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1. I am really self conscious (i.e., feel really uncomfortable at the gym, walking outside, etc.).
2. I usually have no idea what I am doing at the gym or with my diet.
3. I cannot keep my motivation up.
If anyone can give me set advice, I would really appreciate it. The overall issue is that I feel like my health knowledge is limited and I don't want this lack of knowledge to stop me anymore. I want to be able to have stable information so I can finally lose weight. If anyone can help, I would truly appreciate it.
You said you're a college student, right? I was also a college student when I lost about 40 lbs. I don't know where you go to college, but if you go to an actual university that has a rec center, you have an advantage as it should be an included extra in your tuition. Use that to your benefit.
Also, in college, I sought out the physical fitness programs that offered me credit for electives. I took a class called "conditioning" for 2 semesters. It was just a basic PE class with all levels of fitness. It was 5 days a week for an hour each day. We walked/ran (whatever worked for you) and we also had stations for various physical activities.
The benefit of taking these classes in college is that you trade sitting in a desk for doing an activity. You have to pay for it anyways, so why not kill two birds, right? Also, the people there are going to be your age and not as likely to be meatheads that make you feel uncomfortable. Lastly, you can really choose who you take the class with provided your schedule is flexible enough. Meet with the coaches, talk to them about any concerns you might have about taking the class - they may have some great suggestions for you. When I took my first class, I talked to my coach and told him that I was just really out of shape and couldn't keep up; The next class, he had a modified workout for me. I lost 11 lbs in the first 2 weeks and that's what motivated me to keep going.
Thanks a lot everyone. All of this advice makes me feel good and is really inspiring. I'm going to give some more info about myself so you all have an idea of what I am dealing with. I am a 21 year old male (I think most people thought I was female?), weigh 350 pounds, and am 6 ft. tall.
So I have a few questions which came up while reading the replies:
1. If I were to count calories, how would I count vegetables, fruits, etc.?
2. When at the gym, should I focus more on cardio or weights?
3. How do you make meals tasty? One of my main concerns is having to eat "rabbit food" only. Now I know I have to make sacrifices, but someone mentioned that sacrificing taste isn't really necessary. What sorts of things can I add to keep taste, without compromising the food?
Thanks again, everyone. I'm really appreciating the advice.
You're back. It's been a week since you made your first post. Remember I talked about motivation last week? I see zero motivation when you ask for help then come back a week later to read what people say. Few if any Personal Trainers would even accept you as a client with that lack of motivation. They would give you a pep talk and send you off.
And here you are worrying about making new more healthy meal choices tasty. Rabbit food? Wanna know something that I know and I'm so confident of it that I'd bet the whole farm? That you will never make the changes to accomplish what is now only a dream. Am I being harsh? No, I am being honest. I tell it like it is. You are not ready to do it. Instead you wish for a magic pill to swallow to erase 15 years of very bad eating habits and very likely a sedentary life style. You will read all the posts here when you come back next week and revel more excuses why you can't do it.
So good luck to you. If you prove to me your ready I'll set you on the right path. If I read more excuses about eating Rabbit food then we will know you are a lost cause and will have to fend for yourself in this cruel world that will never give you the same equal opportunity as a thin person. This sucks but that's the way it is.......you know it and I know it.
Thanks a lot everyone. All of this advice makes me feel good and is really inspiring. I'm going to give some more info about myself so you all have an idea of what I am dealing with. I am a 21 year old male (I think most people thought I was female?), weigh 350 pounds, and am 6 ft. tall.
So I have a few questions which came up while reading the replies:
1. If I were to count calories, how would I count vegetables, fruits, etc.?
2. When at the gym, should I focus more on cardio or weights?
3. How do you make meals tasty? One of my main concerns is having to eat "rabbit food" only. Now I know I have to make sacrifices, but someone mentioned that sacrificing taste isn't really necessary. What sorts of things can I add to keep taste, without compromising the food?
Thanks again, everyone. I'm really appreciating the advice.
I thought you were female too. Not sure why...
Anyway, there are online calculators that will figure the number of calories in fruits and vegetables. My favorite is sparkpeople.com, but it's not the only one. IMO, it's a really great interactive site. It will give you a calorie range to shoot for and will even give you meal suggestions, or you can just log what you eat and see where you can cut calories and make higher nutrient substitutions for what you already eat. There are also recipes, etc.
