430lb man starting 100%

Weight loss
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Hello everyone. I have just received my first shipment of Huel and today was my first day.

I am 37, m, 6’1", and I weighed 431.2 lbs this morning. Not sure what that is in kgs.

I have been struggling with food addiction since 2010 or so, when my first marriage fell apart and I ballooned up to 450 the first time.

Then I got angry and lost 180 pounds in 9 months in 2014 by eating 1800 calories a day and doing 3 hrs on the elliptical 5 days a week. I weighed and measured everything, and ate the same exact meals day in and day out. I also wasn’t working or going to school or anything.

I have a lot of lean mass beneath my mountains of flab - body scan when I was 400 said I had 204 lbs of lean mass - so when I got to 270, my lowest weight since high school, I looked freaking amazing. Size 38 jeans.

I looked so amazing I got a second wife. She is awesome.

Then 5-6 years later I am almost back to where I was. The weight crept on little by little - and I had such an ego because of my previous success. “what’s another ten pounds? I can lose that easy I’m the weight loss king!”

For the past year or two I’ve been losing 20 lbs by trying to replicate my extreme protocol from before. But now I have a wife and a 3 yr old and a job - things I didn’t have when I did it the first time. Then I would react and eat like crap for 4 days and gain 25.

Something in my head breaks when I eat over 1800 calories when trying to lose weight and makes me think I failed. Then mix that with my food addiction and I’ll end up easily putting away 7-8k calories in a day, then try a ridiculously low number the next. I was never focused on giving my body what it needed, only trying to shed pounds as quickly as possible.

I kept seeing huel advertised on Reddit, and I finally bit. I was reluctant because I’ve done everything - keto, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, the Penn Gillette nothing but potato diet, Paleo, caveman, fruitarian - all combined with intermittent fasting in different ways. Paleo,

So when I saw what huel was I got really excited. I had great success when I ate the same meal every day - I think it helps me make food a chore in my head. But cooking chicken breast and sweet potatoes and broccoli is a lot of work - and that amount of work is always there to suggest I can put off eating right for another week.

But now I have no excuse. All I have to do is shake up my meal. And I’m glad huel doesn’t taste amazing. It’s good. But not like some of the super sweet protein shakes I’ve drank in the past (and I’ve tried a ton - they used to cheer when they saw me coming into GNC because I would ask them to sell me supplements.

So I am going 100%. I’ve read enough threads on here to know that everyone is going to come out of the woodwork to tell me I shouldn’t go 100% because I’ll have ridiculous diarrhea andy body won’t be used to it. But in my experience, my body is able to switch around to drastically different diets and it only takes a couple of days. And it’s the weekend so if I have to spend it on the toilet that’s ok with me.

It’s also all psychological. I’ve been preparing myself to say “I just don’t eat food now.”. That makes it easier to push away temptation.

I know this is a freaking essay, but I that’s it. Hopefully I can use this forum to keep myself accountable.

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Brilliant introduction. I wish you the best of luck. People like to do things in their own way, including me. You’ve got to do what’s right for you, even if that does mean sitting on the toilet all weekend :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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David - I just want to acknowledge the beautiful level of honesty and vulnerability you have shown here, and in your very first post as well. Your energy and presence here is already appreciated. I wish you all strength in your weight loss journey, and be sure to keep us posted.

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I know the feeling. My target is 1700 per day and if go over that, I start to think “welp, this day has failed, might as well go all out and eat 5000kcal more. Can always start again tomorrow”.

Best of luck!

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Thanks for the kind words.

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Day one is done.

It was hard mentally but I won. I beat my stupid good for nothing brain that only wanted to eat for emotional reasons.

I only managed to get down 4 shakes tho. Huel is already helping me see that most of the time I’m not actually hungry. I don’t think I got enough water though, so tomorrow I think I will drink a glass after every shake.

I did no exercise. Baby was at grandma’s so the wife and I played a hot seat game of Civ 6 all day. She drank a shake as well and is now interested in adding Huel to her routine.

