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I'm inching close to 21 years old and I've been the guy who was a little chubby for as long as I remember. I don't think anyone would point at me and call me seriously obese, but the numbers worry me, plus I'd like to get into better shape.
All throughout middle school and high school I overstressed myself a lot. I dealt with clinically diagnosed insomnia (still do), clinical depression, a serious lack of motivation that I couldn't control and whenever it lead to a bad outcome, I'd feel even worse, terrible self esteem issues, etc... etc... I had so much aspiration to change my life, but I just couldn't do it.
Now that I'm getting into college, something's changed. I'm able to buckle down and focus when needed and that has turned me from a D-average student back in high school to being on the Dean's List at my local community college three semesters in a row in a fairly competitive program. I've started making certain changes to enhance my appearance (sure I may be a big guy, and probably not all that attractive, but at least I try to make myself look nice instead of not caring, I think that's a plus), and my self confidence has really gone through the roof. It seemed like an overnight change. I just woke up one morning and felt that it was the beginning of a new life for me.
During my later years of high school I opted to get a surgical reconstructive surgery done on my left foot. I was born with severely flat feet and as I grew closer to adulthood the inconvenience grew in severity. It hurt to stand for more than 5 minutes at that point. It took me a couple of months to recover from the surgery and left left leg still doesn't have as strong of muscles as my right left does (I can hardly lift myself up with my toes on one foot when standing on my left foot, but no problem at all when doing so with my right foot). Even after the surgery, my feet give me problems, just not as bad as they used to be by far.
Needless to say, during the recovery process I had a ton of free time and I started lifting weights during the months I was confined to my bed. I feel I've really made progress in building upper-body mass and I've continued, albeit off and on, to lift weights over the years. Never anything to build large amounts of muscle, just enough to keep the muscle mass I already have and not to lose the strength.
Even though I haven't put on a lot of muscle, I went from having no muscle and a chunky body to having quite a bit of upper body muscle along with all the chunkiness from before. Besides my muscle gain, I've maintained, proportionally, the same body size ever since I was a young teen, but as I've grown, the weight has grown heavier as well.
Now I've seen people with documented weights of around 300 pounds, and they looked terrible. People that would be classified as morbidly obese. I am just under 300 pounds myself and when I tell people, they seriously don't believe me. They think that I weight a lot less, and honest to god I swear I don't look it (Sorry don't have pictures). I shot from just over 200 to a little under 300 in a couple of years where the only thing different I did was lift weights and I know I don't have that much weight of muscle mass. In fact, when I first attended university (before I decided to get my associates first) I met up with an old friend that I hadn't seen sense I had my foot surgery. The first thing she said to me was "Wow! You've lost a lot of weight!"
So honestly, I don't feel like I weight that much. I don't feel that out of shape. I can be physically active without feeling out of breath after short periods of time.
The thing is, I want to get this extra weight off of me. I seem to be a master of maintaining a body size, but every time I try to lose weight, I don't make much progress. I've tried regularly exercise, I've tried replacing my sodas with water, I've tried dietary changes as well, nothing really gets me much success in weight loss. I'm just wondering what it is I can do that that would fit with my life style. I have plenty of free time, but I can't do serious aerobic exercise on behalf of my bad feet. I have certain commitments that require to spend a lot of my time not being terribly active, but I still have plenty of extra time.
I'm a three meals a day kind of guy with not much else in between and I keep weird hours but usually still get plenty of sleep. Something I've recently taken a liking to is fixing eggs and toast when I wake up around noon, I usually eat what my mother cooks for dinner as my lunch (I'm living at home while I get my education taken care of, at least the lesser degrees) and I heat up something easy to fix, usually microwaveable, for my dinner. I do drink a bit of soda, but not huge amounts.
I was just wondering if anyone has any advice for me, somewhere where I can start. Are there any sort of exercises that I could be doing that wouldn't be too intensive on my bad feet? I know weight lifting isn't really exercise aimed at losing weight.
I'm thinking about cutting out all my sodas again and replacing it with water. Maybe one soda a day with my dinner, just because I really like flavor when I'm drinking something. I'm going to keep fixing myself eggs and toast in the morning, but is there something else I could add to that to give me a more filling meal with more nutrients? Any kind of meat that wouldn't be too difficult to prepare?
I'll also try to make it a point to eat some fruit between my meals, but I usually just forget to eat until I get really hungry. I should probably also find something to replace my easy microwave solutions for my evening meal, any suggestions? Another hindering factor is that I don't have much money at all to go out of my way to buy these self-proclaimed "health foods" that are often more expensive, if anyone has any suggestions I'd kindly appreciate them.
Does it sound like I have some strong foundations for success if I keep with my own personal suggestions and follow the advice any of you have to offer me?
Another thing I'm wondering.
I've seen before and after picture of people with much lower weights than I who have much larger, fattier bodies than I do. The after pictures show significant changes in their size, but not a huge change in weight. I've seen dramatic B&A pics with only 20 pounds of weight loss. Is there anything in particular I can do to target losing mostly fat like I assume these people have done?
I mean, at my weight, a loss of 20 pounds I wouldn't imagine would bring a huge change in my appearance unless it was mostly pure fat.
I'm looking to get in shape... and again, I just have no idea exactly where to start. I know it will be a long process over time. Any advice or pointers would gladly be appreciated.
