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In retrospect, moving to Texas may not have been the best idea. I’ve always been on the chunky side, but surrounding myself with delicious Tex-Mex food and working for a company that has free soda fountains every 30 feet in the office led me to put on more weight. On January 1st, I decided I had had enough and wanted to be “skinny” for the first time in my adult life. Three months later here I am, “Thin Nick,” and both Robert and Dan have decided to follow my lead and shed some of their extra “tactical girth” too. In furtherance of that goal, Robert has commanded that I put in writing how I accomplished this feat . . .

Like I said, I had put on a few pounds. It wasn’t pretty. I’m a single guy in my twenties, and being a fattie wasn’t helping in the romance department. Additionally, while I was already doing pretty well in 3-gun competitions, I knew I could do better if I wasn’t lugging an extra 60 pounds around with me through every stage. There was no downside to shedding pounds — except for the pain and suffering it would take to do it.

Thankfully, the place I work for my day job has a full gym available to employees to work out when they want. When January 1 came around I cut out all the usual terrible foods, tried eating less, and hopped on the treadmill. A week and a half later I hadn’t lost a single ounce.

One of my co-workers noticed my new-found appreciation for the gym and offered some advice. He was in the same boat as I, having gained some weight after moving to a place where deliciousness surrounds you, but had recently sloughed off that poundage. He shared his secret: reddit.com/r/keto.

The basic idea behind the whole Keto thing is to eliminate ready supplies of easy energy in your body, forcing your metabolism to cannibalize the fat instead. The biggest contributor to those ready supplies of energy (blood sugar) are carbohydrates and sugars, which are easily broken down. Removing those elements from your diet makes your body work harder to get the same amount of energy, and if you cut down on calories and start exercising at the same time the results can be multiplied.

So I figured I would give it a try. I immediately cut out all breads, starches (potatoes, pastas and the like), and anything sugary whatsoever from my diet. I went “cold turkey,” figuring that it was better to just rip out the delicious foods like a Band-Aid off a wound rather than ramping down slowly. I also standardized my workout routine: 45 minutes a day on a treadmill, 3.0 MPH, 2.5 degree incline. As I got used to that workout I slowly sped it up and increased the angle, and these days I run at 3.5 MPH on a 3 degree incline.

One week later, the results weren’t fantastic. I lost about two pounds that first week, which was less than I had hoped, but better than nothing. I figured that I would keep going with the diet during SHOT Show the following week, and see where I was after that. I noticed that my initial cravings for bread and sugar eventually subsided, and even my appetite started to shift. I didn’t need the huge lunch hoagies anymore, I was pretty happy with a smaller meat-heavy meal. After a week of being good and just walking around all day, I weighed myself again and was shocked — I was down 15 pounds.

The pattern continued. One week I’d lose a pound a day, the next week I’d lose a pound every three days. I wasn’t making any drastic dietary changes, it just seemed to be the way things worked. There were defined “plateaus” that I hit, and by sticking to the diet they worked themselves out.

When I started, I weighed 270 pounds. More than I’ve ever weighed in my life. Today I’m down to 210 (just weighed myself).

The good news is that chopping out bread and sugar doesn’t mean chopping out delicious food. Here’s my normal daily diet (mainly for Robert’s benefit as he figures this thing out):

IMG_20150215_124711

For breakfast, I start by slicing a tomato. I lay these slices on a plate, and then add a slice of fresh mozarella cheese. Each stack then gets a basil leaf, and in this specific early version I topped the whole thing with a balsamic vinegar reduction. I’ve since switched to a drizzle of olive oil for flavoring as the balsamic vinegar reduction had a little too much sugar for my taste, and removed the basil leaf due to laziness. Along the bottom I have five slices of Italian sausage, which has no carbs and no sugars yet is incredibly delicious. Especially dipped in the excess olive oil.