Kept waiting for the toilet apocalypse to happen but it hasn’t yet. Maybe in the morning.

So. Day 1: 1600 calories In, and according to my FitBit, 4300 calories out. Pretty sure that is inflated because none of those formulas for TDEE seem to hold up when you get too far above 300 lbs.

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Day 2: well I screwed up.

This morning I was 427. Been awhile since I’ve seen 420s. I usually gain and lose from 445 down to 430 and then back up.

My first shake in the morning was actually hard to get down. That’s never usually an issue with me.

But without doing it on purpose I looked up and it was almost 6 pm and I had had 800 cal or 2 shakes.

My energy started waning and the idea of making another. My lovely wife made me a third and then went to bed.

I gave in. Eggs and butter and toast and cheese.

But I still tracked. So today I ate 1200 cal worth of huel and a 1500 cal meal of that with some hershey’s kisses thrown in for good measure.

Total today was 2700 calories.
According to fitbit I burned 4200. We’ll see.

Lesson: since food is a chore I have to remember to do it. I need at least 4 preferably 5 throughout the day. I think 2000 high quality calories should keep me sane.

My wife suggested I could use milk to add some calories and keep it to 4 shakes. That might be good.

She jumped on board and ordered a months worth for herself. She loves curry.

Oh well. Going to get up and do my 30 min of rowing in the morning.

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Well the weekend is over. No poopageddon yet.

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Hope you don’t feel too hard on yourself. Starting anything new is difficult, and the real challenge is unlearning all your old habits. Your brain will be fighting with you every step until the new habit finally becomes the norm. The important thing to remember is if you mess up you haven’t completely failed, it’s just a thing that happened and its ok. Huel takes such a small amount of time to make and eat, maybe find something new to do with all the extra time you’re saving. That might prevent boredom eating.

Also, as someone who once lost a summer to Civ 5 I’m impressed that you’re finding the time to play civ 6 and post updates here :joy: But I’m pleased because I’m looking forward to reading more!

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Hah. Thanks. I have 1200 hrs in Civ 5. Used to play 4 alot too. I had a job for a.year where I taught online courses and always had a game of Civ going on my second monitor for breaks and a turn or two here and there.

Day 3. Another “failure” but I’m not seeing it that way. I’m seeing baby steps of progress.

I also say this because even after yesterday’s failure I am down by a whole pound.

Today I had to go back to work. I drank a shake in the morning with espresso (chef mwwah) and pre mixed two more with the nutri bullet. Those were great to just pull out of my lunch kit and mindlessly drink. The first I had about 11:30 and the second at 4.

Even with the 4, my main issue is always stopping by a drive through to get a hamburger (or two) and then go home and eat dinner.

Well I did it. But I tracked. So today I had 1600 calories of Huel and this time only 900 calories of junk. Today’s total is 2500.

On one hand my brain says I’m a terrible failure because I didn’t even last two days of 100% Huel. The other hand in my brain (not sure why my brain has hands, but whatever) I’m thinking that maybe, just maybe I always seem to break like that because I actually need the calories.

And for the first time I might be allowing myself to accept the latter. In stead of getting mad about how all these skinny fitness types are bandying about with 2500 calories I never thought that I could lose weight with that.

So tomorrow morning we will see. If I weigh myself and I am down despite the burgers then I think I will be on the right path to freeing myself.

Then I need to figure out how to increase the calories of my shakes the best way. I don’t think I can do more than four in a day, and while I will definitely be trying Hot and Savory in my next order, I will change my goal to getting in around 2500 a day.

So, I want four convenient shakes a day. Maybe three and a H&S in the future, but what would be the best way to increase calories?

Options I can think of:

  1. Add some milk
  2. Add a banana
  3. Add an extra scoop per shake

Anyone got any other ideas?

