First off- congratulations, that’s an awesome accomplishment.

On fitness “advice”, solicited and otherwise. I am a long time fitness enthusiast, I look like a bodybuilder. This makes one a bit of a pariah in the startup/tech community. Geeks are not muscular, if you are into body modification from a transhumanist perspective you’d best do it in some socially acceptable way like piercing or tattoos. This means people are perfectly comfortable telling you, positive or negative precisely what they think of how you look in a manner that they would never consider doing with an overweight person.

Part of this is posing fitness “questions” under the impression that in a business environment, dressed in professional attire, what I really want to talk about how I happen to look. 90% of these are not really questions, they are round about ways of making it clear to me they are not responsible for how they look- as if I care or am judging them somehow.

The other 10% of questions there is nothing really you can do for them even if you were inclined- “tightening their core”, “get cut and put on some muscle”, “Best exercise for a six-pack” are no more answerable than “My Internet is slow, what is the best computer to buy to make it go faster?”. All you can do is shake the Magic 8 ball and give them a spectacularly oversimplified answer that won’t do any harm, but unless it’s the answer they already have in mind they will just ignore you. The real answer for "where do I start" is not something they want or will do so I never bother giving it anymore.

It may feel like you had a great epiphany, but it’s highly unlikely that you discovered some groundbreaking new method for body recomposition. Outside of the realm of very, very elite athletes none of this data is proprietary or secret. All of the information that most people need to achieve a reasonable fitness goal is freely available- they just have other priorities and there is nothing wrong with that. These people are not unfit because they have not heard your secrets to losing 60lbs in a year, they are unfit because that goal is not a priority in the same way it was for you. Trumpeting, or in my experience even relaying your own methods does not achieve much unless you are a professional in the business of charging for that information.

That being said, if it it personally satisfying it’s certainly something you should do.

There is nothing new at all about what I did. I do not claim to have new or proprietary information. In fact as I've met with friends who seek me out to learn more, that's what I start my answers with. "I have bad news for you, it's mostly what you already know."

Again, I said said to the poster below, I continue to be fascinated with how others interpret words in their own filter. I never claimed anything I did was "proprietary or secret"--that assumption came from you.

That said, I learned things that appear, at least in early conversations to be useful to others, or new to them. What is perhaps driving me is how many people are asking for more information. Perhaps because I was so overweight for so long people see it differently. I am surprised to find people telling me I inspire them. If I can help others figure some part of this out, or it unlocks just one good habit for them, it'll be worth it. I'm definitely not looking to get rich or sell anything. I see this as my gift to my friends or anyone else who cares to read it. I see this as a gift to myself, a celebration of my own accomplishment, a record and a motivation, and the gift of not having to have 20 more 2 hour conversations about it. :)

Random idea... what about a browser plugin that presents a random tip on opening a new tab or starting up? I can't imagine you'll rise above the noise with books, videos, or blogs.

now that's some hacker news ingenuity. exactly why I came here. Love it.

I don't really know how to "answer" here. Do what you want in the manner you want to do it. At some point, you have to question the "Why am I interested in doing this?" question. Is it ego? Is it to be helpful? Is it to show off? Do you ultimately want to become the next Jared [1]? What's the end goal here?

I'm not judging - I'm pointing out a valid discussion you need to have internally. This post makes it seem more ego-driven - and there's nothing wrong with that. But having that internal discussion will help you solve a lot of this.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Fogle

the end goal is to help people in a scalable way. Sorry it comes off as ego driven. I'm sincerely trying to find out what people care about before being one of those people who write about themselves.

I've wrestled with a few different structures and thought it would be fun to put this out there and see what happens.

I find it interesting how often others want to assign motivations to each other. Reminds me of the time I was at a professional function, and ordered the fruit. All of a sudden half the table was staring at me, and making comments, like "oh I worked out today, I can have this" even though I'd said absolutely nothing.

for now, I'm asking you to trust that my motivations are sincere and trying to find the best way to share.