Total calories: ~640

IMG_20150321_131050

Other options for breakfast include meat-based omelets, scrambled eggs and ham, and just about anything you can think of where eggs are the primary ingredient. This lovely bowl of scrambled eggs with a side of ham and pepper jack cheese was prepared for me one fine morning by our own Tyler Kee and it was absolutely delicious. Before this diet I hated everything about cooked eggs as a primary ingredient, but now I love them. Omelets galore, my friends! Just no potatoes.

bacon

As for lunch…truth be told, I don’t really do lunch anymore. Usually it consists of a couple more slices of sausage, but it can really be anything you want that meets the rules. I once had a lunch that was simply a 1/4 pound of bacon, and not only was it delicious but I lost weight that day. When I did have just a big pile of bacon, I tried to keep it to 1/8 pound or less. Otherwise my heart might try to strangle me to prevent any more cholesterol from entering my bloodstream.

Bacon. Delicious.

1/8 Pound of Bacon: 300 Calories

IMG_20150308_192555

Dinner is where you get the most variety. Options include everything from chicken Caesar salad (~800 calories) to regular hot wings (50 calories a pop). Fancy dinner? Steak! Easy night in? Salad! Heck, you could just get yourself a whole mess of cheese and chow down on that if you really had the inclination. But really, there’s always something on the menu that you can eat without breaking the rules.

All of that works, but my favorite is a bacon cheeseburger. I know, like I haven’t had enough bacon already, right? Anyway, I enjoy ordering a bacon cheeseburger from the Whataburger down the street, and then when I get back to my desk at work I carefully extricate the meat and cheese from the buns.

But the food isn’t my favorite part. My favorite part is offering my buns to my coworkers. As in, “Holly, would you like to put my buns in your mouth?” Or “Ben, I’ve got some some hot buns for you here, would you like to put your face in them?” Makes the impending heart attack all worthwhile.

Whataburger Bacon Cheeseburger (sans buns): 390 calories

In addition to the above mentioned items, I’ve got a couple go-to snack foods. Peanuts are pretty good, but they have carbs so any more than a couple handfuls a day is too much. Cheese sticks are pretty good as well, but they have a ton of calories. Pickles are just about perfect,except for all the salt. All tallied, I probably have a 1500 calorie diet these days and I still feel completely full.

Why is this on a gun blog? Good question!

In short, being thinner means being quicker. You can run faster, push harder, and go higher than if you’re lugging around an extra 60 pounds. That translates into quicker times on the 3-gun course and faster movement in a self-defense situation. In order to succeed in the physically demanding art of modern shooting, fitness goes a long way to achieving your goals. And while the diet I’m on won’t “pump you up,” it will deflate your spare tire and unshackle you from that rock you’ve been dragging around. Which is a step in the right direction.

That, and Robert told me to do it. Blame him.

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96 COMMENTS

  1. Congrats, Nick. Just remember, it seems to get a little harder the older one is. Esp. the spare tire thing. Flexibility is another casualty.

    Or maybe I’m just a lazy bastid.

    • Yup, congrats! I would have guessed lighter going by the pics, guess you are like over 6′ tall. I’ve basically gone on a sort of serving based diet thing for the last 2 months. So meals are like 1/2 a cup of a random pasta or rice, a serving of meat (usually fish), and a big pile of random veggies with a random sauce on it. Had no concept of portion control before (entire box of hamburger helper, whole brisket over the weekend), so this seems to work pretty good for me. Pretty close to the 181 the military says I should be without any of the cutting weight annoyances.

  2. Eggs are one of the healthiest, most-perfect foods you can eat, and bacon will actually help your cholesterol. Saturated fats raise HDL, and refined carbohydrates raise LDL and triglycerides.

    Your heart is thanking you for your new diet.

    • Fat in your diet is very important as an adult male.

      Fat is the precursor to hormone production (ie, testosterone.)

      • Yes yes yes–go to marksdailyapple.com

        Read and learn! You’re already over the hard part (getting started). Marks daily Apple is a great place for figuring out the rest (or helping Robert get started)

    • Congrats, Nick!

      I concur – eating things that had parents (eggs, bacon, etc) will actually help your cholesterol. It sounds weird, but it works. It is also the opposite of what’s been crammed into our brains throughout public school (food pyramid is full of carbs in breads and then coupled with fruit sugars/carbs).

