2014: 300lb to Spartan Race - My Journey from Fat to Fit.

Zefan said:
There's not really any doubt that you will be losing muscle mass at a painfully fast rate. This happens to a lot of people when on a calorie defecit even without the complete lack of protein and fats. I seriously suggest ditching the juice diet as quite frankly they are completely rubbish. Juice is absolutely the last thing I would suggest someone looking to lose weight should be consuming. Sure it might work, but there are much easier and more effective (long term and short term) ways to skin this cat.

At this point I would be trying to limit sugar and get your insulin sensitivity back in check. This means fats, protein, lots of veg, careful use of carbs and monitoring of calories. It's a very easy thing to do and will not only be more effective now while making you feel better, but will put you in a much better position to make continued progress.
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Again, thanks for the input, honestly, but you know - telling me to ditch what I'm doing isn't needed. I've been through many years of nutritional research and struggles, which if you see my videos I know what I'm doing and I plan to to stick to it. This whole year is planned to get me into a better place, which took 4 months of planning itself. I'm aware of the things I'm going through, I will lose some muscle, but I have planned to regain that with the continued diet and training. The juicing isn't a diet, it's a fasting phase that starts my plan to change my lifestyle.

One thing I've learned is that everyone has different approaches and very rarely does someone not feel the need to tell me why theirs is better :p I've tried so so many things over the years. Various forms of Keto, Atkins, Paleo, IF, Weightwatchers and Slimming world, My Fitness Pal tracking, VLCDs, eating 7 small meals and bodybuilding diet plans, been to the NHS for various referrals, had Orlistat, Reductil, Gastric Band hypnosis. All whilst doing copious amounts of reading and research. I'm probably a diet expert by now - so please forgive me if I seem tired of everyone pitching their ideas at me. Often (not always) people that have never struggled with their weight and so can't understand the mental challenge that it throws up, because that's entirely the problem. Unlike someone that can't be bothered, I can be bothered - it's just a case of finding the best way for me to cope with it, and this seems to be it.

Plan for this year in brief...

Juice Fast > Whole Foods, Plant-based diet > reintroduce lean meats and avoid gluten (possibly lactose too).

As well as exercising to my ability level
DDP Yoga > Krav Maga > Running > More intense training (considering CrossFit)

I've put as much support and motivation in place as I can.
Blogs > Video diary > Twitter and FB support > Focusing on Spartan Race as a target with best mates and raising money for MS.

I honestly don't see a problem. I know this forum is very weightlifting-centric, which is cool. But I'm not trying to do that yet. I can barely do a press-up!
 
All that weight you're losing will be a mixture of muscle and fat. That means when you look in the mirror, you'll simply look like a smaller version of yourself rather than leaner. Sure, it's a start, but you're putting your body through a stupid routine.

Firstly, stop calling it a "juice fast". You're not fasting. You're not cutting out food in the slightest. You're just liquidizing it and drinking it; it ends up in the same place and digested in the same way. Of course in your case, missing many of the nutrients you bizarrely seem to think you're getting (I'll come back to this in a second), and the well needed fiber.

Nutrients, why do you think all the nutrients that you've "sorely been missing" as you say are in fruit? Honestly do you believe all the nutrients your body requires to be fit and healthy comes from fruit? You're getting a very, VERY slim line of nutrients from your fruit, and a WHOLE lot of sugar.

So yeah, sugar. Let's face it. You were fat. Not meaning to be blunt (well, I am), your eating habits were probably bad enough to disgusts most of us in the Gym Rats thread if you managed to get to over 20st (shout out to Morba here, who would probably be mirin'). Yet you think going on a solely fruit diet, which means a solely fruit based diet, is going to do anything than put your body at a very high risk of suffering from diabetes? Your insulin sensitive is probably shot to high hell already, fruit won't help it.

Lets knock running on the head for a while as well. You're fat. My girlfriend is an Osteopath, and frankly a lot of her clients are fat middle aged people who decide to run, ruin their knees, back, hips, you name it, because they're just too heavy to run. And running is not a healthy exercise; good for the cardio vascular system sure! But the high impact nature of it ruins your knees, ankles and hip joints, puts pressure on your lumbar spine, and most have-a-go-hero runners are out of the sport in their late 30s.

Lastly, I take extreme um-bridge to your pretty pitiful "you don't understand my challenges if you've never struggled with weight". I was 15st of fat unhealthy man. I then got an eating disorder and became 10.5st of skin and bones. I'm now 14 stone of slightly chubby manly muscle. Your diets and fads didn't work because YOU didn't work; don't make excuses otherwise. What you lacked this time that you don't know? A target, a goal, an challenge you've set yourself where others will know you've failed if you don't achieve. Well done, you've made the first step to bettering yourself. Your stupid juice diet (DIET, not fast), and ridiculous plant-based diet is not the second step.

