The Officialish FOFC Weight Loss Dynasty

[Ben E Lou]

Begin June Update:

1/7: 274.0
2/1: 265.0 (-9, -9)
3/1: 256.0 (-9, -18)
4/1: 243.0 (-13, -31)
5/1: 229.7 (-13.3, -44.3)
6/1: 217.5 (-12.2, -56.5)

MAY TOTALS

• Ran 107.9 miles
• Walked 20.2 miles
• Lost 12.2 pounds

JUNE GOALS

• Run 100 miles
• Weight Training at least 3 days per week
• 135 crunches and 9 minutes plank per week (3 sets of 15 crunches and 3 1-minute planks three times per week)
• Weigh 205 pounds or less on morning of July 1st (Lose 12.5 pounds)

[sabotai]

Weight
March 25-31 (beginning): 237.00 avg
May 19-26 (8 weeks): 226.20 avg (-10.80 lbs ovr)
May 27-Jun 2 (9 weeks): 225.09 avg (-1.11 lbs, -11.91 ovr)

The last time I saw the scale say 225.X, it was a 1 day anomaly ~ 2 years ago. This week I saw 224.X 4 times, so that makes this officially the lowest I've weighed (that I know of) since college.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Weight
March 25-31 (beginning): 237.00 avg
May 19-26 (8 weeks): 226.20 avg (-10.80 lbs ovr)
May 27-Jun 2 (9 weeks): 225.09 avg (-1.11 lbs, -11.91 ovr)

The last time I saw the scale say 225.X, it was a 1 day anomaly ~ 2 years ago. This week I saw 224.X 4 times, so that makes this officially the lowest I've weighed (that I know of) since college.

that is awesome! well done!!!

FM

[Comey]

Great job, both of you!

[Comey]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Begin June Update:

1/7: 274.0
2/1: 265.0 (-9, -9)
3/1: 256.0 (-9, -18)
4/1: 243.0 (-13, -31)
5/1: 229.7 (-13.3, -44.3)
6/1: 217.5 (-12.2, -56.5)

MAY TOTALS

• Ran 107.9 miles
• Walked 20.2 miles
• Lost 12.2 pounds

JUNE GOALS

• Run 100 miles
• Weight Training at least 3 days per week
• 135 crunches and 9 minutes plank per week (3 sets of 15 crunches and 3 1-minute planks three times per week)
• Weigh 205 pounds or less on morning of July 1st (Lose 12.5 pounds)

Well done. If I may offer a couple of suggestions, as someone who went down this road recently...

Start biking. Stationery bike, road bike, whatever. I was running around 140 miles a month, and it chewed up my knees hard. You also burn more calories through an hour on the bike. I do the bike a few times a week, mix in a couple of runs, and my legs are in the best shape they've been in in years. (I've had a torn ACL since 2005.)

I do a system of planks calls 8-9-10s. Eight planks in 9:10. Minute on, ten seconds off. I do this everyday, and the results are profound.

Just wanted to share. Keep up the awesome.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Comey

Start biking. Stationery bike, road bike, whatever. I was running around 140 miles a month, and it chewed up my knees hard. You also burn more calories through an hour on the bike. I do the bike a few times a week, mix in a couple of runs, and my legs are in the best shape they've been in in years. (I've had a torn ACL since 2005.)

My doctor told me the same, that I seriously needed to make sure to crosstrain and include some non-impact cardio such as biking into the mix. I haven't found that it seems to burn as much calories for me though for an hour on the bike. Is it just an intensity issue for me since my biking muscles aren't as developed as running muscles so I just can't keep a high intensity up for as long on the bike?

I feel that I get torn between the two, that I want to improve my biking, but I want to improve my running even more so its impossible to find the time to dedicate to both. I have no clue how people do it for triathlons with three disciplines.

[Kodos]

Do you guys all run on streets/sidewalks. I've been running at the local school to go a little easier on my legs.

