Made it under 300 pounds just before my 53rd birthday!

This is the Chris Abraham show. Hey there, this is Chris Abraham. This is the Chris Abraham show. My name is Chris Abraham formerly known as Chris cast. This is season 5 episode 2. The last episode was in January and I'm starting again because one person on Mastodon said that they won their wondering if I'm still podcasting and see.

Honestly, it's not like I need a thousand people to keep me going. I just need to know. Oh that I'm not yelling into space like a madman. So as long as I'm heard by one person, it is worth it. To me. I will come back and tell you about why I've returned to podcasting today is a special day, in many ways talk to you soon.

Hey, today is March 8th. Today is my birthday. Today is international women's day. Women's day today, I'm 53 years old and yesterday, I jumped on the scale, my Withings smart scale and it told me that I was 298 point five pounds. Now, I make a lot of promises of the old and I sort of challenge myself for a lot of things.

And I often times come short, come up short, but I promised myself that I would be under 300 pounds by my birthday. So 200 98.5 is cutting it close. Not a lot of buffer but I did it. So I'm very happy about that. So I took today off and really just completely farted around and now I'm doing this and it's Wednesday.

I didn't plan anything for today. In fact, I believe I kept my head down, so as not to be responsible to or for anything. Today, I can start again in the, the Sisyphus Ian task of my life, but for Today, it was just chillax. I didn't even Do anything. I cooked a very large hamburger patty and spoiled myself, because I know I know that my cardiologist is going to at the end of three months on the 13th or 14th 14th is going to allow me to have guacamole and yellow squash and zucchini and olives and And so, I took the liberty yesterday of buying some olives and buying some guacamole, and even though guacamole is in strict carnivore, nor is it just strictly avocado.

I wanted to have some. So yesterday I Glutton and I know I just got the 298 measure on the scale, but I went and yesterday afternoon, I first of all, I made a beef burger breakfast and then had a an omelet, a tidy toes and then couldn't help myself. I bought a bunch of Olives. I bought a grocery store, chicken, and I bought some guacamole and I made a feast of it last night. And this morning I guacamole over left over.

So I cooked up another giant beef burger patty and I smothered it in guacamole. So that's pretty much all I ate today. I had a couple other things but hopefully that did derail my diet I want to lose Another 80 pounds, so wish me luck on that. But everybody wants to hear how it happened and all the stories about it. So, right after this brief break, I will try to just sort of soliloquy about the process and what worked, and what didn't work and all those other things. Alright, coming back, oh, very flawed, at the tldr, or no? You know, I will give you a brief peak in terms of the next segment and there's a lot of up and ups and downs. Not, everything's perfect.

There were a lot of plateaus, a lot of lost ground and it wasn't easy, but it's not hard either. Be right back. alright, so six months ago, I was 350 pounds and high A1C. Hey, Google, what is a high A1C mean On the website. Cdc.gov. They say your A1C result.

The normally one sea level is below 5.7%. A level of 5.7% to 6.4% indicates pre-diabetes. And a level of 6.5% are more indicates. Diabetes within the five point seven percent to six point four percent pre-diabetes range, the higher your A1C. The greater your risk is for developing type 2 diabetes.

So, six months ago, I visited my cardiologist and he did Labs on me and the A1C and the indicated diabetes, he called me, and he called me, like, after I left, he called me, when I was at Giant Food, he called me on my cell phone and said, Chris eccentric, maybe you should get this. This, we need to make you lose weight, this eccentric thing is for diabetes, you need to give yourself a shot once a week in the belly fat and that kind of stuff and So, but on that day, when we were at the appointment, he said to me, listen, wink, wink. I can't prescribe this to you, wink, wink. But I feel like it's time to be extreme. So he unofficially.

Prescribed me with a carnivore diet. And hey, Google. Tell me about a restrictive carnivore diet. I don't know, but I found these results on search. Hey Google.

