[memorysan]

A little about my struggle (I know it's a lot):

Well, I'll start by saying I've heard fat jokes all my life...and was kind of used to them. No matter what I have ever done, I have always been chubby.

Is it true that some people are always going to be chubby (body style)?

Back in high school (graduated 16 years ago) I ran track, cross country, swim team, weight lifted, etc. and was still always chubby. Two years out of high school (14 years ago) I joined the Navy for several reasons but one of them was that I thought being in the military would force me to lose weight and keep it off...I was looking forward to being pushed. It turns out that the only way you are forced to stay in shape is by height and weight standards...how you keep within those standards is up to you...but you better stay in those standards! What I mean by that is that there is no enforced exercise program unless you are out of standard, and if you are out of standard you get bad evaluations and can get kicked out or at least it can hurt chances for promotion. You are to stay within these standards by yourself...not much help there.

I joined the Navy 5'8" 170 lbs. I was not happy with this weight, so I put a lot of effort into exercise in boot camp. I graduated boot camp weighing 145...and still chubby. I remember telling my friends at the time that I used to weigh 170 and they said that if I was as fat as I was at 145, I must have been really bad at 170.

The good thing, at the time, was that I was easily within standards and used to laugh at how fat you would have to be to not make Navy standards.

Well, I got weighed a month ago and I was pushing 200lbs. (weighed in at 198). Lucky this was a courtesy weigh in and not an official one, because that is 17 pounds over max weight.

So far, I have stopped drinking sodas (used to drink 5 or 6 a day), started drinking lots and lots of water (I would estimate at least 100 oz. a day), been careful what I eat for lunch, and not being as careful (but eating less) for dinner, I have even tried Lypo-6 and a green tea supplement (which I'll get to in a min.), oh yea and the Slim Fast bar diet.

The Lypo-6 and green tea pills gave me A LOT of energy...got jitters and could go run 5K, 10K, 15K runs (I like running). Going from being pretty sedentary (desk job at work, watching TV or using the computer at home) to running that much got me a stress fracture in my left foot and I am now coming off of a week off of exercising. During that week, I have decided to try something different.

I want to say I lost 10 lbs. doing all of that. Which would normally seem good, except that I lost 8 lbs in one week...and 2 pounds in the following 3 weeks combined. The 2 lbs in 3 weeks is kind of discouraging.

So, here I am at 188-189 lbs wanting something drastic (even though I am getting closer to being within standards now, I am no where near satisfied with my body and still see myself as disgustingly fat (of course, I have never been satisfied with how I have looked).

My plan, now, is to drop the diet pills I was using and only use the Slim-Fast bars for convenience (snacks or meals on the go), continue to eat something low fat for breakfast (I never ate breakfast before I started trying to lose weight), healthy lunches, etc. What I am doing is trying Alli (the only FDA approved diet pills) with each meal to help me get rid of some of the fat that I eat and I am starting the Beach Body Insanity program today.

I got my daughter to take a picture of me with my shirt off as a before picture and I will see how different I look 60 days from now. I'll let you know how it goes (probably in the 30 something section) in case you want to know if it works!

I really wanted to put up one of those charts I see in so many signatures that shows how many pounds I have lost and how far I am to my goal...but I have to wait 20 days to get a signature of my own. I thought that would be a good motivator for me...but the forum won't let me do it right now.

My goal, now, is to lose 53 lbs. (to see the weight I graduated boot camp at, almost 14 years ago) and see how I feel about myself then...and set another goal. I'll try to make my own chart below:

198---188---------------145.
Lost 10 lbs. 43 to go, keep it up!

Where do you make those charts at, by the way?

Wish me luck! I wish you all luck in the weight you are trying to lose as well!!

I have seen a few posts on here where people have lost over 100 POUNDS!! That is amazing!! Seeing that, I know it can be done...so I'm on the road to losing 50 (100 seems unrealistic to me)!

Oh, and I hope I didn't offend anyone by saying that I see myself as way overweight. I know there may be some of you worse off than me, and I am not saying any of you are disgusting...I just mean that I am disappointed with myself and want to do something about it. If you are on here, it means you are doing something about your weight problem...and I commend you for that. You are to be praised for putting in the effort, I applaud you for it!!

[mammasita]

The Navy - all too familiar with what you're going through. I'm sure you've heard that the Navy has the "fattest" members of the branches. Maybe a side effect of the lackadaisical approach to PT and regular exercise? I struggled with staying within in the height/weight standard for all of my six years. I had a pregnancy in there so that alleviated some of the pressure .........until I had to get myself back w/in standards.

Anyhow, glad you found this forum. It's primarily women, but there are men lurking, I've seen posts LOL.

