My story

[Rebellion Gatekeeper]

Hello Everyone,

 

I have been a reader of this website for about 7 months, and since it helped me when I was starting out in my weight loss mission, I thought I would share my story (not to be confused with the title of a Scrubs episode).

 

My background:

 

I always was a bigger in high school, but I managed to get healthier in college when I joined a sports club.  At my best, I was 160 pounds but had little strength.  My height is 5'10.  As college went on, I eventually left the club and gained weight slowly for 5 years, until I ended up 250 pounds and was completely out of shape.  I struggled with that weight for additional 5 years, improving to 220 pounds at one point but did not keep up good habits and it always went back to 250 with time.

 

My rebellion:

 

Before finding this website back in February, I made a decision to try to lose weight once again.  I started out with no diet change, and light cardiovascular exercise for 30 minutes a day (starting with a stationary bike and then to a elliptical machine).  My weight after this month period was about the same, and although I felt better with the cardiovascular exercise, the lack of weight loss was disappointing.  I know I needed to start diet change and adjust my workouts, and was searching the web for fitness guidance.

 

Enter Nerdfitness:

 

I found this website intriguing because I enjoyed the writing, the stories, but most of all the guidance it gave to newbies in fitness and backed up the writing with links to scientific articles.  I started to make slow changes in my diet.  For example, I went from having soda at lunch and dinner to having it only at dinner.  Originally I substituted it with lemonade, then eventually went to water.  I also started doing the beginner bodyweight exercises 2-3x a week in addition to continuing the 20-30min of elliptical exercise 2-3x a week.  As my fitness grew with time, I started changing the elliptical exercises from steady state to HIIT, and then went to the angry birds bodyweight routine.  With all this put together I started to slowly lose weight.

 

Beyond Nerdfitness:

 

While I continually read this website for additional tips and tricks to add into my weight loss and diet, I did not have the money for the nerdfitness academy, so I continued to search for different exercises and other tools to help me.  The following tools also played a major role in my journey:

 

1) Myfitness Pal App:  I started using this app as a calorie tracker.  I attribute much of my weight loss to using this tool.  Before, even with making diet changes, I was still eating way too much food in general.  With simply starting to track my calories with it set to 1 pound weight loss goal per week, I began to realize how much I was eating.  This app helped my get my portion size under control, and I have continued to log everything I eat since I started using the app.

 

2) Startbodyweight.com:  I really began to enjoy bodyweight exercises, and the progressions on this website allowed me to start gaining strength.  I also believe I found this website from nerdfitness.  While I still workout in the gym, I mostly do bodyweight exercises, with maybe 1-2x a month using the weight machines or barbells/dumbells to switch it up.

 

My goal:

 

My goal is to get down to 170 pounds.  I am currently at 205 pounds (45 pounds lost), with averaging 1 pound of weight loss every 5-6 days.  I have continued to make minor changes in my diet over time, with adding more chicken, making more food at home, and adding more fiber and protein to help keep me fuller longer.  I have progressed in bodyweight exercises around 3-4 progressions in each type of exercise.  My exercising has gone from in the beginning 5-6x a week, to a more stable 4-5x a week.  I do about half strength training for 40-50min and half HIIT for 30min  (with the occasional relaxing steady state cardio).

 

I just wanted to share my story since this website was my jump off point to better health.  Any questions or comments are welcomed.

[Nedwin]

Your story sounds similar to the ones in the emails! Congratulations on all your accomplishments thus far, and journey well into the future.