What's up, newbie here.

milehighadam

New member
Hello all,

My name is Adam. I'm from Denver Colorado and I am 25yrs old.
Over the past summer I have made some significant lifestyle changes and moved towards a healthier way of living.
Currently, I eat healthy (using the good old food pyramid as my guide) and monitor my calorie intake. I exercise moderately 6 days a week; 45 minutes of weight training a day (30 min in the afternoon and another 15 minutes before bed), 20 min cardio a day (jump rope, jogging, or running), at the very least 3 miles of walking 7 days a week and probably an average of 5 miles on top of that 3 days a week (each day not total for 3 days). I also, try to get into the mountains once every weekend and do some hiking; usually 4-6 miles of up and down. One day out of the week I give my body a break from everything except the 3 miles of walking and eat what I want (within reason).

My overall goal is to lose fat, gain lean muscle, and increase my cardio endurance.

Long term: Goal is to get down to about 170 lbs. And from there work on muscle tone, and a bit of muscle building. At about 210-215 now. My scale recently broke and I haven't replaced it yet so it's hard to say for certain until I get a new one.

Short term: By the beginning of ski season (late November) I want to have the cardio endurance to do some high alpine hiking and snowboarding. This means hiking up the side of a 10k-12k mountain through deep snow with a snowboard strapped to my back and about 20lbs of additional gear. It is a tough goal, but I think it is achievable with the right amount of preparation.

Mainly I am just doing arms and chest weight training, but would like to do more than that. It is kind of hard without a gym membership (which I cannot get right now due to financial issues) and without a proper workout bench, but I know there is more I can do that I am not doing.

I also, bought some weight loss pills over the summer, something that I now kind of regret. I will continue to take them until I am out then stop. They seem to help, and I have no undesirable side effects to speak of. So, I figure if it's not hurting I might as well use them.

I have been overweight for most of my life, and lived a pretty unhealthy lifestyle. These changes over the summer have left me feeling great and helped me lose weight. While I am still overweight, I know that it isn't an overnight thing. I'm prepared to stick with it until I get the results I want. Then maintain a healthy lifestyle.

I am looking for some advice, a supportive community, and a group of people who are committed to a healthier life style to guide me in my own journey.

So, once again, hello to all of you and I'm sure I'll see you all around the forum.
 
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Hi Adam!

I'm in somewhat similar situation. Regarding gym membership, I tried that at my previous work (we had some serious discounts), but it didn't seem to work for me. I ended ended up going only 3 to 8 times a month.
Right now I'm doing some daily (but spread out over the week) body weight exercises: got a pull-up bar (great stuff), I'm doing pushups and crunches plus some cardio on a stationary bike. Seems to be working so far - no immediate or overwhelming results as you said, but I feel I'm better off compared to the time I was "going" to the gym. :)

Good luck! Gyms are overrated. :)
 
Welcome.

I'd suggest that you start by reading the sticky posts in the nutrition, exercise, and advanced area of the forums. There are a lot of posts there that are very helpful and will give you more information.

Especially read the weight lifting threads at the top of the exercise forum.

Also, I'll say this: If building muscle is your goal, then the food pyramid is not the way to base your eating. The USDA food pyramid emphasizes carbs and recommends a much lower amount of protein. If you want to build muscle, you'll need to eat more protein than they recommend - at least 1g of protein per pound of body weight.

Good luck to you!
 
I had a very similar experience with a gym membership a few years ago. One of my friends who was at that point in the same position I am in now convinced me to get a gym membership. Once I had the membership I ended up only going about 10 times the first month then once or twice for another couple of months before simply canceling my membership (I ended up spending probably around $500 for nothing).

I wish I could do pull ups. That is something I have never been able to do. Hopefully, once I lose some more weight and gain some more strength I can do them. I have no problem anymore with working through muscle burns... but no matter how hard I pull and try to motivate myself I just can't physically do it. So, kudos on that.

Keep it up.
 
Also, I'll say this: If building muscle is your goal, then the food pyramid is not the way to base your eating. The USDA food pyramid emphasizes carbs and recommends a much lower amount of protein. If you want to build muscle, you'll need to eat more protein than they recommend - at least 1g of protein per pound of body weight.

Well, my main goal is fat loss. I know I can build at least some muscle while doing this. I may really focus on starting to build more muscle once I reach my target weight, but to be honest I would rather be strong, fast, and healthy than a big bulging pile of muscle. For now, however, I am happy with the ability to do 5 more reps or one more set than the previous week or so each week. I don't know if this is muscle, strength or endurance. To me they seem almost synonymous, but I am really not as informed as I could be.

Thanks for the welcome, and I will certainly poke around and read up on all types of things this forum has to offer. :)
 
About those pull ups: there are some tricks you could use. :)
When I first got the bar (it's mounted to the ceiling) I discovered that while it was difficult for me to do more than one pull up, I did quite fine by pressing my legs against the door (which have a horizontal bar I can lean my feet on). So I was basically partially supporting my body and doing something between pull ups and reversed push ups.
Works great! :)
 
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