Ditching your vices and losing weight.

[Twofingerlou]

The last year the weight started catching up to me reaching my mid 30’s. Wasn’t really a New Year’s resolution just kinda the timing and getting tired of it. It’s really started to effect my energy and motivation, my sleep ect.

Few weeks ago I bought a scale to see where I was at. I’m about 6’1 and I’ve hit 255. My prime felt good weight was around 200. I was doing good until last week but losing my grandma i kinda fell off the wagon. That said I’m im going to get back on.

I started by ditching the constant pop and sweet tea intake. While not a long run so not much weight loss notices in a short time I started to notice some improvements in my sleep ect. I’ve been working on my portions and better meals. Trying to not snack on crap before bed watching the news ect. I started making my own un sweet tea.

My job has made this harder as my activity level is pretty low driving the majority of the day so that’s the next step to work on. Clearly I need to get more active to offset all this. I have dumped taking the crap to work to snack on throughout the day since I rarely get a lunch break and filled that with plain Cheerios for example.

Beer…. I’m working on cutting back with that, one of my Buddy’s tossed in the towel and has been sober all month so far. I’ll drink a couple here or there during the week but we used to go kinda hard on the weekends. We’ve been hanging out but it’s not the same. This has kinda made me realize it’s not as fun anymore. Perhaps with what he’s done and hitting my age mark is a wake up call.

Clearly the activity level plays a role here, but for those that have tackled this. Is it better to go one step at a time? That was my initial approach, I don’t think I can ditch everything at once or I’d lose my mind.

I’d like to feel like I got some of my life back. I had to buy some new dress clothes the other day and felt like I looked like a slob in the bigger stuff. Would feel great to get back in a pair of 36x32’s instead of the 40’s.

Some people recently have mentioned my weight gain to me which is fine, looking at older pictures we’ve gone through with grandmas stuff this week I can tell a difference as well.

 

[middy]

You do look like a slob (I mean you can still look good if you’re well put together and charming, you did get some compliments, it just takes more effort). That’s the hard truth guys. Drop the fork.
You should be shooting for 185 and some size 34s at your height.

Intermittent fasting works pretty well for me. You can eat for eight hours of the day. You fast the other 16. I break my fast with lunch at about 11. A couple cups of black coffee in the morning and I can ignore my hunger until then.
Then finish dinner before 7 pm and eat nothing after that.

 

[middy]

You’re going to want to stay active to maintain muscle mass, but don’t bother trying to work the pounds off. It’s much faster to diet, and you’d be putting a lot of wear and tear on your joints carrying an extra 65 pounds around.
You’ll be amazed how easy everything is when you’re back under 25% fat. You can start jogging and weights then to firm everything up.

 

[Informal]

You'll get several tips, some will be good, some might be horrible.

I'll throw in my 2 cents.

There are a million diets/workout routines listed online.
But it's going to come down to your commitment... pure and simple. Eat less (and healthier) get more exercise.

You have to dig deep and find your motivation.

I was super active all the way through High School, between wrestling and football... I could eat anything I wanted, and still have a 6-pack.

After high school, chasing women was my motivation to keep working out.

After marriage, and a few chunky/lazy years... My daughter was born... and as shallow as it sounds (and is)
My next motivation for staying in shape, was not embarrassing my kid and hearing her repeat a phrase I said to my beer-bellied father "You can just drop me off here Pops, I meet my buddies who take the bus in this spot"

Yep, not proud of it, but I was embarrassed by his 3rd trimester gut, and I never wanted my kid ask to drop me off out of the view of her friends.

Now I've spent more than half my life, committed to staying in shape.. it's just kind of stuck, I have lazy periods.. where I skip the gym for several weeks, and eat like crap.. But I suppose now I'm just a cheap old bastard who isn't buying a new wardrobe, cause when the shorts/jeans start getting too snug... I get back on track

 

[dogmeat]

too late. I'm a fat old man... get over it. I did

 

[Twofingerlou]

You do look like a slob. That’s the hard truth guys. Drop the fork.
You should be shooting for 185 and some size 34s at your height.