Of course I'm expecting you to argue, say watch the documentary (whoa, really, someone pedaling a theory/product is trying to show people it's a good idea in a biased environment? Well I never!), and continue on your merry way. Feel free to do so. I'm not criticising you to then stand back, ridicule you and watch you fail. Anyone here in the Sports Arena (and I'm sure many Gym Rats agree, there's a reason none of them have posted in this thread!) wants to see you succeed. They want to help you succeed. None of them think juice will do that.
 
I'd agree with you. Well, the first sentence. But I'm not just drinking fruits, it's 80% vegetables. I'm not liquidising it, I'm juicing it, so I'm fasting. I'm getting soluble fibre, and removing insoluble fibre, so not digested in the same way. So that's several patronising paragraphs about about sugar and fibre I can ignore. You can be blunt, I was and am fat, I say this myself in my videos, I refer to myself as a mess. I know this, so you aren't being edgy or offensive, it's true and I know it. And yes, I disgusted myself, so I imagine some internet gym bunnies would be horrified. Did I say I was running yet? No. I'm running way down the line, when it's appropriate. I'm starting with Yoga for christ sake. Oh and at 15st, you have no idea about being fat.

But you're right. I've failed before and that's why I've not maintained weight loss. That's why I've spent months seriously planning something that I feel I can do for good. I have addictions to terrible food I have to break. I need to kick a lot of bad habits and this is the method I have chosen.

I'm not arguing. There's no point - you've not read the thread, watched any of the videos - just seen 'juice' and gone off on one. If you want to contribute, at least put a a modicum of effort into the posts before yours.
 
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I was over 22st and I'm now just under 12 and a half stone, I know plenty about being fat, I was for over 20 years. I still don't understand what a fad juice diet will do to help you break a bad habit of being addicted to crap food.

Again, why can't you just change your diet to healthy, nutritious food that actually provides you with a balance of macro nutrients?

I know exactly the types of foods you'd be addicted to, I was and if I'm honest still am, in order to lose weight I had to completely cut them out, no cakes, crisps, sweets etc basically anything high in sugar wasn't allowed in the house at all, if it was there it would get eaten.

Even now after almost losing half my body weight, I still have plenty of problems with food, probably always will.

I still don't understand how transitioning through multiple fad diets in a row will actually help you get to a point where you are eating in a way that you can for the rest of your life.
 
Broken Hope said:
I was over 22st and I'm now just under 12 and a half stone, I know plenty about being fat, I was for over 20 years. I still don't understand what a fad juice diet will do to help you break a bad habit of being addicted to crap food.

Again, why can't you just change your diet to healthy, nutritious food that actually provides you with a balance of macro nutrients?

I know exactly the types of foods you'd be addicted to, I was and if I'm honest still am, in order to lose weight I had to completely cut them out, no cakes, crisps, sweets etc basically anything high in sugar wasn't allowed in the house at all, if it was there it would get eaten.

Even now after almost losing half my body weight, I still have plenty of problems with food, probably always will.

I still don't understand how transitioning through multiple fad diets in a row will actually help you get to a point where you are eating in a way that you can for the rest of your life.
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Well done on that weight loss, impressive :)

The reason I am doing this is to not have these struggles for the rest of my life.

Attaching the word fad to it doesn't mean it's not viable. I've lost weight, plenty of times in fact, between 1-4 stone each time through various attempts, including what you've suggested, but I'm sick of the cycle of eventually putting it back on.

I don't have it in me to explain myself yet again, but the transition from juicing fruit and veg, to eating fruit and veg is a step I feel I can manage and then start looking at introducing more interesting things. I don't see how a massive break from junk and processed food, refined sugars etc and resetting my tastes can be a bad thing. It's not hard to understand how it will help surely?

I know from my past that I fare much better with extremes than small changes so if I start like this, I'm giving myself, personally and individually, the best starting point. Honestly, the juicing is about 5% of my plan for the year as I keep saying. There's nothing unhealthy about following on with a short term plant-based whole foods diet either.
 
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I wasn't so big, nor had I ever tried to lose weight before - I'd just slowly got bigger - but when I did decide to lose it I found portion control/calorie counting/macro balancing was the only way I could go. I also spent a lot of time reading threads on this forum and various bodybuilding forums - take in what these guys say - they are the experts on recompositioning the human body. You don't need to follow everything they do, just understand the theory behind it.

