You look like a strong brute of a man, you will definately have an awesome physique to look forward to now you have your diet going. I honestly think you should get a second opinion on those calliper readings.

Good luck man you look great be proud, cool poses too

you have alot of nice exercise equipment. the lavender skates definately rule the roost at Venice--hehehehehe

Glad you finally posted some pics and got real.

from personal experience, the sooner your let your gut go and relax into yourself, the better you will feel. The sucking up all the time disrupts digestion, breathing, and everything. It is a bi-product of over-emphasis on personal appearance. Which is a major bi-product of So.Cal (lol- personal hang up of mine)

Let it go man, let it go. Relax, breath, and "BE." Once you let go, the weight will begin to fall off.

in yer corner,
FF

WTF were you complaining about? Looks like you are getting pretty good results. Plus you look like your built like a friggin tank. If you were under 200 lbs you wouldn't look right. I wouldn't get so hung up on that number if I were you.

BSL:

IF you do not "pull patiance into your heart" and allow the "past path you have taken" to give you the "wisdom in the present" to reveal your "adapting greatness"-------->I will hide under your bed with a bull horn yelling "ROCK ONS" day in and day out, so you cannot sleep.

Feel the THUNDER of your adapting greatness!

You have come so far, and look so good and its what is under the hood that has withstood and said you could.

I have read some of your new threads the last few days: you have all the power, and let the experience of the past (with in fitness) bring out the best of the present, to excel in the future.

Past history is our teacher to the wise.

YOU LOOK GREAT!

KEEP UP THE FANTASTIC WORK, baby!



Chillen

Steve, your muscle mass is greater than and your body fat is lower than I thought they were. Nice work.

Richard

That's EXACTLY what I've been saying, no way I'm 12% or even close!~ But Alan keeps showing me the digital calipers. I must be the area's he's pinching, and if you ask me, I think it's the affect of loose skin getting collapsed under the pinch of the calipers; THIS IS WHY WE'RE GOING TO DEXA!

I can't help it....yes; I was totally sucking it in! You should see my before/after pose...I can stick it out and then pull it in, it looks like a before/after pic from 50 pounds! I suppose everyone can do it, but I think my faked before/after is the best!

You rock FF, love the humor....jealous much of those skates? YES!

Kraken; this is America and it's our God-Given right to complain, b!tch, moan & groan! ....besides, complaining raises HR and that burns more caloires!

I LOVE YOU SARA....some people may think you're an evil b!otch from which there is no escaping the bounds of your relentless HELL, but I think you're awesome!

I'm sorry, I couldn't read anything you wrote cause that avatar of yours is just plain scary!



THANK YOU ALL FOR THE KIND WORDS

I actually think those pics make me look heavier then I am, but wtf....this way I'll look better in the pics to come. Thanks to Sara & Wrangell, I'm really putting the intake under the microscope. As Alan says, my body is very resistant to fat-loss....but inevitably I'm at the helm and this chubby b!otch is going Down-Town!!!!!!

Okay, I'm walking out the door with my family to enjoy Yostemite Nat'l park for 4 glorious days....I will be away from the computer so obviously no posting or responding will be possible.

Thank you all again for your support and positive reinforcement. More then you may realize, it really feels like a family here and the support, encouragement and ACCOUNTIBLITY are just outstanding!

Just got back from Yosemite....

Beautiful, stunning, awesome, wonderful....and I'm just describing the 3 slices of pepperoni & pineapple pizza I had!

The first day was okay, but once I started eating a few fries and soda, it all came back hard & fast! I tried to graze on salads and keep things lean, but the old "Your on vacation, let it go" came into play. Of course, my version of "sin" is a distant cry from what it used to be....but still, it's gotta be a gain.

So...here's the deal. Alan told me to lay-off the exercise for a while and a few people even told me to eat a bit more. Now my body is feeling the calories and not being pounded to perform...so let's hope the metabolism fires-up, I get distant from any concept of "starvation mode" and then I'll hit it again tomorrow and get back into form.

Ya know...it's shocking how eating lots of bad food so quicly leaves you hungry and craving more of it....you can chase that appetite into oblivion and into sizes they don't carry at regular department stores!!!!!!

Watch out for that Pizza mr, its like quicksand

well it is for me at least

Fortunately, I can't stand pizza. And, I agree, my avatar is nasty!

