Personal Fat Bastard Competition

[Orion21]

First, I want to thank Rob for putting on the fat bastard competition and congratulations to the winner. Second, I was so disappointed in my lack of long term discipline and what happened after the competition ended that I came to the conclusion I need to make a drastic change.

When Rob started the Fat Bastard competition I weighed in at 212.5 pounds at 5'10" tall. Within two months I was down to 198lbs, but what happened afterwards is embarrassing to admit. By the end of the competition I ballooned to 218lbs and currently reside at 222 pounds. I have made numerous excuses as to why I didn't continue to eat well or start exercising - all BS. With a new baby daughter coming in two weeks and having a 20 month old son I know I need to get healthy. So here is my plan:

1) I am tying my cigar smoking to losing weight and becoming more healthy as motivation.

2) I have talked to my wife, who has been against my cigar smoking for the last few years, and told her I need incentive to get back in shape. I obviously can't force myself to eat right or exercise for a myriad of reasons, so I needed something that excited me to motivate me to do it. Cigars are the motivation and my wife supports me 100%.

3) My plan is to track every hour of exercise I perform and reward myself with 1 cigar to smoke. The reason being is I love cigars. I love everything about them and linking my fitness to the amount I allow myself to smoke is the only way I will motivate myself to actually get healthy.

4) Do it publicly to help others who may feel the same way as I do.

5) Create a routine within a routine. Since I am on FOH almost everyday I can track my progress towards health and fitness on this thread.

My plan is to exercise three days a week for the first three months and change my diet. My weight loss goal is 25 pounds, so here I go

[Rushman]

I wish you the best of luck, I know you will succeed!

[ramon_cojones]

Carbs and calories my friend, I've made small changes and have lost 11 lbs in the past 3 months. I work out hard 4x a week and am within 5 lbs of my target. It's all about routine. No fried food, cut back on starches like rice and bread (which is my problem), salad 6x a week before lunch (healthy dressing if any), no sodas (diet once in awhile) and grilled chicken and veggies once in a while. The key is to never be hungry. I snack on granola bars, mixed nuts, fruit and not chips or cookies or candy.

A friend of mine who is a trainer once told someone, "even if you eat ****, just eat less of it" LOL.

Good luck.

[thechenman]

Good for you! I was in the same boat as you. I was semi-regularly trying to lose weight and I'd diet or exercise, rarely doing both together. My weight would swing up and down, and unfortunately, every time my efforts caved I'd ultimately end up at a higher weight that I started. I'm about 5'9" and was weighing in a few pounds shy of 250 lbs. That's when it really dawned on me that it was getting utterly ridiculous.

With a lot of support from my wife I embarked on another quest to lose weight. However, this time I was doing it right. I consulted a dietician and worked with a trainer. The most important thing I learned is that to effectively lose weight you have to diet and exercise at the same time. Also, losing weight is 80% diet and only 20% exercise.

By the time the Fat Bastard Competition rolled around I was already down over 15 lbs. Honestly it wasn't easy...it's still not, but when the results show it allows you more determination not to go backwards given the effort it took for you to get to the point that you're at. I'm 190 lbs now...it seems I've plateaued at this level, and need to change things up a bit to get lower. I'm targeting 170 lbs and have been at this since February this year. The closer you get to your target the harder it seems to drop weight, so I think your cigar motivation plan is brilliant if you stick to it.

I typically work out 3x a week, work schedule permitting. I work with a trainer doing Cross Fit 2x a week and do a Boot Camp 1x a week. I push myself every work out, pretty much to the point of exhaustion. I was surprised at how fast I progressed in terms of strength and stamina.

As I mentioned earlier though, it's diet that was the big differentiator. I eat about 6 meals a day now, with about 3 to 4 hours between meals. Pretty much the only carbs I really eat are whole grains...no processed flour, no rice, no rpasta. I try to stay away from beef as much as possible and typically eat chicken or turkey (always skinless white meat), fish or shellfish. I eat fruit only 1x per day, and never eat it within 5 hours of going to bed. Vegetables I'll eat twice a day. Once with lunch and once with dinner. Lunch is typically a small salad w/balsamic and I'll eat a steamed vegetable with dinner. Lean protein is essential. Eat lots of it. The body works harder to burn protein. Also, its essential to eat at regular intervals and not starve yourself so your body does not start storing it in the form of fat for later use.

