Overview
Okay, so let's cut right to the chase: the "before" and "after" comparison photos. I had already re-bought the exact same shirt and shorts in a smaller size because I liked them, so finding this "before" photo was just perfect.
LEFT: The last known photo of me at "Peak Fatass," 318.5 pounds,
on September 24, 2017-- two weeks before I started the project.
RIGHT: Me on July 8, 2018, 186.5 pounds-- 132 pounds lighter!
It took me 207 days to reach the 100 pounds lost milestone, from October 9, 2017 to May 4, 2018. I took a bit of a breather in May, got somewhat reacquainted with real food and just maintained my weight, and then started the final push to drop the last 30 pounds. I finally reached my goal weight on July 7, 2018.
Overall, it took me 272 days to lose 130 pounds and reach my goal, losing an average of just under 0.5 pounds per day. In 2018 alone, from January 1 to July 7, I lost 110.5 pounds-- that's 188 days, an average of slightly under 0.6 pounds per day.
These are size 52 loose fit jeans that were getting tight in September.
After rapidly going through several smaller pairs, I'm a size 38 today.
Why did I do it?
It was just time. Past time, really. I was tired of not liking what I saw in the mirror, I was developing sleep apnea and plantar fasciitis, and probably well on my way to a premature death from one of the range of obesity-related causes (#realtalk). But the real kicker was the morning I stepped into my cast iron bathtub for a shower and heard the son of a bitch creak under my weight. Yeah... no bueno.
How did I do it?
No surgery, no programs, no trainer, no medical supervision, no BS. Just diet, exercise, technology, and people.
Diet
There were occasional minor cheat meals to maintain my sanity, and a few epic cheat meals. In particular, to celebrate reaching the 100 pounds lost milestone I devoured an entire large pizza (this one-- of course I took a photo) from my favorite pizza place in one sitting, in about an hour. It took me a couple days to burn it off, but it was worth it.
Below is my weight graph. The blue line is the actual weight, the red dotted line is the 10-day moving average. I found the moving average was very helpful at the beginning when day-to-day weight gains could be demoralizing. I realized that as long as I kept that trend line sloping downward or at least moving sideways, gaining a couple pounds here or there wasn't a big deal. You can see how I started off slowly, slacked off badly during the holidays, and then floored it starting in January. That uptick toward the end is because just before the big public reveal, I was meeting up (usually for meals) with as many friends as possible that I hadn't seen in a while and who were unaware of the project. Their shocked reactions at the new me were priceless!
Click to Enlarge
Below is a table of my milestones. It took me 18 days to lose the first 10 pounds, 34 days to lose the next 10, and so on. You can really see the impact the holidays had on my early progress. When the new year started, I got serious and was dropping about 20 pounds per month. As I said before, I took it easy in May after hitting 100, and started kicking ass again in June to finish strong.
| Pounds | Date Reached | Days | Average Loss/Day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 10/27/17 | 18 | 0.556 |
| 20 | 11/30/17 | 34 | 0.294 |
| 30 | 01/17/18 | 48 | 0.208 |
| 40 | 01/31/18 | 14 | 0.714 |
| 50 | 02/17/18 | 17 | 0.588 |
| 60 | 03/09/18 | 20 | 0.500 |
| 70 | 03/24/18 | 15 | 0.667 |
| 80 | 04/07/18 | 14 | 0.714 |
| 90 | 04/21/18 | 14 | 0.714 |
| 100 | 05/04/18 | 13 | 0.769 |
| 110 | 06/06/18 | 33 | 0.303 |
| 120 | 06/17/18 | 11 | 0.909 |
| 130 | 07/07/18 | 20 | 0.500 |
Exercise
Gradually, I was able to ramp up the time, distance, and resistance as my stamina improved. The last two weeks before reaching my goal, I was usually doing between 10.25 and 10.75 miles per day (1 hour before work and 1.5 hours after) with resistance at or near maximum the entire time. For much of the project, I was burning 2.5 to 3 times the calories I consumed in in a given day. In the time it took me to reach my goal weight, I racked up 1089.83 miles-- 1006.16 of those on a 177 consecutive day streak. Over the course of the whole project, I spent 259 hours on the elliptical-- 10.75 full days. The last day I didn't get on it at all was January 11, and that streak lasted for 253 days (and 1,487.62 miles)-- it ended when I took a weekend road trip in late September and the elliptical just wouldn't fit in the trunk of my car. I only missed two days, though, and picked up right where I left off when I got home.
Below is my exercise graph, tracking the miles I did on the elliptical. Generally, each 1 mile increment translates to 15 minutes of exercise.