I'm inching close to 21 years old and I've been the guy who was a little chubby for as long as I remember. I don't think anyone would point at me and call me seriously obese, but the numbers worry me, plus I'd like to get into better shape.
All throughout middle school and high school I overstressed myself a lot. I dealt with clinically diagnosed insomnia (still do), clinical depression, a serious lack of motivation that I couldn't control and whenever it lead to a bad outcome, I'd feel even worse, terrible self esteem issues, etc... etc... I had so much aspiration to change my life, but I just couldn't do it.
Now that I'm getting into college, something's changed. I'm able to buckle down and focus when needed and that has turned me from a D-average student back in high school to being on the Dean's List at my local community college three semesters in a row in a fairly competitive program. I've started making certain changes to enhance my appearance (sure I may be a big guy, and probably not all that attractive, but at least I try to make myself look nice instead of not caring, I think that's a plus), and my self confidence has really gone through the roof. It seemed like an overnight change. I just woke up one morning and felt that it was the beginning of a new life for me.
During my later years of high school I opted to get a surgical reconstructive surgery done on my left foot. I was born with severely flat feet and as I grew closer to adulthood the inconvenience grew in severity. It hurt to stand for more than 5 minutes at that point. It took me a couple of months to recover from the surgery and left left leg still doesn't have as strong of muscles as my right left does (I can hardly lift myself up with my toes on one foot when standing on my left foot, but no problem at all when doing so with my right foot). Even after the surgery, my feet give me problems, just not as bad as they used to be by far.
Needless to say, during the recovery process I had a ton of free time and I started lifting weights during the months I was confined to my bed. I feel I've really made progress in building upper-body mass and I've continued, albeit off and on, to lift weights over the years. Never anything to build large amounts of muscle, just enough to keep the muscle mass I already have and not to lose the strength.
Even though I haven't put on a lot of muscle, I went from having no muscle and a chunky body to having quite a bit of upper body muscle along with all the chunkiness from before. Besides my muscle gain, I've maintained, proportionally, the same body size ever since I was a young teen, but as I've grown, the weight has grown heavier as well.
Now I've seen people with documented weights of around 300 pounds, and they looked terrible. People that would be classified as morbidly obese. I am just under 300 pounds myself and when I tell people, they seriously don't believe me. They think that I weight a lot less, and honest to god I swear I don't look it (Sorry don't have pictures). I shot from just over 200 to a little under 300 in a couple of years where the only thing different I did was lift weights and I know I don't have that much weight of muscle mass. In fact, when I first attended university (before I decided to get my associates first) I met up with an old friend that I hadn't seen sense I had my foot surgery. The first thing she said to me was "Wow! You've lost a lot of weight!"
So honestly, I don't feel like I weight that much. I don't feel that out of shape. I can be physically active without feeling out of breath after short periods of time.
The thing is, I want to get this extra weight off of me. I seem to be a master of maintaining a body size, but every time I try to lose weight, I don't make much progress. I've tried regularly exercise, I've tried replacing my sodas with water, I've tried dietary changes as well, nothing really gets me much success in weight loss. I'm just wondering what it is I can do that that would fit with my life style. I have plenty of free time, but I can't do serious aerobic exercise on behalf of my bad feet. I have certain commitments that require to spend a lot of my time not being terribly active, but I still have plenty of extra time.
I'm a three meals a day kind of guy with not much else in between and I keep weird hours but usually still get plenty of sleep. Something I've recently taken a liking to is fixing eggs and toast when I wake up around noon, I usually eat what my mother cooks for dinner as my lunch (I'm living at home while I get my education taken care of, at least the lesser degrees) and I heat up something easy to fix, usually microwaveable, for my dinner. I do drink a bit of soda, but not huge amounts.
I was just wondering if anyone has any advice for me, somewhere where I can start. Are there any sort of exercises that I could be doing that wouldn't be too intensive on my bad feet? I know weight lifting isn't really exercise aimed at losing weight.
I'm thinking about cutting out all my sodas again and replacing it with water. Maybe one soda a day with my dinner, just because I really like flavor when I'm drinking something. I'm going to keep fixing myself eggs and toast in the morning, but is there something else I could add to that to give me a more filling meal with more nutrients? Any kind of meat that wouldn't be too difficult to prepare?
I'll also try to make it a point to eat some fruit between my meals, but I usually just forget to eat until I get really hungry. I should probably also find something to replace my easy microwave solutions for my evening meal, any suggestions? Another hindering factor is that I don't have much money at all to go out of my way to buy these self-proclaimed "health foods" that are often more expensive, if anyone has any suggestions I'd kindly appreciate them.
Does it sound like I have some strong foundations for success if I keep with my own personal suggestions and follow the advice any of you have to offer me?
Another thing I'm wondering.
I've seen before and after picture of people with much lower weights than I who have much larger, fattier bodies than I do. The after pictures show significant changes in their size, but not a huge change in weight. I've seen dramatic B&A pics with only 20 pounds of weight loss. Is there anything in particular I can do to target losing mostly fat like I assume these people have done?
I mean, at my weight, a loss of 20 pounds I wouldn't imagine would bring a huge change in my appearance unless it was mostly pure fat.
I'm looking to get in shape... and again, I just have no idea exactly where to start. I know it will be a long process over time. Any advice or pointers would gladly be appreciated.