[AnalBumCover]

3/04/13 239.2 Starting Weight
4/05/13 235.6
5/03/13 233.8
6/04/13 232.8 (-6.4 overall)

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Do you guys all run on streets/sidewalks. I've been running at the local school to go a little easier on my legs.

I mix it up. Probably 90% of the time i run on streets/sidewalks, but sometimes i drive or run to nearby bike trails to run. I usually do my interval runs at the high school track when i have those scheduled.

[finketr]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I mix it up. Probably 90% of the time i run on streets/sidewalks, but sometimes i drive or run to nearby bike trails to run. I usually do my interval runs at the high school track when i have those scheduled.

i wish i could find a high school track to run on here.. they're all gated/locked.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Weight
March 25-31 (beginning): 237.00 avg
May 19-26 (8 weeks): 226.20 avg (-10.80 lbs ovr)
May 27-Jun 2 (9 weeks): 225.09 avg (-1.11 lbs, -11.91 ovr)

The last time I saw the scale say 225.X, it was a 1 day anomaly ~ 2 years ago. This week I saw 224.X 4 times, so that makes this officially the lowest I've weighed (that I know of) since college.

Kickass!!

[DaddyTorgo]

I've switched almost exclusively to the bike.

I've never really counted how many calories I burn during the exercise on an absolute basis - I just know that the "calorie counters" on the machines say I burn 700 calories in 49 minutes on the elliptical, and 700 calories in 42-44 minutes on the bike.

[Radii]

7/1/11: 350
1/28/12: 329
7/18/12: 320.8
8/4/12: 318.2
9/11/12: 312.5
6/6/13: 299.0


Under 300, woo! I haven't posted here in awhile. I hung out between 305-310 for a few months to end 2012 and start 2013. Around Christmas I started running, doing the couch to 5k program. The first few months it pretty much sucked and every time I ran I just wanted it to be over, something clicked in April and I actually feel kind of addicted to it now. I've built up to running 5 days a week, and seem to have settled in to a routine going about 50 minutes 4 days and a long run of 90 minutes or so once a week. I do walk some of it, but I usually end up running 85-90% of the time each day.

Anyway, the running didn't lead to any weight loss by itself, though it did make me feel a ton better. I have complained many times that while I had lost 40 pounds I didn't feel any better, didn't have any more energy, didn't sleep any better, etc, than I did when I was 350. But once I started to see some fitness improvements and could run a bit more I did start to see all of those things improve.

The thing that got me out of the plateau around 310 was to stop eating out. Too often I would have a good breakfast and lunch and not feel like making dinner and say "well I've done good so far today I can afford it" and go get a burger or something. At the start of May I set a new rule for myself, "no eating out at all for a week", and I lost a bunch of weight that week. I'm trying to make that the norm for me, and through May I only ate out if I was out of the house for a number of hours and got hungry.

I'm also counting calories obsessively, which I've done off and on in the past, but I've decided that I am not going to lose weight reliably if I don't.

The last bit of good news here is that I'm not taking any medication to help control my blood sugar. Unless I start seeing a lot of higher blood sugars when I check it I'm not taking it and will see how that works out at my next follow-up appointment with my doctor in 6 months. I'm still on meds for blood pressure and cholesterol, doc wants my weight down some more before we drop those.

[Kodos]

Sub-300! Great job, Radii! I know my wife finds calorie-counting to be key to her weight loss. When she tracks, she does well, when she doesn't track, she does much worse.

I'm edging closer to my goal of 200 by my birthday (July 1st). Was 203.2 this morning. Have lost 7.4 pounds in last 4 weeks and 10.2 overall since I started trying to lose weight 16 weeks ago. Things kicked into gear for me when I started walking on my breaks at work (and before and after my shifts). My longer-term goal is somewhere in the 170 to 180 range.

[Alan T]

Great job Radii!

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Great job Radii!

[FrogMan]

that's awesome news Radii! Absolutely awesome!!!

FM

[Swaggs]

Great work!

