Hey everyone, first of all, this is my first post here, so... hey! I've been looking around online for some good fitness forums, and I guess fitness.com was an obvious choice.
I don't know for sure if this is where I'm supposed to put stuff like this, but here goes anyway.
I've been overweight for much of my life (I'm 18 now) and I've never really had the willpower to do anything about it. Every once in a while I'd pretend like I was going to diet, but it was usually a very short term thing (think a day). Well, last year I decided I would try to make a difference and actually lose weight, try to look better and be healthier for myself. I'm around 5'8 in height, and when I made this decision I was about 187 pounds. I'm not positive how much overweight that's considered to be for my height, but I know it's probably at least a good 30 or so over.
Basically I started eating less and working out, which was all relatively new for me. I can't say that I really dieted or lost weight the recommended way, but I did what I did. I stopped eating breakfast, and started drinking protein shakes instead. After a while, I started skipping lunches too and drinking water or something besides soda at lunch time. Now I know that skipping meals is considered unhealthy and is supposed to actually slow metabolism, thus negating any weight loss, but it didn't really, and it seemed to work. For my workouts, I would do some sort of cardio for about 30 minutes, usually at least 3 or 4 times a week, and sometimes I would do simple things like pushups or sit ups, since I lack a lot of equipment and I don't really want to leave the house to work out.
Basically, starting in September at 187, I started losing about 2 pounds a week, which I've read on several sites is the healthy amount to lose if you're trying to lose weight. I was pleased with this, so I continued with what I was doing. Now, in January of the new year, I'm down to about 157 pounds, a 30 pound weight loss. The problem is, I don't feel like I look that much better. I can tell that I've lost some weight and look somewhat better, but for 30 pounds I feel like I should see a lot more improvement. A friend told me that "what was left was just flab" and I should eat more food, specifically proteins, and work on weight training to "tighten up" this stuff. I don't know for sure about that, because it still feels like quite a bit of fat. I also consider that I'm still probably considered overweight, and maybe I should just continue what I'm doing until I'm down around 140 or so; maybe then things will look a lot better.
In summary, I've lost about 30 pounds in the past 4 months or so, but I don't feel like I look that much better. Do I have a ways to go? Should I try new things? Any advice, please?
Thanks.
I don't know for sure if this is where I'm supposed to put stuff like this, but here goes anyway.
I've been overweight for much of my life (I'm 18 now) and I've never really had the willpower to do anything about it. Every once in a while I'd pretend like I was going to diet, but it was usually a very short term thing (think a day). Well, last year I decided I would try to make a difference and actually lose weight, try to look better and be healthier for myself. I'm around 5'8 in height, and when I made this decision I was about 187 pounds. I'm not positive how much overweight that's considered to be for my height, but I know it's probably at least a good 30 or so over.
Basically I started eating less and working out, which was all relatively new for me. I can't say that I really dieted or lost weight the recommended way, but I did what I did. I stopped eating breakfast, and started drinking protein shakes instead. After a while, I started skipping lunches too and drinking water or something besides soda at lunch time. Now I know that skipping meals is considered unhealthy and is supposed to actually slow metabolism, thus negating any weight loss, but it didn't really, and it seemed to work. For my workouts, I would do some sort of cardio for about 30 minutes, usually at least 3 or 4 times a week, and sometimes I would do simple things like pushups or sit ups, since I lack a lot of equipment and I don't really want to leave the house to work out.
Basically, starting in September at 187, I started losing about 2 pounds a week, which I've read on several sites is the healthy amount to lose if you're trying to lose weight. I was pleased with this, so I continued with what I was doing. Now, in January of the new year, I'm down to about 157 pounds, a 30 pound weight loss. The problem is, I don't feel like I look that much better. I can tell that I've lost some weight and look somewhat better, but for 30 pounds I feel like I should see a lot more improvement. A friend told me that "what was left was just flab" and I should eat more food, specifically proteins, and work on weight training to "tighten up" this stuff. I don't know for sure about that, because it still feels like quite a bit of fat. I also consider that I'm still probably considered overweight, and maybe I should just continue what I'm doing until I'm down around 140 or so; maybe then things will look a lot better.
In summary, I've lost about 30 pounds in the past 4 months or so, but I don't feel like I look that much better. Do I have a ways to go? Should I try new things? Any advice, please?
Thanks.