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another large guy story

3K views 42 replies 8 participants last post by  emt.elikahan 
#1 · (Edited)
large guy checking in, will update with progress as and when it happens :

- have been steadily gaining weight since moving countries in 2004 (weighed 80kg/177lbs on arrival, weighed 119kg/262lbs at the end of november 2016)
- aim is to get rid of as much fat as possible and get to a sustainable lifestyle that will keep me healthy; getting into reasonable shape for next season of snowboarding and table tennis would be the secondary goal
- still going through the process of getting a massive kidney stone removed (4 surgeries, 16 hospital visits, 4 run-ins with sepsis and almost 1 icu spell so far, getting the next operation date sometime soon)
- went through the usual phases of denial, super focus,depression,not giving a shit ... but the problem didn't go away and it was affecting everything i did (bend over to do up bindings, can't due to something being in the way ... ie me)
- have not been able to do any exercise for a long while due to crippling pain (i'm looking at you kidney stone), so have focused on trying to get my sleep/eating/stress management working for me
- sleeping and eating changes since november have resulted in : 25kg/55lbs loss of weight and way better sleep, stress management is still very much in the early stages (trying not to do too much at once as that was a recipe for disaster in previous iterations)
- this has taken me ages of experimentation to get to where i am now, hopefully i'll be able to exercise in the next 3-4 months and start getting into shape for next season
 
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#4 ·
update : 7,8,10,11,12,13/6/2017

i'll do these weekly for the time being, will look at daily once i have more to add (exercise being the biggest one) :

bought a scale on 7/6/2017 after going through the options i settled on a cheaper/more accurate scale vs any of the body analysis ones as they were pretty expensive and of questionable accuracy (body composition analysis being the big one here, can't seem to get a scale with any decent degree of accuracy in these departments so i see no point in buying one). weighed myself every morning at roughly the same time, after i had gotten out of the shower and dried myself off ... before i drank anything. scale in the same place (important as scales seem to be less accurate on the cheap end if you do not have them on a super hard surface ie no carpets). reckon a proper body composition analysis would be in order once the weight stabilises before i start exercising and then maybe more over time depending on affordability.

7/6 : 94.1kg
8/6 : 93.8kg
10/6 : 93.4kg
11/6 : 93.2kg
12/6 93kg
13/6 : 92.9kg
 
#5 ·
55 lbs in ~8 mo w/o significant exercise is pretty damn great. Do you have any plans on some low impact exercise to get in to once the physical torture (kidney stones) is taken care of? Like many have said elsewhere, yoga is great on that front. Helps with the stress management and hits just about all the areas that happen to benefit snowboarding. water aerobics of some sort is also supposed to be awesome. My pops is almost 70 and just came out to visit my brothers and me. He had dropped something like 30 lbs since a year before and was significantly less of a grouch (to an almost annoying extent...he was high as !@#$ the entire time and just kept talking about coconut oil...god damned hippies). He attributed all that to a realistic change in diet and water stuffs 2-4 times a week.

Good luck man! you got this!
 
#6 ·
hey kriegs, thanks ... i do have a rough outline for what i'm going to be starting with on the exercise front and you are bang on the money : i will be starting with yoga and calisthenics. this will be the base for everything i do, the rest that will be added on top will most likely be a combination of hiit and free weights. the goal is to get as generally in shape as possible (without putting in excessive amounts of gym work) with any emphasis being put into overall endurance, flexibility and core/leg strength (this seems to align with both sports i am interested in and overall how i would like to turn out ... although i am pragmatic and only really care about the functionality of my body, looks are pretty much irrelevant to me.
 
#7 ·
update : 14/6/2017

- weight : 92.8kg
- reckon i was a bit off on my food yesterday, so will have to tighten that up today
- did a whole bunch of watching of the tim noakes trial (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL663N7XRQwA5rahpbpmstcKbH7Oysoo7S), super interesting for anyone wanting to know more about the human body and how it can be used for or against you when it comes to weight and health issues
- sleep over the last few days has started to get worse, this may be influencing the slower weight loss
- noticed that i've not been keeping pace with the amount of water & salt water intake, need to make sure that is seen to

summary : still looks like things are going in the correct direction, just need to tighten things up. still thinking about my urge to exercise, still putting it off until the stone is definitely gone but it is getting harder to resist.
 
