New Goals

October 21st will mark my 36th birthday. It seems like a good deadline for some goals.

I have 4.

1. Reach the "1000 pound club" (1000 pound total on the 1-rep max for squat, bench press, and deadlift)

2. Run a 5k in under 25 minutes

3. Run a half marathon

4. Be under 200 pounds.



As October approaches, I'm noticing that I'm within striking distance of all of these goals. But, number 4 is going to be tough. My weight loss has slowed. So, in order to make that goal, I'll have to really buckle down on calories.

Up till now during my 122 pound keto journey, I have basically never counted calories. That's one of the reasons keto has been so easy. I just don't eat carbs, and I lose weight! But, the truth is that I lose weight because I eat fewer calories than I need. Keto just makes that easier. As I lose weight, however, the amount of calories I need also goes down. So, my caloric deficit is shrinking and therefore so is the rate of my weight loss. All that means is that in order to maintain the same rate of weight loss, I have to adjust calories downward over time. I haven't done that.

So, if I want to get under 200 pounds by October 21st, I have about 13.5 weeks to do that. This morning I weighed in at 228 pounds. So, I need to drop 28 pounds in 13.5 weeks. That's 2.07 pounds per week.

On average lately I've been dropping about 1.7. So, I need to cut out some more calories OR up my exercise to increase my deficit.

This is possible. I just need to be more organized/focused than I have been.

At 225, I plan on doing progress pics and a goal review. We'll see what kind of strategy I can come up with in the mean time.

The short version: In 6 years I gained 100 pounds and then lost 122 and still counting.

It has been nearly 6 years since last I put metaphorical pen to page on the ol' blog of Fatty exploits. Much has happened in that time, of course. New kids. New job. Lots of stuff. 

But, let's focus on fat. In October of 2011, I did my last big race. It was the Portland Marathon. I had wanted to run a marathon at 30. I made it by a few weeks. 

The marathon was ugly. I was 250ish pounds. I ran a lot. But, all those miles at that weight was rough. I did finish the race. It took me 5 hours. I ended up 'hitting the wall' around mile 21, and I walked to about mile 24. Then I jogged to the end. 

Finishing the marathon left me beat up and feeling like I needed a BREAK from running. 

What a break! A week turned into a month. A month turned into a season. The next thing I knew, I hadn't run for 3 years. 

Fatty very quickly ballooned over those three years to around 350 pounds. The heaviest I've ever been. Furthermore, my mental health (anxiety) was terrible.

I tried to get back into running a little. But, at that weight, it's really tough. Your body fights you on so many fronts. I even signed up for Hood to Coast again with my wife. I was set to run it in 2015. I was up to about a brutal 4 miles at a time at a pace of 12:30-13min per mile. Plus my anxiety was through the roof. I swallowed what little pride I had and bowed out of the race. It was a good decision at the time. 

Around this same time I felt really desperate for a weight solution. I felt like I'd never win. I decided to look into weight loss surgery. I figured this might be the one way I'd ever find success. I researched. I talked to people who did it. I felt pretty sure I wanted to do it. I went to a doctor and asked him what he thought. (A previous doc had mentioned it as an option) I figured it would be a no-brainer. See a morbidly obese dude in the office who has been fat almost since birth? Seems like a good candidate, no?

Well, I was in for a surprise. 

Me: (to doc) "What do you think about bariatric surgery?"

Doc: "For what?"

Me: "...for me."

Doc: (after a brief pause) "Nah, you don't need it. Just quit eating carbs."

Then the doc goes into a rant about how modern doctors don't know squat about nutrition. He says 85% of all health problems can be fixed via diet. Weight loss is naturally easier when you drop carbs, etc.. 

Well, I quit eating carbs that day cold turkey. That was September 1st 2015. As of this morning, I have lost 122 pounds since then. 

Ok, so there are more details. The doc recommended this website and this book. I checked both out. But, the basics were straightforward. Sugar, bread, grains, and carbs cause problems. Well, it just so happened that I was a carb addict. Cereal, bread, grains, chips, some candy, and more cereal are all things I ate a lot of all my life. 

That first week I quit eating carbs back in Sept. '15, I dropped like 15 pounds. Sure, the vast majority of that was water. But, it was psychologically exciting AND--here's the best part--it felt EASY. 

The short short version is this: dropping carbs kills hunger which makes it easy to be at a caloric deficit. In other words, you naturally fewer calories because you're not hungry. At least, this is how it has been for me. 

In my further research on low-carb/paleo/primal eating, I came across my dietary bff. Keto. "Keto" is short for "ketogenic" which refers to "ketosis" which is a process/state your body uses for energy in the absence of carbs. There are lots of pros to keto. But, for me, it has been magical. The pounds melted off easily. I felt awesome. Here's another important highlight: For the first month of success, I did virtually no exercise. None. 

It has been said other places that something like 85% of weight loss is diet. The rest is exercise. I might put that number at 90%. Exercise helps. But, diet is king. I have tried to literally outrun a bad diet several times. I even found some temporary success. But, in the end, diet wins. 

Ok, this post is getting long, and there's lots I can say. But let me finish by giving the best single keto resource I've found: Reddit Keto FAQ. That thing is gold. In fact, the reddit keto subforum is a great place in general for information, questions, and inspiration. I check it out often. 

There's plenty more to the story. But, the big parts are above. I started keto last September, and I've dropped 122 pounds so far. I expect to lose 1.5+ pounds this week as well. Furthermore, Fatty has hit the exercise hard again. I'm even running again. It feels good. I'll continue to fill in the deets on this blog as I move forward.