Living with massive health risk's was not an option

Losing 10% - 15% of my bodyweight would have left me living with massive health risks 

At my heaviest I was around 330lbs, well I stopped getting weighed once I had hit 330, it could have been more, and I'm only 5ft 10, not exactly tall am I, but once I was in the dark pit of hitting rock bottom getting weighed wasn't my biggest concern  

When I started my weight loss journey I knew two things 

1. I was not prepared to stay this weight, this unhealthy and this unhappy 
2. If I didn't do anything I was going to die young 

When I told people what my goals were, to lose at least 100 lbs and look and feel amazing I was told it cant be done, you cant do that, this coming from people that had never achieved a fcking thing, obvious alarm bells ringing not to listen to these people 

I told them I wanted to look like a bodybuilder, no that will never happen they said, you gonna have loads of loose skin, they got that wrong too, although i did admit to myself this could be a real issue, but I put my trust in the way I was approaching this weight loss and life transformation journey and we would figure it out when and if we got there - yes we did 

Now those that know my story know the outcome, this blog post isn't about my story, it's about other people telling you what your goals should be and one thing I recently keep seeing is "weight loss" guru / doctors / trainers repeating this notion that aiming to lose 10%- 15% of bodyweight and keep that weight off would be the best approach for those looking to lose weight - that's others telling you what your goals should be 

So let's go with that 10 - 15%, that means that i would be living with been anywhere between 280 lbs and 300 lbs still 

Now like I said earlier I am not exactly tall and this would mean at those bodyweight's my health risks would still have been massive 

At risk of heart attacks, strokes, type 2 diabetes, cancers, heart disease 

I've seen this claim that losing just 10% - 15% of bodyweight would give health benefits and a better quality of life 

Now if you are massively overweight like I was this isn't making any difference, the impact on my life would have been insignificant, but I guess it's easy to give advice when you haven't been overweight or lived with those health risks 

I was never going to set out to just lose "a little weight" and still live with massive health risks, I was all in 

I think a lot of this comes from the claim that 95% of people that lose weight regain it all back within 3 years (Fat Loss Forever - Dr Layne Norton) and this has been spun to claim that 95% of people that diet fail, these are not the same thing, realistically, we all follow some type of diet 

People are very successful with losing weight, dieting, they just not successful with keeping that weight off, something I have done for over 20 years, but then my approach isn't doing what others have done or are telling you to do

Trying to make out that weight loss success rates are high isn't been honest, but then we are on about the fitness industry, very few are honest

​Ian - Formerly Obese