What is the carnivore diet? According to Wikipedia, the carnivore diet is a low-carbohydrate fad diet in which only animal products such as meat eggs, and dairy are consumed. The carnivore diet is not supported by evidence based medicine, and it has attracted criticism from dietitians and Physicians who have stated the diet could lead to vitamin deficiencies and increased risk of chronic disease. Hey, Google. What is a restrictive diet. On the website.

Rachel a.com they say restrictive diets or any type of diet that cutout major food groups are calories for the sake of losing weight or reducing fat people. Also, sometimes ask me what is considered a restricted diet? Do you want to hear the answer? Yes.

On the website, need a DOT nih.gov, they say calorie. Restriction means reducing average, daily caloric intake below. What is typical or habitual without malnutrition or deprivation of essential nutrients. In a fasting diet, a person does not eat at all or severely limits intake During certain times of the day, week or month. I don't think I mean that though, I think hey, Google, what is it called?

When you limit your diet based on maybe being allergic to things? I don't know, but I found these results on search. I think, restricted know there's a term for when you stop eating things to check out whether or not you're allergic or have inflammation. And I don't remember what the word is, but it is that, right? So the biggest thing that dr. Lux my cardiologist thinks I'm suffering from is a big problem with inflammation.

That's To be the gut of all the problems that I'm having. So by reducing the number of types of foods that I can eat for, it's been six months now because he was so amazed at the at the appointment after 3 months that my diabetes type 2, diabetes, completely gone away that. He thought we tried another six months and the next meeting that we have the next appointment he is. Going to, like I said, put me back onto yellow squash, he calls them fruits, but what he really means is not sweet fruit. He means yellow squash zucchini, avocado and olives.

So I'll be able to add that, which is okay because yellow squash and zucchini are two of my favorite. What I call vegetables and olives and avocados are my favorite fat. Fatty foods fatty plants to eat. So I wonder if it'll also 0 and with regards to how they Define the carnivore diet, I've discovered that I was really leaning very heavily on Dairy and that my regularity and my health and my energy and all those other things are better. If I just stick to beef, Butter. Bacon grease.

Processed bait, you know bacon, I'll have it in this diet. Chicken seems to be too lean. Most meat seem to be too lean once in a while. I'll add liverwurst because I don't eat liver, but I like liverwurst for the nutrients that I don't get in. Just beef, salt, eggs are ubiquitous Butter. Like I said, black coffee.

Black tea water and I add this this fancy expensive salt called LMN T, the letters LMN T and I do not drink the one that tastes like sea water. I drink the one they come in packets. I drink the element e additives, that have flavor in them. I'm suffering through some really awful ones that I bought Of eBay. They're very expensive and the ones that I bought off of eBay are like habanero freaking lemon habanero and like really weird.

Hot freaking strange chili lemon chili in this crazy stuff. Like they're so strong that I need to dilute them more. And when you open the packet, the waft of waft of the powder, literally burns, like literally not even figuratively. Literally. But literally burns your nose as if you were. I don't know, sniffing habanero.

So how did it go? I seem to respond very well to being prescribed, something or being ordered to do something, it probably in my nature, I really did. Well, in JROTC being ordered and complying isn't bad if someone, if an external force or Me to do it and I respect and trust them than I do. So mostly the kind of cheating. I've done, like, I cheated a week ago, and I stopped at Bob and Edith's Diner, which is a local like a local Famous Diner.

That's here on Columbia, Pike and sexy, South, Arlington. And I ordered a double bacon cheeseburger with the bun and I didn't order fries. I didn't order toppings, I didn't even order like, lettuce, tomato and onion, or whatever. And I considered taking the bun off when I got home and just making it a bacon and beef kind of something very compliant in the carnivore World. In fact, I'll tell you some more secrets that I have, but I ate the bun, I just did.

And also as I've been going to I'd eidos, Which is my It Cafe on around. That's on Walter Reed, near Columbia Pike and I've been eating their unmolested, vegetable. Omelet with rye bread toast, whenever I order a meal there, it's mostly eggs but there are vegetables and the dry. Right toast and I when I want to cheat, I'll do that. Otherwise, some of the things I cheat with is I'll have I'll have she said she's her own chicharrones. I'll have crispy, you know, pork skin or whatever it's called and that will be a cheat.