I think the most recent research shows that you should do weights first (after a warm-up) followed by cardio. "Muscle burns fat" is what they say. If you are not comfortable in a gym, you can either get someone who works at one to show you around or if you know someone who works out, you could ask to have them show you some things to do. There’s also are good books out there. Men’s Health Big Book of Exercises is one that comes to mind. Also, people are not going to be laughing at you at the gym. Everyone I know who sees beginners at the gym is kind and supportive. We who work out regularly love to see people come in and see how wonderful it is to start to feel good.
You’re not going to have to eat “rabbit foodâ€. In fact, although you do need to eat vegetables, you also need lean meat, whole grains and beans and other legumes. I’m guessing that what you’re thinking of as “taste†right now is mostly salt and sugar. If you wean yourself off that stuff, or can manage to go cold turkey, when you go back to it it will taste so nasty you won’t be able to believe it.
You’re lucky that you are a guy because men seem to lose weight much more easily than women. Good luck with it all!
I think the most recent research shows that you should do weights first (after a warm-up) followed by cardio. "Muscle burns fat" is what they say. If you are not comfortable in a gym, you can either get someone who works at one to show you around or if you know someone who works out, you could ask to have them show you some things to do. There’s also are good books out there. Men’s Health Big Book of Exercises is one that comes to mind. Also, people are not going to be laughing at you at the gym. Everyone I know who sees beginners at the gym is kind and supportive. We who work out regularly love to see people come in and see how wonderful it is to start to feel good.
Forget the weights for now. Just get up and start moving around. Get a pedometer and try to work your way up to 10,000 steps a day. Adjust your diet immediately. You have a lot you can and should do before you should even think about entering a gym.
So I have a few questions which came up while reading the replies:
1. If I were to count calories, how would I count vegetables, fruits, etc.?
There are scads of online resources for calorie counting -- sparkpeople.com; fitday.com are two. Go easy on the starchy veggies like potatoes, carrots, lima beans, corn, peas, etc., and fill up on stuff like broccoli, peppers, summer squash, green beans, cucumbers, and the like. Go easy on the fruit; cherries and berries give you the best nutritional bang for your buck, and have less sugar than some other fruits.
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2. When at the gym, should I focus more on cardio or weights?
Why not do both? I started out with 10 or 15 minutes at cardio, followed with about a half hour of strength training (most gyms will give you a free personal training session to acquaint you with using weights and the proper form), and went back to cardio for another 30-45 minutes, depending on how much time I had. I still follow this routine, for the most part, three times a week; the other three days I do strictly cardio and one day is a rest day.
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3. How do you make meals tasty? One of my main concerns is having to eat "rabbit food" only. Now I know I have to make sacrifices, but someone mentioned that sacrificing taste isn't really necessary. What sorts of things can I add to keep taste, without compromising the food?
Get rid of the notion that you're eating rabbit food or that you're making sacrifices. There's no reason healthy food can't taste scrumptious. The more flavor you add, the less you'll feel like you're missing out on something. Learn to use fresh herbs, spices, garlic and onion, and fresh lemon juice.
I was diagnosed with hypertension at age 32. At times I still think about how the hell did this happen? There were a few factors involved. But the primary cause was a bad diet, and not necessarily fast food restaurants. In 1982 I took an out of state job working on a 171 mile pipeline from southern Colorado to eastern New Mexico. Motels were limited, with none of them being kitchenettes. So the guys ate their meals out. Looking back at those 8 months, I probably didn't have one bowl of cereal that entire time I worked on that project. And probably only had two servings of vegetables for a week at a time. The same with fruits. Three months after the job was completed I started feeling rundown. Then nauseous. I went to my doctor who I hadn't seen in, well I'll just say a few years. Blood pressure was 162 over 110. And it was that way for a while until I got off my fat butt to see why I was feeling so crappy.
I've been on medication for the last 28 years but do ok. Looking back a couple dozen years I probably didn't pay one whit of attention to health issues that are stressed these days. For the last umpteen years I always make sure I have 4 or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day. And I also got into the habit of having cereal in the morning, every morning if possible.
