Concept2 Forum

Just turned 54 and have been struggling with weight for about the last 25 years. Over those years I've taken off fairly large amounts of weight a number of times, only to seriously backslide and pack it back on again. About 8 years ago I dropped 90 pounds, getting down to 205, and even going as far as donating all my "fat clothes" to GoodWill. Of course, I've managed to gain it all back and then some (and bought new "fat clothes"). I have an extensive collection of fitness equipment, (free-weights, an old NordicFlex Gold, some kettle-bells, various other strength training stuff, and a recumbent touring trike when the weather is good) and live in a rural area with lots of room to walk/run, though asthma has been an issue the last few years - largely, in my opinion, due to much too much weight
Back in September of 2011, I bought a Model D and got (temporarily) back on track, having to date logged 3,441,331m lifetime, but including many large gaps of months of inactivity. Since 2011, I've even managed a number of half marathons and 1 marathon (my times were truly pathetic, but I went the whole distance), but after being away from it for most of the last 18 months, I find myself again over 300 pounds.
These last 18 months haven't been spent just slacking. My wife has been fighting cancer, and my time and focus has been there. But she has done very well in her battle, and now I've got to do something about me. Can't go on like this anymore. I need to get the weight off, all of it (I should be around 185 according to all the "charts"), and keep it off. I have all the tools, and know how to do it. I just need to get it done. I begin (again) tonight. I expect my gut will be in the way again - as others have posted, and I've experienced, but I know form will be much better as time goes on.
I treated myself to an upgrade for my erg (a birthday gift to myself), getting the back-lit PM5. I may be weird, but I like rowing in the dark with my ear-buds in and good tunes on. I used to always have a lamp shining on the PM4, but the PM5 arrives today, and tonight I'll just have to try it out !

It has probably been said many thousands of times already on this forum - weight loss cannot be done by exercise alone. There has to be a lifestyle change of eating habits. With that under control, exercise does indeed help, but it takes a long, long time. The keys are patience and persistence.

Bob S

I think that losing weight can be a lot like quitting smoking. You just have to keep trying until it sticks.

Since you've done it before (holy crap! 90 pounds, that's terrific), I doubt you need a lot of advice about how to go about it, but you should know that lot's of people have succeeded with long term weight loss and a some of them are on this forum. I have managed to maintain a much smaller 40 pound loss over 4 years so far.

Even though you don't need the advice. I'll give you a little anyway from my experience. I'm not sure if it's applicable to you.

1. Bob's right. Exercise can't be the only part of the plan.
2. You need to look it as a lifestyle change. So much of eating is either habitual or social. Things like dessert after dinner, or a mid afternoon snack, or a bag of chips while watching TV. The first step is to start to look at food as fuel and not as a pastime.
3. Training hard is a really good thing. First, it will burn 750 to 1500 calories a day, and as long as you don't increase caloric intake, that alone is enough to drop a couple pounds a week. Second, it provides some thing to measure beside just weight. By tracking workouts, setting goals and achieving them, you can see your progress toward a faster 2K, a better marathon, a lower resting heart rate, lower blood pressure, etc.
4. I found that defining a target diet in terms of carbs, protien and fat and then tracking it religiously (I used LoseIt, an iphone app) really helped me.
5. Be very careful with carbohydrates. Stick with whole grains and the starch and sugar you get in fruits and vegetables. carbs spike your blood sugar, which spike insulin, which packs it away as fat and crashes blood sugar and makes you hungry. The lower you keep you carb intake, the easier it is to maintain a diet. By the way, I am not a Paleo, South Beach, Atkins, VLC, or other advocate. I know a lot of people who are really successful on these diets with tight carb restrictions and I believe they are effective. My issue is that I don't really like eating that way. So, instead, I try to eat a balanced diet, avoid junky carbs, and count calories.
6. If you are a numbers person, I recommend that you take a look at this link:

https://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/

It's a diet by an engineer and it helped me get a better grasp of the balance of nutrition and exercise.

I'm very happy to hear that things are improving for your wife and you you can get going on this project. I wish you the best on your effort. Take it slow, and only do things to lose weight that you would be happy doing for the rest of your life.

Thank you, gentlemen. Yes, I'm well aware that lifestyle change is required. Losing the 90 pounds was done with a low carb, strength training program I followed for a bit over a year from Men's Health Magazine called the TNT program. I'm also very familiar with "Lose It", an excellent app I've had success with in the past, though like other tools at me disposal, it's been dormant on my phone for quite a while. Back in the "TNT" days I was also doing the 100 Pushups Challenge (just before the book came out and well before the app). At one point I was able to knock out 3 sets of 100 pushups in about 15 minutes. I was doing over 1,000 pushups a week back then, on top of the strength training and some occasional treadmill work or biking to break things up. It was all very structured, and structure is what woks for me. Strength work will certainly play a roll this time as well as cutting out the bad carbs.
The low carb "thing" rescued me from pre-diabetes, significantly lowered my blood pressure, and made my Dr. smile when he saw my weight and my cholesterol blood work. He actually called his nurse/assistant over and said "look how much he lost !!". Going back to see him since then has been a series of embarrassments.
Oh well, life goes on.
Thanks for the thoughtful responses

Rick W.


PS; Thanks for the link to the Hacker's Diet. I'll read it tonight.

I think 95% of this whole thing is being smart with one's carbs. Raw veggies are absolutely delicious. Once you upgrade your carbs from overly sweet stuff to things that are actually nice like cauliflower and broccoli, nice grains, bits of fruit etc., you realize the other stuff is just empty, unsatisfying crap.

Also make sure your water, fibre and protein intakes are all high.

I too saw cancer among my family and friends in the last year or so, and in most cases the cancer won the battle. One realizes how precious life is. So let's put the effort in and make it a good one. We owe it to ourselves and our loved ones.