[sabotai]

Weight
March 25-31 (beginning): 237.00 avg
May 19-26 (8 weeks): 226.20 avg (-10.80 lbs ovr)
May 27-Jun 2 (9 weeks): 225.09 avg (-1.11 lbs, -11.91 ovr)
June 3-9 (10 weeks): 223.26 avg (-1.83 lbs, -13.74 ovr)

Slow and steady wins the race.

[FrogMan]

Nice sab, well done!

FM

[Dodgerchick]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Weight
March 25-31 (beginning): 237.00 avg
May 19-26 (8 weeks): 226.20 avg (-10.80 lbs ovr)
May 27-Jun 2 (9 weeks): 225.09 avg (-1.11 lbs, -11.91 ovr)
June 3-9 (10 weeks): 223.26 avg (-1.83 lbs, -13.74 ovr)

Slow and steady wins the race.

Nice job, sab!

[Dodgerchick]

Originally Posted by Radii

7/1/11: 350
1/28/12: 329
7/18/12: 320.8
8/4/12: 318.2
9/11/12: 312.5
6/6/13: 299.0


Under 300, woo! I haven't posted here in awhile. I hung out between 305-310 for a few months to end 2012 and start 2013. Around Christmas I started running, doing the couch to 5k program. The first few months it pretty much sucked and every time I ran I just wanted it to be over, something clicked in April and I actually feel kind of addicted to it now. I've built up to running 5 days a week, and seem to have settled in to a routine going about 50 minutes 4 days and a long run of 90 minutes or so once a week. I do walk some of it, but I usually end up running 85-90% of the time each day.

Anyway, the running didn't lead to any weight loss by itself, though it did make me feel a ton better. I have complained many times that while I had lost 40 pounds I didn't feel any better, didn't have any more energy, didn't sleep any better, etc, than I did when I was 350. But once I started to see some fitness improvements and could run a bit more I did start to see all of those things improve.

The thing that got me out of the plateau around 310 was to stop eating out. Too often I would have a good breakfast and lunch and not feel like making dinner and say "well I've done good so far today I can afford it" and go get a burger or something. At the start of May I set a new rule for myself, "no eating out at all for a week", and I lost a bunch of weight that week. I'm trying to make that the norm for me, and through May I only ate out if I was out of the house for a number of hours and got hungry.

I'm also counting calories obsessively, which I've done off and on in the past, but I've decided that I am not going to lose weight reliably if I don't.

The last bit of good news here is that I'm not taking any medication to help control my blood sugar. Unless I start seeing a lot of higher blood sugars when I check it I'm not taking it and will see how that works out at my next follow-up appointment with my doctor in 6 months. I'm still on meds for blood pressure and cholesterol, doc wants my weight down some more before we drop those.

Holy cow, I totally missed this. Radii, that's friggin awesome!!! I didn't know you were doing C25K, so happy to hear that!!

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

I didn't know you were doing C25K, so happy to hear that!!

When I started around Christmas I couldn't even do week 1, I could run for 30 seconds a few times and that was it. I think it took me into my 3rd week before I could fully complete the "week 1" of C25K. I moved up really slowly, after like 2 1/2 months I think I was on week 5 of the program? I ended up veering off on my own and stopped following it, instead just opting to run for as long as I could before I felt like I had to walk each time out. At some point I ran a mile which I may not have ever done before in my entire life, and definitely haven't done since freshman high school basketball tryouts.

I've run 5k without any walking twice at this point. I can easily run for 30 minutes without any walking if I pace myself (which I'm not always good about), my pace is still quite slow though so that's nowhere near 5k -- I'm ok with being the slowest person around almost all the time, I know it gets better as I drop weight and do it more, but sometimes I get frustrated and wish I could progress faster... anyway, I digress. Most of the runs you see on Strava from me right now are in the 50-55 minute range and will have 3-6 minutes of walking in them.