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Also prepare your eyes. Sorry to do this to y’all but here’s my before pic. I want this on record. Th

IMG_20210301_210007~2
IMG_20210301_210007~21830×1513 528 KB

I figured Hueligans would have a strong stomach so y’all can take it.

This morning I was 427.2 lbs.
-1.2 lbs from yesterday.

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I don’t think it’s easy to go 100% from the offset, though maybe it’ll get easier. The key thing is that you’re tracking your intake. You probably do need more calories at the moment, and as you lose weight your requirements will adjust accordingly.

I add oat/coconut/almond milk to mine (more because I like the texture more that way). Peanut butter is a great addition (assuming you’re not allergic), as are bananas.

Good luck!

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Day 4

Weight: 424.6 lbs
Diet: 1200 cal Huel, 100 cal banana, 980 calories eggs and toast
Total:2300 cal

Exercise: 30 min rowing machine, 600cal burned
20 min DDP Yoga, 200 cal burned. Total burned: 4880

I was really excited this morning because I haven’t seen the 420s in about a year or more. I’m starting to believe it is possible again.

So I was good all day. Only ate huel and black coffee. Then I made the choice to eat a meal in the evening but measured/weighed everything and hit well under my 2500 calorie goal.

Maybe I can see the “teens” by the weekend. Got a second shipment coming Thursday with some Hot and Savory and I can’t wait to try it.

On the working out - I am not sure the “burned” numbers are correct. Like bathtubs, airplane seats, and Ikea furniture, the formulas to calculate that stuff seem to break under someone my size.

I’ve been using this fitbit charge 2 for like five years and I’ve never trusted it. Idk. If I keep tracking like this then I can reverse engineer my actual TDEE and get better estimates on my calories burned.

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Do you think it’s working better with choosing to eat a normal meal alongside using Huel? As much as I love Huel I think I’d go mad if I tried to go strictly 100% and it would make me pig out on junk food eventually. Some days I’m 100%, just because it’s easier, but other times I like a proper meal in the evening. For me it’s best not to be strict or force myself to do anything one way or the other. How are you finding it overall?

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Yes I think it’s better. I would need to drink 5-6 shakes in a day to hit my calorie goal and 3 is about all I can take. By 5-6pm I really want something to eat. I’ve had to improvise since our order of Hot and Savory keeps getting delayed.

So update for yesterday:
424.6
I ate 2900 calories. We did 20 min light yoga.

Today
423.0
No exercise
I ate 2900 calories again which could have easily been avoided since I got a “small” bag of cool ranch doritos which was 400 by itself They didn’t even taste good but it’s one of my triggers. Gas stations are dangerous for me. I’m like a trained monkey with doritos and it pisses me off.

So I’m generally concerned with my calories creeping up and making excuses. Hot and savory should be here tomorrow and my goal is to have a healthy AF weekend and do some serious resting and cleaning and exercising.

I’m still losing though. I realized that since Jan 1st I am now down almost 25lbs, but most of it has been just since I started Huel.

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Haha I wanna see a a six pack under this in 12 months. Good luck. I feel awesome eating mostly Huel.

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I love reading stories like this, thank you for sharing. Your path is challenging, but I like your zeal. It’s something a lot of people lack. The main thing is discipline.

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Hey man you’ve got the right attitude and you’ll smash it.

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Thanks but I definitely did not smash it over Spring Break. I had a great day yesterday though. I did 30 min on the rowing machine at 5am, then for home from work and lifted for an hour and went to bed at like 8:30.

I erased all my weight loss over the break again and have a bunch of Huel that I didn’t eat still bc I was eating crap.

But I’m starting again because the only reason not to would be accepting defeat.

Woke up this morning and did 30 min again on the tower and looking forward to doing some squats tonight.

I think going to bed early is really helping.

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You’ve got this! I think it’s really easy to have a small setback and then give up completely (not just for weight loss but for most things in life). You’ve already done the hard part which is picking up where you left off and carrying on. Going to bed earlier definitely helps with most things, it’s just one of the hardest things to do.