An recent email exchange between me, Scoundrel, Galan and Lard brought this post about. When this blog started in late 2007 I weighed in the mid 280s. (My high school graduation weight was 180lbs and I peaked at 290 in 2006) I had been playing racquetball for about 9 months (restarted after a 15 year layoff) and Scoundrel had just introduced me to world of kettlebells. You would have thought with all this activity my weight would just melt off. (A least I did) Well it didn't. Recently though, I am at my lowest weight in 29 years - 234lbs. My body fat % has gone from 37+% to 27.5% This lead Galan to ask, "How did you hold onto the 275+ lbs?"
I believe there were several factors on why I was holding onto the weight.
1 – Diet: Chocolate milk (NesQuik), eggos w/peanut butter & Dew and second lunches at work ;) – changed late ’09. No Dew, No eggos, NesQuik as a treat.
2 – Inactivity – once a week softball in the summer wasn’t going to do it ;) – started playing racquetball in ‘07
3 – Undiagnosed diabetes. – treated late ’09 – dropped 20lbs in 6 months to 260. And stayed there! (see #1)
4 – Hormone imbalance. – Thyroid and testosterone. As these were brought back into the normal range, I began to lose weight. Thyroid in ’12, Testosterone late ‘14
The last 3 years have been heavy on the exercise: kettlebells twice a week (sometimes 1, sometimes 3). Racquetball: moving from recreational to competitive and playing 4-5 times a week, plus tournaments. However, my weight stayed fairly consistent around 260. I had nudged it down ~10lbs to 255/250 late this summer. Starting in November '14, from the advice of my trainer, I started taking a Thyroid supplement, DHEA & D136. I lost 18lbs since January 1 and 31lbs Since July. An interesting note, my thyroid (TSH) went from 4.02 (Sep) to 0.0 1(Feb) and testosterone went from 233 (Sep) to 544 (Feb)! Without any real diet change, I started losing 1.5lbs a week.
Carrying that extra weight around did do some damage though. I have bone on bone medial osteoarthritis and knee cap on my right knee. However, I knew my knee wasn’t the best, playing racquetball on it at 280lbs didn’t help. I needed to manage it better after my meniscus surgery in August of ‘10. It was never right after that. I got it wrapped in ice right now and I’m wearing a copper sleeve and have capsaicin cream on it too. Taking voltaren and ibuprofen/aspirin/Tylenol to supplement. It only hurts when my heart beats and I can't straighten it fully. At the end of the month, I am being evaluated for knee replacement :(.