Back story:

I used to be in good shape, not ripped but strong with a pretty flat stomach. 300lb bench press, 450lb deadlift, and 400lb squat, nothing too special but had a nice solid core. Then I met a girl who smoked (I didn't at the time) and ended up engaged, living together, and I picked up smoking as well. Then we broke up, I kept smoking, and ended up running hot shot deliveries for the oilfield. I would go days in a row without sleep, 140-150 hour weeks were pretty normal. I started chugging 2-3 16oz energy drinks a day, smoking 2 packs a day, eating whatever I could grab at truck stops, and as you can imagine gained a lot of weight. Early one morning after being up for 3 days straight I fell asleep behind the wheel and was awakened by a big rig laying on his horn because I had drifted in to oncoming traffic. I called my boss and told him what happened and that I needed some rest. After I was told to stop being a p*$$y and to not call him again because he was in his deer stand, I told him to eat a bag of d!*ks and quit. 

That's been over 3 years ago now and I never lost the weight I put on. I did however stop drinking energy drinks completely and have been smoke free for almost 2 years now. 

This is me at 255 lbs, I'm 6' 1" btw. 

 

I was starting to feel old (I'm only 33) and would be stove up in the mornings, even if I didn't do much that day. My energy level was low and just plain felt like crap most of the time. Well, I finally started a 6 day a week training routine a couple weeks ago and damn I feel good again! After the first of the year I'm going to start cutting calories, my weight goal is 215 lbs (what I used to weight) and I should be able to reach it by the beginning of April.

 

Back story:

I used to be in good shape, not ripped but strong with a pretty flat stomach. 300lb bench press, 450lb deadlift, and 400lb squat, nothing too special but had a nice solid core. Then I met a girl who smoked (I didn't at the time) and ended up engaged, living together, and I picked up smoking as well. Then we broke up, I kept smoking, and ended up running hot shot deliveries for the oilfield. I would go days in a row without sleep, 140-150 hour weeks were pretty normal. I started chugging 2-3 16oz energy drinks a day, smoking 2 packs a day, eating whatever I could grab at truck stops, and as you can imagine gained a lot of weight. Early one morning after being up for 3 days straight I fell asleep behind the wheel and was awakened by a big rig laying on his horn because I had drifted in to oncoming traffic. I called my boss and told him what happened and that I needed some rest. After I was told to stop being a p*$$y and to not call him again because he was in his deer stand, I told him to eat a bag of d!*ks and quit. 

That's been over 3 years ago now and I never lost the weight I put on. I did however stop drinking energy drinks completely and have been smoke free for almost 2 years now. 

This is me at 255 lbs, I'm 6' 1" btw. 

 

I was starting to feel old (I'm only 33) and would be stove up in the mornings, even if I didn't do much that day. My energy level was low and just plain felt like crap most of the time. Well, I finally started a 6 day a week training routine a couple weeks ago and damn I feel good again! After the first of the year I'm going to start cutting calories, my weight goal is 215 lbs (what I used to weight) and I should be able to reach it by the beginning of April.

 

Edited December 17, 20159 yr by The_Hammer

congrads man!

 

life can throw you a curve ball and get this all off.  It doesn't take much inactivity to cause issues.    keep up the good work!

Hey Hammer...

Just come up here to Idaho I can fix most of your problems. By the time March-April comes around it busy time for me. Typically I'm hitched up to a trailer with a friend and out hauling firewood. Work outs are cheap out here just find a tree to fall, buck it up, load it up, haul it, unload, split it up, stack it up. Come summer time I get all the hiking I could want Search & rescue calls up and tells me there is a lost hunter or hiker. Off I got to hike the mountain to find this lost soul. Then heat of the summer start doing fire fighting. Dragging heavy fire hoses, carrying gear, hiking some more.

 

 

Workouts are free for me too, I train at home so no gym fees lol. I was BUSY this past summer falling trees, throwing over 1k bales of hay a few different times, digging trenches, hiking up river, ect. If you weren't so far away I'd gladly come bust a$$ with ya. 

Edited December 17, 20159 yr by The_Hammer

I dropped a bit over 80 lbs a bit over a year ago now and have kept it off and still do Body mass indexing and last one showed I had lost 90 lbs of inflammation and put about 10 lbs of muscle back on that I had lost with the weight. I had 1 lb more muscle weight than body frame weight which is according to my doctor text book perfect, and I was @ 17.5% body fat. I too work out at home bought a used ellipticle and that was my main exercise 1/2 hour 7 days a week along with push ups sit ups and stretching then a friend gave me an old used total gym I incorporated into my weekly routine and about 8 months in took up running and now recently bought a used treadmill to keep my routine going when the weather isn't cooperative.

 

Come January 6 It will make 2 years of my lifestyle change and as of the 10th of January I will have gone 2 full years without missing a single day of working out.

 

I cut out grain starting with bread all wheat, pasta and corn products to start with then about 6 months in quit beer and all other foods containing grains, unless something has rice protein or some things may have some flax, oats or other non GMO non Gluten containing grains as an ingredient I try not to eat if I can help it but will eat an occasional rice crispy bar but that is the extent of my grain consumption now days. I also substituted dairy milk and creamers for almond and coconut milk and creamers as well.

I do not do free weights only my own body weight resistance as I lost a lot of body mass and do not to replace one form of weight mass with another, I am loving the look and feel of the long lean muscle mass I now have.

 

Keep it up, it is hard work but once the habit of good living is made it gets easier and then is habit and not even work anymore.

I cut most grains out, other than beer, and within a few weeks I was down a good amount .  Meat a veggie for me most of the time.  

One of many work outs...

Even MoparMom gets in on the exercise...

