dtd350

I am restarting my quest to get down to a normal weight. 5 years ago I weighed 345 pounds and I was 21 years old. I went on Weight Watchers and lost 140 pounds in a year and a half. I was very happy with my weight loss but I didn't exercise enough so when I lost the weight I just looked like a fat guy that recently just lost alot of weight. Over the past 3 1/2 years or so, I have gained back 62.5 pounds as you can see by my signature which I am extremely unhappy about. I can't believe I let myself do this. It changes today! I have used this site before in the past but I am going to do this!

I know how to eat to lose weight but what I need help with is in the following areas:

1. What should be my %Protein vs. %Fat vs. %Carbohydrate? Is there a magic balance?

2. What exercises should I start out with? I have a pretty active job where I am walking around a good amount of the time. I work at a plant nursery. I am constantly walking, lifting, etc. I am aware of the fact that what I do at my job is not really work for my body because it is used to it. I need to do something over and above what I normally do. What would people out there recommend? I am 6'0" tall and I have a bigger build.

3. My biggest problem is motivation. I got motivated last time and I have really struggled with getting motivated to do this. I am just now feeling like this might work. Where do successful people, doing what I am trying to do, get the motivation to do this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

tandoorichicken

Hi dtd,

Well done on getting back to the site and making another go at weight loss. Sometimes you just have to keep at it even in the face of past failures to get where you want to go.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any magic balance of macronutrients that works for everyone. I've known people that were successful on low-fat, and I've known people that were successful on low-carb. Probably the one thing that these people shared in common was that they threw out all the processed trash in their diets and started eating real food, like salads, minimally-processed meats (no sausages, ground-up "mystery" meat, spam, etc.), fresh-squeezed juices, and cooked cereal grains other than rice like barley and quinoa. You'll feel loads better just by eating real food for a couple days. As for the right ratios, you'll have to figure them out by trial and error.

For exercising at your current weight, you just want to get moving, above and beyond what you do at work. How far is the nursery from home? Is it possible to walk there? At the gym, the rowing machine and elliptical are low-impact cardio activities that will help you burn off calories without stressing out your joints. Swimming does this also. Finally, I'd toss in some free weight lifting to supplement. With your build (as you described) you should be able to handle a decent amount of weight, so try doing some barbell curls or bench pressing to start out. Even if you start off just using a naked bar, you'll train a lot of supporting muscles, up your metabolism noticeably, and, best of all, these movements will carry over to your nursery job. When you get more comfortable with the bar and improve your muscle/fat distribution a little you can even move on to slightly more advanced exercises like squats and overhead pressing.

As for motivation, I don't really know what to tell you. You could keep coming back to this thread and I (and am sure other cool guys here) will try to keep your spirits up. Something that's always motivated me is going for bigger numbers in the gym. Whether that was more distance on the rowing machine, or bigger lifts, I concentrated on improving those numbers and lost a lot fat in the process. Out of curiosity, are you a gamer? Because a lot of my friends, as well as myself, got motivated to exercise more and eat healthier after they made the connection to..... "leveling up."

TyreonMaui

Aloha Guys,
Last week was tough for me. I had a low level of motivation after several weeks of weight loss and then a plateau. Intellectually I know this is normal but emotionally it’s very frustration. Really glad to see your posts and I believe DTD you could teach us much from your past successes. Tandoorichicken, Thanks for the pep talk. Also like your disclaimer. I shall watch this thread for your stories.
Ty

efduncan

I think a lot of us are in the same boat as dtd. I have made my goal a few times over the past 20 years only to let my guard down and have to start over. I guess the folks who call it a life long journey are wise. I don't think you need to do %s of cabs, fat, etc. I think we all know what to do and sorry to sound like a Nike ad but "Just do it"!
I think Nik sums the formula up pretty well with his 3 keys to success.
Keep up posted on you how your doing. I think all folk on this site are on you side and only wants you to succeed.
Ed

dtd350

Thank you for all the kind words from everyone. They are really helpful. I am pretty upset with the fact that I lost all that weight just to be one of those people that gained it back. I am thinking that that is what is making this difficult for me to get started. I bum about that everyday. I feel now like I am in a different state mentally right now than I have been in the past 3 years or so, so I am hoping this is the time to shed the weight and keep it off.

Once again thank you for all the kind words and support and I will keep you posted on all my successes and failures as well. HAHA...hopefully far less failures than successes.

dtd350

7 Days down and I had some success. Thank you for all your inspirational words. I lost 2.5 pounds this week! I am pretty happy and my mind is still in weight loss mode. I think I am in the right frame of mind for this and feel good about it.

I will update further later.

richardiv87

Just got to keep it going. As you know having been through this before, there are ups and downs...I'm in the middle of losing a lot of weight...67lbs so far and a way to go...and have just come through the downs of it (the plateau I just seemed to break through this week for one). Still its worth it in the end. My basic ratios are based on low fat - trying to hit 15-25% usually, although every once in a while just boosting that into the 30s for a day does help. I find it almost difficult with that regime to get above 1,800-2,200 calories which by just pure math terms makes me lose weight! Works for me...wish you luck.

dtd350

Well, week 3 is down. Week 1 was good. Lost 2 pounds, then week 2 happened and I went up 1 or 1.5. Now, week 3...I am back up to where I started again!

I am still motivated. I gotta do this! I need to figure out what is going wrong. I need to get motivated to get to the gym is what I need to do.