#8 ·
as someone who also fights the good fight against the bulge (I just love my beer) I'd say not to weigh yourself everyday. It becomes a stress point as well...have I lost any, will I go up...etc etc. weigh yourself once a week or once every couple of weeks......day to day your weight can fluctuate. I decided to do something about it when I moved up to Hokkaido a few years back, I hit my heaviest at 107kg but I WAS exercising......It was then I seriously took a look at my diet and what I was eating.......I have very little willpower with food and drink so I needed a structure. I read about the 5:2 Intermittant Fasting plan and thought "if I can't control myself on 2 days, I've no chance". I started it and dropped 15kgs which I was buzzing from. I then slipped into bad habits again and went back up to 106....but I'm back on the plan and have dropped 5 kilos in 4 weeks.....my 1st target is getting below 90kgs.....it's been about 10-11 years before I was under 90. I'm running 3 times a week as well.

Good luck man!! The struggle is real!
 
#9 ·
ew...running!

I kid I kid. Though I do hate running.

Slipping back in to bad habits has always been an issue for me. having a workout/training/diet "buddy" can be helpful. Not so that you have someone to whom you're obligated but more that you have someone who can relate to how potentially lame a situation can be.
 
#10 · (Edited)
@The Shogun : you are right, weight fluctuates too much on a day to day basis, so i should be doing it once a week just to check that the general trend is still in the right direction and save myself the obsessing over it, thanks :)
@kriegs13 old habits are a big problem for me ... especially when i set too lofty and or too many goals. turns into a nightmare for me as missing one thing really gets to me, too many fails in a row and at times i just throw all my toys out of the cot and the bad habits get free reign.
 
#11 ·
update 24/6 :

- seemed to have plateaued for the last week or so
- not been getting great sleep over the last week
- last few days the kidney stone pain has gotten a fair bit worse
- weighed myself after getting up and having a shower : 91.8kg
- will weigh again next week and see how things go
- some very minor changes made (slightly more fibre in diet and trying to do as much walking as possible)
- still having a lot of trouble restraining myself from exercising, but reckon it is not something i should do until the kidney stone is properly dealt with and recovery is well progressed
 
#12 ·
update 1/7 :

- small gains with some issues making things a bit uncomfortable
- sleep has been patchy again this week, been trying to get to bed around 0000, mostly waking up around 0500-0600 regardless of time i got to bed
- kidney pain has been the same the whole week, not super bad not great
- weighed myself after getting up and having a shower : 90.3kg, 99.5cm hip, 105cm waist
- decided to weigh every day along with waist and hip measurements, only going to update once a week (need to see general trend and accept that daily fluctuations are happening and that is normal)
- some tiredness (probably just need a bit of extra magnesium), additional fibre is helping so continuing with it (glucomannan is what i'm using)
- same issues with exercise, just not been able to get out and walk much will try to get that going better next week
 
#14 ·
yeah, friday was a friend's birthday dinner which turned into drinks and more drinks at my place until around 0800 on saturday morning. didn't do saturday's weigh & measure ... however i had done every day including friday and continued on every day since. so here's what has happened :

- measurements this morning : 88.9kg, 100cm hip, 103.5cm waist
- sleep has gotten way better, getting naturally sleepy between 2100 & 2200 (means i'm getting sleep around the time the majority of hgh is being released ie 2200-0200)
- still waking up a lot but am wide awake and ready to go way before my alarm
- will be trying to cut down on the caffeine as it seems to be giving me headaches at the amount i am currently drinking
- morning kidney pain is worse on average, painkillers are still dealing with it well but it means i'm mostly not able to get outside for a walk until early/late evening
- having issues with concentration so have started meditating/mindfulness to try to keep me on track (this is a long standing issue)
- exercise issues still the same, trying to get out for the walk around midday to try to get some decent vitamin d production going
- eating is still the same and seems to be going pretty well (combinations of beef liver, beef heart and pilchards are cheap and give me pretty much everything i need; will need to get some kale into my diet or i will be short on magnesium, trying not to supplement as much as possible so finding natural sources of the required bio-availability takes a bit of time and experimentation)
 
