Doug Lost 78 Pounds by Counting Calories

Want to lose weight? My story has been featured on CBS' The Doctors, CNN, and The Huffington Post. Learn how I lost over 125 pounds (100lbs in 6 months!) by clicking here.

I’ve got a lot of weight loss success stories built up in my inbox, so I’m going to start sharing them more frequently — probably once a week.

This one comes from Doug in the UK:

I have been following your blog for a while now and thought I would share my story and the part you have played in it!!

I separated from my wife in September 2010 and during this time I put on weight, at the time of us separating I was 26 stone 2 (366 pounds) however I got a lot heavier but never weighted myself, the easy option when sat home alone missing my son (the separation from my ex wife was mutual) was to fill that time with eating.

It didn’t really worry me at the time as I have always been an out going and confident person and it didn’t stop me doing anything.

For the next six months, I put on a lot of weight until one day when I had took my son swimming I looked in the mirror and the side of the swimming pool and thought what on earth (or the earth) had I become!! However at the time this wasn’t enough for me to break the eating pattern, however I did stop the additional snacking on an evening. The bad thing is I bought an xbox to take my mind off the eating but although I started to lose weight the only exercise I got was walking from the car to the office!

By Feb 2012 I was feeling good about life, things had settled down with access to my son, I had lost some weight now 24st 7 (344 pounds) and was looking forward to the future. I went to the doctors on the 2nd of Feb for a unrelated issue and during the conversation the doctor had mentioned my weight as he had noticed that I had lost some weight and asked if I had considered a gastric band as subject to a few tests he would be happy to put me forward for one (this would have been funded by the NHS).

We started to discuss the pros and cons of the gastric band and the implications and changes that it would have on my health and my life. This conversation took a good 2 hours before I came to the conclusion that a gastric band would have to be the last resort for me as the impact on day to day life was huge, but the doctor kept telling me I am 37 heavy and if I want to see my son grow up I need to do something!

This hit me like a brick! Don’t get me wrong, it was something I had always known, however I would always put it off and worry about it another day!

With this in mind, I went home very glum and sat on the sofa for the evening thinking about the conversation I had with the doctor. Was I really that big? How do I compare with others? I started the day feeling good about myself and the doctor offered me hope for the future but also a big reality check that yes I had lost some weight but at the rate I was losing the weight it wasn’t enough and I would soon stop losing weight.

So I have tried lots of diets and fad wonder solutions in the past, but thought there needs to be a simple way of doing this? Isn’t it just math?  You need x eat less that x and you have a deficit of Y, and if you do that over a period of time you will lose weight?  I always knew that if I tried to change everything at once and become a lettuce & carrot crunching monster that I would fail and like most people who need to lose weight, we know what to do its just the doing it consistently that is hard.

That evening I emptied the house of anything that didn’t have a calorie count on it, chucked all the junk in the bin (which being a true Yorkshire man really hurt) and started a diary of calories that evening (why wait for the morning!)

I will add at this point I will add that although I am a very confident person in day to day life I lacked confidence with women since the separation of from my wife. I was thinking that I would be single forever! who would want someone of my size!!!

So not wanting to have a gastric band (which many people were saying I should go for) I needed to do this for my future, my sons future and if I was to ever move forward in my love life, I counted calories religiously for the first couple of months and the weight stated to drop off, and I became confident I could go out for a drink or have that Chinese meal if I wanted (just make up for it with the next couple of meals). I started to notice my clothes were starting to get a bit baggy and best of all people around me started to notice my weight lost which drove me to keep to my plan.

During the time I few people would ask what I was following and how was I doing it. which was great to keep me going!  There are also the people who would see me eating a bag of crisps and felt the need to comment and challenge me on if I should be eating that, or even worst ask if my diet allow that! I would always respond that my diet allows anything I want because it is living life and not a diet, its something that I will always have to do and you cant follow a restrictive plan for the rest of your life.

At the stage I had lost 2 stone (28pound) I started to question if my theory and idea was the right thing to do and should I listen to the wise owls around the office that have never needed to lose weight but know what the perfect diet should be like and keep warning me about the problems of loose skin (not that they would ever know), and also the what my body might end up looking like. so fresh with the feeling of losing 2 stone and a wobble belly I started to Google before and after pics from my start weight of 344pounds and my weight at the time.

Then I came across you site which was not only funny and insightful but also confirmed the theory I was following (spooky how my start weight was 344 as well) looking and reading all of your blog has allowed be to fill in the gaps, learn from your mistakes, and know that I am not alone in my challenges…

Reading you blog made me see that diet alone would have its success but diet and exercise would increase the loss and give lots of added health benefits. So the same day I signed up on line to the local gym and go 4 days a week doing a mixture of cardio, weights and classes (I find this keeps it interesting and mixes it up) I cant get to the gym the other 3 days (I have my little boy) so I do a DVD workout in the living room with my son (he is 5 so loves jumping around with his dad) it can be difficult to fit everything into my already busy life but its worth it.

I am currently 19stone (266 pound) That’s 78 pound gone for good, that will never return, my motivation is now not the weight loss itself (unlike the start) but more my physical ability and ease of day to day life. I now think nothing of going up the stairs at work, happy to join classes at the gym (without feeling an idiot) and my motivation to continue is stronger that ever. The doctor has already said if I continue to lose the weight and keep it off for 6 month he will support any skin removal needed!

The greatest motivation comes from where I started which is when you catch a glance of yourself in a mirror and don’t recognise the person looking back at you!

So no gastric band.  Still got 66 pounds to go, but feeling good and thanks for sharing your experience as that along with the motivation of my son and friends I’ll get there.

I’ll be back tomorrow with weigh-in results for week 188!