Size 44 (what a happy holiday!)

[Rich Engelhardt]

In a pair of blue jeans - size 44.
Also crossed over the 250 pound wall I've been fighting the last few weeks.

Got on a scale at the gym yesterday - weighed 249.
For giggles and grins, I just tried on the pair of 44 inch jeans I've had sitting on the door knob - in the computer room - teasing me the last few months.


To put this in it's proper perspective.

December 2017 I weighed in @ 330 pounds & had a 58 plus inch waist.....

That's an 81 pound and 12 inch loss.

My goal is under 200 - so - only 50 to go!

(BTW - I feel better than I have in years!)

[George Bokros]

Fantastic!! Great going Rich. Keep up the good work.

[John M. Smith]

Congratulations Rich. I can't imagine that amount of weight in that time. I've lost 25 pounds since December. And that was not easy. That's just amazing.

[roger wiegand]

Well done! Hard work, but with huge benefits. I got below 200 a couple of years ago, but need to get back there now :-(

[John K Jordan]

(BTW - I feel better than I have in years!)

Congratulations, an incredible accomplishment! The older we get the harder it is so if you're not a spring rooster that's a real accomplishment.

And you are right about the feeling better! When we bought this farm I was at about 225 from sitting at a computer desk for years and living with the best cook in the Southeast. (To put THIS in perspective, I was 115 when I met my wife.) I lost 30 lbs over about six months, a much smaller percentage than yours of course, but even with that relatively small loss I felt SO much better - could breathe better, had far more energy, knees worked better, feet quit hurting.

[Frederick Skelly]

Good job Rich! Comgratulations!
Fred

[Chris Damm]

I thought I was doing good to get down to 300# but I still fit into 40" jeans. It's better than 360# I was a year ago. Doc wants me at 240#, insurance man says 180#. I won't be there until I've been in the ground for 6 months!

[Steve Demuth]

That's really great. Congratulations. When I took my current position - which requires me, someone whose basic Circadian rhythm wants me to rise at about 7:30AM, to be out of the house by 5:15AM on office days, and where the food service staff thinks every meeting during their 4 per day feeding hours must be catered with sweet, sugar-laden pastries plus soda - my weight started steadily rising. So did my blood glucose. I have had to ban sugar and most white carbs entirely from my diet to bring it back to reason, and still have 15 lbs to go to target.

Bad sleep and sugar are an evil combination. Actually, refined sugar is evil, period.

I could just quit the job, like John J, and retire to my farm, but there is so much that is so deeply worthwhile going on that I want to contribute to, I can't break the tie.

[Walter Plummer]

Good work. I was 309 and got down to 200 and everyone said it was too far, I looked sick. So now I hover around 225 and a 36" waist. May try for a 34. LOL. My knees thank me every day.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

That is monumental and I am rooting for you to keep going. My wife, a nurse and professor of nursing, says it best- we can spend time now on our health or spend it later. In other words, diet and exercise now, or later on spend time in and out of the Doctor/hospital.

[Mel Fulks]

Great accomplishment. Keep up the enthoooosiasm ! (that's the motivational speaker spelling)

[Ted Calver]

Great job, Rich! Keep it going. What's your magic formula? Keto?

[Rich Engelhardt]

Ted - no magic at all.

Morning and afternoon swim - an hour each & a half mile each.
1800 calories or less a day.
The last two weeks, I've been taking in only about 1000 calories a day - - only because I've been gorging on fresh produce - mainly tomatoes.

Lots of hot peppers too- tons of vitamins and minerals and stuff that's good for you, with an extreme low calorie count.
One Habanero for instance, has more vitamin C than 4 large Oranges & only about 5 calories.
No "white" foods, such as bread, potatoes, pasta, rice......very little red meat (no reason why, it's just been going that way - - I dearly love beef & burgers & steaks)
In bed early & up early (as in 3:00am early).



