What causes super morbid obesity?

[FatButWeak]

I do have a log of the last year-ish of what I've been doing. http://beardsoverbarbells.wordpress.com/

This might get kind of ramble-y so bear with me. Started off at 450-ishat the age of 26. I've been obese since childhood and was told it wasn't my fault, it was my metabolism or society or self-esteem or that I was fine the way I was or some stupid bullshit my whole life. I started with a clinically managed program called HMR because I didn't know if I had an eating disorder or something else going on, and I wanted to do this quickly and under doctor's supervision. That was basically 600-1000 calories a day and the macro split was basically 50% simple carbs and 50% protein. As I would find out later, not enough protein to maintain LBM, but some protein nonetheless. Looking back it was a dumb program and I wouldn't do it again knowing what I know now. It's good if you're a middle-aged housewife who can't stop eating snickers bars but for a huge but very mobile and active young man it wasn't a good fit.

I did lose 160 between February and September of 2010 on this program, though. Started doing SS in June (totally NDTFP, quarter squats, rounded back deadlifts, the whole deal). Eventually quit HMR at 285 and maintained that weight for a little over a year. Unfucked my metabolism with real food, did paleo/keto for awhile, kept stalling and eventually did Lyle McDonald's RFL diet just after Thanksgiving last year. Got down to about 245, burned myself out real good on SS type programming plus 1200 calories a day for three months.

I've bounced around in that general neighborhood since February, down to about 235. I'm currently 242 and 21% body fat or so, loaded on creatine. Trying to get down to 220-ish in the next few months. I'm then going to look at a circumferential lower body lift to get rid of the extra gut skin. For now I'm content eating a high fat, low carb paleo type diet and just going fairly easy on myself.

I've kind of been through the wringer the last two and a half years with all this. The biggest problems other than the weight loss have been correcting postural kyphosis and a congenital hip/leg thing (rolling my heels outward and duck walking) so I've basically lost over 200 pounds, re-learned how to walk, and am still working on the kyphosis thing (back just won't flatten out on the damn deadlifts). Correcting mobility and posture has been as big of a piece of the puzzle as adopting strength training or adopting a proper diet (which for me is high fat & protein, low carb, non-inflammatory paleo/primal) in the first place. There's also goal setting to consider... mine is to compete in Highland games or do Strongman type stuff but I'm a long ways away from realizing that.

This has been one long windy confusing path, and I'm basically trying to do something that based on all my research hasn't really been attempted before. I also got married in the midst of all this so essentially I'm a completely different person than before I started doing all this shit. You basically just have to have the determination to try lots of weird, non-obvious shit and hold yourself to a level of accountability that society deems fanatical and unhealthy. Giving up is not an option at this point, so it's just a matter of time before I'm done.

Hope this answers your question. Would be happy to help in any way I can.

Good job, man.

Since October, 2011 I have been eating a low carb high fat diet - basically an Atkins induction diet minus any of the Atkins branded processed crap. Sort of Paleo, as a result, but Im not Paleo-Evangelical about it. My goal was to control my insulin and the resultant cascade of endocrine problems through rock bottom low carbohydrate eating. Works like a Boss. I have lost about 110 pounds since oct 2011 eating my favorite foods. I am not DTFP because I cannot eat carbohydrates. TFP pretty much requires a caloric excess and insulin is really helpful to muscular growth, as well - I have netiehr. I do the 5 basic lifts, plus bicep curls, and add weight in a linear fashion whenevr I can. I have gained strength and muscle doing this, but nothing to brag about.

[EJLouis]

Not quite on topic, but anyways...

I remember hearing somewhere that diabetes was the bodies last "set-point". Where the body in question can no longer store the excess calories as fat. Which might explain why there's people who are under 200lbs with diabetes and some are 400+ and climbing with no sign of diabetes.

Curious if any of you guys have noticed or heard of weight gain tapering off or stopping once someone gets diabetes. Besides the usual 10-20 lbs gain from the start of insulin use as treatment. Or if you've heard of people getting diabetes at a certain weight and continued to increase their weight drastically with no sign of stopping.

