Down 50 lbs this year -- 15 more to come (pics)

[kiddcheckers]

great job man.

[Yobz]

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Very rarely this year.

I do sometimes drink wine or low cal drinks (like some vodka drinks), but I stopped drinking things like beer and hi cal drinks.

I also slowed down because I was told that alcohol in your system makes it very difficult to lose weight.

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Alcohol has a lot of calories, a shot of Vodka can be 100 cals, a beer can be 200-300. A white russian w/a double shot of vodka can break the 400-500cal mark...

[N 82 50 24]

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How tall are you?

You look [censored] fantastic, congrats!

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I'm 6' even. Thanks! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[N 82 50 24]

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Very rarely this year.

I do sometimes drink wine or low cal drinks (like some vodka drinks), but I stopped drinking things like beer and hi cal drinks.

I also slowed down because I was told that alcohol in your system makes it very difficult to lose weight.

[/ QUOTE ]

Alcohol has a lot of calories, a shot of Vodka can be 100 cals, a beer can be 200-300. A white russian w/a double shot of vodka can break the 400-500cal mark...

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I know, which is why I stay away from it almost all of the time. This year, I've drank alcohol about 4 times. Maybe 5 at most. So I figure the occasional vodka w/ diet coke won't hurt too bad.

[teddyFBI]

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Very rarely this year.

I do sometimes drink wine or low cal drinks (like some vodka drinks), but I stopped drinking things like beer and hi cal drinks.

I also slowed down because I was told that alcohol in your system makes it very difficult to lose weight.

[/ QUOTE ]

Alcohol has a lot of calories, a shot of Vodka can be 100 cals, a beer can be 200-300. A white russian w/a double shot of vodka can break the 400-500cal mark...

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I don't know where you're getting those #s from, but if u choose your drinks responsibly, you can get away with a pretty low-cal night. A shot of vodka has 60 calories, not 100. So get a vodka+diet for a 60-cal cocktail, or a Coors Light / Bud Light for 100 calories.

You can still go and get hammered on less than 600 calories (disregarding, momentarily, the other negative health effects of alcohol, e.g. spike in cortisol levels, sharp decrease in REM/recuperative sleep, etc)

Check on other drinks here:
http://www.calorie-count.com/calories/browse/1401.html

[donkeylove]

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I hope this might inspire some of the people here who are trying to lose weight.

I started the year at around 250, maybe 255 or so. I am now 200ish, sometimes swinging up to maybe 203 or 204. I hope to be 180 to 185 by the later part of this year.

Here are before/after pics up until this point... I have a lot more if these two aren't good enough for comparison.



Those are spaced about 6 months apart.

My strategy for doing it was very simple. Just eat less calories and maintain a very basic workout schedule (ie, 2-3 days a week, 40-50 minutes per session, not too intense). Sure I could have done it faster by running 5 miles a day or something, but I wanted to do it my way... meaning...

a) Something I would actually DO. It's nice to say "I'm going to do this, that, etc, etc" and it's another thing to do it day in and day out for the rest of your life. I would never keep up a plan that involves something I absolutely hate.

b) Something that wouldn't be too stressful or intense. There's a reason why I got fat -- I tend towards laziness. I needed something that wasn't going to burn me out.

So I just sat down early this year and tried to analyze my diet from memory. I then figured out what I could do without and what I should add...

Cut out: The most obvious expendable source of calories was from liquids. I simply didn't need to drink 5000 calories a week (and I did, or more sometimes -- soda adds up). So I completely cut out drink calories. I now only drink water and diet drinks.

Added: I basically searched for things that taste pretty good but were still relatively healthy. Since I wasn't ever going to sit down to a dinner of steamed broccoli and cabbage, I realized that things like shrimp, chicken, burgers (no bun or cheese), hard boiled egg whites, baby carrots, chicken hot dogs, bananas and various other things were things I would actually eat. So I added a lot more of that.

Modified: My friends go to eat bad food way too often. I wasn't going to stop hanging out with my friends. What was I to do? I just modified what I ate. Let's say we were going to In 'N Out burger. Instead of a double cheeseburger with fries and a soda, I would get two hamburgers w/o sauce and a diet soda. My meal still tasted great, but I cut out over half of the calories.

In the end, I've found my quasi-diet to be extremely effective and easy to follow. I rarely find myself craving things like I used to and I can't say I've ever really wanted to return to my previous habits. I simply would never be able to survive on a diet where I ate an apple, a bag of nuts and a protein bar for a meal. For those of you who can, congrats. But for those of you who try those lifestyles and fail to keep up, try something like what I tried. It really works and it's easy to keep going.

I'll answer any questions anyone has and post more pics if anyone cares. Sorry if this whole thing is disjointed, I wrote it at 5 AM on a whim.

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Along with a lot of weight it looks like you lost 5 years. You look much younger in that 2nd pic. Well done.

[Dexytp22]

Congrats man, the results really show.

[N 82 50 24]

Thanks.

BTW, I've kinda stalled lately. I'm basically stuck at 200-205 depending on when I weigh myself. It isn't like I've put on any weight, I just haven't been as careful about everything as I was when I was losing a ton of weight.

I think I need a new goal to help me focus. Last time I made a bet to kick start the whole process. This time I probably won't make a bet, but I think I might set up a tripod in my living room and put my digital camera on it. Then every morning I'll take two shirt-off pics -- one from the front, one from the side. That will give me significant incentive. It's one thing to lose 50 lbs and have it be really obvious in your face (kinda like my pics up there), but it's another to make it obviously in topless pics. The incentive to produce sick before-after pics is enough motivation for me to get on my horse and get this [censored] done.

I guess the goal is 185, but with a significant change in composition as well. Good luck to me and I'll update here as I go.

I just made a fitday account where I'll keep track of my progress outside of the pictures: http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJ...?Owner=natarem

[N 82 50 24]

fitday is retarded, [censored] this. way too much effort to figure out how much i'm eating. i'll just do the picture thing.

[Snafu'd]

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fitday is retarded, [censored] this. way too much effort to figure out how much i'm eating. i'll just do the picture thing.

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lol, glad I'm not the only one that feels that way.