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ScienceStudent

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Hi everyone I just made this account with hopes I could be guided into weight loss. I'm 6'3" tall and have a large frame. I weigh (as of today) 283 pounds. I'm 21 years old and I hope by the time I'm 22 I weight somewhere around 200 pounds. My goal is to reach a healthy weight and feel good about myself. Being "fit" or "muscular" isn't a huge interest right now, although a swimmers body would be nice lol.

I have a bad knee so cardio is tough. I've had three surgeries to repair and replace the meniscus after a football injury in high school. Theres also some arthritis behind the knee cap. Any suggestions? 200 is my goal weight.
 
Welcome ScienceStudent! You've come to a good place. I can sympathize with the bad knee, I have foot problems myself so I'd like to run but that's out of the question. Luckily, I do a lot of cycling for my cardio, should do weights too but been lax so far.

Only thing I can say is don't put too tight of a time limit on the fatloss, but do have a goal. Generally it takes a while to lose fat and it's not too linear most of the time. If you don't reach your goal, don't be too bummed, just keep plugging along, it'll happen.

knotty
 
Welcome! This a great place to find support and tips for exercises that won't aggravate your knee. For support, you should check out the weight loss diary sub-forum and contemplate making a diary there. For exercises, there is also an exercise sub-forum. I haven't looked too extensively in there, but I guarantee there are other people who have a similar issue to you and have asked questions on this board.
 
Welcome to the forum.

Your current BMI is 36.6 and you will have a BMI of 25 when you weigh 200 pounds...

That is a good goal.

You do not have to do things like running and jumping for it to be effective exercise.
Walking for instance is a very effective form of exercise if your knees are up to it.
Swimming is also excellent for people with joint problems because you are supported by the water.
Obviously weight training can be done to focus on all sorts of muscle groups so you can do plenty of exercise without putting a strain on your knees.

There are two sides to the calorie equation however and control over your food could enable you to lose weight even if for any combination of reasons you were unable to exercise at all.

You definitely should work on making your food plan more healthy and ensure that you eat calories at an appropriate level for weight loss... There are accurate ways of measuring your calorie needs but these calculations can get quite complex.

The simple rule of thumb almost always results
whereby most fairly active people will maintain their weight on a calorie level of 15 * their weight in pounds
and most fairly active people will lose weight on a calorie level of between 8 * and 12 * their weight in pounds...

Therefore (since you might have a reduction in exercise range due to your injury) it is simplest to simply shoot for a calorie level of about 10 * weight in pounds every day and see if you lose weight... if you do - keep on doing that (recalculating) - certain in the knowledge that it naturally reduces as your weight reduces...

If it doesnt work - I would suggest that you check your weighing of portion sizes (scoops and other approximations can be prone to a lot of error) and if you still get no results you can drop to nearer the 8 * weight calorie level...

I would tend to see how 2830 calories went for you to start with...

I also suggest that you read this thread - as it might help you to settle in here...

http://weight-loss.fitness.com/threads/57955-My-advice-to-newcomers

Good luck
 
Thank you so much for the info! I'm sorry its taken me this long to reply but school and work have kept me very busy. I greatly appreciate all your tips!
 
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