2 years later, 380 pounds lost

Houston Chronicle ^ | Jan. 1, 2006 | MICHAEL PRECKER

[TEXOKIE]

Tell your friend that he has new friends here at FreeRepublic who admire him greatly! Hope he will consider checking us out, if he hasnt already! Amom and I were looking at his web page together and were oooooohing and ahhhhhhing over his delegate credentials and were hoping he is a Freeper!

[stlnative]

From Jim's Bio on his page...

I learned that it is possible to get control of your life without surgery, drugs, or popular diet program. The body is merely a product of how we live over time. If you eat sensibly most of the time and get as much physical activity as you can, your body will respond.

[Rastus]

Will do, once the honeymoon stuff dies down. Heh.

Anyway, I think he really wants to motivate people. He sees people who are massively overweight and wants to help them. He realizes what he did won't be easy for everyone, but he wants to at least help them to find a way to do it. He's just has the right kind of attitude, though. He decided to quit smoking because it was starting to affect his singing, so he just quit cold. He didn't taper off, didn't sneak any on the side. He just said, "That's it." I don't think that's the way most of us operate. I can't even go a day on my "no more Cokes" plan, and that stuff's not even physically addicting!

Jim is strong in his Christian and conservative beliefs, and I have to think that has been a big part of being able to accomplish this.

[TEXOKIE]

"It's really tough to burn off calories by exercise"

That is true, but the body is the perfect accountant. It takes LOTS of calories to maintain 600 pounds. If a person cuts calories AND expends them as well, by exercise, on top of the expense of calories one burns by moving around 600 pounds, it is entirely possible for Jim to have sustained the levels of loss he exhibited.

[Rastus]

I don't know if he is an actual freeper or not, but he is aware of the place and would definitely fit in. I'll give him an invite.

[Moonman62]

It is estimated that we burn about 100 calories per mile run. Therefore a marathoner burns about 2600 calories. That's equivalent to about 3/4 lbs of fat.

It's really tough to burn off calories by exercise

Exercise must have some other effect such as a change in metabolism. 2005 was a really good year for me. I've been doing squats and pushups, and not that many of them. I average less than five minutes a day, yet my clothes are considerably looser, and I get a lot of compliments. My diet is the same as always. If anything I eat a bit more than I used to.

[Rastus]

By the way, this man is in the early stages of doing the same thing Jim has done, and I know Jim recognized a lot of himself in the early days of this guy's routine. I hope Mike sees the article and knows what can happen if he keeps going.

[Hildy]

Wow! He looks like a really good, happy guy too.

[Riley]

For those interested, here's another guy who is after the same goal, but with a different approach:

http://www.thefatmanwalking.com/

He's walking across the continent. He started out in Ocanside, CA, and is now in St. Louis, MO.

[Hildy]

How was the wedding??? Do you have any pictures???

[TEXOKIE]

Thanks, Rastus! I know people here would love to see him participate!

[TEXOKIE]

Thanks for the link. Wishing him well!

[Marie]

My mom lost 90 pounds in 3 months. She did it by eating only one hot-fudge sundae a day (Dairy Queen), doing farm work and taking vitamins. In the following 5 months, she began to eat "normal" foods and she dropped another 30 pounds. She went from 250 to 130.

[mombonn]

Thanks, he's absolutely adorable!

[kanawa]

Burn a lot of calories just carrying around that weight.

[Ladysmith]

Well, this is what I'm getting from the book - get beyond looking at calories and contemplate on whether you're using sugar or fat for energy. Using sugar for energy doesn't take much energy to do. Using fat does. As Atkins explains it, you can take in more calories and still burn even more off when those calories are more protein and fat and relatively little carbs. So the first couple weeks is geared to switching your body from a sugar-burning machine to a fat-burning one. Once you do that, the friggin' stuff practically melts away.

I realize that I'm not doing his book justice here with my very simplistic explanation. Better to read it for yourself. In any case, I recommitted to this on Friday and have already dumped 3.5 pounds. Of course, I don't expect that rate to continue but past experience has shown me I can at times go through periods of losing a pound a day. And I'm not starving myself by any means.

[Marie]

So, people who are physically unable to work out are doomed to fatitude?

NO! We're not!

I'm able to do *some things*, but there is no way I can do aerobics. Drs still don't know why, but after a week of aerobic exercise my body completely collapses. (Right now, the popular theory is that my thyroid is screwed up. Before that, hypokalemic periodic paralysis. Before that, MS. Before that, mono. Before that, insane. Before that, "girl troubles".) I collapse, will become paralysed, BP drops into the shock range, turn white, vomit, sometimes seizure. It's ugly.

I found that my body responds to very little exercise spread out over the day just fine. I lift cans of soup while watching TV, jiggle my feet constantly, take extra steps when I do housework. I try to add just a little more effort in the normal things I do. Flex my muscles harder when I pick things up off the floor, stretch and hold for a few seconds when I stand up. But when I feel "the sickness" I rest.

It doesn't sound like much, but it really does help more than you can imagine. I'm a little overweight, but I don't look bad. I still have all the proper "girl" curves and no rolls.