I didn't want to derail the food thread, so I figured I'd just start a new post.
Those after photos are older.. I'm now only 10lbs away from my goal weight, and Doug is only 25 or so. We actually quit counting calories for the summer.. decided to enjoy sitting on patios with margaritas , beer, wine etc
We haven't gained back any weight, as following primal keeps us in check, but we haven't lost any since May or so due to the intentional summer slack off. We'll be getting back at it full time in mid-October or so.
When we started we did no exercise at all, as for Keto, due to the massive carb drop, it's easier to get started if you are not trying to work out too much until you get used to it. Maldwyn/Doug struggled with his weight for years.. I was one of those people who could eat anything I wanted and stay super thin. When I hit 40, that ended and I gained all my weight in like 8 months >.< As you saw, he lost the most, so I'm using him as the example, as our main goal was for him not to die of a heart attack and to get his blood pressure under control. So we created our eating plans around his loss, while mine was slower. He'd write this up.. but he's in the middle of deploying a new intranet at his office, working nutty long hours, and simply won't have much forum time until after our move.
So we started with 4 months of calorie counting where he lost 20 pounds. But he was miserable and hungry all the time. I then found Keto. We discovered he has a gluten allergy. He had what we thought were seasonal allergies his whole life - miserable every fall and spring.. turns out, it was diet exacerbating it, and now he hasn't taken so much as an allergy pill in 2 years, after being on prescription allergy meds his whole life. On strict Keto with no calorie counting, he lost another 60 pounds in 3 months (size 44 pants to a 38), while feeling full and eating things like bacon, butter and cream. That's when we started lifting.
We lift 3x a week, no cardio besides walking the dog, to work and the grocery store. When we move to Portland we're adding yoga, as for both of us, we've discovered our flexibility is holding us back with our lifting progess more than our strength. As long as I get re-started in mid-October as planned, I expect to be at my goal weight by Thanksgiving or so. I was always scared of living heavy, thinking I'd get all bulky.. which is far, far, far from the case - lifting heavy weights is the greatest way to get off fat and maintain weight and has awesome results for women. During my last push at weight loss, I'll be sticking to low weights, high reps (probably about 60 max on squats and 110 or so on deadlifts) with accessory work, because I have to calorie count a bit - at 5'6" I'll be on a round 1700-1800 kcals a day. Then I'll be switching to Starting Strength and go up to more like 2400-2500 kcals a day. I really shouldn't need to count anymore at that point, but I will for a couple weeks as I tend not to eat enough to raise my lifts if I don't. When I started lifting, I couldn't even lift the bar (45lbs), I had to start with body-squats and work my way up using practice bars over a couple months. My goal by the end of winter is to squat my body weight, deadlift 1½ times that, and to do 1-2 chin-ups (my arms are my waekest point atm).
Anyway, I'm sure this was TMI, but frankly, I wish someone had pointed out to us we didn't need to do 90 minutes of cardio a day to lose weight before we let it get out of control. If I'd started lifting earlier.. I could be eating everything in sight without all of this cutting business
Those after photos are older.. I'm now only 10lbs away from my goal weight, and Doug is only 25 or so. We actually quit counting calories for the summer.. decided to enjoy sitting on patios with margaritas , beer, wine etc
We haven't gained back any weight, as following primal keeps us in check, but we haven't lost any since May or so due to the intentional summer slack off. We'll be getting back at it full time in mid-October or so.When we started we did no exercise at all, as for Keto, due to the massive carb drop, it's easier to get started if you are not trying to work out too much until you get used to it. Maldwyn/Doug struggled with his weight for years.. I was one of those people who could eat anything I wanted and stay super thin. When I hit 40, that ended and I gained all my weight in like 8 months >.< As you saw, he lost the most, so I'm using him as the example, as our main goal was for him not to die of a heart attack and to get his blood pressure under control. So we created our eating plans around his loss, while mine was slower. He'd write this up.. but he's in the middle of deploying a new intranet at his office, working nutty long hours, and simply won't have much forum time until after our move.
So we started with 4 months of calorie counting where he lost 20 pounds. But he was miserable and hungry all the time. I then found Keto. We discovered he has a gluten allergy. He had what we thought were seasonal allergies his whole life - miserable every fall and spring.. turns out, it was diet exacerbating it, and now he hasn't taken so much as an allergy pill in 2 years, after being on prescription allergy meds his whole life. On strict Keto with no calorie counting, he lost another 60 pounds in 3 months (size 44 pants to a 38), while feeling full and eating things like bacon, butter and cream. That's when we started lifting.
We lift 3x a week, no cardio besides walking the dog, to work and the grocery store. When we move to Portland we're adding yoga, as for both of us, we've discovered our flexibility is holding us back with our lifting progess more than our strength. As long as I get re-started in mid-October as planned, I expect to be at my goal weight by Thanksgiving or so. I was always scared of living heavy, thinking I'd get all bulky.. which is far, far, far from the case - lifting heavy weights is the greatest way to get off fat and maintain weight and has awesome results for women. During my last push at weight loss, I'll be sticking to low weights, high reps (probably about 60 max on squats and 110 or so on deadlifts) with accessory work, because I have to calorie count a bit - at 5'6" I'll be on a round 1700-1800 kcals a day. Then I'll be switching to Starting Strength and go up to more like 2400-2500 kcals a day. I really shouldn't need to count anymore at that point, but I will for a couple weeks as I tend not to eat enough to raise my lifts if I don't. When I started lifting, I couldn't even lift the bar (45lbs), I had to start with body-squats and work my way up using practice bars over a couple months. My goal by the end of winter is to squat my body weight, deadlift 1½ times that, and to do 1-2 chin-ups (my arms are my waekest point atm).
Anyway, I'm sure this was TMI, but frankly, I wish someone had pointed out to us we didn't need to do 90 minutes of cardio a day to lose weight before we let it get out of control. If I'd started lifting earlier.. I could be eating everything in sight without all of this cutting business
