For those of you who don't know, in a previous male only life I was a world class wrestler (not that crap on television but Greco-Roman). In fact I won nationals in college twice (wasn't a Div I school so I don't know if you count that as an accomplishment but I do.) I also wrestled overseas in Central America representing our country. Internationally I am undefeated in Greco Roman Wrestling and hold a 12-1 in Freestyle (I lost to the bronze medalist of the 92 Olympics, he tore me apart).
Anyway with that background and adding that I no longer have knees, I hate to inform you that I am officially a blob. Yep. Jaba style or maybe the thing that ate Manhattan. I knew I was heavy, but I had no clue I was my own zip code. I decided to get a scale. I now weigh a whopping 513.5 lbs.
Why I am telling everyone this: Because I need to be accountable to someone. I asked Erin to set me up a site to show my transformation from blimp to beauty and will occasionally post my weight here so people can give me either encouragement or a swift kick in the ass; or both.
Comments
encouragement
ill give you all i can. im sure me and a lot of others want you healthy and living a long life. we would certainly miss your stories.. stay healthy.
robert
Not healthy, not healthy at all.
I am s big as you are.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Ouch...
Depression will do that to you! Trust me, I know!
I also know that you CAN shed all that excess poundage. It'll be hard work, but anyone who ever tried telling you it'd be easy was trying to sell you something.
One of the first rules to weight loss is: do NOT weight train! Lifting weights and trying to BUILD muscle runs counter to the requirements of shedding weight. What you want to do is things like aerobics and cardio. Mostly aerobics. Lots of aerobics.
Second, is eat to encourage your body to eat it's own fat. Yes, seriously, this works. What you want is to get your B vitamins extremely high, you might even want to take a super B complex to do this, and add things that are known to literally attack visceral fat, flavonoids, such as the flavonoids in licorice. Be very careful with those though, especially licorice can cause some serious side effects if over used. I would suggest using them no more than 1 week each month. (if used as a supplement, dietary concerns are slightly different, and I would encourage you to discuss THAT with a health professional)
Third, be careful not to lose weight too quickly! It's actually unhealthy to lose weight at a rate greater than ~2 lbs a week. It's not possible to lose more fat than that, and so if you're losing more weight than that, you're losing more than just the fat, and that's not good! (well, it MIGHT be if you're having high lipid induced water retention problems, and your shedding of fat lets some of that loose, which I actually did for about 2 weeks... I lost at a rate of about 2.5 lbs those two weeks)
Anyways, congratulations on taking your first step! I'll be rooting for you!
Abigail Drew.
Not Healthy
I think you and Stan should work together for a common goal: good health and long life.
Portia
Weight Problems
First let me say GOOD LUCK and I am with you all the way. I had the RUE-EN-Y surgery May 1 2010 and went from a svelt 400 pounds to 260 pound in 1 year and have held that since (I am only 5'5").I wish you all the luck on this endeavor and my full support,it is not easy . --HUGS NOT SO LITTLE KATIE --RICHIE2
I was 535 lbs.
Right now I'm 419, and I've been on this plateau for a little over a year now. I'd tell you how I did it, but everybody's different. I don't have any great secrets for losing weight, but I made sure to lose it slowly. that, I believs, is why the weight hasn't come back. I blame a lack of activity and a lot of time in the hospital for my lack of change in the last year. We'll have to see what happens this year.
Wren
Shame
Shame on you Little Katie. You are suppose to have a cute girlish figure, or a buff woman figure. 513.5 pounds is neither. Okay that all out of the way, now, young lady it is time to do something about it. You have taken the first step and admitted you have a problem. The first step is the hardest believe it or not. Now what is your plan to change things? You need a plan and just going on a diet isn't going to do it when you weigh that much. You were a professional athlete, so you know something about developing a workout routine and sticking to it. We will be here to help and encourage you (and not just for purely personal reasons of wanting more LittleKatie stories). All the encouragement in the world will mean nothing unless you put together a plan.
What weight do you realistily believe you can get to in one year? Now break that down into 3 month periods.
Lets be realistic here. We know you will never be down to 130 pounds, so what do you think you can achieve?
Exercise, Diet, and fighting depression are all going to be a challenge. You CAN do it. Olympic Class athletes are tough, but you need a plan and support system.
Okay you bought this scale, now stay off of it. Plan a once a month weigh in (or every 3 months) and report to us how you are doing. Your focus needs to be on your plan, not the scale. Focus!!!!! Your opponent (probably about 300 pounds) is in front of you, now take it down. Think of all that training you went through when you were Wrestling. Your opponent may be yourself now, but everything your coach told you then applies now as you go to take on the fat, diet, lifestyle, and mental health.
Good Luck - - my thoughts are with you. Stay focused, and stay positive.
Keep Smiling, Keep Writing
Teek
Positive reenforcement
I know you'll do the best you can. Please don't set yourself up for failure by setting overly optimistic goals. We didn't get where we are overnight and we can't get back overnight, either.
