I was reading an article today about Jared Fogle. You know him as Jared the Subway guy who lost 240 pounds about 10 years ago and has been the spokesman for Subway since then. He lost the weight by eating a Turkey Club sandwich twice a day. Fortunately for Jared, he's been able to keep the weight off.
I did something similar beginning January 1, 2006 but not near as drastic as what Jared did. At one time, I weighed in the neighborhood of 240 pounds. That wouldn't have been so bad if I was about 6'10" but I'm only 5'10" and trust me, it wasn't pretty. I tried the Atkins Diet at one time and got down to about 205 but couldn't stay with the reduction in carbs and ballooned back up to about 225 by January 1, 2006. It was at this point that I decided I had to do something.
The NBC show "The Biggest Loser" had been inspiring to me as the people on the show were able to not only change their physical appearance but also their psychological approach to food. While I wasn't sure that the rapid weight loss the contestants had was optimal from a medical standpoing, by August of 2006, I was down to 178 pounds. My weight loss was about two pounds per week average and I probably didn't have any single week when I lost more than five pounds.
Many people have asked me how I did it. I wish I could say that there was some magic involved in losing the weight but, as I had heard from my doctor several times, the key was exercise and watching what I ate.
So here's what I learned to help me with the weight loss:
1. It's all about calories in versus calories out. Your body needs calories to function so there's no way you can cut them out completely. For me, the number of calories I consumed in a day was 7 times my then-current weight. So for example, when I was 200 pounds I set my target for 1400 calories a day. There's no reason to get carried away with it - if I ate 1500 calories one day, I'd try to eat only 1300 the next. As long as I averaged the target amount for the week, I was happy and able to lose weight.
2. Fat calories definitely count. I was religious about reading labels. If the percentage of fat calories to total calories was more than 30 percent, I didn't eat it.
3. Cardio workouts were a must. I tried to burn 500 calories a day by working out at the YMCA. Why 500? Because it take 3,500 calories burnt to lose one pound. If I burnt 500 calories per day, seven days a week, I knew I'd at least lose a pound. I've been a member of the Y for just over five years. I've probably ran a couple thousand miles in that time and biked five to six thousand miles.
4. Strength workouts are much more important than I ever thought because when your muscles are repairing themselves after a workout, it raises your metabolism. With an increased metabolism, more calories are burnt. I lifted weights no more than every other day because your muscles need a day off to repair themselves. I'd lift one set of 12 reps. If I could get in all 12 reps, I'd raise the amount I lifted by 5 pounds until I got to a point where I couldn't lift 12 reps.
5. You can't diet all the time. I had a goal to eat 20 good meals a week and one bad one, normally on Sunday night. That was the night I'd allow myself to eat chips, a bowl of ice cream or something that wasn't "good" for me.
6. Weigh yourself every day. If I found that I had gained a pound from one day to the next, my workouts were normally a little longer or more strenuous. Weight gain was certainly a motivator for me to get my butt to the Y to get it right back off.
7. When you're hungry - eat! Your body is trying to tell you something. It was not unusual for me to eat a cup of yogurt at 10:00 a.m. after eating breakfast just three hours earlier. I've heard on other diets that you're supposed to eat until you're no longer hungry. For me, I ate until I was satisfied, meaning that sometimes I was still a little bit hungry. At meals, I had to learn when to push away my plate.
8. Learn what a portion really looks like. In these days of supersized everything, I learned that a portion of food is about the size of your fist or a hockey puck. I always made sure I only got one serving spoon of a food on my plate and no more.
For what it's worth, my current weight is normally in the upper 180's but I'm training for a half marathon in May so I'd guess I'll probably get down into the 170's again. My "long run" day is normally on Saturday and I'm up to five miles on those days right now following Hal Higdon's (www.halhigdon.com) half-marathon training plan. I'm running the race with another surveyor who is the past president of the Indiana Society of Professional Land Surveyors. We're not in it to race with the Kenyans but basically our goal is to finish in under two and a half hours. That's about an 11:24 per mile pace and today I was around 10:54 for the five miles so I think I'm in pretty good shape to make the goal. I'll keep you updated from time to time on my training.
If you've been on every diet imaginable, try some of the things that worked for me. Let me know how it works out for you.
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