Weightloss... before and after pics

[Ray Holt]

Hey guys. I've been kinda chubby since... I guess about the beginning of highschool. I had some little stints of exercise but never anything regular, never anything that lasted.

At the beginning of this year I weighed 200 pounds... and it was all chub. When I got home from Christmas, I decided that it was going to change. I didn't make it my New Year's resolution. I didn't even tell anyone I was doing it, because I find things usually work out better if I just do them instead of talking about it.

I didn't follow any wacky diet or exercise plans. My diet wasn't even really that great until about halfway into it. The plan I've been following for a while now is lifting Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and running Tuesday and Thursday. I'm never in the gym for more than 30-40 minutes, and I never run for more than 15 or 20 (I do interval training, switching between jogging, running and full out sprinting).

Well, I'm not sure what else to say but here are some pics. The "before" pics are terrible to look at and I'm pretty embarrassed putting them up here... but I'm pretty happy with the afters.

I'll leave it at that for now, PLEASE ask any questions you have. I can go into more detail about the way I do things.

January 2008


July 1st, 2008




I waited until today because it's my birthday

[Fontaine]

its clearly the 2nd




(by 6 minutes in Newfoundland)

[knarleybass]

You look great, and about 5 years younger. That was no easy task, my hat goes off to ya!

[nickn]

That's a hell of a job you did. It takes some serious motivation to lose any significant amount of weight, and especially to lose as much as you did. I do have a question for you, and an odd one at that: Do you regularly eat breakfast? I've read over and over again that it's easier to lose weight if you eat breakfast...

[steve21]

You look good, man! Lots of props, seriously. From about last August to now I've lost 30-35 lbs, but the past few weeks I've been missing going to the gym and biking (sick one week... working with my dad in his office the next... health issues in the family keeping me having to watch my little brother and sister this week) but I'm going back at it. I'm thinking of biking to my old high school, running a couple of miles, then biking to the gym. I have a 4 day a week workout plan.

Your stomach/abs came out pretty well. What'd you do for them? Daily crunches?

[Visirale]

Tell me everything you did, explain your running plan and your lifting schedule. I'm very interested .

[tplyons]

awesome, i've got a few pounds to lose, and haven't found a way. share the secrets!

[Ray Holt]

Originally Posted by nickn

That's a hell of a job you did. It takes some serious motivation to lose any significant amount of weight, and especially to lose as much as you did. I do have a question for you, and an odd one at that: Do you regularly eat breakfast? I've read over and over again that it's easier to lose weight if you eat breakfast...

Thanks for the kind words!

And to answer your question.. YES! Breakfast is one of the most important things. It kick starts your metabolism after the all-night fast that your body put itself in. I've seen a saying "The bigger the breakfast, the smaller the waist". That's not to say you should pig out on breakfast, but definitely try to have it.

I usually go with a bowl of whole grain Cheerios (taste good and are really good for you) or a PB&J. I also drink about 16 ounces of water right when I wake up, that also kicks your metabolism.

[CanadaMan]

Starting a heavy lift plan as of last week. Mine's more for building muscle mass because I've always wanted to scare the crap out of little kids, but congrats my friend!

[cheesemonkey]

Originally Posted by nickn

That's a hell of a job you did. It takes some serious motivation to lose any significant amount of weight, and especially to lose as much as you did. I do have a question for you, and an odd one at that: Do you regularly eat breakfast? I've read over and over again that it's easier to lose weight if you eat breakfast...

It's hard to lose weight if you don't eat breakfast...

[jwbassman]

Right on man! that's great. I've got 1lb to go until I get to the 100lb mark myself. I started at 285 about a year and a half ago. I was at 186 this morning. I'm going to get some before and after pics when I lose the last pound. My goal is 170. I figure I should be able to hit that by the end of the year. Keep up the good work man!

[HEIST]

You look great! Seriously, the side profile is killer. And Happy Birthday Ray! I have a question as well. If you have a routine going on, do you always do them at the same time always or it doesn't really matter if you do it in the morning and then night?

[Ray Holt]

Originally Posted by Visirale

Tell me everything you did, explain your running plan and your lifting schedule. I'm very interested .

I'll start with my general diet plan...

I have an Igloo cooler that I bring to work every day. The rule is, I don't eat anything that's not in the cooler. I eat 5-6 small "meals" throughout the day instead of 3 big ones. The idea is that it keeps your metabolism going. If you eat 3 big ones, your body will store the excess as fat. If you keep feeding your body throughout the day, it never has an excess to store and your metabolism keeps working. Here's my schedule...

5:50 AM - Breakfast - A bowl of whole grain cheerios with non fat milk (roughly 200 calories) or a Peanut butter and Jelly (roughly 360 calories)

9:00 AM - Morning snack - usually and apple. Sometimes a yogurt, or if it's a day after I lifted a protein bar.

12:00 PM - Lunch - Usually a Turkey + Cheese sandwich on wheat bread (with lettuce, tomato, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper) and an apple or an orange. Sometimes it's a PB&J and an apple or an orange, or a yogurt.

