Martin's 30kg Weight Loss Success

AKA "martinhall" on Weight Loss Resources

About Martin

I am the manager of a software support and development team within a large American software company. Half of my team (including my boss and her boss) are based in various places in the US and the other half are in India. Although we have offices in Reading, I tend to work from home most of the time as it’s easier for the late nights.

I spend a lot of time sat at a computer or on the phone (or both), so it’s a pretty sedentary occupation.

When I go to visit my US colleagues I have to deal with the temptations of hotel food and American portions in restaurants as well as a bar bill that I can just charge to the company.

Martin Before:

June 2005

"I was at or around my heaviest point here. What you can’t see is my large belly."

Weight Loss History

I lost a lot of weight on the nicotine diet about 13 years ago. That basically involved replacing most foodstuffs with a cigarette. Quite an attractive diet as it didn’t involve giving up anything like alcohol or getting involved in exercise. But, I suspect it’s not a viable long term approach.

When I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, I started to follow a book called the K-Factor diet. This is a dietary and life style approach to tackling hypertension with the emphasis on low sodium, fresh fruit and vegetables and avoidance of alcohol, saturated fats and pre-prepared foods. This is combined with exercise and food logs. This approach led to my latest weight loss.

Martin Before:

June 2004

"Now this on the other hand, taken a year earlier showed the state I had got myself into."

 

How being overweight has affected you…

I felt horrible being fat. Although a lot of people would say “I don’t really see you as fat”, I knew in myself that I needed to lose weight and for a long time I was depressed that I couldn’t see a way of doing it. Buying new clothes was a chore because I was too big for the clothes I wanted and faced a future of premature age in Marks and Spencer's. I was also worrying about my health, occasionally I would get worrying pains in my chest (which, being a man, I tried to ignore).

My great love as a hobby is scuba diving and that became harder as I struggled more to fit into wetsuits and needed to carry more and more lead in order to get down (because bodyfat is buoyant, divers have to carry weights in order to sink).

With holidays and meetings in the US, I have to travel quite a lot for work and that became increasingly uncomfortable dealing with narrow economy or charter seats.

Motivation to Lose Weight

After an uncomfortable appointment with the doctor, I was told that it was going to have to be diet and exercise or drugs to combat my (very) high blood pressure. At that point, I realised that ignoring the situation wasn’t an option and I was determined that drugs weren’t going to be an option either. I gradually came to the conclusion that, for whatever reason, I was disabling myself. What I needed to do was enable myself instead.

I want to be fitter for its own sake. I want to be able to buy clothes from any shop I want without having to worry about the size. I want to be the person on the dive boat who needs the smallest amount of weight. I want to be proud of who I am and how I look. And I want to be able to run further and faster.

Martin During:

May 2006:

"I weighed about 89k, so getting there."

 

 

 

How Weight Loss Resources Helps

I came across the site when I was trying to find the amount of calories in something. This led me into discovering that what I thought was a low calorie diet was actually reasonably high and that was why I had plateaued. The idea of a more informed calorie counting instead of the rough and ready approach I had used to date was attractive.

The Best of Weight Loss Resources

I use the food and exercise log daily and usually visit the runners’ forum more than once a day. I read the special reports if something catches my eye.

Lifestyle Changes

Since losing weight and joining WLR, I have discovered running in a big way. When I started diet and exercise, I walked a lot and then walked and jogged, gradually building up to a slow red faced lumber round the park across the road. Then, I started to take it more seriously and signed up for the Bristol Half Marathon at the start of the year (my brother is fund raising director for the Association of Children's Hospices). Now, I’ve run the Bracknell Half Marathon and several 10ks. In the summer, I joined other WLR members in the bananaman run around Richmond Park (I finished first in the over 50s men).

Martin Now:

 

"Here I am completing my first proper half marathon (and at a personal best time)"

 

 

 

Exercise Routine

I go to the gym most days where I do some aerobic exercise such as rowing, cross training, cycling and then some weights and sit-ups. Depending on injuries, I will try and go for a run most days as well. If I can’t run, I’ll spend longer on the machines in the gym to make up for it.

Diet Changes

Typical Dinner – Before

During the week, usually ciabatta or baguette with a large soup (Covent Garden say) and salad leaves. During the weekend, big bits of meat, oily potatoes, creamy sauces and probably at least one takeaway in there. Oh, we also used to use large plates. I didn’t drink much during the week, but at least a bottle of wine on a weekend evening.

Typical Dinner – Now

During the week, lots and lots of fruit. For the main meal, it will usually be pulses of some sort (chick peas, lentils) or a salad with home made dressing. Over the weekend, the occasional curry or pizza, but pretty much smaller and leaner portions of meat and veg. I rarely drink now.

Why do you think WLR has helped you lose weight where other diets have failed?

Basically the structured approach to weighing food and logging calories means that I’m not deceiving myself about how much I am eating.

Martin's Weight Loss Tips

I think the most important (and probably the hardest) thing to realise is that it really is down to you. Your weight is your responsibility. It’s not your genes making you overeat, it’s you. It’s not your slow metabolism making you fat, it’s you. Other people are not force-feeding you.

Don’t take any notice of what anyone else says, specially the siren call of “I think you’ve lost enough weight now”. If you’re losing weight, go for the weight that you are comfortable with being.

Martin Now

May 2007:

"This is me, shamelessly posing in white at my 50th birthday party. I think was about 65kg at that point,."

Martin's Vital Statistics

	Before	Now
Weight	99kg / 15st 8lb	69kg / 10st 12lb