      I’ve been on a similar diet for just a few weeks and have already seen my baselines improve – will check again in 90 days to confirm it sticks.

      Again, congrats!

  4. Good advice. I have a Pistol 250 class at Gunsite scheduled for August, and I’d really like to lose most of that gut!

  5. Good for you Nick. The only thing I’d worry about is the strain on your heart from that much weight loss in that little time. I’m sure that your doctor is monitoring you for the usual problems. (Fat emboli can be very very bad.)

  6. Way to go, Nick. Looking good, and congrats- you make it sound easy, but changing habits is not easy, and you clearly have applied a great deal of self-discipline to drop that much.

    For those looking for more of the science*, check out Gary Taubes book “Why We Get Fat”
    http://garytaubes.com/

    Tons of research, and background on diet theory as its evolved, and why so wrong- food pyramid by USDA, etc.

    Check out Mark Rippetoe when you are ready to do some simple very effective muscle work.*

    Thanks for the reddit link.

    * h/t to Instapundit for both those resources, early on- same kind of results as yours, and keeping it off, takes same dedication. At least as important as going to the range, for when TSHTF.

        • Now I really hate you. play with guns all day and you have an In-N-Out across the street. I fled commie Cali for the gunshine state and a double double is the only thing calling me back home. Very strong pull until I remember that Fienswine would be my senator again.

        • Go with a 4×4 protein style with an iced tea or Diet Coke, and you’ll be in heaven.

          For breakfast on the go, I’ll get a coffee with sugar-free vanilla syrup and heavy cream, or you can make Bullet-Proof Coffee or BP Tea.

          I’ve lost about 20#, and I’ve been at it for a few weeks (for the second time). I don’t exercise as much as I should, which would probably accelerate my weight loss.

  7. I am going to try this. Seriously. I’m up to 290 now and could definitely lose the “spare tire” if for no other reasons than risk of heart disease and a desire to appendix carry.

    So far, I’ve just tried to lower my intake of sugary drinks and play basketball almost every day. But that’s not quite enough.

    • Cutting out the carbs is really the major necessity. And more protein and fat to replace it helps too.

      I would advise that you try and eat quality forms of protein and fat, but even the more processed stuff would probably give you results. I lost about 45-50 pounds doing the same thing nick did a couple years ago and it wasn’t too hard. As somebody stated above. Mark’s Daily Apple can help.

  8. The real question though Nick is how much of your “gun money” went to buying new clothing?

    • None. As in he constantly looks like he’s wearing tents now. We keep trying to convince him to buy new clothes but I guess ammo still has the best smiles/$.

  9. As someone who lost roughly 25% of their weight last year, I can tell you that there is only one thing that results in weight loss – eating fewer calories than you burn. Eating a “keto” diet may have been what Nick needed to eat fewer calories (I’ve heard claims that the large amounts of protein keep you feeling full and thus make it easier to eat less). At the end of the day though, regardless of what you eat, if you don’t consumer fewer calories than you expend, you will never lose weight.

    • +eleventybillion.

      to lose weight, input must be less than output. simple as that.

      you can lose weight even as a couch potato. portion control and sticking to an established routine are key.

    • That is true, if nick sat and ate 3000 calories worth of bacon everyday it wouldn’t have worked, but the good thing about replacing the carbs with protein and fat is that they tend to have less calories than the carb alternatives and so you can still eat a decently sized meal and not feel like you’re starving afterwards. I’ve lost weight via low carb and through portion control. Portion control was a lot more miserable.

  10. EGGS AND BACON

    ALL DAY

    E’RRY DAY

    No seriously though, I’m kind of hitting the same thing here. My doc says my liver needs help so no white carbs for me, and I’ve started actually TRACKING what I eat instead of doing whatever. I can tell it’s going to help.

    Also pickles are my salvation. I don’t worry about the salt because my blood pressure is good and I’m apparently not sensitive to that sort of thing. I just made a batch of pickled red onions. So good.

    You didn’t mention how long it took to drop 60. I’d like to know!

    • Title says 3 months. Hard to believe. Happens I need to lose, uh, 60 pounds! What a coincidence! I have been trying now almost 2 years and have accomplished nothing. Suspect I will play Nick’s game, just to prove he LIES haha! Thanks for the outline guys. I’ll let you know how it works.

