I have to say a huge thanks to everyone who replied so supportively to my “IMAZ-after losing 100 lbs.” post. I got a lot of responses and questions about how to get motivated and how to stay motivated. Well, here is what helps me:
Before: 300 LBS.! Oh My God! Thats me in the black stufffing my plate full of food. (Man was I a porky!)
Before: Doing what I did best. Sitting on the couch
Before: I will bet you I weigh more then the horse!
After: IMAZ 08- 197 lbs.- maybe a few pounds less as I have used up some glycogen and H20 at this point.
After: little road rash on the face and leg but the chubbies are gone!
There seems to not have been a good before/after photo thread in a while. I don’t post much here but I got enough courage to post and show you all my life as a porky. So give all those who need it some added motivation and put up your before/after photos for us all to enjoy!
here is my fav before and after photo of me for this year… i have lost around 55lbs and am currently around 185lbs (few lbs lighter than in the photo)
it has been a total life change… not one thing has not improved.
you don’t realise how much being overweight impacts your life… i now have more energy to play with the kids
i don’t think i can compete with your IM time, but am hoping to knock more than 3.5hrs off my IM time next year! (it is statements like that, which just blow my mind. i cannot believe it is really me)
Here is mine: (225/185) I got as high as 230 for awhile. Still trying to lose the last 10 lbs down to 175.
I guess I should explain the story. In 2004, I dislocated my right shoulder rock climbing. I took a few months of all exercise to allow it to heal forgoing surgery based upon docs recommendation. About 2 months into my recovery time, I was playing “pillow tag” with my son, I reached across my body with my left hand and grabbed a large pillow and winged it back across my chest. POP, out came the left shoulder.
I ended up taking pretty much 2 years off from all activity due to allowing them to recover. I tried to run a few times and couldn’t stand the pain of holding them up combined with the bouncing. Eventually they healed up enough in 2007 to where I could semi-train, so I did IMAZ. 200 lbs in pic below.
After finally feeling that I was able to really train again, I signed up for Vineman in '08 and decided to lose a few more pounds and really give it a go. 185 lbs below.
Training my ass off and targeting a sub-10 finish in '09!
No pictures but I am currently 199 lbs and in 1996 when I did my first Ironman I was as low as 162 which is too low for me. In 2000 when I did Ironman again I was 172 which is perfect for racing.
The goal is to get back training starting Monday Dec 1st in the pool and riding since I still can not run after an ankle injury for the last 4 month from paying Volleyball and then getting PF in the same foot.
Goal is to go cold turkey on all the crap I eat and have a cheat night once a week and try my best to work out an hour a day.
I was able to swim twice this week but kicking still hurts my injured ankle but it is getting better. Cycling seems to be very good so the windtrainer is becoming my friend again.
Looking at the OP pictures is enough motivation for me to get my ass in gear again. It has been too long away from racing.
thats pretty awesome you went from being fat to a sub 10hr ironman in about 1 yr!
Sorry if I wasn’t clear but it has taken me a little less then 4 years to go from being fat to a sub 10 (it was a fast course too!) 3 years of that time was really focused on dropping the weight and the last 7-8 months have been wokring on trying to get a little faster.
Looking back, when I averaged 30-35 lbs of weight loss per year, it gave me the most consistent success at not putting any of the lost weight back on. When I dropped wieght at a higher rate, I often would put some of it back on. The consistency of dropping weight at a slow steady pace is much easier then doing something extreme to lose weight quickly and potentially sabataging yourself into putting the weight back on. It was a long journey to get that fat, it will be a long journey to lose it!
There are some impressive before/after results posted here. Very inspirational to see! Keep up the good work.
I was one of 3 guys at TTT sporting a gut this last May. I think in hindsight I had the biggest gut there.
I probably had at least 20 people during the course of the weekend tell me how amazed they were that I was even at an event like TTT.
On every lap of the run was a guy yelling at me, “Way to go wide body.” I’m sure he meant well but I hear his voice just as loudly 6 months later.
I was 5’8" and 236 pounds. I underestimated the course by a lot.
By Labor Day I was 189 pounds. I vowed to never again be at a race where people comment about my size.
As a side result I have placed twice, one of which was age group, and shaved an hour and 40 minutes off of my 1/2 IM time getting me a sub 6 hour time.
Not to mention my run pace has gone from 9:20 miles in April to 8 minute miles currently.
All of this has resulted in a lofty goal: 11 hours at IM Austria in July.
I owe TTT and a number of competitors there a debt of gratitude.
And if you need some help, check out www.fitday.com. It helped me a bunch. And its free!