It is still not clear how you wish to help people. Maybe, posting your story in reddit/r/loseit would help? Otherwise, write a blog or go on a tour and talk about what you did.

P.S: Congrats on the weight loss. It is a hard long process and I hope you were able to learn good habits which make it a lifestyle rather than a question of going on periodic diets.

thanks. the answer is yes. otherwise I wouldn't feel I had much to share. I've been a/b testing on myself, in series, for awhile.

You could start a MLM life-coaching business. I met a lady in an entrepreneurship class I was taking was was working in one of those. She had a similar weight story to you.

I don't necessarily advocate this by the way. The point I want to make is that the best way to scale 1-1 conversations is to have other people participate in the conversation as well. For some things, weight loss being of them I think, 1-1 conversations with a person telling their story is more powerful than other methods of communication. Even books(which are my favorite, you can always write a book).

LOL! no, I'm a product/tech geek through and through. running a pure services business is not for me. That said, the idea of scaling the conversation with others is exactly the type of idea I was seeking on hacker news.

Writing a book? I've thought perhaps if any writing I were to do were well received, I might try an ebook, but given the work of the startup it's not a priority.

Two of the most important things when it comes to weight loss are motivation and dedication. You have to want to lose weight to an almost emotional degree, and the dedication to keep at what you need to do to continue to lose weight even if your body starts to create excuses.

It's hard to get people inspired to do so though. It's often something that person has to become driven to do.

Alternatively, one can join the Marine Corps and let the drill instructors in boot camp motivate you to exercise.

>Alternatively, one can join the Marine Corps and let the drill instructors in boot camp motivate you to exercise.

Except weight loss is more about diet than exercise. If you're looking for that motivation (while not strictly necessary for weight loss, exercise can be motivating toward being healthy), a less drastic alternative it to get private instruction at a gym or through an activity such as pilates.

Many people have written about their weight loss / body transformation experiences on reddit.com/r/loseit and reddit.com/r/fitness; do some searches to get an idea about what others have written and the responses they got.

excellent suggestions of resources. thank you!

I agree with the idea of motivation. An anecdote for the OP:

In the past when trying to workout it would generally go something like this:

* Immediate motivation, go strong for 1-3 weeks.

* Work or lack of interest interferes with workout regimen.

* Eventually interest dies out and I stop going.

What helped me break this cycle was finding motivation by:

* Doing things I liked to supplement the 'work' part. This meant playing racquetball, ultimate frisbee, and cycling while lifting.

* Learning about the benefits beyond looking physically attractive.

* Going consistently that a habit has formed.

Seriously, I feel different if I miss my gym routine for a day. Hope it helps as you think about your own material to write about.

I lost 40. Put on a fitbit, set the weight goal and did what it says to do - EVERY DAY. Took about 2-3 months. I didn't find it hard.

I know many people struggle. What fascinates me about the experience - I'm no different than anyone else, but this was not painful or even difficult. I just kinda blindly did what it says to do. People fail. Isn't the trick not what to do, everyone knows how a body loses weight. How do you trigger in people's minds the motivation and discipline? Now, I'm generally pretty lazy. I don't like chores. I just walked my 10k steps logged my food and it didn't seem like work.

errr - tell me more ... the fit it tells you what to do?

in singapore, we have a conscript army. after our stint in the army, theres 10 years of reservist activities and a requirement to pass a fitness test yearly. failing that fitness test generally means 2mths of 2-3 2+ hours' remedial training sessions/week. a couple of years ago an option became available to overweight people to lose weight and hit some sort of bmi target in lieu of passing the fitness test. that is the motivation. i lost ~20 kgs(waaaay overdid it) in a couple of months by replacing all the rice in my diet to brocolli or tofu and smoking more instead of snacking. the problem i have this year is i dont qualify for that weight loss program anymore..