#15 ·
update for 22/7/2017 :

- measurements this morning : 88.1kg, 100cm hip, 102cm waist
- sleep has been patchy since tuesday, lots on my mind and started sliding into old habits of binge watching series in bed
- still waking up a lot at night, waking up in the morning is not as good as last week
- due to the above i am relying a bit more on caffeine to wake up, this is an old habit creeping back in that i need to sort out
- looking to taper off my caffeine intake completely over the next 4 days as i suspect that the sweeteners are still causing an insulin response and i don't want to spend money on it anymore
- morning kidney pain is worse on average, painkillers are still dealing with it well but it means i'm mostly not able to get outside for a walk until early/late evening
- went to the hospital and walked there instead of talking a bus (about 20 minute walk), felt fine initially but things got uncomfortable near the end and the urine sample at the hospital was mostly blood
- need to moderate the walking so that i do still walk, just not too much to elicit the aforementioned reaction
- concentration issues still making study and daily tasks difficult
- exercise issues still the same
- eating was going well, but i seem to have added cheese (haloumi) which caused immediate problems so i will completely stop having any dairy (again)
- added olives into the mix and they seem to be good, but i may have had too many which negatively effected staying in ketosis, so i have limited the number and frequency which seems to be doing the trick (it is noce to have a bit more variety ... just need to be careful with any extra stuff i introduce into my diet)
- have tried to add back in some meditation to my daily routine, trying for 10 minutes once per day initially
- trying out a way to help concentration by getting up and doing a small walk around and 5 pushups whenever i feel my concentration wavering
 
#17 ·
cheers, argo

all bar the first operation were rigid ureterscopy (first was emergency surgery to place a stent as my kidney was not draining at all). the stone is located in the kink of the ureter so i'm not sure how this would change the choice of procedure. in any event i will find out on 1/8.
 
#18 ·
Disclaimer...not a medical professional...just a gezzerily hippy.


To my understanding k stones are a bit of genetics and diet...along with carbonation...a few folks, that I know, have had stones and the doc said no refried or mexi beans and no carbonated drinks.

The Sho mentioned IF (intermittent fasting) is blowing up...again several friends/co-workers are doing it with impressive results in reducing weight, increased energy and improved labs.

I have diet and blood sugar issues due to an affliction of gluttony...but have had success with a paleo style diet of protein and veggies with very limited carbs...and currently moving more to plant based proteins. Along with more of a plant based diet...you might look at the fulvic minerals discussion...I'm using an old hippy alternative... and ime good subjective results...at least it hasn't killed me yet...lol.

Also stopped coffee and caffeine drinks about 2-3 years ago and sleep has improved dramatically despite doing a nightshift schedule....caffeine has a long half life that can really messes with your sleep cycle.

As to your pain issues...concentration/meditation/motivation issues...idk if you are using opiates...but opiates can really fuck with the concentration/motivation thing...along with the whole intestinal/digestive thing.

And one last thing...also look at what you are doing as a detox of your body...and any detox will have a "crisis" phase...so also be mindful of this and at the same time...be feeding your body (and mind) healthy things...to rebuild your being to your new self...new age mutha fuckers :grin:.

Anyway love of snowboarding is one of my great motivators for changing and improving physical and mental functioning in the fight to fend off decreptitudeness.
 
