harry.michaels
February 20th, 2004, 05:25 PM
Hey folks, I'll start with my story, and after that post whenever I feel I have made progress fit to report.
I'm 18 years old, and have been working out for almost three years. Originally inspired by the WWF at the age of 15, I wanted to become a beefy musclehead. I had been quite fat ever since the age of about 7. I didn't have any knowledge about the nutrition side of things, and started to eat a lot more thinking I'd gain muscle. I did make some good muscle gains, but by the time I was 16 I weighed about 223 lbs at about 28% bodyfat. Needless to say, I was very far from the buff physique I had envisioned. I was very unfit aerobically at this point, too, struggling to jog for more than a minute or so on the treadmill.
In 2002, a few weeks before my 17th birthday, a friend of mine told me his brother (who was also a friend of mine) had lost a lot of weight - I hadn't seen him in a while. At his heaviest, he was about 280 lbs, and it inspired me so much finding out he'd already lost 20-30 lbs. I had been unhappy with my bodyfat levels for a long time, and felt if he could do it, then so could I.
I had suffered long enough due to fatness - I went through school with little self confidence because of it, and at that point, my first year into college, I was getting tired of it.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't educate myself properly, and went on a fairly low calorie diet, supplementing the thermogenic fat loss pill xenadrine, and doing cardio before breakfast at least 5 days per week. Needless to say, I lost a lot of weight - and fast. My main incentive was the fact that I had the summer off college. I knew when I went back to college, the difference would really be noticeable if nobody had seen me for a couple of months. When college finally started again, I had lost 45-50 lbs since starting my diet and new weight training program. I received a lot of praise from friends and people at college, but I also received many concerned/jealous comments from people, telling me I looked ill and to eat normally.
A couple of weeks before college had started again I had learned about the low carb phenomenon. I took it too far and dropped my daily carb intake to <10g. I experienced good weight loss, but little of it seemed to be fat. I also started losing hair in the shower, and my testosterone levels appeared to have dropped drastically, not to mention energy.
Afraid to re-introduce carbs, I kept them low in case I gained back the weight I had lost. This was a terrible mistake, which I have paid for in muscle loss (due to the overall lack of calories and energy). Combine this with regular pre-breakfast jogging around local streets and parks. In February 2003 I got together with my wonderful girlfriend Rachael. As we spent more and more time together, I began finding it difficult sticking to a solid nutrition and exercise program - usually fizzling out after a few days. Combined with problems at home, I began to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, which included McDonalds several times a week, Doritos, sausage rolls, desserts at college, chocolate, everything basically. There would always be the concern about calories, sugars and saturated fat in the back of my mind, and I can't think of any time in the year that I wasn't planning ahead for "starting over", and I made plenty of attempts, but I'd always end up going back to junk food. Amazingly I have only re-gained 10lbs or so, and about 2.5% bodyfat - I guess my metabolism has kept fairly high.
For the past half a year or so I have made several attempts at a solid nutrition plan (and training), ever since finding John's site in about September '03. His story is so inspirational (well d'uh) and he has helped me accept that carbs are not the devil, and all three macronutrients can be consumed in fairly large amounts while still getting a ripped physique.
Struggling to work out with college all day five days a week, and work all weekend, I invested in some exercise equipment (once again, inspired by John) - and so my new transformation begins.
Sorry to write such a long story - I have the tendency to do that. I just want somebody to listen to my story. :)
I'm 18 years old, and have been working out for almost three years. Originally inspired by the WWF at the age of 15, I wanted to become a beefy musclehead. I had been quite fat ever since the age of about 7. I didn't have any knowledge about the nutrition side of things, and started to eat a lot more thinking I'd gain muscle. I did make some good muscle gains, but by the time I was 16 I weighed about 223 lbs at about 28% bodyfat. Needless to say, I was very far from the buff physique I had envisioned. I was very unfit aerobically at this point, too, struggling to jog for more than a minute or so on the treadmill.
In 2002, a few weeks before my 17th birthday, a friend of mine told me his brother (who was also a friend of mine) had lost a lot of weight - I hadn't seen him in a while. At his heaviest, he was about 280 lbs, and it inspired me so much finding out he'd already lost 20-30 lbs. I had been unhappy with my bodyfat levels for a long time, and felt if he could do it, then so could I.
I had suffered long enough due to fatness - I went through school with little self confidence because of it, and at that point, my first year into college, I was getting tired of it.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't educate myself properly, and went on a fairly low calorie diet, supplementing the thermogenic fat loss pill xenadrine, and doing cardio before breakfast at least 5 days per week. Needless to say, I lost a lot of weight - and fast. My main incentive was the fact that I had the summer off college. I knew when I went back to college, the difference would really be noticeable if nobody had seen me for a couple of months. When college finally started again, I had lost 45-50 lbs since starting my diet and new weight training program. I received a lot of praise from friends and people at college, but I also received many concerned/jealous comments from people, telling me I looked ill and to eat normally.
A couple of weeks before college had started again I had learned about the low carb phenomenon. I took it too far and dropped my daily carb intake to <10g. I experienced good weight loss, but little of it seemed to be fat. I also started losing hair in the shower, and my testosterone levels appeared to have dropped drastically, not to mention energy.
Afraid to re-introduce carbs, I kept them low in case I gained back the weight I had lost. This was a terrible mistake, which I have paid for in muscle loss (due to the overall lack of calories and energy). Combine this with regular pre-breakfast jogging around local streets and parks. In February 2003 I got together with my wonderful girlfriend Rachael. As we spent more and more time together, I began finding it difficult sticking to a solid nutrition and exercise program - usually fizzling out after a few days. Combined with problems at home, I began to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, which included McDonalds several times a week, Doritos, sausage rolls, desserts at college, chocolate, everything basically. There would always be the concern about calories, sugars and saturated fat in the back of my mind, and I can't think of any time in the year that I wasn't planning ahead for "starting over", and I made plenty of attempts, but I'd always end up going back to junk food. Amazingly I have only re-gained 10lbs or so, and about 2.5% bodyfat - I guess my metabolism has kept fairly high.
For the past half a year or so I have made several attempts at a solid nutrition plan (and training), ever since finding John's site in about September '03. His story is so inspirational (well d'uh) and he has helped me accept that carbs are not the devil, and all three macronutrients can be consumed in fairly large amounts while still getting a ripped physique.
Struggling to work out with college all day five days a week, and work all weekend, I invested in some exercise equipment (once again, inspired by John) - and so my new transformation begins.
Sorry to write such a long story - I have the tendency to do that. I just want somebody to listen to my story. :)