Weight loss: would like some advice.

S

Soen

New member
Hi, I need some advice about how to get in shape. I'm 6'5" and weigh about 260 lbs. I haven't really done any "real" exercise for about six years. I don't have a "round" shape but rather just have wide hips and what looks like a bit of a beer belly. That said, my university is built on a hill, and I park far enough away that I walk 20 minutes uphill five days a week to class; I also walk really fast compared to most people so that helps burn calories. I also have a job where I unload trucks with a manual pallet jack, pulling off very heavy pallets, and I tend to use most of the muscles in my body when stocking the shelves (as a lot of things are heavy). So, I'm not that concerned with losing muscle as I lose weight as the job has kept my muscles at a constant level for years.

However, I have had a very bad habit for the last six years. I've been staying up very late, getting very little sleep, and I'd compensate the next day by loading up on soft drinks, chocolate, and junk food. I'd estimate I'd have 800-1600 calories from soft drinks alone just to keep me awake per day, not counting anything else I've been eating. I also ate at fast food restaurants between 5-9 times per week. I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs though.

Still, despite all of this (which was basically every day for six years), I've only gained about 10 lbs per year. I'd have thought I'd gained a lot more weight based on how unhealthy I've been living.

What I've done so far is I'm getting in bed at a decent time and waking up at a decent time, thus eliminating the need for caffeine. I've also swapped out all the soft drinks for water; I'm currently having what I guess I would call withdrawals from the soft drinks. I'm really craving them and am kind of getting headaches from where I'm not drinking them all the time. I've been using green tea as well to compensate. I've also eliminated all the junk food, chocolate, and candy. I no longer eat from fast food restaurants. I'm not interested in "dieting" and going off it when I finish, but rather developing healthy eating and exercise habits that will sustain me for the rest of my life.

I've also been doing some Tae Bo, only recently starting. About seven minutes in, I'm really tired and it's hard to continue. I'm not actually sore from it because I was chopping some wood before that, and the chopping had left me so sore that I could barely move for three days. But I'm fine now and Tae Bo doesn't make me sore. I just have a stamina issue where I can't keep it up. I imagine I'll be able to go for longer and longer as I keep at it. I also lack space to properly do Tae Bo: I can't take three steps forward or I'll hit something, so I'm modifying it a bit. I do plan to do Tae Bo every day.

I have a weird condition with my foot that necessitates wearing special arch supports. Without them, I'd be unable to, say, run a cash register for 30 minutes on my feet. I can walk, power walk, and jog, but continuous running and jumping are out of the question, and I can't do jumping jacks in my home anyway due to how tall I am.

I have about ten months until I move away to go to grad school. I want to be in shape and increase my flexibility again so I can get back in karate; from where I am now, a PhD and a black belt will take roughly the same amount of time. I want to work towards both at the same time.

Anyway, that's enough about me. I have some questions:

1. I'm assuming that since my very unhealthy lifestyle only saw me gaining about 10 lbs per year it will be relatively easy to lose weight since I'm eliminating everything bad I was doing before and am doing cardio. Is that a fair assumption? I've heard that you have something like a 25% chance to be overweight if you drink just a half cup of soda every day, and if you drink a 20 oz. soda every day you will gain about 26 lbs per year if you don't compensate with exercise. I know it's still going to take willpower and exercise, but compared with how unhealthy I was living before and the small amount of weight I was gaining before, I don't think it's going to be that bad to do. After all, 10 lbs is basically 5-10 weeks of healthy weight loss.

2. I know nothing really about how to do cardio exercises. Are there any really good ones I can do at home with limited space? Is Tae Bo going to cut it?

3. What I'm really really really confused about is diet. I know how to count calories, how many calories I should be eating, what a portion is, and all about BMI and such. I'm just confused as to what to eat. A Lipton rice packet, for example, has over 200 calories per serving and 10-25 calories from fat. Everything else in a grocery store looks worse by comparison. What can I really eat? I guess I'm going to have to do some cooking, and I'm not opposed to that, but I'm wondering just what is okay to eat.

Thanks for any help you can give me.
 
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Check the stickied threads in the nutrition forum - all the info you'll need is there.. it's complicated at all...
 
Soen,
First of all, congratulations on your decision to start the journey towards a healthier lifestyle as it is truly a large undertaking. Some advice that has worked for hundreds so far is to start with your breakfast. Too often we try to change everything all at once and I think that the best bet towards losing weight is doig so in small steps with the idea being not to regain it.

As simple a thing as eating a good breakfast first thing in the morning will work wonders towards helping you not consume as much junk food later in the day as well as make a big impact on your waistline. My experience over the years has been that you need to combine diet and exercise if you really want to make a change in your body, and with that in mind- diet can count for about 70% of the results you wish to see. With regards to eating right, having a good breakfast is about 70% of the eating right game- so you see how important it is.

As for your goals of being able to participate in a karate class- I encourage you to rethink your strategy. You don't need to do things to prepare for karate or any other martial art- you need to find a good school with a good teacher and just do it! The practice itself will go a long way in getting you in shape to continue the practice, and you should have no qualms about being too overweight to start. A good teacher will start you off at the pace you can handle and you will be very pleased by the progress you will make.

I studied karate for several years and have been teaching traditional Japanese martial arts for the past 17 years now and I have had several students that started off on the overweight side- and I have seen all of them shed their weight through their practice along with proper diet and other modes of exercise.

You have to believe in yourself, though, and find a teacher that believes in his or her students as well, and you will shed that weight in no time- while studying something you enjoy. Hope this helps.
 
@maleficent: Thanks for the heads up. The stickies generally confirmed what I was thinking, or rather what I had learned a long time ago in a Health class.

@BATMANNYC: I've taken karate before, but I really don't like the one dojo that's near me. It's not an issue of being overweight and not wanting to lag during class. They just seemed overly focused on tournaments compared to (and to the detriment of) everything else—as a white belt, I knew more about weights from the sensei than I knew about kata. It kind of reminded me of the Kobra Kai from The Karate Kid (almost!).

But you made me remember there's a dojo that opened up last year in one of the surrounding counties. I hadn't thought much of it at the time. The teacher certainly has credentials. It's a different style (wado ryu) from what I had before (goju shorei) and what I plan on studying once I've moved (shotokan). Obviously all the techniques aren't going to transfer over, but a few of them and things like balance and stamina will. I think I'm going to join after Christmas (holiday shopping has killed my wallet).

Thanks.
 
You are absolutely right, most of what you will learn there will carry over to Shotokan- it was the style I studied as a kid, and it pretty much encompasses all that I have seen from other karate styles.

Good luck on your training and keep us posted!
 
First, drinking a 20oz soda every day will not make you gain weight. Its what you eat, and how many calories you consume on a daily basis that will you either gain or lose weight. Second, you dont need to do ANY exercise to lose weight if you diet correctly. No need to over complicate things. Eat less than your maintenance calories, and you WILL lose weight. Plain and simple. Anyway, this is the link that shed light on most of my weight loss misconceptions.

[Link Removed]
 
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Eat when you feel hungry and take proper food will help you to lose your weight in addition to this you may opt to run in the morning and evening and consume oolong tea which has the special property for lowering the weight.
 
I also want to lower my weight for this I consume a proper diet with Regenon which is showing better results in decreasing weight.
 
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