Penniwhistle
New member
Hey all - I'm Penniwhistle, a 28 year old male from England who's been a fat sack of shit for way too long and I'm hoping to fix this.
I don't mean that disparagingly - since a head injury at 17 ruined my rugby-playing, and a leg injury at 18 my walking for a while, I've not cared about my weight or health for a decade now. I've not had the happiest life, and in the end I resorted to eating way too much junk as a coping mechanism. A few times I tried to make changes, but when something happened to get me down, it was back to the family-sized bag of Doritos and the 2 litre bottle of Dr. Pepper for comfort. And then I'd feel bad about having done that and then give up because trying to diet was making me feel worse. Thank Christ I never started smoking or taking drugs, because if it's anything like how I am with food, I'd never stop.
Well - the past five years I've been fixing my life. My leg is now back at 95% of what it was [somewhat literally, part of my shin was removed]. I can run now, let alone walk, and my day-to-day pain is very manageable now without drugs. I finally finished school, and university now too. And, I came to terms with the fact that I'm clinically depressed - I've never been suicidal or self-harmed for example, but I bring myself down a lot. I have help with that now, and while I'm still a depressed person, I'm moving forwards despite it. Honestly, embracing it as part of me has made me happier than I've ever been in my life - it's not wrong, I'm not broken. I just have to make better choices despite the depression.
And so, it's time to deal with my weight. I talked to my doctor, and she agrees that Orlistat is right for me. I started on Monday, at 6'2", 308lbs and thus a BMI of 39.7. Before my injuries, I ran every day and played rugby three times a week. I now have a degree in human biology. And sadly, huge amounts of my family are dying of cancer, or have died of heart disease. I can bring myself to take pills three times a day that limit what I can eat, and I know what I need to do. Hopefully now I have the motivation to succeed. Right now, my goal weight is 210lbs. I'm not just tall, but broad too - I think that will be a healthy weight for me, but I'm broader than I was when I was last in really good shape, and then I was 180lbs or so. If I want, I can aim to lose more after that.
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On the 8th June I'm off to America for 2 weeks, to meet my fiancé's parents for the first time. While I'm there, I'm going to stop the Orlistat and go back to a more normal eating routine, but I'll be sensible. In the meantime, I'm on a 1,500 kcal diet split over three meals and three snacks. Cooking is one of my better skills, and limiting myself like this is an interesting challenge - I've made a very simple menu for now, and if I want to make it better, I'll have to put the work in. Until my holiday, my meals are one meal from each category each day:
Breakfasts:
2 fatless scrambled eggs, 2 slices brown toast, 2 clementines
60g bran flakes, 200ml whole milk, 1 clementine
2 slices brown toast, 1 tablespoon butter, 4 slices ham, 2 clementines
Lunches:
Half tin baked beans, fatless scrambled egg, 1 slice brown bread, 2 clementines
2 slices brown toast, 10 cherry tomatoes, 4 slices ham, 1 clementine
Tin of tomato soup, 2 slices brown bread, 1 clementine
Dinners:
Baked potato, half tin beans, baked onion
Rice and veggie stir-fry - 70g uncooked brown rice, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon seasame oil, 1 carrot, ~75g broccoli, 2 cloves garlic, 1 red pepper
70g uncooked pasta, 45g pesto, 100g mushrooms [microwaved. Slice, cover, microwave 3 mins]
Each meal is roughly ~400 kcals, and all are below 15g of fat per meal. In between each meal, I can have two apples, two pears, or two caramel rice crackers, bringing my total kcals to 1,500 a day.
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Exercise! I desperately miss playing rugby. With my leg, I won't be able to go back to that, but I can hopefully get back to running. I also got into LARPing as a young adult, but the past couple of years I've been too unfit to do much but hang around and roleplay. When I reach 280lbs, I'm going to try jogging again, really really slowly and on a very basic program - 2 minutes jog, 1 minute walk a total of 3 times for the first week kinda slow. It's gonna make me sad that I can't casually do 10km off the bat like I used to, but I know it'll make me feel that way now, and I can prepare for it.
I also have an exercise bike, which I'm planning on using every day - a proper workout session, and then idly cycling on it in the evening while I'm watching Youtube. As well as this, I've dug out my old weights. I'll use those every other day - I can train my upper body with a lot less worries than my legs right now, so I'll push myself hard with those. Just getting even a little muscle back will speed up my weight loss, and once I'm approaching my weight goal I can think about a proper body-building workout.
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And finally, since I started on Monday, my progress today. I've lost 7lbs in 5 days, putting me at 301lbs. Next weigh-in I'll be below 300 - that makes me very happy. I woke up this morning feeling hungry and crabby and in the same kinda mood as when I would fail at my diet before. Then I weighed myself and didn't believe the scales. So I went to Boots and paid to use their fancy ones. Yup. Seems Orlistat was the right choice for me [so far].
I'd love to hear from anyone reading this, especially if they have any suggestions. I feel like I'm fairly qualified to figure out a weight loss plan, and my problem was always motivation. But, I could well be wrong and I'd love input if so. Thank you all!
