I recently responded to a post asking When did you realize you were attractive?. For the first time in 7 years, I opened up about my weight loss. I, unfortunately, am still uncomfortable with my weight/image. Sharing some information with a random stranger on the internet actually gave me more confidence to post this to help anyone who thinks they are "too far gone" to make a change.
I was morbidly obese by the age of 19. At 27, I reached my peak weight of 417lbs. I'm 5'7". To me, being 400+lbs at 27 years old meant my life was over. I was destined to be overweight. That was, until one day, I woke up to a loud crash and a sharp pain. My bed-frame had broken and I was pinned between my mattress and the wall in my bedroom. My parents weren't home. It was just me. I was in pain and couldn't do anything about it. I cried for 30 minutes until I finally composed and freed myself. I felt pathetic. I didn't want to feel like this anymore, I wanted to be in control of my own life.
Like many people, I had tried dieting multiple times throughout the years. I was always unhappy with the results because of the length of time it took to lose weight. What I didn't realize is that the extreme change in my diet was not helping in my weight loss as much as I'd thought it would. I would lose a pound or two, then gain it back in a week, then give up. My body was going into famine mode, and storing fat cells in a "fight-or-flight" reaction to the extreme diet change.
What worked for me was walking. I was barely able to get out of the house, so I would walk around the house for 5-10 minutes every few hours. I'd push myself to walk for longer periods of time. Eventually I started walking up/down the stairs, around the house, around our street to around the community. When I could walk around the community (2-3 miles) without being completely fatigued, I started doing aerobics, cycling and swimming. In the first 2 years, I'd lost a little over 100lbs and was finally able to play sports (I was always into basketball as a kid). I also made sure to change my diet to include healthy foods while not being unrealistic. I felt extremely hungry at times and had to constantly fight the urge to eat more than necessary.
This year, I've finally joined a gym. I won't say which so this doesn't end up in /r/hailcorporate. I'm working on muscle mass. My weight is at 215. My current BMI is 35 and body fat % 19.6 and Muscle Mass 174lbs. I'm 34 right now with a metabolic age of 41.
My ultimate goal is to maintain a healthy weight/diet and lower my metabolic age while increasing my muscle mass. I've been looking to get surgery done as loose skin covers 70% of my body (the only safe places are face/forearms/calves and below). It's pretty extreme loose skin to the point where I have to wear compression shirts/shorts or my body will "sway" when I move (skin flapping around). The cheapest I've been quoted is $27,000 (including surgery, medication, rehabilitation, post surgery checkups and any post surgery needs.) I will hopefully be able to finance this in the next 3-5 years.
The best that has come from this is my ability to go to college. I'm currently in my 2nd year of my Civil Engineering degree. I tried college when I was obese and in my first class, there were only the desks that were attached to the chairs that I couldn't fit in. My instructor told me to stand up and laughed. I left, dropped out. It's tough being obese. People are cruel.
What this all has taught me is that no matter what people think of you, hot or not, you should respect everyone the same way you want to be respected. Also, it's landed me tons and tons of vagina (if my wife is reading this, I love you. If my daughter is reading this in 2029, don't tell mom.)
Before and After. I have videos of me playing basketball if anyone is interested in signing (I'm looking at you, Miami Heat.)
TL;DR I'm not morbidly obese anymore.
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2IvnPda
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