bigfred 

Way to go man! Way to go! Keep up the good eating and exercise habits.

I avoided this thread for the longest time. But, it has got to be one of the best ones in all of Bikeforums. Subscribing to it should almost be mandatory for all members. The amount of inspiration and motivation provided from seeing people progress and achieve with regard to their goals, both short term and long, is beyond description.

Farhat

Absolutely amazing work everyone. This really gets a fire burning under me, Im at 280 right now and would love to get down to 230. Time to start getting out and doing it,

Thanks for the motivation!!

ogrepraxy

I am so glad that I found this thread of inspiration, as I'm at the beginning of this adventure!

After seeing how big I was in the pictures from our vacation to Colorado, I was surprised to stand on the scale and see 405! I've been heavy since the first grade and my 6'6" frame allows me to hide some of it, but at 37 years-old I knew I had to make a change or end up with horrible health problems like my father.

I'm now down to 358 just by changing my eating habits, but that has leveled off.

With my flat feet and bad knee I don't think I'll ever be able to run -- and definitely not at my current weight. Because of this, I have been interested in getting back on a bicycle. I'll need to start out with a more upright sitting position because of degenerative disc disease in my lumbar, but as I get rid of my gut I hope to transition to drop bars.

My goal right now is to find the right bike, but I want it to be a decent steel frame touring bike. While I will be easing myself in on the bike trails around my house, I plan on working up to my 14-mile round trip commute in a couple months, and then eventually some longer, touring trips when I am in better shape.

Thank you all for your inspirational stories. I'll definitely be posting on my progress here too. In the meantime, I'd love to get your input on finding the right bike. Please see my post here.

Solare

Every impressive results folks

Ranmaniac

I was diagnosed with Diabetes in March of 2013 with a blood glucose reading of 392. At the time I weighed 324 lbs, actually down from 333 just 2 months prior. I immediately began to take my health very seriously from that point forward. I began a strict diet program which mostly consists of cutting out all sugars, starches, and unnecessary carbs. My exercise program started out with walking, mild weight training including pushups, sit-ups, & dumbbell curls and, last but not least, cycling. As of March 1, 2014, I have lost 103 lbs and am now in what may be the best shape of my life, and am averaging well over 600 miles/month on my bike. My medicinal regimen has gone from a cocktail of insulin shots, Glimepiride & 2000 mg of Metformin to now, only 1000 mg of Metformin, daily, hoping to put it aside by the end of 2014. I haven’t had insulin or Glimepiride for over a year. My average fasting glucose has been in the low to mid 90's for over a year now. I haven’t totally beaten diabetes yet, but it is down for the count and not getting up!
I am participating in a multitude of riding events across the Houston area in 2014 including the MS150 from Houston to Austin. I will be doing my 1st Tour De Cure for the American Diabetes Association as a "Red Rider" and I shall focus on making it my signature event from this point forward as I am not only riding for the sake of others but for my own very well being. I will gladly ride the 100 mile route as a Red Rider and hope that my efforts will inspire others into believing that diabetes is beatable.

My metabolics have all normalized but my weight has stalled at about 229/230 since Dec 2013, although I have gotten much stronger on the bike. I have also started commuting to work which is about 29 miles round trip and I'm averaging 4 days a work week with that along with long rides on the weekends. The stall in weight loss is somewhat frustrating but I feel great none-the-less. Along with all this exercise comes a mean appetite and I do go through a lot of food, all healthy food, but lots of it. I probably eat one too many handfuls of nuts and cheese can be my sin food at times. I've just about gotten to the point of letting be what will be and calling it good. The metabolics is the key indicator and those are all in the green. It would be nice to drop another 20 or so so I can keep up with the skinny guys in the hills!! LOL -- The key thing is the lifestyle change itself and I've been successful with that for over a year now. RIDE ON ALL !!

RhythmRider

I was 265lbs....now I'm 202lbs....fighting to get below 200!

CommuteCommando

Started at 305, down to 205, back to 220, now on track back to 215.

needawheel2

Those who lost weight, how do you deal with hunger? (from burning calories) To resist the desire to eat?

mrodgers

I find that the longer I ride, the less hungry I am.