#19 ·
yeah, hopefully i'll get to know what type of stone it is once they get the thing out.

already doing if (one meal per day, but do have a slice of butter if i feel a bit peckish). reckon this will have to get modified once i am able to start exercising, but until then i'm never hungry until around the time i eat ... which is a massive change from my previous constant hunger.

what i have found is that i need animal protein as i was previously vegetarian for about 15 years and found that my body was not liking it with the level of activity i had. this was probably due to the lack of epa, dha, b12 and k2 ... once i started eating fish things got better but got even better once i started eating meat. i understand the moral/ethical idea behind the vegetarian idea and sympathise, but it is impractical for me. the amount of shit i ate/drank since early adolescence has almost put me into type 2 diabetes, hence the success with low carb and why i will have to maintain this lifelong in all likelihood. seems like the protein will also have to be closely moderated to just enough to support what i am doing as it seems like too much protein is also problematic in excess and especially later on in life as there are strong correlations between excess protein and cancer (mtor regulation is the key to keeping this sort of thing more under control from what i have found so far).

totally agree on the fizzy drink/caffeine thing, just got to do it .. it is a very old bad habit that keeps creeping back in :/

i have been on codeine, ibuprofen and paracetamol for close to 10 months. this is something that will hopefully sort itself out once the stone is gone. the concentration issues have been lifelong, but i reckon it will be easier to deral with once i get a lot of the other stuff working.

totally agreed ... snowboarding is one of my primary motivators for sorting all of this out, it has given me those weird moments of total contentment that i never though were possible.
 
#20 ·
Gotcha, ureteral stones are more problematic. Without that stent you can go septic and die in a few days. I have been told that passing it through the urethra is the most pain of the entire process so I guess you had some luck. Lol

As for the weight loss thing, I dropped wwight last fall and have been hovering at my current weight since then. I should find some motivation to drop more, fuck im lazy if it doesn't include snowboarding with my son or hiking with my wife.

We are in the house buying process and my weekends/days off are occupied with shit. First searching for homes, then making offers and doing paperwork, now the underwriting process is under way though so hiking more than one day a week can commence. My bike needs new rims and tires so thats down for the summer as I am saving and being cautious about spending until the home closes. Im not downhilling because I dont want to get hurt and effect my income.

We have to see about stress eating though, kids cereal and ice cream are my sinful foods. If I was into drinking beer more I would be in trouble and have gained my 40 lbs back.

Yeah, lots of excuses. I do at least make an effort to park a mile from work for the walk, I buy no bread, ice cream or cereal [I eat whats left from family visits in small amounts to get over the craving].
 
#21 ·
yeah, i've had sepsis from all of this 4 times now already. the worst was when i was on holiday in japan/bulgaria/france, 4 days from leaving japan and every day thereafter like clockwork around 1900 i would get crazy fever and spend the night sweating my nuts off. next morning i was fine and could ride the whole day without issue ... until the evening at around 1900. got some antibiotics when i got back home and that sorted it out, in retrospect it was probably unwise leaving it for so long.

totally had to quit beer too, but since i've not had much booze in the last month or so i don't really feel the need to (also way cheaper meaning i can put more money towards snowboarding trips).
 
#22 · (Edited)
update for 15/8/2017 :

- measurements this morning : 87.9kg, 97.5cm hip, 100.5cm waist
- operation on 1/8/2017 went well, the stone is gone
- recovery from the operation was pretty bad, spent 18 hours in just short of screaming agony despite 15ml of liquid morphine and a bunch of other painkillers
- been recovering at home since discharge from hospital on 2/8
- next appointment at the hospital is to get the stent removed under local in about a week or so, not looking forward to this
- there will be another appointment after the stent removal (2-3 weeks after), hopefully this will be the last one and will get me the info about stone composition i need to try to prevent this from happening again
- not much walking until the last 4 or 5 days as it resulted in a lot of bloody visits to the loo
- sleep has been good and not so great, old habits of binge watching series in bed still happening but not too often
- still waking up a lot at night
- caffeine is still an issue
- morning kidney pain is worse on average, painkillers are still dealing with it
- taking meds in the evening before going to bed to try to reduce the amount of times my sleep gets interrupted
- have scaled back the meds during the day so am only taking 2 lots (morning & before bed)
- concentration issues still making study and daily tasks difficult, not going to deal with it until other stuff is working well
- exercise issues still the same
- eating going well, looking to start ordering in some grass fed beef liver, heart, kidneys and bones to make broth
- reducing my protein intake a bit and upping the fat seems to be helping so going to carry on with it
- the glucomannan powder is working a treat now and i'm only using it once per day, twice on the rare occasion that it is needed for bowel movement
- meditation has been patchy, need to work on this to help stress/cortisol levels
- got lots more stuff to try out : reduce my eating window more, alternating cold/hot showers, moving to the grass fed meat source, do more reading on insulin resistance, adding in some yoga to the daily routine ... plus plenty more
- spoke to my personal trainer for the first time in over a year and will be looking to get back to doing sessions with him in around 2 months or so
 
