I've always been a big guy. One of those who really is "big boned". In high school, I ran track. I was 5'5" and 185 lbs when I graduated. About 10% body fat. Pretty big. I hit a growth spurt at about 21, and grew a few inches to 5'10" or so, depending on the person measuring(for some reason, the doctor used to get a different height every time. I had Kaiser, go figure). Working in fast food, and later, security, I put on a little more weight than I should have. Still had good cardio ability, so I wasn't too worried. I went in the police academy in July of 2003. I started at 280 lbs, fat and slow. After six weeks of PT, I was 295, and getting trim. I had a 54.5 inch chest, and a 40 inch waist. A measure of my body fat indicated lean muscle mass of around 215 lbs. Now, the BMI for my height states I should weigh no more than 180. Good luck with that, doc. So, my PT instructor and I figured a healthy weight would be 250-275. 235, if I wanted to be a competitive body bulider or such, with extremely low body fat. But, back to the subject at hand. I got injured in the academy, trashed my knee out pretty good, and got dropped with 80 hours of classroom left. :/
I was injured, and the wife was pregnant. Not a good recipe for healthy weight. I shot up to 350 by the time my daughter was born. Yikes! Waited until she was 8 months, went back to work and began losing the weight. I got down to 325. Left CA. While moving our entire household on my own, due to all my help having "emergencies", I hurt my back. The weight started coming back. Then I fell down our stairs and hurt my tailbone. I couldn't sit up straight for 4 months. Screwed us pretty good financially. Luckily, when we moved to Oregon, we paid off our mortgage, and purchased a home for cash. Long and the short is, right now I'm around 340lbs.
I know what I need to do. I know what works for me. No "Atkins type stuff. If I don't get carbs, I will be in the paper for murder. No, what works for me is a high protein diet, with reasonable carbs and restricted sugar intake. The sugar part is hard, because my wife is a stress baker. Also what works for me is intensive exercise.
Why am I posting? Since I know what I need to do? Well, If I tell y'all what my plans are, I figure it'll help me stay "straight". I already cut out fast food weeks ago, not like I ate a lot of it, anyway. I'm kickstarting the exercise this weekend, clearing out what seems like a metric ton of weeds from my back yard, and building a fence around the garden area, then planting.
I'm not so worried about poundage, that's secondary. I do look forward to my pant size dropping. Now that summer is here, the bike is aired up and ready to go, so I can work on my cardio without destroying my knees.
So, wish me luck!