[Dodgerchick]

That's great you stuck with it, major props.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

That's great you stuck with it, major props.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Radii

When I started around Christmas I couldn't even do week 1, I could run for 30 seconds a few times and that was it. I think it took me into my 3rd week before I could fully complete the "week 1" of C25K. I moved up really slowly, after like 2 1/2 months I think I was on week 5 of the program? I ended up veering off on my own and stopped following it, instead just opting to run for as long as I could before I felt like I had to walk each time out. At some point I ran a mile which I may not have ever done before in my entire life, and definitely haven't done since freshman high school basketball tryouts.

I've run 5k without any walking twice at this point. I can easily run for 30 minutes without any walking if I pace myself (which I'm not always good about), my pace is still quite slow though so that's nowhere near 5k -- I'm ok with being the slowest person around almost all the time, I know it gets better as I drop weight and do it more, but sometimes I get frustrated and wish I could progress faster... anyway, I digress. Most of the runs you see on Strava from me right now are in the 50-55 minute range and will have 3-6 minutes of walking in them.

Don't get frustrated man...you're doing an amazing job of it.

[Ben E Lou]

Passed the 60-pound mark. Low 210s now. Possible extended family hibachi dinner out tomorrow night, but no other foreseeable obstacles the rest of the month. (No other travel, celebrations, or guests in town in other words.) Month goal of 205 by 7/1 still appears to be doable.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Passed the 60-pound mark. Low 210s now. Possible extended family hibachi dinner out tomorrow night, but no other foreseeable obstacles the rest of the month. (No other travel, celebrations, or guests in town in other words.) Month goal of 205 by 7/1 still appears to be doable.

Nice! You're doing great! You are working hard and the results show it

[heybrad]

It's been a month since I checked in but I'm still slowly making progress.

Starting weight on 4/24: 285
4/29: 283.4
5/7: 283
5/13: 282
6/16: 275

Total weight loss: 10 lbs. Gympact has been a god send for me. I've met my pact every week. I would say I'm still not eating great and I need something to help me figure that side out as well.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by heybrad

It's been a month since I checked in but I'm still slowly making progress.

Starting weight on 4/24: 285
4/29: 283.4
5/7: 283
5/13: 282
6/16: 275

Total weight loss: 10 lbs. Gympact has been a god send for me. I've met my pact every week. I would say I'm still not eating great and I need something to help me figure that side out as well.

Good job on the exercise!

For the eating, one of the things that helped me was to get into the whole calorie counting in a way where I was held accountable by friends. A program that some of us use is Lose It! or I know others use Myfitnesspal. The process of just recording everything you eat for a while seemed to help wake me up that perhaps I shouldn't have that extra few pieces of pizza or that huge soda.

One of the other things that helped me , which I guess is similar to gympact, was that my friends and I did a mini Biggest Loser competition for a while. Just the idea of winning it for the money helped keep me motivated to not overeat as well. There is an app like gympact out there for weight loss too that someone mentioned once on here (I don't remember the name of it) that you could use for the eating side perhaps, if that helps motivate you?

[sabotai]

Weight
March 25-31 (beginning): 237.00 avg
May 19-26 (8 weeks): 226.20 avg (-10.80 lbs ovr)
May 27-Jun 2 (9 weeks): 225.09 avg (-1.11 lbs, -11.91 ovr)
June 3-9 (10 weeks): 223.26 avg (-1.83 lbs, -13.74 ovr)
June 10-16 (11 Weeks): 221.94 avg (-1.31 lbs, -15.06 ovr)

[Kodos]

Here are my last 7 weekly weigh-ins. I just hit my goal of 200 pounds by my birthday (July 1st). Now I need to continue this on my way to 180, my next goal.

5/10 - 210.6
5/17 - 208.2
5/24 - 206.2
5/31 - 205.2
6/7 - 203.2
6/14 - 204.0
6/21 - 200.0

[hoopsguy]

Congrats, Kodos. Always rewarding to hit goals you set for yourself.

[Alan T]

Congrats Kodos!