#23 · (Edited)
update for 30/8/2017 :

- measurements this morning : 85.8kg, 97cm hip, 99.5cm waist
- still aiming to drop body fat as much as possible by diet, sleep and minimal exercise so that when the weight training part starts i am in the best possible position to make steady, injury free progress
- hospital visit on 6/9/2017 confirmed, will see if/when they will be taking the stent out
- pain meds reduced to twice per day (morning & before bed)
- walking almost every day has been pretty consistent now, just over 6km usually between 1300 and 1500 has proven to be optimal
- sleep has been pretty consistent, mostly in bed and sleeping by 2230-2300 with some no sleep for a day or two events happening maybe twice a month
- still waking up a lot at night
- caffeine has been reduced to mostly 2 x monster ultras in the morning and rarely a third on around 1200
- concentration issues still making study and daily tasks difficult, have started testing a routine in my walk to help with this and it seems to be doing some good ie focusing on diaphramatic breathing and walking only during the 60-90 mins of the walk .. so no thinking about anything else at all during that time and any time anything intrudes pulling attention back to breathing and walking only)
- eating going well, found an issue that may have been causing my stalls/gains and it seems to be helping (after the large weight losses it seems like i was not getting enough protein in and taking too much fat in ... upped the protein and dropped the fat down while still aiming for as little carbs as possible)
- using less glucomannan than before, hopefully only use it now as an emergency measure
- exercise issues still the same
- meditation /mindfulness is mostly being done while walking, need to get back into the 10 minute daily meditation routine
- moved my one meal per day to around 1200 to reduce the eating window, seems to be working well
- started having a shower before going to bed, seems to be helping
- more reading on insulin and micro-nutrients done and still more to go
- lots of reading on strength training, seems to be pretty much inline with my long term goals and what my trainer was doing
 
#24 ·
update for 8/9/2017 :

- measurements this morning : 83kg, 96cm hip, 97cm waist
- hospital visit on 6/9/2017 cancelled, new appointment on 28/9/2017 .. a bit annoyed at this
- ran out of codeine last week saturday, ran out of other pain meds on tuesday this week, not bought any more ... pain is not unbearable
- stopped walking for mon/tue to try to minimise the irritation post walk from the stent, have not done any on wed/thu/fri either
- sleep has been pretty consistent again, apart from last night
- still waking up a lot at night
- 2 x monster ultras in the morning with one more at around 1200
- concentration issues still making study and daily tasks difficult, have done a bit of studying .. but not a lot
- started a fast on monday morning, still haven't properly broken it as of today (friday)
- using no glucomannan, using 1tsp of sea salt in hot water if constipation issues arise
- tried out the squat part of a hit workout to see how it went yesterday (thursday) ... legs were like jelly for hours afterwards
- tried 4/5 of the of the above routine today (friday) ... that was fkn hard and i am so out of shape :(
- meditation /mindfulness not being done, need to get back into the 10 minute daily meditation routine
- started having a shower before going to bed, still helping
- more reading on wheat, gluten, gliadin, zonulin, amylopectin-a and sulphurophane done ... glad to know i've eliminated all the wheat, need to find a way to get in more sulphurophane
- lots more reading on strength training
 
#27 · (Edited)
update for 18/9/2017 :