Intermittent fasting works pretty well for me. You can eat for eight hours of the day. You fast the other 16. I break my fast with lunch at about 11. A couple cups of black coffee in the morning and I can ignore my hunger until then.
Then finish dinner before 7 pm and eat nothing after that.

Well some people commented yesterday that I looked nice. I think as a taller guy that’s always had a bigger frame I might carry it better than others. My prime in highschool was around 200 with the same height. At one point a couple years later I dropped down around 185 and got comments from some saying wow you’re getting skinny.

 

[JRicoC]

As you've already realized, ingesting excessive sugars is bad. If you'd like to continue drinking sodas, try to find a "Zero-Sugar" option that does not taste horrible to you. You may only find one or two options, but just stick to those.

Strangely enough, work often creates a struggle with weight gain, due to numerous factors: sedentary commute times, eating based on a schedule, versus based on need, using time that could be spent engaged in healthy activities.

To that end, you should establish a regular workout schedule. A person in his mid thirties should still be relatively close to the period of highest activity in his life. You need to find some cardio activities that you can do four or five days a week. the best thing is to not let yourself stop, once you've started. When I was in my mid thirties I was doing some combination of playing basketball two or three times a week, playing softball, golfing, doing strength training, and cardio year 'round. I scaled back on the stuff like hoops and softball and gained a bout a pound for each of the next 10-12 years.

I got back to a regular regimen, and avoided sugary drinks (including sports beverages) and now weigh less than I did 25 yeas ago.

Oh, and nothing good comes from drinking beer ...

 

[middy]

The last year the weight started catching up to me reaching my mid 30’s. Wasn’t really a New Year’s resolution just kinda the timing and getting tired of it. It’s really started to effect my energy and motivation, my sleep ect.

Few weeks ago I bought a scale to see where I was at. I’m about 6’1 and I’ve hit 255. My prime felt good weight was around 200. I was doing good until last week but losing my grandma i kinda fell off the wagon. That said I’m im going to get back on.

I started by ditching the constant pop and sweet tea intake. While not a long run so not much weight loss notices in a short time I started to notice some improvements in my sleep ect. I’ve been working on my portions and better meals. Trying to not snack on crap before bed watching the news ect. I started making my own un sweet tea.

My job has made this harder as my activity level is pretty low driving the majority of the day so that’s the next step to work on. Clearly I need to get more active to offset all this. I have dumped taking the crap to work to snack on throughout the day since I rarely get a lunch break and filled that with plain Cheerios for example.

Beer…. I’m working on cutting back with that, one of my Buddy’s tossed in the towel and has been sober all month so far. I’ll drink a couple here or there during the week but we used to go kinda hard on the weekends. We’ve been hanging out but it’s not the same. This has kinda made me realize it’s not as fun anymore. Perhaps with what he’s done and hitting my age mark is a wake up call.

Clearly the activity level plays a role here, but for those that have tackled this. Is it better to go one step at a time? That was my initial approach, I don’t think I can ditch everything at once or I’d lose my mind.

I’d like to feel like I got some of my life back. I had to buy some new dress clothes the other day and felt like I looked like a slob in the bigger stuff. Would feel great to get back in a pair of 36x32’s instead of the 40’s.

Some people recently have mentioned my weight gain to me which is fine, looking at older pictures we’ve gone through with grandmas stuff this week I can tell a difference as well.

Have you had a checkup? Your blood pressure and cholesterol are probably starting to get up there. Now’s the right time to lose the weight and get those down before you start needing medication.

 

[Vegetable Man]

Look into a keto diet. It was the easiest one for me.

If you can reduce your carb intake to under 50 grams a day, you will lose weight.

Adding regular exercise will help even more.

Informal is right about commitment. Whatever you decide to do, you have to stick to it.

Don't get discouraged. Good luck!

 

[Twofingerlou]

You'll get several tips, some will be good, some might be horrible.

I'll throw in my 2 cents.

There are a million diets/workout routines listed online.
But it's going to come down to your commitment... pure and simple. Eat less (and healthier) get more exercise.

You have to dig deep and find your motivation.

I was super active all the way through High School, between wrestling and football... I could eat anything I wanted, and still have a 6-pack.

After high school, chasing women was my motivation to keep working out.