      • The biggest thing when it comes to losing weight is the food you eat. Exercise is great too, but food is key.

        Check out Marks Daily Apple for tips, but once you cut out carbs the cravings for them go away in about 3 weeks or so.

    • “I don’t worry about the salt because my blood pressure is good and I’m apparently not sensitive to that sort of thing.”

      Salt is apparently not the evil chloride as once believed:

      http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-time-to-end-the-war-on-salt/

      “ATLANTA, GA — A recent report commissioned by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reviewed the health benefits of reducing salt intake and the take-home message is that salt, in the quantities consumed by most Americans, is no longer considered a substantial health hazard. What the CDC study reported explicitly is that there is no benefit, and may be a danger, from reducing our salt intake below 1 tsp per day.”

      http://hotair.com/archives/2013/07/11/cdc-oops-salt-is-not-actually-dangerous-and-cutting-it-may-be-harmful/

      • Yeah, I know it came out pretty recently, that basically, salt is only a problem if you have certain body chemistry and tendency for hypertension, and for the vast majority of the public it’s a non-issue.

        It’s amazing how much diet advice that was previously considered to be settled and solid (Food pyramid, eggs are bad, salt is bad, fat is bad) is total BS.

  12. Good job, man, keep it up.

    Diet is the hardest part of getting lean, but the most important, and most often over looked and misunderstood.

    • Let me also add that what you lost in tactical girth, you probably gained in tactical length.

  15. I can attest to this diet. I did the same thing and dropped 50 pounds. Took me a bit longer because I didn’t really exercise at all, but I ate all the meat and cheese and eggs that I wanted and the weight just came off. I’ve since plateaued because I love potatoes (and cashews) too much, but at least I haven’t gained any of it back. I need to get stricter at controlling the carbs and add in a little exercise and drop the last 40 or so that I’d like to lose. Then again, I just bought a new gunbelt because I ran out of holes on the last one, and those aren’t cheap, so maybe I should give it some time lol.

  16. Now get stronger. You dont have to go full Hulk but at least do a few deadlifts now and then.

  17. This used to be called the Atkins Diet, but now that Atkins is dead he gets no respect. I have diabetes and control it with no insulin or other drugs by eating this way — low carbs, high protein and plenty of good fat. And good fat will not clog your arteries. Animal fat, olive and coconut oil etc. are very healthy. Margarine, vegetable oil and corn oil will kill you sooner or later.

    Saturated fats are critical to maintaining normal blood glucose and other important stuff. Also, if you drink, eat plenty of saturated fat. It will protect your liver.

    And eat your veggies, dammit — but no starches.

    • And before Atkins it was called the Navy Diet.

      At least according to an old retired Navy couple I know.

    • “This used to be called the Atkins Diet, but now that Atkins is dead he gets no respect. ”

      Jim Fixx (author of the 1977 best-selling book The Complete Book of Running) dropped dead of a heart attack while jogging at age 52.

      “He is credited with helping start America’s fitness revolution, popularizing the sport of running and demonstrating the alleged health benefits of regular jogging.”

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Fixx

      Eat right, exercise daily, die anyway.

      When it’s my time to go, I hope I die by gunshot on the down stroke by a jealous husband. 😉

  18. The as many new guns as you want diet:

    When your paycheck comes in, go straight to the store and buy a new gun. Drive home, without going to the grocery because you now have no money for food. Repeat until thin.

  19. Healthy is good, but carb-starved brain crazy = baaaad.

    Feed your brain, or you’ll drive your wife crazy and she will make you have an accidental fall the Atkins Way.

  21. I lost 50 lbs doing a similar diet–simply cut out most breads, potatoes, and rice. Combined with some moderate cardio, the weight came off.

    But I also did one more thing: lift weights.

    Lifting is an often-overlooked exercise these days. Lifting weights is good for you, especially as the years rack up. Makes you strong. Even more than Guinness.

    • Yep. I lift every day to every other day. While I’m not putting on muscle mass as quickly as I did when young, I am increasing my strength dramatically and increasing my basal metabolism.