Doc wants me at 240#, insurance man says 180#. I won't be there until I've been in the ground for 6 months!Chris - I had an incentive earlier this year. I had been on a diet off/on for about a year. I managed to lose 30 pounds, then put a lot of it back on. Then, this past December (2017), my daughter in law, my wife, my son and myself were sitting around talking about going to Vegas. Next thing i knew, my daughter in law had booked us for a week in Vegas at the end of March 2018. I had to lose enough weight and girth to fit my fat behind in a tiny airplane seat, so, I got serious about sticking to my 1800 calories a day diet.
By the end of March, I'd lost enough to fit in seat, but, I still needed the seat belt extension. I pretty much just stuck with the diet and ended u where I'm at now.


My wife, a nurse and professor of nursing, says it best- we can spend time now on our health or spend it later.LOL! This is "later" for me :D :D At 66 years old, and a former 51 year - two pack a day smoker - I'm way over the hill ;).
She's 100% right though. 20 years ago, if I wanted to drop 30 pounds, I just gave up drinking soft drinks & anything but black coffee. That always did the trick.

[glenn bradley]

Congrats. For some of us to get the idea; pick up a 60 pound sack of redi-crete and carry it around EVERYWHERE with you ALL DAY. Our frames were not designed for this. So many of your body parts thank you for your success.

[Steve Jenkins]

Way to go Rich. Keep after it.

[Todd Mason-Darnell]

Way to go Rich. As a guy who dropped 75 lbs (230-155--yeah I am a really scrawny guy), I can sympathize.

I did mine back in 2003 and have kept it off. It is amazing what happens once you change your eating habits. I eat the perimeter of the grocery store (lots of fresh veg and fruits, nothing pre-package). Almost no sugar and very few carbs.

Good luck

[Terry Kelly]

Keep Up,the good work!! I’m also doing a weight loss regiment weighed 305 in January......February 1st I started my journey to lose 80 pounds...as of this past Sunday I’ve lost 73.....7 to go......I’m gonna go for an even 100......went from a 42 waist to a 34 currently....Feels really good!!

[Dennis Peacock]

Congrats Rich!!!!! I'm on the same journey as you. Started at 285 and now at 258. My goal, set my my liver doc, is 200 pounds. I'd love to see the "under 200 mark". I'm fighting fatty liver disease and my hope and prater is that I win. :)

[Stan Calow]

congrats, from someone heading in the opposite direction!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Congratulations Rich!

[julian abram]

Rich, you the man. Thanks for sharing your success, it inspires and challenges the rest of us. Congrats!

[Jim Koepke]

My rate of loss is much less. My big thrill was stepping on the scale at the gym and seeing it hit below 220.

Still hovering around that spot. Trying to get back into eating more salads and less ice cream.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

Still hovering around that spot. Trying to get back into eating more salads and less ice cream.


I'll tell you what helped me the most (besides, perhaps, working up a sweat every day cleaning up this property!): backing off on the peach cobbler with ice cream and drinking water when I got hungry. I carried water with me out on the tractor, at the barn, mowing the usual 3 acres, etc. Being out of the house and away from the goodies helped too, but when I felt hungry (very often, in fact) I took a big swig of water which seemed to trick my stomach into being satisfied for a bit. Rinse and repeat. :)

My problem now is my Lovely Bride. Besides keeping the house stocked with Dove bars and snacks, she keeps cooking! Just this week she made pound cake, pear bread, pear and apple butter, cookies, and a heavenly sauce to dribble over ice cream. Not much more tempting than hot cookies fresh out of the oven. :(

JKJ

[Bruce Wrenn]

Congrats. Unfortunately your tag line doesn't exactly blend with your weight loss goals. My weight can vary by as much as 10 pounds in a week, depending upon my eating and drinking (sodas) habits. Weigh both morning and night. Down three pounds since Wednesday night. A medicine I take doesn't help my cause either. Most lose weight while taking it, but I'm the lucky 5% who gain weight. My wife's husband is a GOOD cook, and cooks the things I like, which also doesn't help my cause

[Rich Engelhardt]

Unfortunately your tag line doesn't exactly blend with your weight loss goalsYeah bread and "liquid bread" are my downfall. I limit that to my every other Tuesday - "cheat night". We hit a local eatery (Winking Lizard) that serves the very best hot wings- (made with Carolina Reaper & Scorpion peppers - about 750,000 scovilles) and cold Yuengling Light on draft....