So basically my story is pretty simple, I started college playing varsity football, moved to endurance sports, mainly cycling and am now recently catching the tri bug. Since making the transition I have been dieting for an uninterrupted 2 years + 2 months. I started out at 5’11" 213 lbs and an inside linebacker build, I had been playing football my whole life. Just recently I was bodyfat tested in a dunk tank (i hear the hydrostatic method is one of the most accurate measures) and was 164 lbs and 5.7% bodyfat. So basically I have started to eat to maintain weight as opposed to losing it and let me just say that it is the greatest thing ever! Because of training 18 hrs a week I am eating A LOT, i am never hungry and I treat myself to dessert. I have definitely not completely changed my diet, just eat a lot more of the same stuff but also treat myself to temptation a little more.
Let this post just be motivation to all of you out there trying to lose the weight, it is worth it in the end. I didn’t think I would ever go through a day without being hungry again and depriving myself of the food i used to love but one day i woke up, and found out that I made it. 2 years and 50 lbs later I made it, so to all you epic dieters out there I’m rooting for you!
My downfall is alcohol. I can usually do pretty good except when alcohol is involved. My body thinks 1 beer has the caloric equivalent of about 14 Hoho’s and the little squishy part around my belly proves it.
Good job on getting that weight down. I’ll be there some day.
Nice to hear it can be done. I’m in pretty much the same boat as a former tight end. Got about 20 more pounds to go. Inferring from your post we probably played against each other, I went to Penn.
My first big change was cutting out drinking on a regular basis. It’s not only the drinking that kills me but the late night food binges that would have me making up for a week what I added in one night. Other little things are cleaning my house out of stuff that I know will tempt me, reducing fat intake so I can eat more and eat less calories (1g of fat- 9 cals, 1 g of car/pro - 4 cals), egg whites are my breakfast savior with tons of protein and very little cals.
but my biggest thing was looking at food as fueling my body which helped a lot especially when training because it helped me fend off that pizza or brownie thinking “not only will this not help me lose weight but i will feel like crap on that hour run later”
Inferring from your post we probably played against each other, I went to Penn.
I am going into my senior year and have been out of football for 2 full years so I only played one full year here at Cornell if I recall correctly Penn played us at home that year (2002).
Good luck with the lifestyle change, my football buddies won’t let me hear the end of it!
How much of it was about chaning portion size? or about changing how much you were used to eating? i have the feeling that in order to make real progress, i am going to need to get used to eating less, to learn to go hungry a bit for a while until I get used to eating less, and that really bums me out.
I’ll be honest with you. I was hungry a lot and I did eat smaller portions but I ate much more often. I tried to keep my blood sugar pretty constant and eat every 2-3 hours. At the height of my weight loss this past winter I wasn’t ever eating real meals, everything was a snack. This probably won’t work for everyone but my breakfast would be an eggwhite omelette, then i’d have an apple and some pretzels for a snack, then chicken salad… etc. you get the picture. I cut out red meat, all chicken, fish, and turkey. Ate a ton of fruit and vegetables.
To specifically answer your question. I love to eat so making portions smaller sucks but I ate more regularly and I ate foods with very low caloric content for their size. I could eat a huge plate of steamed vegetables and a piece of chicken or I could choose to eat one twinkie, those were the kind of decisions I made. PM me if you want some more specific advice, I am not a weight loss guru and some of the stuff may not be by the book (my fat intake was around 12%) but it worked for me.
Just walking around Cornell will take the weight off. I’d love to have a bike around those hills and that beautiful countryside. I’d bet it would be a great place for a tri. The lake, the hills…Whoa!
My eldest daughter just graduated from Cornell one year ago. It’s a beautiful place…for 6 months a year, or so.
lol…I don’t even want to hear this. definitely, wine and good beer have been my biggest downfalls. for some of us, no matter the dietary changes, if there is alcohol in the picture results won’t happen. i’m cutting back so much that i don’t know what to do with myself…lol. it’s a good thing!!
I played football in H.S., by my freshman year at college I was up to 218 lbs (I’m 6’4), then I got involved in rowing and quickly dropped to 200 lbs. After college I starting rowing solo (sculling) and dropped another 10 lbs. Then in 2002 I starting racing multisport events and dropped another 15 lbs. So just by changing the sport, I’ve dropped 43 lbs without changing my diet once.
yeah the hills are great, much better than the same old boring flat stuff. Ithaca’s downfall is definitely the weather. It has rained at some point almost every day for the past week, is almost 90 and 90% humidity and in the winter, well it’s awful. We have about a month of great spring weather and a month of great fall weather.