I have hit rock bottom

[Colly Wolly]

Switching to diet soda will result in a 15-20 lbs weight loss within a year.

[Bellavela]

Hey I read your post and thought I would pass along a book I read. It's a quick read but might help you into a change of eating habits. It's called Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. It's a book about eating so you will lose weight. Good luck and remember you can change, just do it one day at a time.

Both literally and figuratively. Last night I broke our bed, not from some acrobatic act that would be an award winning post in the future The Bedroom forum, rather the wood gave out from the strain of dealing with my enormous girth.

This morning I got on the scale for the first time in a long time and checked in at 311.8, the heaviest I have ever been in my life. I am very depressed. I have tried diets with success, and then regain all the weight plus more. Over the last 5 years I have lost 30+ pounds 4 times, I just keep getting bigger. I need a lifestyle change, and I don’t really know how to do it. I can’t just do something like Nutrisystem or Dr. Ian Smith’s Fat Smash Diet, they are fantastic until I attempt to re-enter the world.

I need help and I don’t know what to do. There are many here that lead as or more hectic lives than myself, so I don’t want to make up any excuses. I want to change, I need to change. I feel like a giant (literal) loser today.

[kccougar]

I think you need to be accountable to someone to be successful. In the past, I have gotten on kicks here or there were I either started exercising or eating better, but those periods never lasted very long. This last time, I started exercising with my wife, and that has helped tremendously. I have to get out of bed at 5:15 because my wife is expecting it. Same for her.

I've lost 15 pounds and kept it off for some time now. I'm at a plateau until I take the next step and change my eating habits, but I'd like to lose another 10 pounds.

[chrisrenrut]

For exercise, start with something you can stick with. For Nikuman it was running, for many others it's a bike, for Happy One it was walking. Trying something you don't like or is painful to get started will make it tough on yourself.

My Dad was told he needed to drop some weight by his doctor. Like most of us, he has a busy schedule, and he didn't have a default activity to turn to. He decided to buy a treadmill, and try to walk on it 30 minutes to one hour every night. He has worked his way up to about a 4 mph pace at an 8 degree incline for an hour. (doesn't sound hard but it will make you sweat!) He has been faithful at it and has dropped about 40 pounds and keeps it off without any diet modification. He walks 18 holes of golf almost every weekend without a problem (we view walking when golfing as an additional workout, we walk close to 7 miles per 18 holes), and he has kept up on some serious day hikes as a result of his fitness level. If he wanted to drop more he could up the intensity or modify his diet.

Treadmills can be pricey, but if you just plan on walking you don't could get a less expensive model since you won't be pounding it as hard. I would think that in Oregon, it would be a good way to eliminate rain as an excuse to skip a workout.

When it comes to eating better, I have completely eliminated soda and most sweet drinks for water, and sworn off candy. That has eliminated about 3000 calories per week for me. Otherwise, I eat pretty crappy due to schedule (read: laziness).

[kccougar]

I seriously considered using it at one point.

For me, it is definitely an addiction-type behavior.

[Jarid in Cedar]

If there is one thing I can sympathize with, it is struggles with weight. For me, I find that I overeat for reasons dealing with schedule(read: I eat too quickly to feel full). I also eat when bored, stressed, etc.

Make a small journal where you write down:

1. What time you eat
2. What you ate
3. Why did you eat right then.

they call this "Mindful Eating". If you find that you are eating for any other reason than hunger or it was the traditional time for a meal, then work on coping strategies for those other times. What else should I do instead of eat when I am bored, anxious, etc. I also liked the suggestion from Cardiac to only eat veggies, fruits, between meals.

Good luck HFN. I can relate with your struggles.

[chrisrenrut]

For me, it is definitely an addiction-type behavior.

The reason I swore of soda and candy is because i beleived the sugar may be an addiction for me. One of my step-sons was going through a rough patch with drugs at the time, and I was struggling to understand what he might be going through. So I identified what I might be addicted to in my life and decided to fight my own addiction.

I'm sure my addiction was not as hard to fight as his was physically. But it taught me something about myself and my will power.

[Surfah]

Brother, been there. Trying to get away from that. April 1, I weighed 288 lbs. I suspect that in February I was close if not over 300 lbs. I know I was in the 290's because of a doctor visit in March.

But that day marked the beginning of a life change for me. Since my mission, where I gained about 60 lbs, I have struggled with my weight. I have hovered around 270 lbs for most of that. When I met Gidget I was at my then heaviest of 293 lbs. In 10 months I got down to 250 lbs for our wedding. But then ballooned up again because I didn't make wholesale changes to my diet or lifestyle. I was unhappy and absolutely disgusted with how I looked and felt.

