My Journey from 290lb to 187lb
Yes. That's a picture of me with a squirrel. Pedro, the fraternity named him. He joined us one afternoon while we were watching college football. At that time, I was probably around 240lbs. I was drinking and partying. Alot. And, I hadn't discovered Intermittent Fasting.
I was also eating what is considered the Standard American Diet, or SAD diet. Lots of grains, late night fast food, and basically no cooking for myself. I was hitting the gym. Hard. Like really hard - I was doing what's called a 2-day split routine. I was hitting the gym 6 days a week, sometimes 7 for 2+ hours a day. Between working 2 jobs and going to university, the gym was my meditation. My haven. My hobby. But, it consumed me. It consumed me in a way I wasnt aware of. I thought that to continue seeing results I had to keep working out this hard.
Up to this point, I had only heard of diets like adkins and low carb but I never saw any results on them and I never had any energy. So I just worked out really, really hard. As you can see, I was a big dude. but by no means did I have a 6 pack, not like the stuff you kind of see forming around august for me.
In Fact, the March 2012 picture and pedro marks the time in my life when two of the greatest things ever happened to me.
1) I swore of fast food for the rest of my life
and
2) I discovered Intermittent Fasting.
Now, these two decisions alone are probably what launched me from flubby to mostly lean.
The third decision I made was to research. I started devouring resources as fast as my hands could type and quickly as my eyes could read. I started learning about all kinds of hormones like leptin, ghrelin, and cortisol. I even discovered new workout methods which I still use today.
It wasn't easy. I had to be relentless in my desire and hunger (get it) to change. For me, I was the fat kid growing up. So weight was always a struggle and I am still tormented by some of those memories to this day.
Here's the deal, weight isn't that hard to manipulate, if you know the right hacks for your brain. I want to teach you those hacks, but it's very hard to convey over words and paragraphs alone. I highly urge you check out my training sessions on re-framing your brain!
“We would accomplish more things if we did not think of them as impossible.” - Vince Lombardi
It's going to be tough, but you will have to grind it out. You have to make the decision that you are either willing to hustle every day or unwilling to remain the same. Both are going to be powerful motivators for what we want to accomplish.
You have to be relentless. If others can do it, so can you. In my many years at the gym I've seen some amazing things. I've seen skinny kids grow to be muscular. I've seen people drop over 200lbs. I've seen people with one arm, I've seen people in wheelchairs working out. The one thing they all had in common was their determination and perseverance to accomplish whatever goal they had set for themselves.
My goal was to get lean and build muscle. And intermittent fasting was the key to this goal. I chose the method of 16-8. This means 16 hours of not eating and 8 hours of allowing myself to eat.
There are other variations and I highly recommend you trying out them all and finding the variation that works best for you.
For me, the 16-8 method allowed me to have 2 meals a day and still get my snacking in. That was my big problem, snacking. See, we don't need to "fuel the metabolic fire" by eating small meals every 2 hours. Studies certainly show that it can lead to desired outcomes, but you will never feel fully satiated on just a 200 calorie snack. I liked the feeling of being full and happy. Fat and happy haha. With research and trying out Intermittent Fasting, I quickly became addicted.
At first, when beginning Intermittent Fasting, I stuck to my regular Standard American Diet. Why change it up? I was seeing results, I had plenty of energy, and I even increased my 1 rep max on bench press to 375lb. This was great! Amazing!
This Time Restricted eating thing was really working out. And I encourage you to start if you haven't already. The easiest way to start is the 16-8 method.
Ok, so let's fast forward to a few months later, or even a few years later. You've been doing well on the new routine and you've seen some results. Awesome!
But like all good routines, you've hit a plateau. Don't worry! This is normal! There's a few options for you to choose moving forward.
Let me tell you about my personal experience. While I was still in the U.S. the first option I chose was to change up my workout plan. I began to study new routines and different approaches to what I was currently doing. (if you want to learn about specific workout routines, please request a 1 on 1!)
What I discovered was called Reverse Pyramid Training and the science behind it made sense. You want to hit the muscle the hardest at the outset and increase your reps while decreasing weight. So I changed and I saw new results and better results. I overcame the plateau, and you can too!
I continued along this journey. "Nothing tastes as good as lean feels." Years of effort and dedication have paid off. I was finally happy. But I still wanted more. I wanted to push myself further and so should you!
The other option you have is to change your diet. This is why it's a lifestyle change. When you begin the journey of educating yourself more and more on the quality of food you consume, you find out that you don't have to workout as hard or as long to burn the same calories. Don't get me wrong! You have to exercise and you still have to hit it hard! But, as I grew older, my time became more and more important to me.
I was evolving myself to work smarter and not harder. Previously, I was spending 2 hours in the gym, 6 days a week. I was eating everything I wanted, I had no education on the chemicals I was consuming through the SAD diet.
Also, tragedy had struck me. I had terribly injured my shoulder while attempting to play rugby in Spain. This is when I was forced by life to slow down and reassess how to control my weight. I no longer had the ability to exert copious amounts of energy in order to achieve the results I was striving so hard after.
So now, with the inability to workout as hard as I could, I had to find alternative workouts, I learned to come to love leg day at the gym. So at this point, I was still doing intermittent fasting, but I was learning so much more about different types of diets. I was coming to realize my diet had been garbage! I came across resources like Gary Taubes, and the book "Pure, White, and Deadly," internet bloggers like Mark Sisson and Martin Berkham. I invite you to dive down the rabbit hole.
"I would rather skip the stairs and skip the bread"
Once you start diving down the rabbit hole of genetics, you're ability to control your body type and habits becomes sensationally better. You gain a whole new ability to train your brain!
So diet and exercise, yes it's that simple! But it's that hard. Intermittent Fasting is hard! Maybe, after you've done it for a few years, challenge yourself to fast for multiple days! I once fasted for 4 days, just to see if I could.
While, I have fallen off the wagon my fair share of times in not eating bread, or consuming sugary beverages, I always seem to feel my greatest and my strongest and most disciplined when I am eating a paleo-mimicking diet. Enjoy your cheesecake and grains, and ice cream from time to time, because cheat days are important for your sanity and long term goals!
As for what I discovered about diet, I think a mix of paleo mimicking, Mediterranean, and intermittent periods of keto are the best bet. To make it easier let's just start with cutting down on sugars, learning about the different carbohydrates, and the bodily processes of breaking down the different macronutrients. Further I would start learning the difference in what constitutes good fat and bad fat. For instance Monounsaturated fat is very good for you and can help aid in fat loss whereas trans fat can be highly harmful to your body.
While all of this research is going on, make sure you are being cognizant of the calories in vs calories out. One mental out that people look for is still an excuse to overeat! Nothing can change the laws of thermodynamics, it does have a lot to do with how fast you will achieve your goals. It's just a lot easier to get there while feeling full and satiated with real, whole, good for you foods.
I hope this was helpful and I wish you the best in your continued journey of health and weight loss!