I don't mean that disparagingly - since a head injury at 17 ruined my rugby-playing, and a leg injury at 18 my walking for a while, I've not cared about my weight or health for a decade now. I've not had the happiest life, and in the end I resorted to eating way too much junk as a coping mechanism. A few times I tried to make changes, but when something happened to get me down, it was back to the family-sized bag of Doritos and the 2 litre bottle of Dr. Pepper for comfort. And then I'd feel bad about having done that and then give up because trying to diet was making me feel worse. Thank Christ I never started smoking or taking drugs, because if it's anything like how I am with food, I'd never stop.
Well - the past five years I've been fixing my life. My leg is now back at 95% of what it was [somewhat literally, part of my shin was removed]. I can run now, let alone walk, and my day-to-day pain is very manageable now without drugs. I finally finished school, and university now too. And, I came to terms with the fact that I'm clinically depressed - I've never been suicidal or self-harmed for example, but I bring myself down a lot. I have help with that now, and while I'm still a depressed person, I'm moving forwards despite it. Honestly, embracing it as part of me has made me happier than I've ever been in my life - it's not wrong, I'm not broken. I just have to make better choices despite the depression.
And so, it's time to deal with my weight. I talked to my doctor, and she agrees that Orlistat is right for me. I started on Monday, at 6'2", 308lbs and thus a BMI of 39.7. Before my injuries, I ran every day and played rugby three times a week. I now have a degree in human biology. And sadly, huge amounts of my family are dying of cancer, or have died of heart disease. I can bring myself to take pills three times a day that limit what I can eat, and I know what I need to do. Hopefully now I have the motivation to succeed. Right now, my goal weight is 210lbs. I'm not just tall, but broad too - I think that will be a healthy weight for me, but I'm broader than I was when I was last in really good shape, and then I was 180lbs or so. If I want, I can aim to lose more after that.
---------
On the 8th June I'm off to America for 2 weeks, to meet my fiancé's parents for the first time. While I'm there, I'm going to stop the Orlistat and go back to a more normal eating routine, but I'll be sensible. In the meantime, I'm on a 1,500 kcal diet split over three meals and three snacks. Cooking is one of my better skills, and limiting myself like this is an interesting challenge - I've made a very simple menu for now, and if I want to make it better, I'll have to put the work in. Until my holiday, my meals are one meal from each category each day:
Breakfasts:
2 fatless scrambled eggs, 2 slices brown toast, 2 clementines
60g bran flakes, 200ml whole milk, 1 clementine
2 slices brown toast, 1 tablespoon butter, 4 slices ham, 2 clementines
Lunches:
Half tin baked beans, fatless scrambled egg, 1 slice brown bread, 2 clementines
2 slices brown toast, 10 cherry tomatoes, 4 slices ham, 1 clementine
Tin of tomato soup, 2 slices brown bread, 1 clementine
Dinners:
Baked potato, half tin beans, baked onion
Rice and veggie stir-fry - 70g uncooked brown rice, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 teaspoon seasame oil, 1 carrot, ~75g broccoli, 2 cloves garlic, 1 red pepper
70g uncooked pasta, 45g pesto, 100g mushrooms [microwaved. Slice, cover, microwave 3 mins]
Each meal is roughly ~400 kcals, and all are below 15g of fat per meal. In between each meal, I can have two apples, two pears, or two caramel rice crackers, bringing my total kcals to 1,500 a day.
---------
Exercise! I desperately miss playing rugby. With my leg, I won't be able to go back to that, but I can hopefully get back to running. I also got into LARPing as a young adult, but the past couple of years I've been too unfit to do much but hang around and roleplay. When I reach 280lbs, I'm going to try jogging again, really really slowly and on a very basic program - 2 minutes jog, 1 minute walk a total of 3 times for the first week kinda slow. It's gonna make me sad that I can't casually do 10km off the bat like I used to, but I know it'll make me feel that way now, and I can prepare for it.
I also have an exercise bike, which I'm planning on using every day - a proper workout session, and then idly cycling on it in the evening while I'm watching Youtube. As well as this, I've dug out my old weights. I'll use those every other day - I can train my upper body with a lot less worries than my legs right now, so I'll push myself hard with those. Just getting even a little muscle back will speed up my weight loss, and once I'm approaching my weight goal I can think about a proper body-building workout.
--------
And finally, since I started on Monday, my progress today. I've lost 7lbs in 5 days, putting me at 301lbs. Next weigh-in I'll be below 300 - that makes me very happy. I woke up this morning feeling hungry and crabby and in the same kinda mood as when I would fail at my diet before. Then I weighed myself and didn't believe the scales. So I went to Boots and paid to use their fancy ones. Yup. Seems Orlistat was the right choice for me [so far].
I'd love to hear from anyone reading this, especially if they have any suggestions. I feel like I'm fairly qualified to figure out a weight loss plan, and my problem was always motivation. But, I could well be wrong and I'd love input if so. Thank you all!
