My weight loss journey

So I kinda got inspired by The Traveler's weight loss thread and though I'd start my own.

I guess in order to properly start this I will need to start from the beginning.
In high school I wasn't the super chubby kid but I was always borderline overweight according to my doctor's scales. Well I graduated high school and got into my freshman year of college. My first semester there I gained another 5 pounds (not the freshman 15 but still) Well at the end of the semester/start of the next I went through a tough time and got depressed and started not eating (yes I know, not healthy) and I lost those 5 pounds I had gained throughout the semester and I guess this is what gave me the hope of losing weight, so I hit the gym. I started going to the gym everyday, running, lifting, supplements, proteins, diets, you name it I was doing it to lose weight.

So my progress: I'm 5'9"
End of High School (summer 2010): 175 LBS
Start of Second semester (January 2011): 180 LBS
End of Second semester (May 2011): 140 LBS!!

So I had made my goal, I'd lost 40lbs in about 4-5 months and it was awesome, I felt the best I'd ever felt in my life, I was lifting more and runner faster than I ever had before.

Some of my stats (not meant to brag and dont judge if you think they are low):
Bench: 245 max
Pullups: 35 at a time
Curls: 45-50 lbs
2-mile Run time: 13:45
I was pretty cut and had decent abs as well.

So awesome right? you'd think that would be an awesome success story and everything would be great right?... Wrong.. After doing all this and getting to a goal weight of 145 (140+5lbs muscle) I found out I had a problem with my heart (bicuspid aortic valve) and by losing all this weight and exercising and doing cardio daily I'd actually made my heart worse (was lifting more than I should is what the doctor said). So even after performing better than most high school football players on my stress test my doctor told me I had to stop what I was doing or it would kill me. So I stopped..

Well here I am today almost 2 years later about 20 pounds heavier and probably gaining everyday and it needs to stop, and it will.

My Goal:
145 lbs by Summer/middle of Summer
I'm going to be running a lot more and lifting still (I'm allowed to lift, just not body builder style lifting) and hopefully I will get back to where I was.

Me at the end of highschool/ about how I look now:


My Goal (Me summer 2011):



So with all that said, This will be the place that I track my weight loss and the area for my inspiration. If you guys have any tips on meal plans or exercises to do that would be awesome.

Thanks for looking

 

Sorry to hear that. How did you originally find out something was wrong with ur heart? Symptoms?

 

A sports physical, heard something with my heart and thought it was a murmur. I have no symptoms just my doctor telling me what to and what no to do lol

 

Well, I downloaded calorie counter and jefit and started going to the gym.

Weighed myself today as well: 163 LBS.. 20 lbs to go for my goal.. Should have it by summer as long as I keep this up

 

Just stay consistent man......35 pull-ups? That's pretty damn impressive, would like to see that though!

 

I wish my journey was more like yours, but a journey is a journey!

Best of luck and be sure to keep us updated

 

Might have been closer to 30, I cant remember exactly as it was about a year and a half ago that I stopped.. I was also doing Rotc and doing PT every morning and they were considering adding pull ups to the test so it was something we really focused on

Haha thanks man, I saw yours and its what made me start mine.. I had my goal of 145 but I'm back up to 163 as I stated earlier and thats whats made me wanna get back down. I dont want to have lost the weight and then go right back to where I was. So this time once I hit my goal I'll continue going to the gym at least 3 times a week vs not at all lol

 

benching 245 and weighing 145 is really impressive man. good luck to you in your journey

 

time for you to learn about paleo diet and crossfit my friend....im overweight myself right now but i use to do competitive power lifting late teens early 20's,then started mma,then injuries lead me to stoping and i started crossfit which is awesome!!!!!....i also trained with several members of "team usa" powerlifting and was trained by phil hernon ex MR.USA
some of my stats
5'6''
200lbs
365 bench press
495 dead lift
405 squat
10-broken fingers
3 slipped discs
2 broken hands
2 dislocated knees
etc etc etc.....
if you need any help with diet or training feel free to pm me and ill help you out the best i can...I love helping out guys that actually wanna train...

 

I only ever did it once but I shocked myself when it happened.. I could never do it again, my best before and after that was around 235, I guess I just got really hyped that day lol

I really want to get into the Paleo Diet but its so hard since I have to eat at a college campus. I'm gonna try once it gets to summer and just try my best to watch what I eat right now.

And I've heard of crossfit but dont know much about it

 

paleo is much easier then you think...not alot of variety unless ur a great cook but basically eggs,steak,chicken,fish,bacon,veggies,NUTS(NO PEANUTS)limited fruit....
NO BREAD,DAIRY,GRAINS (WHOLE GRAIN ANYTHING)PASTA,ETC...

AND CROSSFIT GYM ISNT CHEAP USUALLY 100 BUCKS A MONTH BUT YOU WILL NOT FIND A BETTER GROUP OF HARD TRAINING PEOPLE ANYWHERE...HEAVY WEIGHTS MIXED WITH HIGH CARDIO AND CORE TRAINING

 

Ahh, yeah the paleo diet sounds great, I wouldnt be able to do crossfit tho (heart problem)

 

im willing to bet you can you just have to regulate ur intensity bro....ive worked with alot of different "health problems" theres ways to over come....like i said feel free to pm me since im sure u dont wanna post personal shit for the world to read

 

Update:

Cut my calories back to 1500 per day.
Ran a mile straight in 8:34 today. I know that's not the best but the past few days I was struggling to hit .75 miles at that pace. So at that pace I'm still 3:08 off my 2 mile goal but I guess I kinda need to make it to 2 miles straight first lol. Also I started a training log to keep track of exercises at the gym. Ill update my weight approximately once a week on Saturdays so I guess ill start by saying I was 163 LBS today but that was only an hour after eating lunch so hopefully its actually less than that.