After marriage, and a few chunky/lazy years... My daughter was born... and as shallow as it sounds (and is)
My next motivation for staying in shape, was not embarrassing my kid and hearing her repeat a phrase I said to my beer-bellied father "You can just drop me off here Pops, I meet my buddies who take the bus in this spot"

Yep, not proud of it, but I was embarrassed by his 3rd trimester gut, and I never wanted my kid ask to drop me off out of the view of her friends.

Now I've spent more than half my life, committed to staying in shape.. it's just kind of stuck, I have lazy periods.. where I skip the gym for several weeks, and eat like crap.. But I suppose now I'm just a cheap old bastard who isn't buying a new wardrobe, cause when the shorts/jeans start getting too snug... I get back on track

I guess it’s a lifestyle change and getting in the groove/finding a groove for the better.

 

[Twofingerlou]

As you've already realized, ingesting excessive sugars is bad. If you'd like to continue drinking sodas, try to find a "Zero-Sugar" option that does not taste horrible to you. You may only find one or two options, but just stick to those.

Strangely enough, work often creates a struggle with weight gain, due to numerous factors: sedentary commute times, eating based on a schedule, versus based on need, using time that could be spent engaged in healthy activities.

To that end, you should establish a regular workout schedule. A person in his mid thirties should still be relatively close to the period of highest activity in his life. You need to find some cardio activities that you can do four or five days a week. the best thing is to not let yourself stop, once you've started. When I was in my mid thirties I was doing some combination of playing basketball two or three times a week, playing softball, golfing, doing strength training, and cardio year 'round. I scaled back on the stuff like hoops and softball and gained a bout a pound for each of the next 10-12 years.

I got back to a regular regimen, and avoided sugary drinks (including sports beverages) and now weigh less than I did 25 yeas ago.

Oh, and nothing good comes from drinking beer ...

Thanks for the input!

 

[Twofingerlou]

Have you had a checkup? Your blood pressure and cholesterol are probably starting to get up there. Now’s the right time to lose the weight and get those down before you start needing medication.

Yes I’ve started to get to the doctor the last few years regularly after getting my ass jumped by some family members.

 

[Twofingerlou]

Look into a keto diet. It was the easiest one for me.

If you can reduce your carb intake to under 50 grams a day, you will lose weight.

Adding regular exercise will help even more.

Informal is right about commitment. Whatever you decide to do, you have to stick to it.

Don't get discouraged. Good luck!

I have a buddy that did the Keto thing iirc. He’s shorter than me but got to around 280. Isn’t that basically no carbs and anything good? No bread no pasta ect?

 

[Vegetable Man]

I have a buddy that did the Keto thing iirc. He’s shorter than me but got to around 280. Isn’t that basically no carbs and anything good? No bread no pasta ect?

Just keep carbs under 50 grams a day.

You can have a Reeses peanut butter cup, but you have to count the carbs.

Oroweat makes keto bread that isn't too bad. Shirataki noodles instead of pasta, but I recommend treating that like Ramen. It works as spaghetti, but not great. Rebel ice cream isn't bad, either.

Spinach, salads, berries, broccoli, eggs, real butter, meats, cheeses, nuts, pork rinds, are all fair game.

Dieting means cutting something and I found cutting carbs easier than cutting portions/fasting.

If I'm hungry, I eat. Just not carbs.

 

[Solaris moon]

Without reading through all the posts : I tried to dump all the junk at once but that's a bad idea because you'll only crave it again and again until you can't stand it and go back into bad habits. I too have had a lot of disappointment in my life but some good spots. I've had friends and family murdered or committed suicide or simply died. All my grandparents are now dead with my grandmother on my mom's side of the family in two thousand and sixteen. My uncle (her son) died about eight or nine months later on the same day one of my friends died from cancer. Although life has put a lot of bad **** in my way I've had to learn to deal with it and get away from the booze and drugs. The latter of the two I did first. I quit smoking since it's a disgusting, filthy and highly expensive habit any way.