      I too subscribe to the “low carb, meat and fat” diet idea. I have found that it works better than most all other ideas out there, it leaves one with more energy and less weight gain.

  22. I actually did a similar diet in my early 30s and went from around 205lb to 175lb. Ten years later and it’s crept back up to around 205. At this point I’d be happy with 180-185lb, but now metabolism is slower, there are too many kids’ foods around the house that are full of carbs and I have to do a lot more dining out for work. This is going to take a massive act of willpower.

  23. Good job, Nick. I followed that same basic approach (cutting out most carby stuff) and got big into running. And went from 280ish to 190 within a year. I felt the best I have in my entire life and had great energy.

    Here’s the rub: The motivation you have right now won’t last forever. I know you think it won’t happen to you, but it will. You’ll eventually get to the weight you want to stay at and then get lax with your diet (or, like me, also get married/have kids and eat whatever your spouse makes). You’ll start to gain weight, slowly at first, knowing you can drop it quickly any time you want with your newfound methods…you just keep putting it off. So it’s essential that you develop a sustainable diet that isn’t overly restrictive to the point where if you eat some birthday cake they won’t find you naked, gorging in a Dunkin Donuts dumpster the next morning.

    Accountability is the big thing. Someone constantly keeping you in line is one of the only ways to make results last.

    Again, kudos!

  24. Congrats on the weight loss, I’m a small guy (weighing in at 155 lbs), but this is actually about 10 lbs heavier than I’ve been in 15-20 years. Ideally, I’d like to drop anywhere from 10-20 lbs (I was 135 lbs in college and was just starting to look pretty cut in the mid-section).

    One caution about the diet you’ve mentioned – sodium intake typically increases with a diet like this. For me, this resulted in a kidney stone (consequently, I dropped the diet – easy to get discouraged after that). Maintain a good balance – you don’t want one of those!

    I haven’t read into the specifics of this particular diet – is there a ‘cheat’ amount of carbs/sugars? I noticed the ketchup on the eggs and was curious. Maybe it’s hot sauce… hard to tell!

    • In addition to kidney stones, you also need to look out for gall stones when you drop a lot of weight quickly (and eat high fat). I dropped around 80lbs in a year or so and had to get my gallbladder removed the very next year. Gallbladder surgery isn’t a big deal so I definitely don’t regret losing the weight, though I may have slowed it down a little.

  25. I did this back in the 00’s when it was called Atkins and it works well as long as you stay on it, the second I stopped doing it, the weight flew back on. I lost more weight 2 years later by doing weight training combined with watching carbs (though not cutting them nearly as much as previously) AND eating stuff that was lower fat. This was easier for me to maintain for a longer period of time, I fell off when I got a head injury and couldn’t work out for awhile, lost the motivation when the cycle broke, then got sloppy with my diet again all while getting married (another motivation down the drain, already snagged a girl). Fast forward another few years and work, 3 kids under 3, and age have put the hurt on. Luckily I just started back on my diet a few weeks ago and am doing well so far, more exercise has started too with the nicer weather.

  26. Good for you. Been there -done that. One size does NOT fit all. THe advice is good but never worked for me. My absolute best shape came with a semi-veg diet in my 20’s. Having 2 fat parents didn’t help either. I walked around with a 29inch waist for 6years and looked damn good into my 50’s. Can’t do what I used to do but I’m not giving up. BTW I’ve noticed a bunch of fat guys running around 3gun/other gun competitions and wondered how the hell they managed to not drop dead. I bet Jerry Micheluk has never been a chunk,,,

  28. congratulations nick!!! im happy the low carb thing is working for you. i just want to warn you that you may see some initial weight gain if you come off of it, so when you do remember to keep your carbs high in fiber and more whole foods like potatoes and rice than anything else. Also cardio is good for shedding that initial weight but if you want this to be long term you should really look into lifting some heavy weights, lifting heavy especially Olympic lifts like the deadlift and bench press burn a ton of calories and builds lean muscle which burns more calories when your body is at rest. Congratulations again and keep it up, if you have any questions or want advice just shoot me an email.