I have become accustomed to eating dinner at around 4:15-4:30. That is because my wife goes to work at 4:45 and my oldest now in 7th grade has lunch at around 10 am. She is hungry when she gets home and we try to still eat as a family. Thus, when I am leaving work sometime between 3 and 4, I am quite hungry.

Since starting to ride, I usually stop at the trail on the way home and ride for 1 - 1.5 hours. By the time I get home, my wife is gone or just ready to leave and they have eaten. Where I was hungry as I left work, after an hour or so on the bike, I am no longer hungry. I might get home around 5-5:30 and eat about half of what I use to when I was home to eat with everyone else, sometimes not eating anything immediately and waiting an hour or so.

Might be different if I had all the time in the world to ride and rode 30, 40, 50 miles or something like it seems a lot of folks do and burn a ton of calories, but my hour or so of riding seems to curb the hunger pretty well. An hour or so burns some calories and helps to keep me from eating more calories.

Oh, and most of my weight gain from over the years came from junk food. I don't eat meals much different than I ever did, my wife cooks everything from scratch either from home grown food or from organic and I found my meals tended to be in the 1600-1700 calorie range. I didn't eat junk food because I was hungry. I ate it because of a multitude of things that everyone else probably eats it for. It is a bit addictive to eat sugar and salty snacks and you crave it for the sugar and saltiness, not because you are hungry. So easy to open a bag of Doritos and find that you've eaten half the bag, which is an enormous amount of calories that you don't realize until you start to actively watch.

mrtuttle04

The two things I do is moved to foods that have high bulk and low calories (e.g. vegtables). For awhile celary was the only snack I would eat. Also everytime I got hungry, I drank a large glass of water and waited to see if the hunger went away. If the hunger did not go away, I drank another glass of water and waited another hour.

CommuteCommando

I eat often. Snack on fruit. Stay away (mostly) from alcohol.

I get obsessive about what, and when I eat. I use a tracker to plan my day.

I do not starve myself during workouts. This is very important, as planing eating around riding is a needed skill to develop.

Recognize that weight loss is not a goal, but a life long endeavor. Any goals you have should be recognized as short term, and be made in the context of an overall life plan.

JSPhoto

Hi My name is Jason in Wichita, Ks. I have been struggling with my weight since I was a kid, even though I haven't always been over-weight. For nearly the entire first half of my life I was drastically under-weight but ate like a horse. I didn't break 100 pounds until I was 17, and from there it quickly increased. My eating habits never changed but my body started to retain more and more. On May 30th, 2014 I went in for my regular visit with the Doctor and weighed 295 pounds, and was officially a Type II Diabetic. My Doctor referred me to another Doctor in the Office who was running a truly healthy program with amazing results. So on June 17th I began my Journey with the Unicity Transformation Program. Four weeks later I am down nearly 24 pounds at 271.2 yesterday morning. I am also no longer a full blown Type II, although I still have to monitor my Glucose and continue taking Metformin. But my A1c has dropped from 7.4 to 6.6 in that time, which my Doctor said was amazing. My Cholesterol and Triglycerides are also back in a normal range.

One of my biggest issues is that I am supposed to do 30 minutes of Cardio 6 days a week. The only thing that my body will currently allow me to do is ride one of the stationary bikes at the Gym. But I've yet to make it the full 30 minutes. If I get too sore or tired its too easy to just get up and walk out. When I was a teenager I used to ride my bike 20 miles a day in the Summer, with one big ride of 100 miles before school started again. Now I am looking to do that again. Because I know that if I get too sore or tired I can't just quit and go home. I will have to ride home, forcing myself to dig deep and get it done.

I only have before photos right now, but I promise I will post again in 9 weeks when the 13 week program is over.

CommuteCommando

The key to my success on staying on the bike for the years I have is to keep it fun. If it stops being fun, build up the distances more slowly. When I was your size-that's about the heaviest I got-five miles was hard. Now I do fifty on a weekend with out really thinking about it. I have two centuries behind me, and am starting a training program tonight for a 1/2 marathon in January. This is a showcase group of trainees being sponsored by the hospital that in turn sponsors that marathon.

billias

Hi,
I have nothing to say... I am 290lbs, and just started my marathon to drop it (In the past i was almost 400lbs)....