My Father-in-law is diabetic and so are his brothers. All of them are at different weights, but the weight hasn't noticeably changed in the 10 years I've known them. He's under 200 for sure (I'm guessing 180-ish, potbelly, and he's 5'4"-ish) his brothers are bigger, but the biggest is maybe 275.

BTW J.T.: Amazing fat loss

[Dastardly]

I do have a log of the last year-ish of what I've been doing. http://beardsoverbarbells.wordpress.com/

This might get kind of ramble-y so bear with me. Started off at 450-ishat the age of 26.

There have been olympic medal winning athletes who have that leg thing (duck walking), I forget who exactly, but a few women if I recall.

Anyhow, I wanted to ask. Do you feel that if you stayed inactive and maintained the sort of diet that made you 450lb, and perhaps even added a little more. That you would have grown super-obese? Remember that these people can get over 1000lb! You think that you were heavy at 450lb, and you were. But it is totally possible to be 450lb and "athletic". Brian shaw weighs that much and I think if you are tall enough, that is an ideal sort of weight to be big and strong. The human body and its organs can seem to deal with that, it is like a 5'6" person weighing 220lb (which is possible while being pretty lean).

You may have been fat, but you were still able to hit the gym and start lifting barbells. So you a world away from these people who are incapacitated by their fatness. I get the impression that you could never be like them (700lb+ of lard) what do you think? if you have had continued eating as much as possible and being totally inactive, would you have continued to grow?

[Eric K]

...I have lost about 110 pounds since oct 2011...

I don't think I ever said this officially, but congratulations. That's a tremendous achievement.

I have gained strength and muscle doing this, but nothing to brag about.

I disagree, see above.

[Root]

I do have a log of the last year-ish of what I've been doing. http://beardsoverbarbells.wordpress.com/

This might get kind of ramble-y so bear with me. Started off at 450-ishat the age of 26. I've been obese since childhood and was told it wasn't my fault, it was my metabolism or society or self-esteem or that I was fine the way I was or some stupid bullshit my whole life. I started with a clinically managed program called HMR because I didn't know if I had an eating disorder or something else going on, and I wanted to do this quickly and under doctor's supervision. That was basically 600-1000 calories a day and the macro split was basically 50% simple carbs and 50% protein. As I would find out later, not enough protein to maintain LBM, but some protein nonetheless. Looking back it was a dumb program and I wouldn't do it again knowing what I know now. It's good if you're a middle-aged housewife who can't stop eating snickers bars but for a huge but very mobile and active young man it wasn't a good fit.

I did lose 160 between February and September of 2010 on this program, though. Started doing SS in June (totally NDTFP, quarter squats, rounded back deadlifts, the whole deal). Eventually quit HMR at 285 and maintained that weight for a little over a year. Unfucked my metabolism with real food, did paleo/keto for awhile, kept stalling and eventually did Lyle McDonald's RFL diet just after Thanksgiving last year. Got down to about 245, burned myself out real good on SS type programming plus 1200 calories a day for three months.

I've bounced around in that general neighborhood since February, down to about 235. I'm currently 242 and 21% body fat or so, loaded on creatine. Trying to get down to 220-ish in the next few months. I'm then going to look at a circumferential lower body lift to get rid of the extra gut skin. For now I'm content eating a high fat, low carb paleo type diet and just going fairly easy on myself.

I've kind of been through the wringer the last two and a half years with all this. The biggest problems other than the weight loss have been correcting postural kyphosis and a congenital hip/leg thing (rolling my heels outward and duck walking) so I've basically lost over 200 pounds, re-learned how to walk, and am still working on the kyphosis thing (back just won't flatten out on the damn deadlifts). Correcting mobility and posture has been as big of a piece of the puzzle as adopting strength training or adopting a proper diet (which for me is high fat & protein, low carb, non-inflammatory paleo/primal) in the first place. There's also goal setting to consider... mine is to compete in Highland games or do Strongman type stuff but I'm a long ways away from realizing that.