Instead of instead of chips I will cheat with if it's not easy to get it. If I ran out of beef or whatever, if I ran out of, I will eat deli roast beef, which you're not supposed to. I will eat some spam, I will eat some beef, hot dogs, I will eat canned roast beef, which is just awful. I will have those kinds of processed crappy things. If I get caught out, Out.

And I really need a big protein and fat beef experience. I will order a number of McDonald's, triple cheeseburgers and I will throw away the buns or give them to my crows or you won't believe it. I over-ordered and I went into the park to eat my Burgers. Leaving the bunsby. Behind. I might have told this story and there was like a homeless guy looking at me and he walked over and I had an extra Quarter Pounder so I gave it to him.

And then embarrassingly I said, Hey listen, I do not want to foist, a bunch of buns on you. I feel like I don't want to give like I'll never offer to a guest. I will never offer them something I wouldn't enjoy eating myself so I only have a quarter pounder left and I will give that to you, but I also have like five McDonald's. Cheeseburger, triple buns left over as well, in these bad in this bag and I'm intending just to throw them out. So if you'd like, instead of having a 10 Patty burger with two buns, you can have a one patty.

Burger with 10 buns. So he accepted I gave him a bottle of water and that was our interaction, but but yeah, it's a Thing. If you go into Reddit and you look it up people, often times like freaking dollar menu, the hell at a McDonald's and throw away. The, you know, they might order special or you just order the default ones and scrape off the stuff. You don't want to eat. In general, in addition to that.

And I, this is so boring. I'm sorry. But in addition that I generally don't eat after 6, generally don't eat after three, I don't eat until like 9 or 10 in the morning. And so, I used to try to do one meal a day and then not eat for 23 hours or do a 20/4. Or 20: for diet, where I would eat in a four hour window and fast for 20 hours. But the, the carnivore diet is so relatively relatively restricted and restrictive anyway, that it really didn't matter counting calories that closely doesn't seem to matter. There are The people in the court of our diet might do, they might wonder over the fridge and take a bite out of a or cut out of a bar of butter.

Because believe it or not. If you're a weightlifter, you need to keep up with your protein but carnivore diet is not a high protein diet. It is a no a no carb and no carbohydrate diet. But it is a moderate protein and a high fat diet and here's the rub. The rub is all of this stuff requires a whole.

Heck, like the most intentional thing in this diet and this is really important. The most intentional thing that you have to keep on top of with this diet is hydration and making sure that you get your electrolytes. Like I said, those those Crazy. Where is it donde? Donde, donde, those crazy element.

Let me see. I got one here. One, element packet. Gives you 1000 mg of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium in 60 milligrams of magnesium. Now, I make sure that most of my water has at least one packet of Elementary in it. I picked up an entire.

I don't know why I picked up. 101.4 fluid ounce Deer Park. I bought two of those and so I've got like 200 to fluid ounces of Deer Park water and I put two packets. Of of Element e and each each one they say that each packet is enough for around 20-30 ounces of water. So I put in 60 ounces worth of Element e and 100 ounces of water. And at that level I think that it's, it's diluted enough. Just to give me not to over hydrate, you know, not too. Over saturate me with sodium or or do anything like that, but make sure that the electrolytes are kept to a good enough standard.

So it's really important. Here's another thing. If you think of of If you think of food is as medicine, you also have to get the dose rate, right? So when they say 8 glasses of water, they're referring to someone and have 150 pounds right to be honest. Like hey Google, how many ounces are in 3 l 3?

L is equivalent to 100 1.44 to fluid ounces to Art from leaders to fluid ounces. Multiply units of volume by 33.8 one. So, I theoretically need 155 to 160 5 fluid ounces of water a day, right? Eight glasses of water. A day 8 times. 8 is 64 64 ounces of water. A day is appropriate for You pound person. I was a 350-pound person.