- measurements this morning : 79.9kg, 98.5cm hip, 95cm waist ... first time i am under 80kg in 14 years, weirds me out a bit as i had just accepted that i was going to be "just another large guy" the rest of my life
- last used painkillers just over a week ago, pain is otherwise manageable
- walked every day last week bar sunday, 2 days walk resulted in bloody loo visits the rest just a bit of pain
- sleep has gotten a bit better over the last few days, testing out not drinking anything after around 1300 to see if that will reduce the nightly loo excursions
- still waking up less during the night
- 2 x monster ultras in the morning, not having one at midday
- concentration issues still making study and daily tasks difficult, have done a bit of studying .. but not a lot
- started a water fast this morning, see how long it goes
- meditation /mindfulness not being done, need to get back into the 10 minute daily meditation routine
- shower before going to bed still helping
- more reading on fasting, strength training and various other interesting biohacks
 
#28 ·
update for 18/9/2017 :

- measurements this morning : 79.9kg, 98.5cm hip, 95cm waist ... first time i am under 80kg in 14 years, weirds me out a bit as i had just accepted that i was going to be "just another large guy" the rest of my life
:thumbsup:

- meditation /mindfulness not being done, need to get back into the 10 minute daily meditation routine
You keep mentioning how you need to get back to 10 minute daily routine... maybe subconsciously that is somewhat daunting to you..?
Why not try a shorter routine? - like 3 minutes 3 days a week and see how things go from there...? might work :shrug:
 
#29 ·
update for 27/9/2017 :

- measurements this morning : 81.4kg, 98cm hip, 95cm waist ... had 5 nights of almost no sleep, went up to 82.4kg and was distinctly unhappy about it
- had to use painkillers over the weekend, not too happy about this but it was needed
- both long walks this week resulted in bloody loo visits, been trying to minimise this sort of damage as my hospital next visit is tomorrow
- cystoscopy appointment tomorrow, not looking forward to this but i really want this stent out. been almost 2 months since the operation and it was supposed to be taken out 5-6 weeks ago ... grrrrrrr
- sleep has was a shitshow the last week
- not drinking after 1300 has definitely helped reduce the nightly loo vists
- still waking up less during the night
- 3 x monster ultras a day ... again :/
- finally got my 5000iu vitamin d tablets today, will be taking 10k iu per day for a while to get things going. got to get this going to help prevent winter illness and sad from getting in the way of the fun stuff.
- concentration issues still making study and daily tasks difficult, have done a bit of studying .. but not a lot
- started a water fast on monday, still going
- meditation /mindfulness being fitted in while watching series in bed, in the morning upon waking up and in the shower twice per day. not 10 minutes each but i'm getting some in
- shower before going to bed still helping
- started doing bodyweight eccentric strength training, 2 days recovery between workouts. will see how it goes for a few weeks and maybe increase the frequency to once every two days depending on how quickly i recover
- getting some flights booked for next season's trips ... 3.5 months to go
 
#31 ·
update : 28/9/2017

- just got back from the hospital
- the stent has been removed
- procedure was weird, was expecting way worse so was surprised
- had a look at the stent afterwards and waved it goodbye
- have to watch for the usual bleeding, infection and pain for the next few weeks but after that i should be fully recovered
- it was a calcium stone
- the doctor said to drink a bit more water every day but otherwise no additional dietary/lifestyle changes
 
#33 ·
update : 11/10/2017

- weight this morning : 79.2kg, 97cm hip, 92.5cm waist
- pain from the stent removal is slowly receding
- last few weeks have been all over the place, lots of accidental late nights with friends have put serious dents in progress
- went to play table tennis again the week before last and suffered horribly from lack of fitness ... gasping for air half way through the 90min session is not a good thing
- been too sleep deprived and suchlike to go back to judo
- not heard from my trainer about sessions, will have to give him a shout to see what is going on
- been doing body weight version of body by science too infrequently for any benefits so far, have had to research replacement exercises for certain things to minimise the need for equipment (barbell squats -> backpack weighted lunges, bedsheet & closed door for inverted rows ... maybe more to be found)
- really need to get all the exercise going regularly so that i can pack on some muscle and add fitness as i have only 3 months to go before my season starts
 
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