ahultin

I have mostly been lurking here lately but still have a small group I keep in contact with, I figured it was about time to post an update and relinquish my clyde title! I have been fat as long as I can remember. Going back to at least 5 yrs old I can recall being on diets, pretty much all of them. I have lost and gained hundreds of pounds on my journey but I am hopeful that this time is different. I have been riding consistently since 2004 but never saw the results I desired. It is true, you cannot outride a bad diet and that's likely a good part of my failures. Last year I began exploring surgical weight loss solutions, I had gone down this path in 2004 but after doing an 800 calorie medi-fast diet and losing 100 pounds I thought I could do it myself, i was wrong.
insurance requires a battery of tests, physician appointments and psych evals prior to approving the surgery. All the way through I was not convinced that surgery was the right thing to do. While cycling did not provide weight loss, it went a long way for mental health. As many probably know, according to "common knowledge" all fat people are sloths so none of the health care professionals could answer whether I would be able to do long rides post surgery. My surgeon recommended the gastric bypass stating statistically I would lose about 105lbs versus the sleeve at 85lbs. I struggled with these numbers as with my pre surgery weight of 334 I would still be obese and it seemed like a quite a bit of complications to be there. I was 50.01% for the surgery all the way up to the day of.
My wife dropped me off the morning of November 10th at the hospital (no guests due to covid) while in pre-OP the nurse asked if I was excited, I was not, I was ready to get up and leave but I did not. The surgery went thru with no complications. In the last 11 months I have had none of the negative side effects. I have continued riding consistently since about 2 weeks post surgery adding in strength training and walking. My diet has been obsessively tracked. For the first 7 months I was strictly keto and low carb since.
Diet and intake has been no issue, the biggest unexpected issue has been all mental. 46yrs of identifying as a fat guy has made it hard to see myself as anything else. To this day I see photos or myself in the mirror and it is not me. I had no hard goal going into this but today I hit an interesting unexpected milestone. When I was 10, 5th grade, I had a physical and was told that so long as I did not gain anymore weight I'd be ok. Today i hit that same weight, 179lbs with a BMI of 25. I have a disdain for before and after photos so I'll post these as phrases of my journey reminder to myself so I dont go backwards.
Thanks to all of those that have been a part of my journey thus far!

March 2019

Today

Clyde1820

Twice the man you used to be, so to speak. Nicely done.

Any big differences in the type and amount of exercise you get done, given the "new" you?

ahultin

Cycling is the same but I have added 2 days a week of strength training and 3 days a week of walking

Chickenwings

Well done, how do you FEEL?

ahultin

The best I can come up with is this, I feel like my outward appearance better represents my inner feeling, I have always been the non existent "healthy" fat guy. No diabetes/bp/health issues to speak of..I truly feel no different which is sad to say but true..
MY dentist made a comment at my last appointment,she said now I am an athlete and must fuel differently. I was a bit offended but did not let it show as for the most part my athletic endeavors have not changed. The strength training at the gym is a new endeavor but mainly as I have clearly lost some strength and muscle mass with the weight loss.

Chickenwings

Well Okay, fair enough. I think the normal response is "I feel GREAT! So much better blah blah..." I'm happy that you STILL feel good and that you're motoring right along. There's no doubt though that your body isn't working as hard to maintain so even if you don't feel much difference, there is a difference I'm sure.

I'm working to get 'down' too and your story is inspiring nonetheless but I get it, change the eating habits too.

Thanks for the update!!

TrojanHorse

Can confirm, ahultin looks amazing in person. I lost a lot less weight than you and the simple fact of not having to haul that blob around in front of me has been immensely satisfying. Not having to sort my clothes by which ones are wearable and which ones aren't and of course, riding up hills is a much different enterprise now.
Congrats!