The hardest part was getting away from sweets and fatty foods. I've been binging again on garbage because it's available at work. Now I need to get serious as I'm not tall - 5" 8 inches short and around 258 pounds I HATE the way I look and feel!! Plus I now sleep with a CPAP machine which is a pain in the ass - around the clock. The first thing I did in two thousand and twenty one was to go to the gym but all that was wrecked when my a$$hole brother (a story for another day) came home and gave my mom COVID and myself at the same time!! My younger brother came home for a visit TWO DAYS before Christmas - the exact same time I started coughing. I picked him up at the train station. Well we had our get together on Christmas and my Birthday is the following day so we went out for it. When I went outside I was freezing although I was fine for the most part before. I knew I had a fever. It was two days later and my younger brother told me he had COVID! Well that wrecked my time at the gym because I too came down with it and I couldn't go anywhere.

It's been almost a year since I had it but I've only gone to the gym a small hand full of times since then. Now I feel sore and tired all the time as my job keeps me feeling this way which I'm so ready to quit that it's not funny! I quit drinking soda and eating ice cream, candy, chips, pasta, and pizza all the time. Now my skin on my stomach is so loose that it hangs over my belly and looks gross! My belly button is loose too as the skin above it hangs loose so that it feels like a bulge at the top when I touch it. Now I have to get into shape and work out again. That was the only thing that I felt good doing but I wish I stuck with it and that I never got COVID otherwise I would have and I would have lost more weight and I probably would've lost about a hundred pounds! All this has taught me that if you eat junk and don't exercise you get FAT!!! My only advice to you is to be determined. I can't let all this destroy my resolve. Find within yourself as I did that nothing is going to stop you - no day, no night, no consequence or moment will keep you from trying (to quote Enya in Far And Away).

 

[Brent Hutto]

I started by ditching the constant pop and sweet tea intake.

I hate sweet tea but tend to get into a Coke-a-day habit if I don't really resist the urge. One 20oz bottle of soda pop a day doesn't sound like much but it will nudge my weight up a couple pounds a month over time. So about once a year I'll go cold turkey on all sweetened beverages and, hard as it is to believe, just that change will usually let me shed 4-5 pounds over a period of a couple months.

It's kind of a mystery why I fall into that habit. It isn't like a cola drink is my favorite thing in the world. Just an easily available quick sugar shot I suppose, the stuff's designed to be habit forming.

Now ice cream is the thing I won't or can't give up. If I never ate any ice cream at all I have no doubt I'd eventually lose 5-10 pounds but I'd rather have my ice cream and weigh 200 pounds than not have it and weigh 195. We always (literally every night) had ice cream for dessert in the evenings when I was growing up. The only thing that's changed is I now eat a small <200 calorie serving instead of the huge bowl like I did when I was a kid.

 

[teletail]

You didn’t gain the weight through fad diets, you won’t lose it and keep it off with fad diets. If you can’t quit it all at once, then don’t. Soda, sugar and alcohol should go first, then cut back on fatty foods, bread and dairy. Find time to exercise. The only way to keep it off it to change your lifestyle. There are no secrets, tricks or shot cuts - take in less calories and burn more calories.

Good luck, I lost 60 pounds and have kept it off for 15 years.

 

[middy]

Just keep carbs under 50 grams a day.

You can have a Reeses peanut butter cup, but you have to count the carbs.

Oroweat makes keto bread that isn't too bad. Shirataki noodles instead of pasta, but I recommend treating that like Ramen. It works as spaghetti, but not great. Rebel ice cream isn't bad, either.

Spinach, salads, berries, broccoli, eggs, real butter, meats, cheeses, nuts, pork rinds, are all fair game.

Dieting means cutting something and I found cutting carbs easier than cutting portions/fasting.

If I'm hungry, I eat. Just not carbs.

This works because its carbs are the easiest thing to overeat. Overeating proteins and oils is just as bad calorie-wise, but you tend to quit eating sooner when full for some reason, and stay full longer. Substituting whole grains is rather than forgoing carbs altogether should be the plan when your weight is down where you want it. Long term, whole grain carbs are easier for your body to turn into energy and safer than meat and dairy for your actual health if overeating is no longer a concern.

 

[blowtorch]

 

[Peegoo]

typical 'diets' don't work for most folks because they are a transitory thing. It has to be a permanent lifestyle choice.

Will power works for me because if I gain weight, I'm the dum bass and it's my fault.