So my requirements for water were double that, right? So 16 glasses of water a day to be appropriate to my physical size. So if you are morbidly obese and you're only drinking 8 ounces of water times eight a day, 64 ounces of water a day, you are Are you are dehydrated, you're chronically dehydrated and it's not easy. They say it's not easy to maintain to maintain three and fifty pounds but it's it's enjoyable, right? Like being like being fat is its own reward, right?

You get to eat and eat and eat. If you love eating then freaking, you get to eat and eat and eat, right? Like it's not, it's not torture if you heat food. Maintaining 350 pounds is hard, but drinking 165 155. 150 ounces of water. Every day.

You can just like, if you don't pay attention, ours will go away and you won't have any water and you need to make sure that you are not getting dehydrated. One thing that my withing scale does is it tells me when I'm losing A muscle when I'm losing bone density and when I'm losing, when I'm under hydrated. So even though I don't weigh myself that often I am currently, and I need to work out way more. I walk a lot, but I need to get onto my urge and I need to get to the gym and do some serious weight training because like my muscles are atrophying when I get back, I'll tell you how much, how much torture really was being 350 pounds. I'll talk to you in a few. I don't know.

Is it on apple plus TV Apple TV Plus or where is it? But there's a TV show called the consultant and this is going to be a I'll give you warning like if you haven't seen the show yet I don't want there to be spoilers but one of the issues in the show is that the consultant can't climb stairs without help. And it turns out that this magical creature is Only Human by appearance and that he is sort of if you will a, an evil Pagan Golem and he was created by the hands of a jeweler who hand created every single bone in a human skeleton. Out of gold. So according to Google an entire human skeleton.

Made of gold is 200 pounds. Hey Google, how much is a human skeleton made completely out of gold. 0.2 mg on the website India. Today.in. OK. Google.

How much would a human skeleton way if it were made out of gold

On the website William L Han.com they say. If all that massive bone, converted to Gold, the total weight would be 102.9 six kilograms of gold and treasure on the hoof. People also, sometimes ask me how much do skeletons way? Do you want to hear the answer? No. So the irony here is that I am aspiring. The funny thing here is that I'm aspiring to be 100 kg and a human skull made entirely out of gold. Would be 102 kg which is around 120. 220 something pounds and that is what it's like being 350 pounds, right? It's like having a 150 pound body and then submit the, the bones on their own or around 20 pounds. So a, a gold bones would be if you will 200 more pounds than regular bones skeleton, skeletal bones, so that extra 200 pounds. Is exactly what I had on my body when I was 350 pounds. So if you picture it and you see, You see the consultant unable to walk up and down stairs. You'll reach.

And because he's having these troubles because he is 120 130, 140 pound man, trying to carry an extra two hundred and twenty pounds upstairs and downstairs. You'll realize the challenges that people who are morbidly obese have and I'm not I've only lost 50 pounds have another. I've another 100 pounds to lose and so I'm not adjusted yet. I do not, I do find it. Much easier to come go up and down stairs, but I am still uncomfortable with my footing, I still feel insecure, I still feel self-conscious, I still feel like everybody's looking at me and I still tend to stick to the elevators.

I was down at the convenience store today. Buying these big bottles of Deer Park water and the women down there is the owners aunty. and even though we're probably around the same age, she tends to Mother me a little bit and today she told me that she really noticed the weight loss and asked me if I had lost weight and then warned me that maybe I'm losing weight too quickly and I don't know, someone whom I might have had an eating disorder. When I was in high school wrestling. I might have liked to not eat ever and felt Superior to everybody around me by not eating and going out with my friends, to McDonald's and feeling Superior to them, because I only would drink glasses of water at McDonald's.

Those kind of things, but and then needing to get below 180. As a six foot three kid in muscular wrestler, to have to do all of my runs and in rubber suits, and it all the time, and chew, bubblegum, and chew gum, and spit the water out and other kinds of crazy things. I might have eating disorder predilection, that sort of But I do not think that I lost weight too fast. In fact, it was extremely slow and I hit setbacks and I hit plateaus and I would get injured and feel sorry for myself and maybe have a pint of ice cream or do something like that. And so, I did hit a number of plateaus so I feel like the here's the thing.