[sabotai]

Monthly (well, every 4 weeks) update

Weight
March 25-31 (beginning): 237.00 avg
May 19-26 (8 weeks): 226.20 avg (-10.80 lbs ovr)
May 27-Jun 2 (9 weeks): 225.09 avg (-1.11 lbs, -11.91 ovr)
June 3-9 (10 weeks): 223.26 avg (-1.83 lbs, -13.74 ovr)
June 10-16 (11 Weeks): 221.94 avg (-1.31 lbs, -15.06 ovr)
June 17-23 (12 Weeks): 221.17 avg (-0.77 lbs, -15.83 ovr)

Fat Percentage
March 25-31: 34.51% Fat%
April 21-28: 33.33% Fat%
May 19-26: 32.73% Fat%
June 17-23: 32.24% Fat% (-2.27% ovr)

Muscle Percentage
March 25-31: 30.90% Musc%
April 21-28: 31.61% Musc%
May 19-26: 31.80% Musc%
June 17-23: 32.19% Musc% (+1.29% ovr)

Resting Metabolism
March 25-31: 2115.43
April 21-28: 2069.29
May 19-26: 2052.14
June 17-23: 2023.14 (-92.29 ovr)

Visceral Fat
March 25-31: 15
April 21-28: 14
May 19-26: 14
June 17-23: 13.1 (-1.9 ovr)

A bit of a down week and the last several weeks have been ~1 pound per week. As long as everything keeps moving in the right direction...

[Alan T]

I just love it when I see someone that I hadn't seen in a while now. Last night at softball, one of our players was there for the first time this season. I hadn't seen him since the beginning of November during some flag football games.

His first comment was "Wow.. have you lost alot of weight? You look thinner"

I don't care how many times I hear that, it never ever ever gets old and makes me happy each time.

[Doug5984]

Haven't read the entire thread, but looks like I'll be joining it. My younger days of being a bean poll have been over for a few years- and when all my clothes started getting really tight I decided it was time to focus in before it got to bad.

I started weight watchers with my wife, she had done it before and really liked it so I figured it'd be easier on both of us if we worked together with it, and the point system.

I started May 29th at 178, and yesterday June 26th I was down to 170.1, my goal weight is 155-160, depending on how I feel. Most importantly it's forcing me to make good food decisions which I had never done before. Looking at how I was eating previously there were days where I was easily eating 100 WW points. Not a whole lot of food, just terrible food and snacks.

[Alan T]

Cross posted from my running log.. end of June weight update for me:

Originally Posted by Alan T

From a weight perspective, slow and steady continues to be the theme..



Lost almost 5 pounds last month which means I could see an official weight below 190 at some point next month hopefully. As of today, I've lost:

[Ben E Lou]

Begin July Update:

1/7: 274.0
2/1: 265.0 (-9, -9)
3/1: 256.0 (-9, -18)
4/1: 243.0 (-13, -31)
5/1: 229.7 (-13.3, -44.3)
6/1: 217.5 (-12.2, -56.5)
7/1: 203.5 (-14.0, -70.5)

JUNE TOTALS

• Ran 132.2 miles
• Walked 12.4 miles
• Lost 14.0 pounds

I'm still thinking about my July goals. Will post hopefully later today.

[hoopsguy]

Ben, you are just killing it. Congrats on your hard work and results.

[Ben E Lou]

Thanks. I think it's fair to say that the phrase "pleasantly stunned" best describes my feelings regarding the rate of progress in all related metrics...

[Alan T]

Nice job Ben, great work!

[Radii]

very nice! Great job Ben and Alan

[Radii]

7/1/11: 350
1/28/12: 329
7/18/12: 320.8
8/4/12: 318.2
9/11/12: 312.5
6/6/13: 299.0
7/1/13: 296.6

My pattern over the last few years has been to stagnate for months and then lose a bunch of weight in a short period of time then stagnate some more. I did drop a little this month but I don't really feel that good about it. I lost a good deal of weight in May by taking more time to prepare my food and by avoiding eating out almost entirely (in addition to lots of other good habits, but that's the one thing I changed in May). I got a bit lazy in June and backed off of that a bit, and predictably didn't have nearly as good a month as I want. On the flip side, I'm very happy to see that I can lose a little weight in a month where I know my habits were a very long way from perfect.

