I did something really stupid and ended up in the emergency with my heart doing flip flops. I was sent to a quack cardiologist who admitted he could find nothing wrong with my heart but kept raising the level of the meds he put me on until I could only eat and be depressed.
I finally went to another doctor who took me off the crazy pills but not before I had gained 125 pounds in 2.5 years.
Now the doctor wants me to lose the weight fast before it does do damage to my heart so I am giving it hell.
Before that I weighed 200 at 15 percent BF so that is my goal. Hopefully I will keep some of the muscle I built up as a bodybuilder and power lifter before I got sick.

I have lost 35 pounds in a month and a half on the kimkins boot camp diet.

Welcome Mike, sorry to hear your story about the lousy doctor, but it sounds like you know have it under control and well on your way to reaching your goal.

I have had a frustrating day today, I woke up, did my .5 on the Elipticle, walked a half mile with my baby, then worked biceps and forearms. Yesterday I only ate 23 out of my 43 points. I gained 1.5 pounds......

After thinking about this, I have been stalled with my weight loss for about a week but also have considerably added more exercise in the last week. Like I said earlier I am supposed to eat 43 points for weight watchers but looking back at my log, I have been 15 - 20 points below that for each day for the last week and a half.

So I'm going to make myself eat at least 35-43 points a day so my body doesn't go into starvation mode and hold on to everything. Also I'm going to drink more water, I have really been slacking on that.

I spoke to my boss who is a health nut and he suggested I should take measurements, I may be loosing size but not weight right now, so I did that too.

I may be a little bummed but not defeated!!! My workouts are getting better and better!!!

Hey mike welcome.....

Hey hb don't stress too bad. It happens and is what happened to me when I gave up on my diet after awhile. It just gets so dang frustrating when you're busting your butt and the results just stop. Get a tape and start doing that and I need to do the same. It's hard to stay motivated with nothing seems to change. Sometimes you think your pants are a little looser but you're just not sure and the tape will show you one way or the other.

I don't know much about The WW point system but a difference in that many points could be a huge difference in calories. Being a big guy like myself it may just be too low......... Just keep trying and if your all stressed out have a drink( for medicinal purposes only)

Hey Hillbilly 1 shot of Gin 2 points

Thanks for the support!!!

The main thing I have learned about stalls is just to stay on track if it has been working it will work again. At that crazy site where I usually post it drives the women crazy when it happens. If they are only getting 5 gms of carbs they will say they have to cut down to 3. Or they will decide that it is the Crystal light that does have a carb if you drink like 2 gallons of it. Or they took in a gm to much of fat, etc. The main thing is just not to panic it will happen when it happens.

You are correct sir

By the way this has been my diet for the last month and a half. I have now added more protein which added 200 calories which brings it up to 700 cals perday.
Suprisingly I am very happy on it and never have hunger pangs.

KIMKINS BOOT CAMP

The most popular Kimkins Option!
30 minutes of intense daily exercies required

Breakfast
Up to 2 eggs (cooked without fat)
Up to 1/2 cup List 2 veggies
Up to 2 oz lean ham or other lean protein (raw/cured weight)
Unlimited non-calorie beverage

Lunch
Up to 4 oz lean protein (raw weight)
Up to 2 cups mixed greens + Wishbone Spritzer dressing (or caloric equivalent)
Unlimited non-calorie beverage

Dinner
Up to 4 oz lean protein (raw weight)
Up to 2 cups mixed greens + Wishbone Spritzer dressing (or caloric equivalent)
Unlimited non-calorie beverage

Take a complete multivitamin each day plus other desired supplements

See that ain't bad and I have been there and I'm sure I will be again so....

anytime..............

Hey Mike do you get any snacks throughout the day like fresh veggies or anything?

Not really and it goes against everything I learned from 30 years of bodybuilding and how to eat right. I do have some extra protein as I said and a few more carbs (5) after my workouts.

Lettuce is considered a veggie on this diet.

I do seem to be maintaining some muscle mass and as I said I am happy. I don't recommend this diet for anyone but as I said my doctor wants me to drop the weight as fast as possible. It should take about another three months to lose 75 pounds then we are going to slow it down to 15 pounds per month for two months and then 10 per month for two months to let my skin catch up. I am betting that I won't have the skin problem because I seemed to have gained the weight all over instead of one spot.

I know it is radical so I won't post anymore about the diet but I will say that VLC diets have been around for a long time and you don't hear about people dying on them like the diet gurus tell you will happen and there aren't any doctors that have lost their license because they put people on them.

That is all I have to say.

Well I'm glad that its working for you!!! So Mike here is a question for you, you were mentioning skin, since I am losing my wieght slowly, should my skin tighten up or am I stuck have excess?

Loose Skin Blues
Author: Tom Venuto

If you're extremely overweight or if you've been extremely overweight in the past, then you know that getting rid of excess weight is only one of the challenges you face. Once the fat is gone, you are often confronted with an equally frustrating cosmetic problem; Loose skin.

