My before and current shots, 5'9", 330 lbs to 189 lbs: http://ift.tt/2kCPalF
5 years ago was probably the darkest time of my life. I was 24, a virgin, and weighed 330 lbs. I was depressed, which only further added to my addiction to food. I ate fast food pretty much every day and could easily down 4 huge hamburgers, fries, and 20 macnuggets from Macdonald's in one sitting. My life was on a bad trajectory and I knew it.
I first learned about keto 5 years ago from Reddit. As a meat lover I first thought it was too good to be true, but after researching it further decided this was my dream diet and decided to make a change.
I lost the weight in two stages. I lost about 120 lbs in 1 year the first time, not counting calories but still eating strictly keto foods like bacon, beef, eggs, spinach, cheese, nuts. I loved eating that way and usually ate one large meal a day (eating a ton of bacon in one meal really helped satiate my inner fatty). I didn't exercise and loose skin was a much bigger problem then.
But life got in the way and I soon gained most of it back. I became depressed again after my grandfather died, and a year ago I weighed around 280 lbs. I decided again to get back on keto and lose the weight for good this time. Life is too short to live it fat and unhealthy.
This time I decided to incorporate lifting into my life, as I wanted to look good naked and not just deflate like a balloon to skinny fat.
I started with simple body weight exercises like push-ups, dips, assisted chin-ups, crunches, leg lifts, planks, and squats. Hour long sessions hitting each muscle group in my garage 3-5 times a week. I mostly kept up the calorie deficit doing this for a few months and saw a lot of improvement. It has been challenging to balance my upper and lower body size, as I basically had no upper body muscle mass but also had fat guy, tree trunk legs. My waist is still larger than I would like it to be.
Last summer I moved on to free weights. I kept doing some body weight exercises but added into my routine compound lifts such as different kinds of rows, presses, squats, and deadlifts, as well as some isolation movements like curls and skull crushers for my arms, and shrugs for my back. Working out started to become fun and not soul destroying around the 220 lbs mark. That's also about when I started to notice a huge physical difference. I tried to always go to failure each set, but my performance started to suffer and I switched to the TKD 5 months ago. It made a huge difference in my progress.
The way people treat me now is like night and day. Before I was basically a ghost to most. Women never looked at me, they quickly averted their gaze. Now they smile when I look. Men nod in respect. Most people break eye contact first when I look at them, and I often catch girls looking at me out of the corner of my eye. They often come initiate conversation with me in social settings. I got my first number in a very long time a few days ago, and it felt amazing.
This subreddit has been a huge help to me along the way, the progress pics and stories were great sources of inspiration. Thank you! Comments, questions, and discussion welcomed.
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