Click to Enlarge
Technology
At the beginning of March I bought an Apple Watch, and it was a tremendous help-- it nags me to get up and walk every hour, eggs me on when I'm close to my goals, congratulates me when I achieve them, and automatically enters every calorie I burn into Lose It!. Since the day I got it, it's only been off my wrist when I've been showering. I even wear it when I'm sleeping.
As you saw, I also separately logged my daily weight and exercise in an Excel spreadsheet, so I could graph it and crunch the numbers to monitor my progress-- because I'm a nerd.
Honorable mention to my iPad along with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Plex, Showtime Anytime, and HBO Go-- without a vast quantity of streaming media to make the hours go by more quickly, I could never have spent all that time on the elliptical without going bananas.
People
That of course eventually included my coworkers. They helped a lot with positive feedback as they watched almost half of me rapidly disappear. That's them in the photo, cheering for me after it was announced that I hit the 100 pound milestone (photo credit: Nick Christoff). They also gave me some gift cards so I could start replacing my clothes, which was very much appreciated.
Many thanks to everyone who provided moral support, I really couldn't have done it without you!
Goal Achieved! Saturday, July 7, 2018, 4:40 PM.
What's Next?
I'm going to lose about 10 more pounds, then I'm going to enjoy a couple well-deserved binges on the foods I've missed the most. After that, I'll undo any damage and set about maintaining my weight between 180 and 190. I'll have to gradually increase my intake of real food and make some adjustments, just like with the diet. I'm optimistic that it won't be too difficult, since I managed it reasonably well in May during my sort-of month off.I also need to acquire and start working out with some weights instead of doing 100% cardio all the time-- even with something to keep me entertained, the elliptical is getting monotonous, and it takes up way too much of my day.
Finally, I need to refresh my wardrobe, now that I'll be getting more than a month out of a pair of jeans before they become comically huge on me. I'm looking forward to shopping for clothes somewhere other than a big & tall store.
Update - Early 2021
My original plan of dropping down to about 178 and then staying between 180 and 190 was a little too ambitious, but I was able to stay in the low to mid 190s for quite a long time. My weight slowly crept upward and finally slipped into the low 200s a few times after many months of pandemic living. Working from home means losing the incidental calorie burn from walking around my office during the course of the workday, and self-medicating my pandemic depression and anxiety with comfort food certainly doesn't help matters.I still do 90 minutes of cardio on the elliptical, every day. I did not miss a single day in 2019 or 2020, and logged 2,585 and 2,820 miles, respectively. I plan to keep that streak alive through 2021. I did get some weights, but I'm not using them much. I'm a creature of habit, and once I get into a routine it's hard to change it. The weights haven't gotten fully incorporated yet. For a period of time, I was trying to cancel out some of the junk food consumption by doing two-a-days on the elliptical (for a total of 2.25 workout hours per day), but honestly, how much damn time can I spend on the thing without going nuts, no matter how much streaming media is available to keep me distracted? This crappy, snowy winter has also meant my opportunities to get outside and do some walking on my favorite park trail have been limited, and I haven't gotten there at all since the day after Thanksgiving. Spring, more daylight hours, vaccinations, and an eventual return to normality can't get here fast enough.
I'm eating only normal food, and phased Soylent out of my diet not long after hitting my goal weight. From what I've read they've made a lot of changes to it since I stopped using it, so I don't even know if I'd still like or recommend it at this point. I still log everything I put in my mouth in Lose It!. My streak is over 1,200 days. In late 2020 I upgraded to a Series 6 Apple Watch, and it still dutifully logs every calorie I burn.
I participated in Big Climb Philly in April of 2019, and ran up 1,088 stairs (47 floors) in 12:28. I ran my first 5K in September of 2019, and finished in 28:19.4. I had a second one scheduled for April of 2020, but then the pandemic lockdown happened and it was changed to a virtual, "run anywhere alone and submit your time" type event. I ran it, but the experience was severely lacking, so I won't be doing any more races until normal life resumes in the future.
I replaced my wardrobe, and actually kind of enjoy shopping for clothes now that I can do it in normal stores. My collection of funny and pop-culture t-shirts has never been larger. Still haven't bought a suit yet, but thanks to the pandemic, heavily attended weddings and funerals aren't really a thing right now, so... yay? I also don't plan to change jobs anytime soon, so interviews are not a concern. If worse comes to worst and I do need a suit on short notice, I'll pull the old fat suit out of the closet and tell people I'm a big David Byrne fan.