I also understand how mobility challenges can mess things up.
Try to keep a positive outlook (yeah, I know, depression... got that t-shirt, too).
Gentle hugs,
Janet
Mistress of the Guild of Evil [Strawberry] Blonde Proofreaders
To be or not to be... ask Schrodinger's cat.
beauty is skin deep
as i was never heavy i think the most i weighed was 240 i am now 220 and my doc likes it there . we are all beautiful in our own ways and yes i can be there to help if needed. i had a friend who did nothing about his weight and got everyone to do everything for him. i dont think he will live long as he can barely walk now such is the trap of doing nothing. we here want you with us Little Katie for as long as we can . i am sure we are very selfish on this as i have lost too many people i know at too young of age so if you want a hug or swift kick in the but i am the one to do it .
Useful Tool
Best of luck reaching your goal. Just remember that you are undertaking a lifestyle change, not going on a diet. I find taking the "just for today" approach used in many programs works well. That is, I may want that donut, but just for today I'll pass. I can have it tomorrow if I want, but just for today, I won't.
Another tool which has really helped in our household is a steamer. We got one at WalMart and use it all the time. We steam cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and other green leafy vegies all the time and they taste great. Nice and sweet. Steam doesn't take out essential nutrients like boiling does and the pounds just seem to melt off by themselves.
Susan
Suzij
God forbid girl!!!
If you don't start seriously doing summat about your weight you'll die! 513.5 lbs That's 39.5 stone!!!!!!
Are you able to get out of your own apartment? Whatever diet your using all good luck to you but you must get active, get moving, not weights but mobility. If you can't walk now, the most important thing you must do is recover your ability to walk and move around. Being able to change locations from park to street to shops to apartment or house, is vital for your wellbeing.
Move it girl!!!
All the best in your endeavours.
Bev
XZXX
some answers.
Okay. I can walk and go up and down stairs. I can leave my apartment (now house).
I know what to do, I just have to do it. My goal is to lose 2% body fat a week. Most likely I will lose the first 50 really quick as I drain the water out of my system, then the fun begins.
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
uh... LittleKatie...
That's a very bad goal. As I mentioned above, 2 pounds a week, is the human maximum for fat burning. You can not lose more fat than that in a week, no matter what you do. If you do, you are being unhealthy in an even worse way than if you were gaining more weight.
At your weight, 2% is over 10 pounds. You're literally talking about turning yourself into an anorexic.
2 pounds a week is a pretty unrealistic goal for most people to be honest, but it's a possible one. 2% of over 500 pounds is impossible per week. Yes, that goes down as you lose weight, but it's not until you're 100 pounds that 2% = 2 pounds... By then, I can pretty well guarantee you'd be anorexic. I'd be anorexic if I went that low, and I'm a shrimp at 5'4" and an effeminate skeleton!
Taken excess water into account, you still don't want to shed more than 2.5 pounds, maybe 3 pounds a week. It's possible to shed water too fast as well.
Please, Katie, we all care about you here, set yourself a realistic goal and stick to it, rather than an impossible one and give up.
When I decided to shed all my weight, I only weighed myself infrequently at best, and my goal was to reach 140 pounds. I set a FINAL goal, with no kind of intermediate goal, and I gave myself plenty of time to do it in.
Abigail Drew.
Not sure I agree
I have always fluctuated my weight five to eight pounds, and this can happen in a few days. Now I weigh (at the moment) 143 pounds and that is heavy for me with a little too much fat in the abdomine.
I have watched some of these reality TV shows with people weighing Katie's size and seeing them loose weight over a year or long period of time. With a proper program, diet, and mindset she might be able to do more than 2 pounds a week. It all comes down to how dedicated she is to achieving this goal, and if she can change her eating habits to be healthy, still meeting her health needs. I do worry if she attempts to take off too much too fast, but in some ways the first 100 pounds should be the easiest and hardest. That first 100 will be much more of a challenge psychologically and in her confidence than than anything else. Proper healthy eating, and getting into an exercise routine are often the hardest changes to make.
She needs to approach this as a lifetime change, not just a diet to loose weight.
Now over the long run 2 pounds a week may be realistic for most people, but it is possible for her to loose more than 104 pounds in a year, especially at her weight. I have no idea if 2% body fat a week is realistic or not, but also remember that is 2% body fat, not 2% of her weight.
Keep Smiling, Keep Writing
Teek
fluctuation is normal...
And not really considered weight loss or gain. Only changes over a course of about a week, weighed at the same time of day, same day, wearing the same things (or completely in the buff), each time, can really be considered remotely accurate, and even that has some room for error, though this is less than half a pound.
*shrugs*
I've done research, and I did a "quick" burn and started making changes to my lifestyle as well to keep it off after.
You really don't want sustained weight loss of greater than 2-3 pounds a week, that's serious cause for alarm.
Abigail Drew.