I receive a lot of e-mail from people with loose skin or from overweight people who are concerned about having loose skin after they lose the weight. Here's a typical email I recently received on my Fitness Renaissance "Ask Tom" column at Fat Loss - All Natural Bodybuilding - Drug Free Bodybuilding - Tom Venuto

I began a fat loss program using your Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle e-book and it worked so well I got down to 15 1/2 stones (from 19). However, this has caused me a problem: Excess abdominal skin. I didn't crash lose this weight, it came off at the rate of about 2 lbs. per week just like you recommened. Now I'm unsure of whether to carry on, as my abdomen has quite a lot of excess skin - I feel like I've turned into a bloody Shar-Pei! (you know, as in the dog!)

Does everyone go through this? Will the skin tighten up? I was overweight for more than 12 years. Am I going to end up needing surgical skin removal? Can you offer me any advice? I'm a medical student in the UK and my colleagues seem determined to proffer surgery as the only option.

There are 12 things you should know about loose skin after very large weight losses:

1. Skin is incredibly elastic. Just look at what women go through during pregnancy. Skin has the ability to expand and contract to a remarkable degree.

2. Elasticity of skin tends to decrease with age. Wrinkling and loss of elasticity is partly the consequence of aging (genetic factors) and also a result of environmental factors such as oxidative stress, excessive sun exposure, and nutritional deficiency. The environmental parts you can fix, the genetics and age part, you cannot. Advice: Get moving and change the things you have control over... Be realistic and don't worry about those things you don't have control over.

3. How much your skin will return to its former tautness depends partly on age. The older you get, the more an extremely large weight loss can leave loose skin that will not return to normal

4. How long you carry extra weight has a lot to do with how much the skin will become taut after the weight loss: For example, compare a 9 month pregnancy with 9 years carrying 100 excess pounds.

5. How much weight was carried has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so much and be expected to "snap back" one hundred percent.

6. How fast the weight was gained also has a lot to do with how much the skin will resume a tight appearance. Your skin can only be stretched so quickly and be expected to "snap back."

7. How fast weight is lost also has a lot to do with how much the skin will tighten up. Rapid weight loss doesn't allow the skin time to slowly resume to normal. (yet another reason to lose fat slowly; 1-2 pounds per week, 3 pounds at the most if you have a lot of weight to lose, and even then, only if you are measuring body fat and you’re certain it's fat you’re losing, not lean tissue).

8. There are exceptions to all of the above; i.e, people who gained and then lost incredible amounts of weight quickly at age 50 or 60, and their skin returned 100% to normal.

9. There are many creams advertised as having the ability to restore the tightness of your skin. None work – at least not permanently and measurably – and especially if you have a lot of loose skin. Don't waste your money.

10. If you’re considering surgical skin removal, consult a physician for advice because this is not a minor operation, but keep in mind that your plastic surgeon may be making his BMW payments with your abdominoplasty money. (Surgery may be recommended in situations where it's not 100% necessary). Surgery should be left as the ABSOLUTE FINAL option in extreme cases.

11. Give your skin time. Your skin will get tighter as your body fat gets lower. I've seen and heard of many cases where the skin gradually tightened up, at least partially, after a one or two year period where the weight loss was maintained and exercise continued.

12. Know your body fat percentage before even THINKING about surgery. Loose skin is one thing, but still having body fat is another. Be honest with yourself and do that by taking your body fat measurement. This can be done with skinfold calipers or a variety of other devices (calipers might not be the best method if you have large folds of loose skin. Look into impedance analysis, underwater weighing, DEXA or Bod Pod).

Suppose for example, a man drops from 35% body fat all the way down to 20%. He should be congratulated, but I would tell him, "Don't bitch about loose skin, your body fat is still high. Press onward and keep getting leaner.”

Average body fat for men is in the mid teens (16% or so) Good body fat for men is 10-12%, and single digits is extremely lean (men shouldn’t expect to look “ripped” with 100% tight skin on the abs unless they have single digit body fat, and women low teens).

Except in extreme cases, you are very unlikely to see someone with loose skin who has very low body fat. It's quite remarkable how much your skin can tighten up and literally start to “cling” to your abdominal muscles once your body fat goes from “average” to "excellent." Someone with legitimate single digit body fat and a ton of loose skin is a rare sight.

So... the key to getting tighter skin is to lose more body fat, up to the point where your body composition rating is BETTER than average (in the “good” to “great” category, not just "okay"). Only AFTER you reach your long term body fat percentage goal should you give thought to "excess skin removal." At that point, admittedly, there are bound to be a few isolated cases where surgery is necessary if you can’t live with the amount of loose skin remaining.

However, unless you are really, really lean, it's difficult to get a clear picture of what is loose skin, what is just remaining body fat and how much further the skin will tighten up when the rest of the fat is lost.

Great information, thank you Mike!!!

I did half an hour on the elliptical at 95-110 watts, a heart rate of 148-152, and a distance of 2.8 miles and burned 598 calories.happy hillbilly dance

My endurance is coming up. not long ago I could only do about 4 minutes but last night I got to the point where I was almost running. Man that was a pretty good workout. Think I'm gonna take today off;I still feel drained.

I did my weigh in and I'm down two more pounds so down to 374. It's slowly coming back off.....