Not new to weight loss, but needing some help

U

usfwrestler

New member
Hello everyone,

My name is Peter. I have been somewhat overweight my whole life, but I dealt with it. I played soccer for nearly 13 years and wrestled in highschool for 4 years. I have always been on the big side, never really worried about it until recently.

I had a opening bbq at my home for this upcoming semester and after seeing some of the pictures of myself, it got me worrying. I have always been on the large side, but I hold my weight very well. I have been in all these sports and have been in the gym all throughout high school, but now that I have been in college for 4 years, the pounds just packed on. It is starting to worry me, especially since I will be going to medical school next year. I do not want to discuss with patients about fat loss and be overweight myself.

I will post pictures later, but to give you a intro:
I am 6"1 and weight about 320lbs.
I am the head of my Lebanese dance team, so I am active, but the weight keeps on coming.
My bodyfat percentage last time I checked was roughly 27% which is very high in my opinion. It has come to a point that my old methods for keeping my weight down just doesn't help and I found this forum, looking for help and support.

Even in highschool when I wrestled, I was still 275 lbs. but was in shape. Every practice, I warmed up by running 4 miles or so. Honeslty though, I believe it's my eating habbits. Living far away from campus makes it hard for me to eat healthy. But I'm sick and tired of being overweight, mark this day people, I will be overweight no more.

Any tips and support will be appreciated. Hello again to everyone! This new me will not see Taco Bell anymore.

Peter
 
if you aren't already, you might want to get an account at and keep track of your calories.

Do some reading around the forum, especially the stickied threads for some nutrition and workout advice and do ask any questions you might have.

Start yourself a diary -it's a great place to keep track of your successes and challenges and to get to know you better

enjoy your stay and have fun while you're here
 
Welcome aboard Peter. If you are gaining weight, yet, you are active.... something's off nutritionally. Eating/drinking too much. College life is tough relative to eating correctly.

When I was in school, I made it a point to get to the grocery store every week so my shelves were always stocked with 'good' food. That said, you can overeat on good food too.

Do you drink too? Most college kids do nowadays. I know I did and that adds up quick.

You've got to find a way to moderate your caloric intake.

Also, how much exercise are you currently doing while in school? You are on the dance team, but how much activity is associated with it?
 
Thanks for the kind words.

To answer some questions:

No, I really don't drink that much. Ever since my horrific 21st bday, i haven't touched more than one or two drinks in one night. I'm usually driving too, so don't really want to ruin my life.

The dance team is usually pretty active on the weekends. We do most of our "practicing" in Arabic/Greek nightclubs where they play the same music we dance too. If you have ever seen a group dabkeh, the songs usually run about 5 minutes or so, and they play 4 songs in a row, some songs though are around 10 minutes.

It's truley a workout when I leave the clubs, it's a fast paced dance that I love to do. I was actually thinking about putting it in my main workout routine, since I enjoy it so much.

I honestly think it's the food I've been eating and the times I have been eating it, last night snacking isn't something I'm truely proud of, so I'm definately have been cutting it out. Since I used to do heavy lifting in highschool, and all I ever did was big weights, I liked that sort of routine. My friend suggested that I should strictly run for a few months and drop off some weight before I get into lifting, but I'm not sure if I can keep up going to the gym and run for hours on end, I gotta spice it up I guess.

Her are the pictures I said I was going to post. Mostly everyone I've talked too has said I'm not overweight, and that I hold myself well. I just don't want to be like this anymore, I'm sick of looking at myself in the mirror to tell you the truth.
 
Yea man, you wear your weight well.

But I understand why you want to change. There's always room for improvement. If not in physique, certainly in health.

I wouldn't wait to start lifting weights again, especially considering the fact that you enjoy doing it. People make the mistake of thinking cardio is for fat loss and weights are for muscle gain.

Not true.

I'd do two things for starters.

1) Try and get to the gym most days of the week. Of those days, 2-3 of them should be comprised of weight training. A routine similar to the one I posted in the stickies called "the big lifts" would be good. The rest of the days you can do dance or any other form of cardio you'd like.

2) Nutrition. You've got to find a way to control your intake. Do you think tracking your intake using something like would work for you? You could start planning your meals better and eating more frequently to eliminate some of the snacking/binges.
 
Thanks steve for the advice. I'm going to start looking over my calorie intake.
I know what you mean, I want to change my physique and I appreciate your advice. I'm going to look into all of the forums and I guess I will start a before and after post soon.

I set my weight loss in 3 months to 35 lbs and everyone said I could loos a whole lot more than that. You think it's possible? Or is 35lbs too much
 
The more weight you have to lose, the faster the rate of weight loss you can sustain, physiologically speaking.

Psychologically speaking, that's a different story.

That goal is certainly attainable. That's about 3lbs per week.

Realize though that weight loss is not a linear phenomenon. It doesn't always come off when it should! Each our bodies react to dieting a bit differently. So, if you don't hit that mark, it's certainly not the end of the world, which I'm sure you realize.

You seem like a rational guy. There's a lot of people that establish goals for themselves and when they don't hit them, they stagger.

Personally, I rarely reach my goals. I like to aim real high, figuring I'll end up someplace higher had I aimed for a mediocre point.
 
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