In my opinion, and I'm going strictly by your measurements, you sound like you're being extremely hard on yourself. Sure you may be over the "ideal" weight for your height, but it could be much worse (and I understand body frame is a factor in all this too). Regardless, you're on the right track with excercise etc. There are many forums here with different plans that people follow; calorie counting, south beach, atkins, fat smash etc.

As far as the 2 lb loss in 3 weeks, I can relate to that also. I find that processed foods, sodium and drinking diet soda tends to stall my loss. When I see that happening I cut back on the salt and I seem to get back in the groove.

Well, welcome and you can get one of those counters from here www.TickerFactory.com

[memorysan]

Yea, I kinda noticed it was mostly women, but I just happened across this sight and lurked around a little. When I saw that people were posting their 100 pound weight losses, I figured I should stick around. I love to see people that successful!!

I know what it's like to one day look at yourself and say "I can't live with myself like this, and decide "**** or high water" "I'M GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!" So many people on here have said that to themselves and they succeeded!

That's where I'm at right now!

Anyway, I just "survived" day 1 of the insanity workout and it was pretty tough...and that's just the fit test to get started. Tomorrow is when I really start the workouts.

[2phatinvictoria]

welcome!! You've come to the right place!! Keep up at it and you'll get to were you want to be! your story seems alot like my bf's he joined the navy and has put on 10 pounds for every year he has been in (4 years so 40 lbs).. good luck to ya.. and hope to hear of your successes!

[bargoo]

Welcome and good luck ! We have a number of men in the forums, and very active posters, too. I also thought you might be a little hard on yourself, but only you know how you feel and look.

[slimmingsi]

1. stop taking the diet pills asap. and have a serious check on teh contents to make sure they wont cause a failure of random drugs testing. as that will seriously harm your promotion chances. besides most are just high caffeine doses. every sailor i ever met (uk naval family) has driuk very strong coffee and plenty of it so pills are more than likely worthless to you.

2. i'm making the assumption as your in japan your shore based at present. tap up a PTI with a few cases of beer help you out with some person training sessions etc. also i've never heard of a base that doesn't have a boxing club/gym get down there and join in some sessions just doing the cardio and bag work no sparing required.

[Tomato]

Hey there,
Welcome to 3FC!!!
You can create your ticker here, at 3FC, at www.tickerfactory.com or at Alterna Tickers. Don't worry, your 20 days will over quickly. You can still create your ticker and keep updating it, and then you can put it into your sig here after your initial 20 days.
Again, welcome to 3FC.

[memorysan]

WOW! I made a tracker, but I can't even post it!

My post count has to be 25 or greater to post an image!

I think this promotes spamming, because now I have to post 23 random posts just to be able to put my tracker up here!

[memorysan]

I was going to try to post a link to it...NOPE...25 posts before I can post a link as well.

[memorysan]

I just went on Active.com's ideal weight calculator and it said "The ideal weight for a person your height would be between 125 and 158 pounds."

This means I am 30 pounds over the high limit of ideal weight!

The good thing, though, is that the goal I had set (145 pounds) is within that range.

[memorysan]

The bad thing is that I haven't been that weight in almost 14 years.

[Onederchic]

Hi and welcome to 3FC.

You don't have to make random posts to get the requirement of 20 posts, there are tons of forums and threads here you can join in, I am sure. Also, it is a combination of 20 posts and 20 days of being a member to be able to have the ticker in your siggy.

Good luck with your goals.

Hugs
Michelle

[BillBlueEyes]

Hi memorysan -

Yep, some of us are guys all right - and you'll find more about as you tour the whole place. Many interesting nooks and crannies.

Don't worry about getting your twenty posts - they'll happen over your twenty day wait. If one of the mods sees junk posts they'll be deleted, so that's not a useful idea.

Sounds like you've got an eating plan in mind and some good exercise ideas also. After you get past your critical number, it might feel best to take a measured slow approach to the remainder. The hardest part is keeping it off after the loss. The 3FC Living Maintenance Forum has a bunch of good threads about that phase. It's never too early to think about that so you don't get caught by surprise.

Congrats on your good start - good luck continuing day by day.

[memorysan]

My plan is to hit it real hard for at least the next 60 days (Insanity workout is 60 days) and see where I am from there.

I really like running so, after the Insanity workout is done, I am planning on training for a half marathon later this year (September or October maybe), then see if I can get up to a marathon next Feb. This is my plan to keep losing weight / maintain. I think I can do it, but I know it won't be easy...but it will keep me motivated to keep exercising if I am working toward a lifetime achievement like that.

I had thought I would just train for the half/full marathons and let that be my exercise to lose weight, but I am not satisfied with the results so far and I got a stress fracture from trying to do too much at once. I still plan to do it, but after I do Insanity and drop some more weight (hopefully quickly).

[BillBlueEyes]

All that sounds good to me.

Ouch for the "stress fracture from trying to do too much at once" - that happens, particularly to those of us who get older every single year whether we notice or not, LOL.