Physically I've been a question mark for decades. College sports, 30 years in power plant and pipeline construction which involved 3 lost time accidents, and a nasty car wreck in 1971 has me moving slow, real slow during the winter. I need joint replacements in both knees and my left hip. I might move slow but I didn't stop nor will I. I moderate the football forum for city data here and help out on a couple other forums. After 45 minutes of this stupid computer screen I'm out of the office and off to doing something whether its walking to the mailbox and back a few times or going out to the garage and lifting 75 pound boxes of record albums for 10 minutes or so.
That's an interesting stat. Do you know how much it is today? Also, do you have comparative numbers like that for all daily carbs consumed between then and now?
I'm sorry but I don't have specific numbers, Cava, but there are a number of legitimate medical websites with that information, though.
What I do know is that Americans today are eating way too much in a meal. Whether it's sugar, fat, or protein ... it's just way too much. And it's killing them, slowly but surely.
Here's an interesting article about this very subject.
Forget the weights for now. Just get up and start moving around. Get a pedometer and try to work your way up to 10,000 steps a day. Adjust your diet immediately. You have a lot you can and should do before you should even think about entering a gym.
Guess we just disagree on this. Even though he's quite heavy and would have some concern about joint injuries, with some good instruction lifting weights would be very helpful in taking the weight off.
Also, I can't imagine why anyone would not be able to "think about entering a gym." Where I live it's beastly hot outside from May til the end of September and the only time it's comfortable to exercise outside is before the sun comes up. Being around fit people, seeing what they do when they work out and perhaps striking up friendships and conversation could be very helpful as well.
I understand that diet is the biggest factor here. But working out is important too.
You're back. It's been a week since you made your first post. Remember I talked about motivation last week? I see zero motivation when you ask for help then come back a week later to read what people say. Few if any Personal Trainers would even accept you as a client with that lack of motivation. They would give you a pep talk and send you off.
And here you are worrying about making new more healthy meal choices tasty. Rabbit food? Wanna know something that I know and I'm so confident of it that I'd bet the whole farm? That you will never make the changes to accomplish what is now only a dream. Am I being harsh? No, I am being honest. I tell it like it is. You are not ready to do it. Instead you wish for a magic pill to swallow to erase 15 years of very bad eating habits and very likely a sedentary life style. You will read all the posts here when you come back next week and revel more excuses why you can't do it.
So good luck to you. If you prove to me your ready I'll set you on the right path. If I read more excuses about eating Rabbit food then we will know you are a lost cause and will have to fend for yourself in this cruel world that will never give you the same equal opportunity as a thin person. This sucks but that's the way it is.......you know it and I know it.
To be honest, I was scared to check because I thought my post would be ignored, but I'm glad it wasn't. I understand what you mean about making excuses or, rather, rationalizations. I make them all the time and I know it has to stop.
I think my main problem is starting. Just getting out there.I think it is more of an internal issue. I mean, I am a guy who wears a jacket all the time, regardless of the weather, because it covers my fat tires. I think what I want is for everyone in the world to tell me they aren't staring at me so I can finally workout or walk outside without being embarassed of myself, but realistically I know this is not possible and it is just something I have to get over.
Anyway, I'm sorry for calling it "rabbit food". I was just looking for a way to express what I expect to eat. I only mentioned it because someone said that sacrificing taste wasn't necessary. I had originally thought that this just meant experimenting with spices and seasoning, but I wasn't sure if putting too much of these would make the meal be high in sodium (something I'm obviously supposed to be avoiding).
Also, I can't imagine why anyone would not be able to "think about entering a gym." Where I live it's beastly hot outside from May til the end of September and the only time it's comfortable to exercise outside is before the sun comes up. Being around fit people, seeing what they do when they work out and perhaps striking up friendships and conversation could be very helpful as well.
Because it's one more barrier between the OP and getting going. The dude first needs to start moving around before going to the expense and trouble of finding and joining a gym. I live in Virginia, which isn't exactly the North Pole this time of year and I get out every day for a 4-5 mile walk. One can avoid the heat by exercising in the early morning or late evening. The message here is keep it simple and easy.
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