Okay....

Under the advice of my nutritionist and others, I've laid-off my workouts & dieting for a week (a week as of Saturday). My vacation to Yosemite certainly saw some heavy-calorie days and I've not broken much of a sweat or touched any of my usual 2+ hour workouts lately.

I'm going to re-approach this whole thing with a more careful look at my diet, everything will be under the microscope. I'm also going to maintain a deficit no greater then 20% less my maintainence.

I've also been in touch with a few doctors who work with people who have issues with weight loss & hormones...I'm gonna get some real blood-testing done and just eliminate that as a part of the problem.

Did you get the other body fat test done?

RealWorkSucks sent me a pm which I responded to with over 3x the 1k-limit, so I put it here:

RWS,

Yes, I did take a week off from both diet & exercise. Last Friday I did my 2 spin classes, but when I came home we left mid-day to go to Yosemite Nat'l park. Since then I've not exercised or really been watching the diet. I ate too much and only went on a few short hikes with the kids. I ate pizza, drank diet soda and had some chocolate: I took in more calories then I burned! To make matters worse, now I've got a cold w/congestion so I'm sick

What were the results of my taking a break? I don't know! I only weigh-in when I see my nutritionist, so I haven't been near a scale since. How do I feel? FAT, heavy, sluggish & bloated. From what I gather this rest period won't help me lose weight in and of itself, it'll just "reset" my metabolism & thyroid...tells my body to get out of starvation mode, OR SO THE THEORY GOES.

Greenhorn Gal sent me an email where she said she wasn't losing weight at 1,600 calories per day, but (upon Sara's suggestion) when she went to 1,900 calories per day she began losing weight...and now I have that and that thread where someone else had the same results. So now we can conclude that eating MORE = more fat loss; wonderful! Wonder where Wrangell would weigh-in on this notion.....

What did Sara (Der) tell me? She strongly discouraged me from a keto-based diet. She said I wasn't eating enough and that I had to eat more. She gave me some outlined meal plans which basically had me at 20% less then my maintainence level and she suggested going lower on the cardio so as not to freak-out, over-tax and over-work my system. She's a smart gal.

What have I done with my diet? Since getting home I've not been able to exercise due to the cold...so I decided to just finish-up the week of not exercising, but I may do my spin-classes tomorrow anyways (6 days instead of 7). As for diet, as of yesterday I just kept it really lean. How many calories?..I don't know, but they've all been small healthy meals...I'm just trying to dump this bloated/heavy feeling from eating all that vacation food.

Honestly, I'm still confused. I think I'm gonna start avoiding carbs, BUT I need carbs if I continue with these 3+ hour cardio sessions...which rather means the keto-plan is not going to work if I maintain an "athlete in training" game-plan.

I think & figure I should just stick to a good 20% below maintainance game-plan and only hit carbs (healthy carbs) just before & immediately after exercise...otherwise keep it protein & vege's. I just don't think it's wise to do 14 hours of exercise per week w/o any carbs...my routines just aren't conducive to a keto-plan. Keto might work if I only walked 30 minutes per day, but my workouts tax my body to the tune of 2,000+ calories: yes, I'll burn fat, but I'll also burn-up muscle and go into starvation mode. I think it'd be too tough on my body. I should have done the keto-thing when I stopped excercising for a week, but instead I ate vacation-food.

In all honesty & reality, my body has transformed since a year ago and progress is being made...I'm just psychologically gunning for a flawless model's body and being 43 and having a tough metabolism, it's gonna be a while before I'm there.

Btw, in the past I have done an Atkins-based thing and it was pretty tough for me. If my new plan doesn't work, I'll probably turn to the hardcore keto-thing...but based on what I've read from 2 people and what I've heard...I think I was just in starvation-mode, not getting enough sleep/rest and just freaking my body out. I may have gained 5 pounds, but my abs started showing a vertical definition in the center, my arms got more cut and that scale may say more, but I'm seeing a leaner body in the mirror. F that darn scale!!!!

you gotta do what works for you

I'm looking forward to watching your progress bro.

Did you get your DEXA bodyfat test done btw?

Not yet....been out of town and now just plain super-busy. I'll get the details about the DEXA process and other stuff when I do it. Promise.

Dude...how 'bout those tunes I sent ya? Diggin' any of 'em?