2:00 PM - Afternoon snack - Usually an apple, orange, or yogurt.

(around) 7:00 PM - dinner - Usually chicken fingers and french fries (that I make at home, Tyson stuff).


That's my general eating pattern. The time I actually eat dinner varies. I could lose the french fries... but I enjoy them.

I pay attention to my calories throughout the day, often kind of "rough" guessing how much something is if I don't actually know. Following that plan, my daily calorie intake is usually around 1,300-1,500. Once again, those are just rough numbers. That's a good amount of calories to lose weight, for me at least.

One of the biggest things is I don't torture myself. If I get off of work and I want some Wendy's chicken nuggets, guess what? I get some friggin Wendy's chicken nuggets! Actually, it's a good thing to have a high calorie meal (pig out, basically, have some fast food or something) once a week because it helps kick your metabolism back up. If you're constantly taking in a low amount of calories to burn weight, a high calorie meal can help make sure your metabolism is still going.

[Ray Holt]

Originally Posted by steve21

Your stomach/abs came out pretty well. What'd you do for them? Daily crunches?

Thanks a lot man! I hardly ever do crunches. That's one of the big myths, that you can "target" belly fat by doing tons of crunches and stuff. The truth is most people have a pretty good set of abs... you just can't see them! It's about lowering your body fat %. I do work my core, quite often, but not in the traditional sense. I do a few workouts that target my core, like crunches with a cable machine, or "planks" (basically get in a pushup position but with your forearms on the floor, and push your hips up and hold your body in a straight line for a minute or so. You can do the same on your sides to get obliques and stuff) but most of my core workout comes from doing whole body exercises.

Which brings me to another thing. Do whole body exercises! Most of the machines you see isolate one muscle group. Like preacher benches isolate JUST your biceps... or leg press machines isolate JUST your legs. Doing things like squats, bent over rows, pull ups, dips, deadlifts... they all work TONS of muscles at once. And it's more "real world" strength. I mean when you see people on leg extension machines... how often to you do that motion in real life? Whole body movements are great because they include everything, and also deal with the coordination that is required for real world strength.

Originally Posted by HEIST

You look great! Seriously, the side profile is killer. And Happy Birthday Ray! I have a question as well. If you have a routine going on, do you always do them at the same time always or it doesn't really matter if you do it in the morning and then night?

Thanks for the kind words I think the time of day you work out is really personal preference. Some say working out in the morning helps kick start your metabolism, but honestly it just doesn't work for me. I have a routine and like sticking to it, I always work out RIGHT after work. But it's not going to hurt you if you change it up.

[SoComSurfing]

Great work, Ray! Congratulations and happy birthday!

[fenderhutz]

Now learn how to clean that room and you'll be set

[Ray Holt]

And to answer the other part of Visirale's question, here's the weight lifting program I've been following.

It's a beautiful thing. Two workouts. Four exercises in each work out, and it shouldn't take you more than 30 minutes. I got this from an issue of Men's Health.. the program is titled "Six-weeks to your six pack".

These are a lot of "whole body" exercises like I was mentioning in my last post. They might not SEEM like they're working your core/abs, but they really hit them hard. Instead of me explaining each exercise, you should be able to google them and see exactly what it is. If not, I'll explain.

So like I said this consists of two workouts, A and B. I lift 3 days a week, and switch between workouts. I lift M-W-F, so I will do workout A on Monday and Friday, and workout B on Wednesday one week, then switch that the following week (Workout B Monday and Friday, A on Wednesday). This schedule allows enough time for your muscles to repair in between lifting sessions.

The flow for each workout goes like this... you do 5 sets of 5 repetitions of the first exercise (either the chinup or the squat), resting 2 minutes inbetween sets. Then, you do the last 3 exercises as a circuit, doing 8-10 repetitions of one exercise then moving on to the next exercise, until you do a total of 3 rounds.

Workout A:
Chinup (5 sets of 5 with two minute rests)
Dumbbell Step-up (8-10 reps, rest for one minute then go to..)
Dumbbell Squat To Press
Dumbbell Row (Then back to the step up)

Workout B:
Squat (5 sets of 5)
Incline press
Barbell Romanian Deadlift to Row (sounds complicated but it's not, awesome exercise)
Cable PNF


Should be able to find examples of all of those exercises by searching Google. Any questions tho, ask.

[Rakie]

Both models can get the chicks if you know how to use them, but the sleeker one is less work.

Good job.

[Matt Till]

Congrats!

[CamMcIntyre]

Congrats man.

Today was day 1 of a challenge at work i'm doing. 4 of us are taking 3 months to see who can lose the most body fat %. Winner gets $20 from each of us.

I'm a bit bigger than you [220] and I'm also looking to do a life style change. I know I have to do it gradually or else I won't stick with it. I'm starting to eat breakfast [oatmeal] tomorrow. I've already cut back on soda. I will also be lifting tomorrow.

In the past-i've worked out/ate better for up to 3 months & then I quit and put back on even more than I had lost. I think those times I failed because I tried to add too much at a time. Ok & then i started to engage in too much partying.

keep it up.