  29. Nice work, Nick! IWB carry has to be getting much easier. What’s your target weight?
    I say that once you hit a satisfactory weight, switch to a more balanced diet and begin some weight training. Adding just ten pounds of muscle (legs, back, and shoulders) will do wonders for your fat burning, shooting, and moving.

  31. I’m at 6’5″ and was 275 but a good chunk of that was the inner tube; lost 25 pounds over a year by doing x-c skiing and snowshoeing in the winter (when we had enough snow) and hiking and canoeing in the summer. Cut back drastically on junk and processed foods, although we’ll get a pizza maybe once a week or every two weeks. I don’t drink (anymore) and won’t eat ratburgers from the usual suspect places at all. More veggies and fruit, lotta rice and beans. And fish.

    Still have an inner tube so the next step is stretching exercises for flexibility and then back to the old curl bar and dumbbells. The gut is hard and not sloppy, drooping fat, but still, it’s gotta go.

    Genes are a huge factor for us all; paternal side of my family were all tall and heavy folks from the northern temperate zones like the U.K, Scandinavia and Ireland. Harder to trim down and muscle up at 61-62 than 21-22.

  32. Great job Nick.
    And you did it while you’re young. It’s a bit harder when your older i think. I’ve been trying to get rid of the 10 pounds I put on after I retired and got a desk job. It’s not easy. Being at 175 is uncomfortable for me.

  33. It does work. I did the same thing. Although I have done more lifting over the past few years so I weigh the same as before, but I carry more muscle mass. I still need to cut more fat and lean out. If I go strict paleo then the weight just melts off.

  34. I’ve done an Atkins variant (two-day diet) and lost gobs of weight but then gained it back when I went back to the same sedentary habits that got me there to start with. So, don’t do that.

  37. The most I ever lost at one time was 78 pounds. Went from 230 to 152 in about a year. Similar diet. Little to no carbs – 15 min of exercise with free weights every morning. Afterward I felt faster than lightening itself and light as a feather. I was about 28 at that time. It was a fairly strict paleo diet.

  38. 10 more pounds and Nick will start squatting and dead lifting. This will increase his T levels and he’ll finally be able to grow a beard. From then on, only raw meat from animals he has killed with his Wilson Combat 1911, and vegetables that his harem of red haired goddesses have raised for him.

    Or at least that’s what he told me when I saw him on Monday.

  39. Good on ‘ya, Nick! I did the zero carbs + exercise routine about 15 years ago and lost 45 pounds between July and October. Once you find your combination (since your in San Antonio, Jim’s chopped steak w/ a double side of Canadian cheese soup is killer) the weight just melts off. I went from tight size 38 to a size 34 Levis and a medium shirt down from extra large in what seemed like no time at all.

    Now, after open heart surgery and vicissitudes (heart meds cause weight gain—really), it’s time to do it again.

    Losing weight makes good gun sense (sorry Shannon), especially if you’re well past “a certain age”, because slow moving old people are perfect targets for thugs. Looking like a slim and fit old fart may very well convince a thug looking for prey to seek a more vulnerable, less mobile, target of opportunity. Just sayin’.

  40. Yup, if we all lived in Austin we could get tasty fresh produce and healthy options. Too bad Craphole, TX doesn’t even have a damn Kroger. The only tomatoes here are chemically ripened and rocklike, in both texture and taste.

  41. Kind of a fortuitous blog post for me today. Today is Day one of Operation: Robert W. needs to drop 30 lbs before he goes on vacation.

    Nick, I raise a salad fork in salute to you. Wish me luck.

    • Preach it, brother!

      If you ride in a peloton, try and fall in behind someone pleasantly assembled.

      Amazing how much easier longer rides can get…

      The miles just melt away… 🙂

  45. Congrats man. I lost 60 lbs over two years. I was maintaining. Then my wife walked out on the kids and me last August. I’ve packed on 25 lbs since then. My diet went to hell and I’ve been stress eating. Seeing this article is the thing that’s gonna get me off my ass. Thanks man

    • Sorry to hear that but you’ve got the kids and that’s the most important thing. It’ll be tough, but the other option would be worse (no wife AND no kids). Do Atkins, look good, rebuild life.

