No man is ever whipped until he quits in his own mind. – Napoleon Hill
So, there I am, at 456 pounds. I was devastated but I immediately set to work.
My (now ex) wife and I were in Menards (a hardware/construction supply/home improvement store for those of you who don’t have a Menards in your local area) and we saw a cheap chinese bowflex knock off for $150. I didn’t think twice, I grabbed it and started my journey.
I read about a workout system called Hypertrophy Specific Traing (HST for short). It seemed to have sound scientific principles and although I had to think about it for a bit, it made sense to my inner geek in a logical, methodical way. Changing your body is a combination of art and science, right?
So I started doing HST with my new workout machine. I got up early on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and did a full body workout. Doing this I was able to lose 20 pounds in about 6 months.
Weighing myself at this point was a challenge, but thanks to my awesome Mom, I got a new scale that would weigh me.
During this time, I had a close call that further motivated me. I got a bug bite or ingrown hair or something similar on my right shin that had gotten infected and turned into a sore that wouldn’t heal. I tried putting bandaids on it, but when I removed them, they ripped open adjacent skin areas which further enlarged the sore. I was worried. I knew that I either had type II diabetes or was close to it.
Being the hardcore nerd that I am, I hit the internet. I had read about using honey on wounds to speed healing and lessen complications. Maybe this would work for me? Basically, honey, when it comes into contact with our wounds, causes a chemical reaction that creates hydrogen peroxide. This is very effective at killing microbes that have infected the wound. There are probably other benefits as well. At any rate, I shaved the area (the sore now was about 3 inches in diameter) around the sore, applied honey and a large bandage. Within two weeks my sore was fully healed. I breathed a sigh of relief, but it caused me to redouble my weight loss efforts.
On the HST forums, I read about a diet called a PSMF (protein sparing modified fast) created (actually modified, but it is basically a new diet from the original) by Lyle McDonald and decided to give it a shot. In the two months I was on the diet, I went from 430 odd pounds to 390 pounds. It was wildly successful in the weight loss department. It was also wildly successful in furthering my food obsession/addiction. I didn’t listen to Lyle’s warnings about the diet and tried to replace real food with protein shakes. This was/is a recipe for disaster. Lyle is an awesome guy who will give you hell if you are a dumbass (consider yourself warned). He seems to be one of the smartest people around when it comes to modifying your diet and getting the results you want. He relies almost wholly on science, and in that regard, he is rare.
A PSMF for my weight basically consisted of 800 calories per day which was to be entirely from protein (this amounts to 200 grams of high quality protein per day). People ask Lyle all the time if they can eat anything besides protein, let me save you the trouble, the answer is NO! 
Obviously, this is nearly impossible to do, but you can get your fat and carbs down to near zero. He also recommends that you take Fish Oil capsules during this time so you are getting your essential fatty acids in (fish oil has also been shown to help spare LBM in cattle on a calorie restricted diet, hopefully it works that way in people, too).
So after my stint on the PSMF diet, I rebounded a bit up to 425. Hey, a net weight loss of 5+ pounds is not so bad. I stayed at this weight for about a year but added quite a bit of muscle. This means that even though my weight hadn’t changed, my body fat percentage had gone down and my LBM (Lean Body Mass) had gone up.
Over the year following this, I managed to use low carb dieting (off and on), weight lifting, and walking to gradually lose another 10 pounds. My set point seemed to be 415 now. I was satisified with my weight loss up until this point. I was continually adding muscle while staying at the same weight. There are worse situations to be in.
However, there are also much better situations to be in, like the situation I find myself in recently…