 

Edited December 17, 20159 yr by Mopar1973Man

That is the kind of work I did 10-12 hours a day non stop and it didn't stop me from getting continually bigger, was rock headed about thinking I was getting a good enough of a work out doing heavy labor as well but it still caught me over the years, eating right and starting hard cardio is what reversed it, I was thick and muscled up but didn't have any cardio stamina.

That's the thing about humans... Everyone is different. Some people require much more activity and other don't require much at all. Yeah, my optimal weight would be right around 190-200 pounds. I'm very stable at 205-215 pounds. I'll usually gain a bit more during the winter time but loose most of it in the summer.

That is what I have found out by doing the BMI tests using the electrical machines and all that go with it to get a real reading, if one just plugs my info in on those BMI calculators it shows I am still overweight but by doing it the correct way determines actual frame weight and muscle mass weight and what is left over to determine body fat %.

 

@ 6'3" and 200-202 range by using the calculator puts me @ 25.4 BMI which is overweight not knowing actual body composition. Using the calculators Idealy I should weigh 194-199 which would put me in the unhealthy bones sticking out category, Heck when I hit the workouts super hard about once every 5-6 weeks can get down to 196-198 and I am looking ripped but my ribs and a lot of other bones show up and make me look like a starving near dead animal with skin stretched over the skeleton.........not good.

Yep, vastly different depends on the person.  

 

I am 6'2" maybe 3 depending on the day and come in around 200 ish, but I am overweight,  For whatever reason I really struggle to put on muscle mass.  Stick and bones genes I suppose, so I really should be around #185, but that quickly turns into unhealthly looking.

 

but I don't worry about it much,  I stay active, and try to eat healthy and no issues so far.

Ha ah that's my issue as well, all depends on the day sometimes I get measured @ 6'3 some days 6'2. Guess the shift work dead tired droop and varying gravity where I stand are the key factors.

I've always been told that you are taller after sleeping and shorter if you're very dehydrated due to disc compression and shrinkage  

I had some abs showing at 215 lbs, 205 I would of had a 6-pack. I can gain muscle and strength fairly easy, getting lean is more work, mostly due to not keeping my diet clean. Another issue is that I've NEVER worked out for even a month straight due to ADD/ADHD. Now that it's all under control my focus and concentration is through the roof! I want to see what I can actually become if I keep up the hard work. 

 

3 hours ago, Wild and Free said:

That is the kind of work I did 10-12 hours a day non stop and it didn't stop me from getting continually bigger, was rock headed about thinking I was getting a good enough of a work out doing heavy labor as well but it still caught me over the years, eating right and starting hard cardio is what reversed it, I was thick and muscled up but didn't have any cardio stamina.

The reason for this is that our bodies will acclimate to the work load placed upon it. Once your body is accustomed to 10-12 hr days of hard labor your metabolism slows back down. If you continue to eat like you did during the acclimatization phase when your metabolism was higher, your going to gain weight. Another example would be the Mexicans you see around here sweating their butt's off doing all kinds of hard manual labor but yet they're fat, it's the same thing. That's why you have to always increase the difficulty of your workouts by increasing the weight, number of reps, decreasing the rest duration between sets, ect, if you want to continue to make gains. 

Both the weight gain and ADD and ADHD are all food related, study after study the last few years have proven that a diet high in grains and refined sugars are what cause these. ADD and ADHD have been shown to be 100% curable with diet change alone time and again.

During a check up last summer my resting metabolism was 2500 calories a day and I now eat about 1/3 of what I used to even now that I do an 45 minutes to an hour of working out every day because of the quality of food I eat now.

Edited December 17, 20159 yr by Wild and Free

2 hours ago, Wild and Free said:

Both the weight gain and ADD and ADHD are all food related, study after study the last few years have proven that a diet high in grains and refined sugars are what cause these. ADD and ADHD have been shown to be 100% curable with diet change alone time and again.

During a check up last summer my resting metabolism was 2500 calories a day and I now eat about 1/3 of what I used to even now that I do an 45 minutes to an hour of working out every day because of the quality of food I eat now.

I tried a LOT of natural things to cure the ADHD but nothing truly took care of it like Aderall. I was VERY hesitant to take medication but I'm very glad that I did. I had extreme anger issues and couldn't focus on one thing for longer than 15 minutes tops, both of which cost me a couple of jobs. I'm still open to finding a natural alternative that works though. I just know that I NEVER want to go back to how I was before. 

I know what it's like to live with a serve ADHD child. Devin was a step-son from a girlfriend I was living with years ago. Sorry to say Devin never made it pass the age of 7 where "Unknown brain virus" took his life. All I can say I know exactly what your up against with the ADHD problem. All the doctors figure the ADHD is what allowed the virus to take hold and end his life.

As for cures for ADHD I really don't think you can cure this. Maybe mild cases of of ADHD but not at the level that Devin was. We tried everything from herbalistic stuff, doctors, prescription drugs, etc. You name it.  

Immunizations and environmental poisons including what the mother was exposed to while pregnant and what she chose to consume during such period are also a huge contributing factors, One of the biggest unreported epidemics now days is babies born addicted to prescription drugs and other drugs, pretty sad but true.

So... Are you going to go all anti 100% immunization on us?  

I'll share a few things here that I normally don't talk about. I almost died at birth because the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck and suffocating me. Once the Dr realized this he did an emergency seacection. I came out kind of blue, was not moving much, and was in the ICU for a couple weeks. The Drs said I more than likely had brain damage and told my mom I would pretty much be a vegetable my whole life. Other than the ADHD I'm perfectly healthy.

ADHD is why I was home schooled, I was literally kicked out of first grade and my mom told to never bring me back. It made learning VERY difficult and because of this I was called stubborn and stupid. It wasn't until February of this year that I got on Adderall and my quality of life drastically improved. I enjoy learning and actually crave knowledge now.