margarita]

Good for you! But don't freak if the scales belie your progress, because muscle weighs more than fat, so there will come a point when your weight will cease to lower but your muscle mass and general fitness level will increase.

Ok, more than you wanna know, but I'm a size-obsessed person, who has battled anorexia for years (and won). I refuse to know my weight, because I'll obsess about it. I pay attention to the size of jeans I wear, and if it goes over an acceptable-to-me number, I cut out the Big Macs for a while. I don't own a scale, and I firmly believe they are detrimental to anyone who cares about their physical health. Weight is relative. If ya feel good, ya feel like you look good, and then you do.

[J248974]

I lost 8 in 5 days. I changed my diet.

I weigh in at, or weighed, 215 pounds, most of it in this rather large and pendulous stomach that mysteriously had begun to strain at my jeans waist lately. After showers, I found myself eyeing me in the mirror, looking at the great, saggy paunch of flab and thinking sarcastically 'sexy.' I used to weigh 175 with just a tiny belly but when I started taking medication and was forced to take on a much less active lifestyle, the flab came on. That plus I developed a fanatical taste for Land O Lakes Margarine and put it on everything. (800 calories a stick). I love it on spaghetti and would make up a heaping pot of sauce, then have a great plateful and consume a whole stick with the meal!! (Oh! The savory flavor and the hot/cold contrast with every forkful!!) Plus I snacked a lot and consumed sweet sodas.

So, I stopped. I cut out the snacks and replaced them with these Quaker flavored rice chips and rice cakes. (Those new rice chips are almost TOO tasty but luckily they are low calorie.) I switched to diet soda, drink a lot of water and bunches of vegetable juice like V-8 or V-8 clones. I eat a lot of soup. (210 calories for a can). I eat a lot of green salads. (60 calories for a whole bag of premade green salad! Two tablespoons of any dressing added = 190 calories for a filling meal. Two to three meals per bag. I eat lean beef and chicken and very, very little candy.

Eight pounds popped off and more to go. I want to get back to 175 pounds and I absolutely hate structured exercise! I hate warm weather so I stay inside a lot but now that winter is coming I'll probably start walking around the neighborhood to get rid of the pounds faster. I tried the home exercise stuff years ago, with a stationary bike, a huge weight tower and things like pushups, sit-ups and stuff like that.

Geez! It was sooooooooooooooo booooooooorrrrrrrrriiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggg! I about went nuts! I don't know how people in these exercise clubs can trot or walk for 30 minutes on a treadmill, staring fixedly at nothing!!

If you've dropped 5 pounds, keep it up and just alter your diet. Low fat and low sugar, though you can cheat a little, but make it only a little. I drink about a quart of vegetable juice a day and it tastes pretty good. That makes up for two to 4 servings of vegetables a day on a normal diet.

[Otto]

I don't know how people in these exercise clubs can trot or walk for 30 minutes on a treadmill, staring fixedly at nothing!

You know, I thought I'd be the same way, but in just this short week I've gotten to kind of like the treadmill. OK, not like the treadmill, but I don't hate it. Now, the Stairmaster I hate. The Stairmaster I hate with the white-hot passion of a thousand burning suns.

My health club has TVs tuned to different channels and has boxes attached to the cardio equipment that lets us listen to the TV or one of about a dozen music channels. I've been doing two miles a day, takes me about 35 minutes and according to the treadmill that burns 400-500 calories depending on pace. Three days a week I do some basic weight training, more to build endurance and tone than to "bodybuild." That's really the only thing that discourages me, because I don't have anywhere near the arm strength that I thought I did. Then I sit in the sauna for a while and do some time in the pool, not laps really, just sort of playing around.

I haven't really been "dieting," just not eating as much as I usually do. Food and I haven't had the best relationship for the last, oh, couple of decades, so I'm kind of amazed at how easy it's been to cut my intake. I don't really count calories but I think I'm somewhere around 1000-1200 a day. Lots of fresh fruit, juice, melba toast (the melba toast preferred by Bart Connors and Nadia Comenichi!), and vegetarian burgers. Water, diet sodas, the occassional morsel of chocolate or Fruit Runts (love the candy bananas!). I get into these things where I eat just a couple of kinds of foods for like days or weeks then I switch to something else, but I always try to make sure I get some sort of balance. And I take a multi-vitamin every day (when I remember it at least). I stopped eating cheese made with animal rennet about a month ago, which functionally means I don't eat cheese.

The odd thing is that in just a week I've had this sea-change in my attitude toward my body. I hated it and was ashamed of it for so long, but in the last week, well, I'm not proud of it, but I also don't try to hide in the locker room or anything like that. I think it's the idea that I'm doing something to change it that's caused me to change.

Geez, look at me rambling. Thanks for the good words everyone. Appreciate it.

[elfkin477]

I did an experiment for the month of October- no sweets with more than 4 grams of fat(so pudding, rice krispie treats and york peperment patties were occasionally allowed) Sugar withdrawal isn't fun, but I wanted to have a challenging test of my willpower. That's the only change I made, and I lost 6 pounds. I have halloween candy now, but my goal is to do the same thing between M-F from now until right before christmas(being a realist, I know the limits of my own willpower which why the experiment ended the morning of the 31st) then from New Years on. It wasn't as hard as I thought, so this easier goal shouldn't be too bad, either. It's scary though, I never really thought about how much of the fat in my diet came from sweets.....