I started off with things like pot porridge for breakfast, pot noodle+tuna lunch, single lean burger in bap for dinner - basically things where the portion is defined for me.

Now I have a shed load of the 450ml plastic pots from Asda (only £1 each) and they are the perfect size for one portion (for me), getting about 250-300kcal of home made curry/chilli/stew in them. Always with lots of beef or chicken, I cook up a batch of 10 every weekend and freeze them.

Again, it's portion control - and also knowing it is there - I don't have to go to the supermarket after work, I know exactly what I'm doing so don't get the chance for temptation.

I wouldn't do anything now you aren't very happy (very very happy) to carry on for the rest of your life - for me that means portion control and macro awareness - nothing else. The portion can be pizza, curry, lasagne - anything - including a few beers on a saturday night. I'm just aware.

If your into doing some reading I'd recommend this, there's some stuff about diet and exercise but the more useful bit is dealing with the link between your mind and your food.
 
Day 19 - 21lb down (1.5 stones) and feeling good. Managed to sit through friends eating chinese takeaway and pizzas this weekend and stick to my plan so pretty happy with that. Not hungry at all, just dealing with the cravings.

Also been back to the gym to arrange starting Krav Maga and will be starting next Tuesday as I'm away for work this week. Got to buy a groin guard now :p
 
Thought I would voice my opinion on this.

I think you've fallen into the hole that is over saturating yourself with information and reading far too much into every diet, approach and website under the sun.

For me the key was becoming aware of the caloric value of food and the importance of macronutrients.

I really don't see the need for this juicing fast and the preparation phase its meant to be acting as.

Why are you avoiding gluten and lactose in the long run, are you intolerant to them both out of interest?

My opinion would be to eat good back to basics and consume much nutritionally dense, quality food as you can whilst losing a sensible amount of weight each week.

Good luck either way mate.
 
I wish you all the best on your journey :) but I like many others have issues with your approach.

I'm not going to repeat them because it's pointless however I will say:

It doesn't matter if you squash/mash/pulp said food. Calories in to your mouth and body does not constitute a fast. Period. You are fasting from 'solid' food per se but this is not a traditional 'fast'.

My only other point is avoid Crossfit like a herpes ridden HIV+ prostitute. If you want to begin lifting do so in an environment that holds fundamental principles to your longevity and health as the upmost importance. A Crossfit gym is not the place to begin your lifting career, regardless of how serious a lifter you want to become.

My uncle does Krav Maga and loves it so if you like it too stick with it :cool:
 
Thanks ^^

Day 22...


Was about to hit buy on my PPE for starting Krav Maga next week... but a friend just popped up on Facebook and said he wants to get me a 6 month sub to LA Fitness for my birthday. Wondering if I should just start with that now as it'll save me £60 a month, although Krav looks awesome.
 
Makes sense.

How much are you shelling out on PPE for Krav Maga, surely try a few session and see how you like it before buying specific gear for it? unless it's relatively cheap.

(Haven't watched any of your videos as 11mins tl:dw :p)
 
BennyC said:
Makes sense.

How much are you shelling out on PPE for Krav Maga, surely try a few session and see how you like it before buying specific gear for it? unless it's relatively cheap.

(Haven't watched any of your videos as 11mins tl:dw :p)
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Probably circa £50. Groin guard, gloves, shinpads I guess. They aren't all 11 mins :p
 
Don't buy the stuff until you have tried it out, any decent club will have gear you can use to start with.
 
The IPB said:
Don't buy the stuff until you have tried it out, any decent club will have gear you can use to start with.
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Guess so - I'm very much an all the gear and no idea person when it comes to trying new things :p

Any thoughts on LA Fitness? Nothing to lose if it's free I guess!
 
Well started at LA Fitness earlier today, got my MS Society running vest through and nearly at £130 with the fundraising. Bit the bullet and ordered my PPE and start Krav Maga on Tuesday night :) It's all coming together slowly but surely.

Day 25 - 1st 10lb down.

www.justgiving.com/spartansean
 
JOSH86 said:
Congratulations Geek that is a lot of weight loss in not a lot of time. Can I ask how you are finding your energy levels?
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Better than they have been in a long time. I feel more alert and awake, thinking clearer and feel like my vision is better. Hair skin and nails are all in great condition (well, what hair I have left..)

I'm definitely going to have to work on strength if the gym earlier was anything to go by :p but stamina is probably my focus until I'm eating again, then I can do a lot more.
 
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