My calorie counting on myfitnesspal is set to try to lose 1.5 pounds per week, but when I exercise I usually don't eat back all of my exercise calories. In a perfect world I should probably be losing 7-8 pounds/month steadily.

Goal for July is to be more diligent about making my own food and to end up eating out no more than twice a week, and hopefully just once. Weight goal is to hit 290 on 8/1.

[Ben E Lou]

JULY GOALS
--120 miles running total
--Complete a 13.1 mile run
--15 Strength Training sessions
--10 sessions of at least 2 ab exercises
--Weigh 195 or less on morning of August 1st (Lose 8.5 pounds)

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

JULY GOALS
--120 miles running total
--Complete a 13.1 mile run
--15 Strength Training sessions
--10 sessions of at least 2 ab exercises
--Weigh 195 or less on morning of August 1st (Lose 8.5 pounds)

Amazing progress in such a short time, what are you doing diet wise currently?

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Amazing progress in such a short time, what are you doing diet wise currently?

Given that you are approximately the eleventy billionth person to ask me that question in the last couple of months or so , I've started a blog, and the first post I created in it attempts to answer that question:

From Fat To Fit At 44: "So, Ben, What Have You Been Doing???"

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Given that you are approximately the eleventy billionth person to ask me that question in the last couple of months or so , I've started a blog, and the first post I created in it attempts to answer that question:

From Fat To Fit At 44: "So, Ben, What Have You Been Doing???"

Good read, and congrats, your progress has been amazing.

I think a lot of the stuff you're doing are things I want to get to, but its still very much a work in progress. I almost always feel more full if I get closer to 30% protein but there are just tons of days where I don't come close to that and feel like i'm inconsistent simply due to a lack of planning.

One thing you mentioned that triggered an idea for me is cooking more stuff in advance. Dunno why I haven't done that yet, I make a lot of salmon and chicken breast like you mentioned, but often just enough for one meal or one meal + lunch the next day. I think next time I cook I'll make extra so I've got more stuff ready throughout the week.

I bookmarked the blog, I'm looking forward to reading more

[Radii]

Ok so I have a question. Using the BMR calculator on Ben's site (which looks to mirror LoseIt, right?), I enter my information (36 y/o, 296.5 pounds, 6'4"), and get the following:

Maintenance 3445
Lose .5 Pounds Per Week 3195
Lose 1 Pound Per Week 2945
Lose 1.5 Pounds Per Week 2695
Lose 2 Pounds Per Week 2445

Your BMR is approximately 2376. Based on your BMR, most veteran LoseIt! members would recommend that you eat between 2576 (approx. 1.7 pounds of weight loss per week) and 3195 (approx. .5 pounds of weight loss per week) calories per day for best long-term results in losing weight.

Ok... I use MyFitnessPal. When I set my goals there, I enter the same information, and it also asks for my activity level:

Sedentary: Spend most of the day sitting (e.g. bank teller, desk job)
Lightly Active: Spend a good part of the day on your feet (e.g. teacher, salesman)
Active: Spend a good part of the day doing some physical activity (e.g. waitress, mailman)
Very Active: Spend most of the day doing heavy physical activity (e.g. bike messenger, carpenter)

The answer for me is very obviously sedentary, I work from home on the computer and my primary hobbies also involve sitting on my ass.

MyFitnessPal puts me at 2240 calories/day to lose 1.5 pounds/week.


That's 450 calories/day less than the LoseIt stuff to lose 1.5 pounds/week, that's a really significant difference.



I dunno if I want to do anything about that, but I wonder if anyone who has used both sites or has done lots of research on this kind of thing has any thoughts/recommendations/suggestions?

[Ben E Lou]

I don't know why they are so different, but I found the same thing very early on and given that I was losing weight eating several hundred calories more from LoseIt, I stuck with that. When I tried to use MFP's recommendations for a few days, I was hungry all the time and didn't feel like exercising. (Yes, I researched the equations that LoseIt uses to create that calculator.)