Here's the thing about the The exponential, the ability to when you lose weight, it's exponentially easier to lose more weight. And let me explain. It's like the hockey stick, right? You barely can hobble around it for me. Six foot three 53. 52 or whatever.

Moving around 32 50 pounds isn't easy, right? I would go on these walks and so forth but like I would walk slow, you know, it would burn a lot of calories if you were three and 50 pounds. It's like rucking with 150 pounds in your back, right? You do people get pissed when they see when I go to spin class and stuff. How many calories I burned but they adjust for how much you Way, right? So it's all proportionate calories, don't be jealous. But the lighter, I get, the more I want to be active. The more I want to be outside.

The more I want to get on the Urge of the rowing machine, which of the same thing, or the skier or the or even my bicycle outside and taking the stairs. And all these other things are becoming more and more opened up to me with the goal. That I want to do a weekly parkrun every Saturday at Roosevelt Island. I want to get on my bike cycle, down there, do a slow jogging 5K and then you know, meet new people and maybe you know, afterwards walk in a DC or bike in a DC, you know, living outdoorsy kind of Life. Have some fun in the city that I'm in be a little bit less.

Of a shut-in if I am and there's a lot to look forward to. I am not going to change this diet, but if the doctor says that I should have zucchini and yellow squash and avocado, and olives, I will really enjoy adding those things. I would love love to along, you know, to have a plate bisected with, you know, Beef on one side and a big thing of sautéed butter. I can do that butter, sauteed, zucchini and yellow squash on the other what a joy and and I feel like it's really getting closer. I feel like it's getting really closer.

Other news, right? After this break,

So, in addition to, this, my friend kaushik has an open invitation to me, to go to the gym during the hours that he's there. So I will be heading down, starting next week, probably every day down to Crystal City and to the gym down there and spend, you know, two hours and evening just getting my gym, rat feedback, you know, doing some some not Some Smith. Some body weight, exercises dumbbells. I don't know if they have any free weights, but I would like to at least emulate deadlifts and emulate other types of things and squats and machines and pull-downs, and lat pull-downs and heavy rows and leg presses and all that other fun stuff, I'm really excited about it. And I'll just go down there every day. Like, I'll bring my phone so I could do, if I want, I can do a or data, I can do my rowing down there, I can do whatever it takes down there.

I can take my meds at like 6 p.m. and then immediately, turn around and bicycle and eventually jog down to Planet Fitness and Crystal City Hit or Miss. Whether or not, I see kaushik He's really having some great success. Really getting pumped every day. Getting completely jacked. He's like the, he's like the

He's completely become a Marvel hero. He says that he only has a swell that he only has like that. He's only jacked for an hour after he works out, but that's the way everybody's everybody's body works out especially if they're not extremely lean. So everybody has a pump at the gym. Has a pump right after the Jim.

That's why when people are about to do their, their big photo shoots or their shirtless scenes in movies and televisions, they always do so ABS, I've got to do. Lots and lots of ABS, I've got to do burpees, I've got to do planks. I've got to do roller ABS. I've got to do all these things. And so I'm really excited to start doing that. I'll start next week. and, You know, we'll see what happens, like, the last six months have felt like forever, right. It's been so many times of desperation and, you know, honestly, I don't feel that much thinner. I'm the clothes don't hang off me. I don't really notice whether I've the fifty pounds is just, you know, did I keep all the wrong places? Like, I don't feel Like I'm swimming in my clothes, I don't feel like my jeans are completely loose and baggy on me, I don't feel like I'm ready to be at the point of buying an entirely new wardrobe.

So that might be such a an extreme amount of obesity of morbid obesity on me that it's like, inconceivable, but I take it that the next 80 to 100 pounds is going to be much more noticeable. Isabel and I'm very excited about it. So that's the strategy. The strategy is, and it worked right? Whatever they say about Kita or whatever they say about intermittent fasting or whatever they say about carnivore diet.