Another key is weighing your food. My dietician/nutritionist told me to weigh everything that I ate. The benefit of this is learning portion control. Over time I visually begin to realize what a proper serving size should look like, which helps me immeasurably when eating out where portions can often be huge.

The other thing is water. I drink plenty of coffee, tea, diet soda and a glass of skim milk everyday. Outside of these beverages I drink a minimum of 64 ounces of water a day. If I get cravings during the day, I'll often drink a glass of water first. The body often mistakes the need for hydration with hunger. Often I find after drinking water, I don't feel hungry.

I do cheat from time to time...that's a given. After all, we're only human, and willpower is tough to permanently maintain. At times I found myself going off my diet for a few days in a row. To curb this type of behavior, every week I allow myself one cheat meal where I can eat what I want and have an alcoholic beverage of some type and of course dessert . But then it's right back into the saddle again. I've found that this has been a great help in keeping me generally on track.

Generally, I have to say I've been very pleased with the results. It's been a tough slog, but well worth it. I'm nearing my college weight, which I haven't seen in over a decade. Just stay focused, and keep your eye on the prize. The mindset for me was realizing that diet and exercise wasn't something I had to do to lose weight, but rather to accept it as a lifestyle change. Hell if a fat Asian dude who loves read meat, wine and ice cream can do it...then you can to. Hahaha... Thank god cigars themselves don't pack on the pounds.

Good luck with reaching your goal!

[rp99pts]

Sugar and enriched carbs are the enemy....Do p90x, you will get some serious results fast...Good luck

[Duane]

great to hear you are going on after the comp, and a great way to do it.

unfortunately i am currently unable to do alot of exercise, why i plateaued out due to finding out i have full-thickness chondromalacia patella.

keep up the great work botl.

[79Z28]

Man if we aren't working through the same season of life. We have a baby girl set to arrive in 10 days to join in with our 23 month old boy - life is certainly about to get interesting. Granted I am working on losing 110 pounds but each one is hard no matter how much you need to drop.

It's all too easy to make excuses but looking forward and being able to play with our precious children I think is the ultimate motivator to getting healthy.

I'm on my own journey and just know that others are there to support and provide encouragement when needed.

Let's do this!

[gr8tdanz]

Good luck. It takes is discipline and dedication to your plan. There's a thousand diets out there but if it's going to work it has to fit your needs.

Keep us posted on your progress.

[SpeedGeek]

I personally really like the ketogenic diet, which seeks to restrict carbs to 20 grams per day. I started on June 7th, and even with some cheating I'm down from 208 to 183 today. That's without exercise. Throw in some exercise as well and I'm sure you'd see the weight start to shed (check on targeted keto or cyclical keto for how much in carbs and when to intake for your exercise). In the end though you need something that you can maintain when you reach your goal weight. Doesn't matter how good the diet is, if you go back to how you ate before, you will go back to your old weight. So keep that in mind as you get closer to your goal weight, you can't just stop dieting and stay there, you'll need an overall lifestyle change.

Good luck!!

[sighuber]

I placed second in the Fat Bastard contest. For me tracking calories and excercise was the way to ensure discipline. It forces you to read labels or weigh food to determine a portion size. It also teaches you which foods are calorie wasters and which foods fill you up without wasting calories. I found canned Progresso soup (reduced sodium) with some extra added frozen veggies was a decent quick dinner if I didn't have to time to prepare a real meal. Air popped popcorn is a good snack if you're starving and only about 130 calories. Lean Cuisine makes some ok frozen meals I took to the office for lunch (many around 230-240 calories). I have heard others say, you shouldn't be hungry during dieting but I must tell you that I was hungry. More so in the beginning and it subsided a bit after about 3-4 weeks...but I was often hungry.

I tried to do cardio 5x per week. At first it was 30 min per session but I worked up from there as my fitness improved. Get a heart rate monitor so you make sure you are working at the proper intensity.

Once you get going, and if you are diligent in tracking every bit of food and excercise, you can lose like 10 lbs per month.

The app called My Fitness Pal, which is available free for iphone, blackberry and droid was the most important key to my weight loss. It helps you set daily calorie goals(net of excercise) based on your current weight and how fast you want to lose. It shows you graphs and calculates how much over or under you are. Its super easy to use and you can scan bar codes of packaged foods using your phones camera and all the data will be automatically added. Good luck!

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/