This has been one long windy confusing path, and I'm basically trying to do something that based on all my research hasn't really been attempted before. I also got married in the midst of all this so essentially I'm a completely different person than before I started doing all this shit. You basically just have to have the determination to try lots of weird, non-obvious shit and hold yourself to a level of accountability that society deems fanatical and unhealthy. Giving up is not an option at this point, so it's just a matter of time before I'm done.

Hope this answers your question. Would be happy to help in any way I can.

Very impressive! Thanks so much for sharing.

[FatButWeak]

I don't think I ever said this officially, but congratulations. That's a tremendous achievement.



I disagree, see above.

Thanks That's nice to hear.

[J.T.]

Good job, man.

Since October, 2011 I have been eating a low carb high fat diet - basically an Atkins induction diet minus any of the Atkins branded processed crap. Sort of Paleo, as a result, but Im not Paleo-Evangelical about it. My goal was to control my insulin and the resultant cascade of endocrine problems through rock bottom low carbohydrate eating. Works like a Boss. I have lost about 110 pounds since oct 2011 eating my favorite foods. I am not DTFP because I cannot eat carbohydrates. TFP pretty much requires a caloric excess and insulin is really helpful to muscular growth, as well - I have netiehr. I do the 5 basic lifts, plus bicep curls, and add weight in a linear fashion whenevr I can. I have gained strength and muscle doing this, but nothing to brag about.

That's rad, congrats man. I've actually landed on doing a similar approach these days. I'm playing with the idea of trying the "fat fast" super-induction thing within the next couple weeks.

I have never done TFP strictly but I did try doing an LP on the super low calorie diet, which was a trainwreck. The weirdest thing about dieting for this long is that I try to find the "sweet spot" for caloric intake. Too much and you gain, too little and you stall and experience metabolic slowdown. It's just one long science experiment.

There have been olympic medal winning athletes who have that leg thing (duck walking), I forget who exactly, but a few women if I recall.

Anyhow, I wanted to ask. Do you feel that if you stayed inactive and maintained the sort of diet that made you 450lb, and perhaps even added a little more. That you would have grown super-obese? Remember that these people can get over 1000lb! You think that you were heavy at 450lb, and you were. But it is totally possible to be 450lb and "athletic". Brian shaw weighs that much and I think if you are tall enough, that is an ideal sort of weight to be big and strong. The human body and its organs can seem to deal with that, it is like a 5'6" person weighing 220lb (which is possible while being pretty lean).

You may have been fat, but you were still able to hit the gym and start lifting barbells. So you a world away from these people who are incapacitated by their fatness. I get the impression that you could never be like them (700lb+ of lard) what do you think? if you have had continued eating as much as possible and being totally inactive, would you have continued to grow?

Honestly, I think if I'd continued the way I was I just would have gotten bigger and bigger. You really need a slow metabolism and a huge caloric excess to go that route, but as much as I was eating and drinking (alcohol, not soda) it would have been relatively easy. I actually tracked calories for a couple days before I went on the liquid diet program and found that I was hitting 2500 calories between what I thought was a balanced, reasonable breakfast and lunch alone. That was kind of a wake-up call that a fundamental shift in lifestyle was what I needed most.

I had pretty much been stable for a few years in my mid-20s, and I'm sure I was closer to the 500 pound mark then. Part of what lit a fire under my ass was seeing my mom die from lung cancer as a result of smoking for 40+ years, which was sort of an, "oh, hey, why not spare yourself a similar fate from a preventable disease" moment. I don't know that I ever would have tackled this if I hadn't seen that happen. So, that, plus the thought of being one of those 700+ freaks you see on TV, was pretty motivating.

My blood pressure was a little high (160-170/80-95 or so) but my fasted blood glucose and cholesterol were always awesome when I was bigger. Nowadays my BP is in the 110-120/50-70 range, total cholesterol is under 200 with a very favorable HDL/LDL ratio, triglycerides under 40, fasted blood glucose around 95 or something like that. My T is a little low but the doc won't do anything about that. In any event, I definitely caught this in time to (hopefully) avoid any heart disease or diabetes problems.