[Airman Doors, USAF]

I started work at a bookbindery last June (of 2000, that is). When I started I weighed 275-280 pounds. By the time I enlisted in the Air Force in May, I weighed 209 pounds.

All it takes is some exercise and some determination. I am living proof of that.

Now, some of you may say that you can't lose weight because it just won't come off. That's fine. I'm just saying that if you're carrying a considerable amount of extraneous weight, it will come off if you put a little effort into it, that's all.

[naughtysiggie]

Congrats :)

[eirroc]

Good for you Otto keep it up!
Originally posted by J248974
I tried the home exercise stuff years ago, with a stationary bike, a huge weight tower and things like pushups, sit-ups and stuff like that.

Geez! It was sooooooooooooooo booooooooorrrrrrrrriiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggg! I about went nuts! I don't know how people in these exercise clubs can trot or walk for 30 minutes on a treadmill, staring fixedly at nothing!!
Defenitly agree with you there J248974. Recently however, I started at Uni and joined the Netball club, I love Netball, and it doesn't feel like exercise at all.

[psychogumby]

Reminds me of the time I lost 5 lbs. I eventually recovered them, thanks to police sniffer dogs.

That reminds me, the court case starts tomorrow ...

:D

[Juniper200]

Congrats, Otto! Doesn't it feel great to step on the scale for the first time after starting a new program and say "What? I lost HOW much?!"

I started on a diet/exercise program at the end of May. I started out at 169, and as of this morning, I'm down to 141 1/2. I had to stop exercising for the past month or so because I've been so sick, but the weight is coming off again and I feel so good! My goal is 130, and I really think I can make it by Christmas.

Good luck to Otto and everyone else!

[vanilla]

I will take them!
I have actually gained some lately. I have been trying and its hard but I am now at 127 lbs!

[Enderw24]

I lost four pounds!

Those mohels do fantastic work, don't they?

[GrandfatherTrout]

So my first reaction to the thread title was "What, that's about six bucks?"

[Otto]

Week two weigh-in, and I lost another six pounds last week, bringing the total to ten.

I really, really hate shoulder presses. Shoulder presses are wretched. Shoulder presses are evil. Shoulder presses are Hitler. And arm curls are Goebbels.

Spent a lovely couple of hours tonight watching "The Maltese Falcon" on PBS and trying on almost every piece of clothing I own. I have about 15 shirts and five pairs of pants that were either tight or unwearable that I can now wear. The clothes in my closet are now arranged in order of "can wear them now," "will probably be able to wear them next week or the week after if this pace keeps up" and "Happy New Year!"

[Genseric]

Just to chime in with some more encouragement. I've gone from 335 to 230 lbs. (I'm a tall, large framed guy) in the past year (70 of that since late June) by cutting regular sodas, large pizzas, double meat cheeseburgers, and everything fried from my diet. I also work a rather physical job as well. I've gone down five belt holes and a watchband size. My pants are just way too damn big now. Gonna have to buy new clothes, and I've still got about 30 more lbs. to go. I have to say it's pretty great, though.

[Otto]

Just bumping this thread up to announce that as of today, the last day of November, I have lost a total of 20 pounds.

[VenusProbe]

Originally posted by Otto
Just bumping this thread up to announce that as of today, the last day of November, I have lost a total of 20 pounds.

Woot! Way to Go! I have only managed to lose 10 pounds in 5 months

[Zanshin]

Just wanted to say to Otto and all others that have reported weight loss in this thread --

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

As someone who grew up overweight and only recently having gotten into the shape I want to be in, I know exactly where you're coming from. Keep going and the best of luck getting to where you want to be!

I will offer one piece of advice, however. Don't get too hung up on what the scale says. Your weight can vary both upwards and downwards -- the overall TREND will be downwards, but you may have one of those 'up' days every once in a while. So if you jump on the scale and the reading's a little higher than it was the day before, don't get discouraged. (Myself, I don't even want to know the number. As long as I can look in the mirror and be pleased at the progress I see visually, that's the best indicator for me.)

Again, way to go, all.

[Baltoeyegrl]

You go Otto!
You must be kicking ass at that gym. It has taken me a year and a half to lose thirty! You rock, cause dieting and exercise is really hard.

You deserve a great, big pat on the back.
Is there someone you could ask to take care of that for me?

[Otto]

I will offer one piece of advice, however. Don't get too hung up on what the scale says.

Oh I don't. I go to two different branches of the same gym. I only weigh once a week, and always on the same scale.

My short-term goal is to lose another 15 before the end of the year, but I'd be happy with 10.

[Zanshin]

Good deal! Go get 'em, Otto! Keep us posted. :)

[OxyMoron]

brrrrrrrrAVO!, otto!

Having spent the last six years as member of the Evil Circuit Queentm gym around the corner from my apt, I'm always glad to see people stand up to Gymtimidation. I know I'd prefer to spend my time around normal people who are making positive changes in their lives rather than a bunch of overbleached, overbaked basket-case "boys." Keep it up....and don't worry if your progress slows during the holidays, that's normal for everyone. Just keep going! (and keep us posted :))