  46. Americans have been lied to by the USDA and their idiotic “food pyramid” for years – decades, even. Processed, complex carbs are bad for you. It is well proven, both by peer-reviewed research as well as real-world results.

    If you’re eating unprocessed grains, that might be one thing, but meat, fish, fat and raw vegetables are better for you than complex, processed carbs – by a long shot.

    The next challenge to the low-carb diets will come from the granola-munching idiots who are campaigning for a “sustainable” diet – which translated from leftist-speak means “we don’t want any more cows – because they take up too much land, too much water, blah, blah, blah.”

    • After I had lost the weight and found that I could maintain it fairly easily I thought I knew about something that was worth sharing with others. Wrong. I actually found myself in an argument one evening with a food nazi who lectured me on how unhealthy the Adkins/zero carb diet was and how it “just doesn’t work” and how it was “impossible” to rapidly lose lots of weight on it. I would have made a better argument if I hadn’t been laughing so hard.

  47. My wife was diagnosed with mild gestational diabetes when she was pregnant with our second child. Her doctor advised us to deal with it with just dietary changes. My wife is also mildly anemic, so after some research we settled on a standard dinner of steak over some kind of salad or with asparagus.

    Lunch was typically cubed chicken with some (non suggary) dressing over lettuce.

    We both ate as much as we wanted. When all was said and done, she had gained only 21 pounds durring pregnancy. Just about perfect, and I lost 15 lbs during her pregnancy.

    Sadly we went back to carbs after our child was born and I’ve stuggled to keep off most of that weight.

    Lately I’ve taken to protein shakes in the morning, then a couple of hardboiled eggs for my “second breakfast” around 10 am.

    My biggest problem is not sweets or bread. Its pasta. I crave pasta and as an Italian American its a central part of family gatherings. One thing thats made things easier is that I’ve seemed to have developed an intolerance for gluten or something like it.

    Its nothing terrible but if I eat anything with wheat flour, I get terrible indigestion. So its a good reminder not to eat breads or pasta.

    Don

  48. Nick,

    One thing to consider is getting rid of all your ‘chubbie’ clothes.

    When you notice your skinny clothes not fitting, it’ll be a direct reminder of why you lost the weight in the first place…

  49. Stick to it. A lot of people who lose weight quickly yo-yo back, as I’m sure you’ve read elsewhere and in the comments section on this post.

    Download MyFitnessPal on your phone and keep track of your calories and nutrition that way. They have every food imaginable in their database (because users contribute to it) and it’s free.

  50. “As for lunch…truth be told, I don’t really do lunch anymore.”

    A lot of people don’t realize that skipping lunch is almost half the battle for weight loss and/or staying slim.

  51. I did this (i.e., the Atkins thing) back in the 90s. I never could kick-start the metabolic cycle unless i cut my intake so low that I constantly felt like I was starving. Maintaining a balancedi diet, cutting back on portion size and tripling my workout level was a much better solution. Until I broke my back, that is. After that… well, I’m a bit larger now. 🙁

  52. Nick, congratulations. As you see its not rocket science. Anyone can do it. They just have to have the discipline.

  53. I’ve been doing Krav Maga and Crossfit training since last August. The diet you laid down is great if your workout consists of a few hours a week on a treadmill or spin machine, but there’s no way I could survive on what everyone here is prescribing. One thing I’ve found is that you do enough strenuous physical activity to get your metabolism ramped up, you can pretty much eat whatever you want and still get trim because your body will start burning up everything you can cram into it.

  54. Kudos. Easier to do it now than later. The trick is keeping it off. I went from 270 down to 214 and now I’m back to 270 but working to get back to a reasonable 225-240. Makes shooting prone long distance much easier. This past winter did not help one bit. Cold and wet and miserable. Who wants to go outside and exercise in that crap.

  55. Why are so many of your readers obsessed with body image? Must of found the gun blogging culture’s latent homosexual vain. Well, bye!!!

    • You might have found all us latent fairies here but neglected your English grammar from last year’s fifth-grade class.

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