[spoiler title=’Click for Transcript’] so today I want to talk about how I lost weight with intermittent fasting just kind of like a an overview if you will because it took me a while to kind of land on my current plan so back in 2014 that’s when I decided to lose weight the reason for it was I saw a picture of myself on Facebook and I was not pleased so I decided right then in there I’m gonna change and I don’t know how I’m gonna do this but whatever I do I still want to be able to eat the foods that I know that I will eventually go back to eating and I want it to be maintainable like whatever whatever I do I don’t want to end up back in this same place I just don’t want to do this anymore so and I should mention I’ve you know I’ve always had problems with my weight you know like there have been times where I’ve been thinner but generally speaking as a kid you know a lot times I was chunky and then you know after I got married I gained some weight then I lost it and then after I had babies that’s really when I mean I had my first baby I lost all the baby weight had the second one lost most of it and then the third one I just really didn’t lose any of it and a fat in fact I probably gained some weight after that so so in 2014 I was I knew I needed to change something so for a year there I tried like jogging everyday 3 miles a day I tried you know high carb or higher protein lower carb I just I tried a lot of things and nothing really worked and so in 2015 about February I finally went to the gym and I got on the scale for the first time in years and I thought I was gonna be about 195 I thought well no big deal you know it won’t be that bad and it was 222 pounds so at that point I was like okay at least now I know where I’m at because before I think I was a still a little bit of denial about where I really was and and how far I had to go so I started doing Crossfit I tried lots of different things I tend to get bored easily I was trying to change up you know I do it you know CrossFit and then lean gains and Lean Gains is where I heard about intermittent fasting so at that point I started kind of toying with the notion of changing my eating habits along with some really hard exercise so I started like pushing my breakfast further and further into the day and eventually I got to the point where I was skipping breakfast entirely on purpose for calorie restriction purposes and then just eating lunch and dinner and and it was I’m starting to have some results like I had basically lost I ended up losing doing that about 20 pounds and so or a little bit more but at the time I was doing what I really enjoyed doing was powerlifting the CrossFit thing I just I kind of it was too tough on my body I guess I don’t know I just didn’t have in me to continue on with CrossFit but I really did love powerlifting and so I was having good results with it and then I hurt my back I was doing a deadlift apparently with poor form and so I just I popped something in my back I don’t know what happened but it was enough where I couldn’t do deadlifts anymore or at least I you know I felt like I was gonna hurt myself even worse so I said I can’t do that and that kind of put the kibosh on all the different kind of weight bearing or weight heavy weights and everything I just couldn’t do them anymore with any comfort so then I was like okay well what am I gonna do because at this point the scale had started to tick back upward I wasn’t as active because my back was hurting and that kind of thing and I was just kind of lost and I was starting to get scared because that was back up to 206 and I was like what am I gonna do because I thought I was having some I mean I was having success that I could just see myself gaining all the way back so I said okay well I’ve got to come up with a different plan so I kind of you know like throughout the rest of that year for about three months I just kind of I was plateaued I was right there at the – like 203 mark 206 – 203 I could not get below 200 to save my life so I was like okay well I’ve got to figure something else out so I read Tim Ferriss’s book the 4-Hour Body and that book even though I didn’t do the slow carb thing which is what he recommends one thing that I took away from that book was to start experimenting on yourself just run an experiment and if it doesn’t work don’t tell yourself you’re a failure just say well that experiment didn’t work I’m on to the next thing so okay well what should I do I tried the shangri-la diet which I also read about in his book for just a couple of days and I was like this is ridiculous I’m not gonna drink sugar water or you know whatever the thing was I just I knew that I wouldn’t stick with that so I said to myself okay you’re having you’ve had success with intermittent fasting and by this point I had been doing intermittent fasting for a while I mean since probably July of the previous year so that was a pretty long time that I was able to consistently stick with that so I said okay well you’re gonna continue intermittent fasting by that point I was basically having like a late lunch and then supper and you’re gonna walk six miles every day and I chose six miles why I don’t know I just kind of came up with it it was more than the 10,000 steps at that point 14,000 steps was six miles on my Fitbit so I said okay 14,000 miles six miles a day that’s like just it was just a good goal to me and so so I just started doing it and slowly but surely the weight started to come down and down and down and then somewhere along the way the stomach virus went through our family and I didn’t get with stomach virus but I was so nervous and and kind of like high-strung I could only bring myself to really eat once a day and that week the scale went down by six pounds and it didn’t it that was not like a true six pound weight loss because I always keep track of my my running like seven-day average and it really was more about like two pounds but I was like hey this this might be something I might be on to something here so I said okay from you know for for at least a few weeks I’m gonna see if I can get to 1 meal a day and just stay there see what happens and that was the where I really started to see like consistent going down of the scale a bit faster than what I was doing when I was eating two meals a day and so so from from January of 2016 until November that’s what I lost from like 203 down to 157 so that was you know the best I was at the end of it I felt awesome I liked the way I looked and even though at that point I was still a couple of pounds overweight like according to my BMI I was still happy with where I where I was and so I decided to didn’t see if I can maintain it and I have I’ve maintained it for almost a year now so I just wanted to share that with you guys so that’s what my journey was like[/spoiler]
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Links to things I mentioned in the video:
My Plan – this page on my site goes over in detail what worked for me, a look at what my daily life is like and some FAQs about intermittent fasting.
Lean Gains – This is where I first learned about the idea of Intermittent Fasting. It’s a blog written by Martin Berkhan who is a nutritional consultant, magazine writer and personal trainer. It hasn’t been updated since December 2016, but there’s a lot of good information there otherwise. Note: the F-Bomb gets thrown around a bit in hisblog, just so you’re aware.
The 4 Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex and Becoming Superhuman
Crossfit – a style of workout that I really enjoyed at first, but I just couldn’t consistently do over a long stretch of time. I lasted 1 month doing the WOD (Workout of the Day) 3 days on, 1 off.
Starting Strength – The best resource I have found about powerlifting and proper technique, built by Mark Rippetoe. I’d suggest getting a coach to help you out with form if you do decide to try out powerlifting. I was stubborn, tried to teach myself, and ended up with a deadlift injury that took me out of the powerlifting game, probably forever.
The Facebook photo that started it all:
A Trendline Graph of My Weightloss and Maintenance from 2015-Present
*Note: I’m currently entering into another phase of loss. I’d like to get another 10 pounds off so I can be officially in the “Normal weight” range for BMI (154 is the magic number where I enter into that range, and I’d like to be a few pounds below that so I have a buffer. )