Like you I've had success with some other diets like Atkins, but ultimately I decided that the best approach for me would be to restrict calories, pay attention to where my calories came from, intuitively eat, and exercise daily. I still log my meals daily to make me accountable for everything that I put in my mouth. Like RC suggested, the first thing I got rid of were empty calories. No fruit juices. No soda. I make sure eat good meals. I watch portions. But I eat when I am hungry. If I need something to eat, I'll grab a piece of fruit, a FiberOne Bar, or Light & Fit Yogurt. I get at least 30 minutes a day of cardio with some strength training mixed in there. I started off doing the Biggest Loser Workout video. Something made me feel better about doing this workout with people my size, some of whom had put lots of weight back on after the show. They had a 6 week workout program and I made a goal to do it 6 days a week for those 6 days. The first week was brutal. I was so out of shape I puked 3 times. But I kept at it. By the end I could do it and had started supplementing the workout with additional cardio by doing the bike or elliptical. I didn't miss a day. I became militant about it. On business trips I took the DVD with me and did the workout in my hotel room on my laptop. One time I was traveling and knew I would not have any time to get my workout in so I woke at 4:30 am to get in so I could keep my goal.

I made small goals towards my larger goals. That way I could feel a sense of achievement and be motivated to keep pushing forward. I started posting here my updates for additional motivation and also accountability. I let myself cheat on Sundays. I didn't binge or go all out. But I'd allow myself maybe a little bigger portion at dinner or that dessert I had passed up all week. This way I didn't go nuts.

I went from not even being able to button some of my size 40 pants to buying 36" pants. I swim in my old XXL shirts. I now wear just an XL. I still have 15 pounds to go until I want to stop but it's been a terrific journey. I ran into a kid I haven't seen since HS at my brother's wedding. He said I looked the exact same and asked me what I have been doing to stay in shape all these years. It made me feel great. But I also had to tell him that I just lost 50+ lbs. He was shocked. He asked how I did it. And I told him the old way. Diet and exercise. No fads. Wholesale changes to my lifestyle. I am a walking encyclopedia of calories. Give me a food and I'll tell you how many calories are in a serving size. All this only through hard work and sacrifice. Because I ain't going to lie, some days sucked. Some days I was absolutely miserable. Going from a sedentary lifestyle consuming 4,000+ calories daily to 1800 is not easy. But nothing tastes as good as I feel right now.

I know you can do it man.

[New Mexican Disaster]

The food journaling part and regular exercise are so important. My wife and I have used Weight Watchers. Shed dropped about 60 but has struggled to get off recent baby weight. I dropped about 25 pounds and have started to inch back up over the last 3 years. I am trying to lose back 10 of it.

Whether you use a program or not I think it is super important to realize just what a bargain you get with certain foods that you like and certain that you like but do not think are worth it. For me a huge chunk of my weight loss was limiting my milk consumption. I would drink a gallon every couple of days and I had to regulate how much I drank. For you it may be another few foods which you can cut your unregulated consumption of and you will get outsize benefits from how much it changes your diet and daily life.

As far as exercise goes, I just did situps, pushups and walking. I could have run but I found that it puts a ton of pounding on my knees and so on. Now I have an eliptical machine that I use at home whilst I am watching games. That has been quite helpful.

You can do this. It can be slow to start but your energy will feed on itself. You will feel so much better and you will if you are disciplined see outsize gains to begin with. I wish you luck.

[Mr Incredible]

I need help and I don’t know what to do. There are many here that lead as or more hectic lives than myself, so I don’t want to make up any excuses. I want to change, I need to change. I feel like a giant (literal) loser today.

I suggest trying to figure out why you are eating poorly. Is it for comfort, are you a stress eater, is your wife making you crappy food, etc. Try to figure out the right problem to attack.

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[YOhio]

Have you considered anabolic steroids?

[bluegoose]

But nothing tastes as good as I feel right now.

Very nice post, Surfah. I especially like this statement. Its a good reminder for those of us that really love food.

[WashingtonCoug]

I don't know you well enough to know if you are Mormon or a member of any other church, but prayer has proven to be effective in losing weight. You can't forget that God wants you to be healthy and wants you to succeed. He can give you that added extra push to make your lifestyle changes.

[happyone]

Just a couple of things more to add that were helpful to me.

I keep a food journal - everything I eat gets written down. When I stopped this is when I put the weight back on. I now have a use for the day planner work gives me

This is probably over kill, but I record both carb servings for each meal (no more than 4 per meal) and food group servings for the day. This helps me in meal planning

Since I'm diabetic I am fairly consistent with meal times. I drink a large glass of water (12-16 oz) about 30 minutes before eating. It helps me feel full.

Also, get to know you measuring cups. You need to know what a serving size is. It seems most of them are either 1/2 cup or 1 cup. After a little while you can eyeball the servings and come pretty close, but you should measure out you food for the first little while.

I never thought I would say this, but learn to read the labels on the packaging of the food. It tells you lots of neat things like serving size, calories/serving, carbs, fat ect per serving. It is really useful in planning meals.

I still don't really like vegis, but I"ve eaten more salad in the last for years than in the pervious 50 years combined

As for exercise, definitely choose something you enjoy. IF you can't stand walking/running, don't do it. If you like basketball, play basketball. It helps if you have an exercise buddy. In my case it is the dog. He greets me as I come home wanting to go for his walk NOW If I take a little while to get out the door he is pacing around and getting very impatient. It helps keep me motivated.

As always this is what worked for me. Your mileage may vary

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

A very sincere thank you to everyone that responded in the thread/PM/text. I am still working on a decent plan to get things changed in my life. I appreciate all the advice and encouragement.