You made me really confident by looking these 49 pages of changed people... Really

I feel I have a reason to go on with my bike (except riding for my pleasure)


I have some questions about wheel settings etc, but these on another topic!
Later you will have my Before and After Photoz!

Johnny Mullet

Me last December at 261 LBS.............



Me now at 232 LBS since starting cycling in March.........

ChuckD6421 

Well done J ! Just remember it'll get harder as you approach your ideal weight. Expect that now and don't get depressed when you start to see less returns on your efforts. But for now you've got a lot of quick weight loss to go through and if you stay with it, this period is very motivating (as you may have seen already).

One question though: what's keeping you indoors on a stationary? You're exactly right about the bike requiring you to ride it home and extracting more out of you. I think you need to address that. Get yourself an appropriate bike and get some fresh air.

Tubesteak

heres mine. 285 to 215ish on the right. ive gone back up to 235 but working on that.

Ray Dockrey

I was 335 pounds in Jan. 13th. I am now at 224. My Type II Diabetes was out of control with numbers in the 300 range and I was on medication for the diabetes. My A1C was over 10%. My latest A1C came back at 5.8%. Almost normal. My fasting glucose levels run in the upper 60's to low 70's and I am off all my diabetes medication.

aerocowboy

Howdy all - first post on the forums.

I started a big diet last September (at 227 lb) using MyFitnessPal to track calories. Right off the bat, I began riding my neighbor's 'cross bike, dipping my toes in the cycling waters.

Shortly thereafter (say, 215 lb), I bought a Cannondale Synapse and began road cycling.

This morning, I crossed the 60 lb mark (167 lb now), and I've been having a lot of fun with the bike, if only mostly casually. Still only averaging about 20 mi/week @ 13-14 mph, and a 25-or-so-mile ride is still my longest.

That is to say, I don't really ride often enough, long enough, or hard enough for the calories burned to really directly contribute much to the weight loss, but simply having cycling as a complement to my diet is just enough to really keep me motivated and get me outdoors.

I just joined a gym a few weeks ago to begin adding some strength training to my routine. I'm hoping to add some muscle to support my endurance and stability of form, as one of my biggest issues toward longer rides is that I think I'm still putting too much weight on my hands (hand numbness issues on the "longer" rides).

Anyway, congrats to all here! As for me, I'm on to loose just a few more pounds, perhaps, and off to ride many more miles.

See y'all 'round the forums.

Cwtowns

I'm still a work in progress with quite a ways to go but I think I can contribute to this thread now

I started focusing on weight loss in November of last year after being told by my doctor that I was pre-diabetic. I started riding in April of this year after a recommendation from my doctor. Since November I'm down 75 pounds total and 24 of those came off since I started riding.

Great forum and helpful bunch of folks THANK YOU!

ChuckD6421 

Well done, sir! Looks like you've got the momentum. Learn to love the hunger pangs!

Mark Stone

Congratulations!!!!! Lookin' sharp there, Colorado!!

crosstom

Thats awesome Sir!!! looking great and also your expression tells the story. I just started cycling in June coming off ACL surgery and being about 255 lbs also w 42 waist. Now to 250 lbs and would love to get to 220.. will keep pedaling. Trek Domane 4.0 disc and Raleigh RX 2.0 disc CX bike coming this week. Lets go burn calories!!

Jim45

You have made a really impressive transformation! You must be quite satisfied - and proud (this a statement, not a question!).

Rollis

10/08/2014:
Well like the title says I, was back up to the 340 range, which really sucked because I, had drop my weight down to 309 in september of last year, but it caught back up to me.

I, went to the LBS, found something I, liked in my price range, then went and pawn shop, and hocked a couple of revolvers, then back to the LBS, and road this beast home.

I'm 6'1'' not counting my boots, and I, practically have to use my tip toes to sit on the seat, but that is ok because the ride is nice, and very comfortable.

I, have been averaging about 20 minutes a day, with a 2 mile loop at the house, and so far now with me being back on the road, I, been able to maintain that regiment



The bike is a Giant Sedona XL. 24 speed.

So far it is a fun ride.