You know, recently in the last few days there's been a lot of articles about how the keto diet is going to give you strokes and make you die. But having an extra Frick an extra 200 pounds, 100, get 200. Extra basically if we're going to compare everything to 150 pounds, like I should be 180, right? So it's it's 170. 170, extra pounds, right? That's that's a lot of that's Anand. That's like carrying around a pretty good. Shaped five-foot-ten, like, man, like, on my back all the time or, you know, like a normal shape to American woman. Hey goal, what's the average weight of an American woman? Hey, Google, what is the average weight of an American woman? 170 points 6 pounds on the website Health line.com. They say the average American woman, 20 years old, and up weighs 170 point six pounds and stands at sixty three point seven inches tall, and the average waist. Circumference, it's thirty eight point six inches. So it's like walking around with an average American woman on top of me, all the, or like, on my back, like, on my front on my sides all the time.

And that's what it's like. So I still don't feel it. Like I still, it's all numbers. It's all numbers and what other people see, and, and weigh-ins and so forth. I'm just not feeling. I look in the mirror, I see the same fat face. I look in the mirror.

I see the same gigantic belly, like I do not see it yet and I'm hoping to really start Either I've got, you know, body dysmorphia where I cannot see the loss of weight in the mirror. Like it's literally impossible for now or it just hasn't turned a corner and there's just been so much fluff and so much extra weight that I that it's not really going to like the final hundred is going to be the real change maker there. So I'm hoping for that. Until then I'm going to be is extremely strict as I can be.

When I gave up carbs and in March 2020, I gave up drinking, you know how like your friends are like the moment I gave up beer, the moment I gave up bread or whatever. I melted weights like that didn't happen to me like I have to be really vigorous and rigorous like I have to aim at 1500 calories every day. Even though I know it'll either be 2000 or 2500 by the end of the day, just because of, you know, dumb shit need to be careful not to eat too late. I need to be careful about what I do. Eat, I get to be careful about portion control.

I have to be careful about all those things because I do not have the satiation button anymore. What I I made a joke today that someone didn't laugh at about gluttony. In my, you know, mortal sin sometimes sloth but oftentimes gluttony and I think that if you have a combination of sloth and gluttony, those are very hard things to know to live through, right? Those the reasons why gloss sloth and gluttony are on the seven. Deadly sins is because they're literally deadly sins, right? Murder might be deadly to someone. Else.

But gluttony and sloth is murder to yourself like gluttony and sloth are a kind of, I wouldn't say it's an Irish suicide because that's drinking yourself to death or that's getting drunk and having a cop kill you. But I would say, maybe it's an American suicide. American suicide is through sloth and gluttony I do not know if that's true anymore because the Fentanyl and opioid crisis, but I would say, traditionally speaking, heart disease and the other kinds of chronic. Chronic diseases that result in early death Nat, they call them natural death. But like those kumu comorbidities that allow you to get struck down by simple things like colds, and flus and so forth are things.

You really have to worry about anyway. I really appreciate you listening to me. I don't know if this was useful at all, I didn't script it. So it's completely completely off the cuff and it shows I can tell already that it is a complete giant mass but hopefully one person on Mastodon will appreciate it and I will talk to you soon with closing remarks. Love you guys. All right, season 5, episode 2 about my journey. I do not know if I covered everything or nothing, if you have questions, please let me know. You can follow me on Mastodon at Chris at Abraham .su you can email me chris@chrisderose.com,

you can call or text me at + 12 0 to 35 to 50 51. You can find me at Chris Abraham.com. You can find me at Twitter at Chris Abraham on Twitter at Chris Abraham on Instagram. You can find me Chris Dash, Abraham.com on Tumblr. I am user, Chris Abraham on Reddit. And if you use plus 1 20 to 35, to 50 51, I think you can also like, I said, text me, but you can also telegram me, you can signal me, you can WhatsApp me, etcetera, etc, etc. So that's it.

You can follow me or subscribe to me on any of the Casting platforms, but my home base has anchored FM /. Chris Abraham? Maybe? I don't know. And I'll talk to you soon, please. Give me any kind of feedback.

I'd be really appreciative. Lots of love. Bye. Thank you for listening to the Chris Abraham show. Make sure you subscribe.

So you don't miss any future episodes until next time.

Hey.