There is hope
 

Hello All, first off sorry for the long post. I've been a lurker on this board for a while but now I am going to share my story with the hope that it will help others. I imagine like a lot of you I've always been a big guy. I'm 42 years old 6' tall and at this time last year weighed 292 pounds. I graduated high school weighing north of 200 pounds and wearing 38" jeans, and have never been athletic, I played football for one year when I was about 12 and had to weigh in before every game to make sure I'd be allowed to play, I was always at the max weight allowed for the league. I never broke the 10 minute barrier running the mile at school, you get the drift, I've always had a weight problem. Last October some buddies and I were on a trip together and we decided to have a 12 month weight loss challenge. I started to watch what I eat, mainly watching calories, making wiser decisions in general on food, and I got myself a gym membership. I started on a variety of cardio machines that were terribly boring but pretty effective, I lost better than 40 pounds by February, but I hated the gym, and at that point I was far ahead of all of the guys in my weight loss challenge and I was losing incentive. So I came up with a new plan, I chose to incentivize myself with something that I love with hopes of making this more permanent. I love to travel, and my favorite place to go is to Greece, specifically the Island of Crete, where my family is from. Well I've been there a number of times and the wife is less excited about going back so I challenged myself (with her blessing) to compete in a Triathlon in 2019 on the Island. So in February I bought a road bike after never owning anything of the sort before and I hit the roads in preparation for a future triathlon, along with swimming and an occasional run. Thats when I joined this forum and started reading your stories. Fast forward to now and I've learned that I still don't much care for the gym, I hate running, and tolerate swimming, but I love bike riding. I recently hit my 100 pound loss and just completed my first Sprint Triathlon, (I had to take myself out of the Clyde class for the Tri) as I lost weight faster than anticipated during training. I am truly looking forward to next years bigger challenge in Greece and am confident I can keep this going for months more and hopefully much longer. A year ago if you told me I'd be at the weight I was as a Sophomore in High school and just completed a Tri I'd told you that you were mistaken, but it can be done, I'm living proof, there's hope for you as well. I'll post up some pictures once I hit my 10 post requirement.
Paul

Great job man!

So you got yourself under 200 lbs? Great job!

AWESOME! Great accomplishment!

I started at 295 last December.. FINALLY broke the 240 mark after maintaining 245 for August & September.
I was hoping to be 220 by now.. and 200 by the end of the year.
Last time I weighed 200, I was a High School freshman..
The challenge I've found, is figuring out the "where do I go from here?" each time I plateau.

Keep at it, Bro.
I'm never going to do a Triathlon, because I can't swim, and my knees are beat to piss after riding MX in my teen years and then pounding around on a concrete floor since I was 16 working in auto shops.. I get tremendous knee discomfort running to the end of the driveway to get the mail.
That's why I got back to bikes after I had my heart work done in 2012. I HAVE to keep it thumping. I have a 27 year old daughter I'd like to walk down the aisle one day.
I FINALLY discovered a bike frame I like, so much I N+1 every one I find.. FINALLY got a fitment and mods that take the pressure off my wrists (another victim of auto shop work for nearly 40 years), and day after tomorrow, am going to try to ride 50 miles on the White Pine Trail out of Belmont, MI.

You keep digging at it.
I know I am.

Inspiring! Well done!

I am currently 220 and have a 210 goal. I plateau'd a couple of times and when I did I figured out that either changing my workout some or diet would usually kick things back up.

One thing I've found that kick starts a loss cycle is an 18hr mini-fast..
It's pretty easy if you eat dinner at like 6pm, then nothing until lunch the next day.. you figure most of that time you are asleep anyway.. if I do that a couple times a week, I can usually re-start the cycle..