5 lessons learned losing 50 pounds
Over the course of a year and a half I went from 230 pounds to 175. I made lots of mistakes and I wanted to share the key things I learned along the way in case it’s helpful to someone else. If you want to read the full story of my journey you can here.
1. It’s so easy to be discouraged
When I hit my breaking point and decided to give it my all to try to lose weight I floundered around on my own at the gym and with my diet. I had some initial success and lost 15 pounds over 3 months but I didn’t look any different and still wore the same clothes. It was discouraging but I refused to give up so I sought professional help with training programs.
I tried to find folks on social media who seemed to be saying things that made sense logically and scientifically. I gotta say, there’s so much bullshit out there. And nearly everyone saying it is in their 20s when you can basically eat anything and work out for 90 days resulting in a great body. Plus corporate America is just out there to profit on your obesity; they don’t really want anyone to lose the weight or else they’d be out of business!
I lost a total of 30 pounds over 9 months and still mostly looked the same. I still wore the same clothes; albeit they were loose. I felt better. I was healthier, but it was discouraging that most people didn’t seem to notice.
I’m glad I kept going because the next 10 pounds lost made a big difference and the final 10 pounds completely transformed me. It all came down to body fat percentage. When you’re in the 20–30% range it’s hard to notice changes but the difference at 18% or 15% is much bigger.
It’s hard not to compare yourself to other people but I had to learn to be comfortable with how my body responded to the training during this journey.
2. You can work out too much
On my own I was doing 60% cardio 5 days a week for 2.5 hours a session and it was way too much. I had also been mixing up the workouts constantly because I had seen online that was a good thing, right? Wrong.
I learned your body likes routine and it’s about progressively overloading it. Some of the help I got including switching my routine to an hour of strength training 3 days a week and no more than 2, 45 minute sessions of cardio.
Steps were the key more than cardio; especially in the beginning. My target was 9,000 to 11,000 steps all 7 days a week. I started walking my son to school every day instead of driving (thank you California weather).
The program I’m on increased the training to 4 days a week after 9 months when I had hit a plateau and am still on that routine today.
3. Know your BMR and TDEE
I wanted to get back to under 200 pounds. But I didn’t really know what that meant and I just assumed if I could do that I’d be ‘healthy’ again. 200 was when it all seemed to go to shit.
I used a body composition analyzer. This told me how much muscle and fat I had, body fat percentage, and what my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) was. That was eye opening.
BMR is how many calories your body burns at rest for basic functions. You need to eat more than that or your starving yourself and your body will go into conservation mode (fat storage). My BMR was almost 2000 which meant I needed to eat more than the recommended daily allowance you see on nutrition labels; especially if I was working out.
What you’re trying to do is figure out your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) to set your diet and macro goals. You need to eat at a deficit to lose weight plain and simple.
4. Track your food & hit your macros
I was so opposed to tracking my food which is so embarrassing in retrospect. Tracking your food is single handedly the best tool in your arsenal to lose weight. I’m a convert now. I use MyFitnessPal but there are lots out there.
To be clear, it’s a total pain in the ass. To do it right requires you buy a kitchen scale and measure every single ingredient in your food. Eating out is very, very difficult to track accurately. If you’re the type of person who likes to eat the same thing all the time it’s not too bad as you can save meals and just copy and paste.
When you have your TDEE estimate you can create a macronutrient plan. There are many out there and you’ll need to adjust it as you continue to lose weight. Before I got help I wasn’t eating enough and I wasn’t eating the right mix of protein, carbs, and fats. It’s really all about the diet.
My starting plan was a 3000 calorie per day target = macros 299 Carbs / 88 Fat / 252 Protein. My maintenance plan is currently 2907 calories = 381 Carbs / 81 Fat / 164 Protein.
5. Focus on form not weights
Doing the specific exercise in the right way, with the right form, and activating the right muscle is hard! Maybe it’s just my age but getting your brain to drive the right muscles is not easy. Having a trainer to observe, and work with you constantly to get it right would be the ideal. Even with mirrors you can’t always see what you’re doing wrong.
If you just focus on lifting heavier most of us end up not engaging the right muscles. You’ll not get stronger and will likely just injure yourself. (I have no less than 5 times.)
There’s lots of forums, Facebook groups, etc. out there where you can seek form advice and critiques. I recommend doing that highly.
It took a long time to get to this point. Longer than I hoped it would take but I’m glad I didn’t give up. I include more details on my training program in the full journey story if you’re interested.
Best of luck! You got this!
