Hey everyone, I'm glad I found this site. I'll be honest and just let everyone know I'm pretty much a n00b to losing weight and working out, but I'm willing to make the changes I need to.

Hmm.. so a little about my background. I'm 20 years old right now, I'm 6'2 and I weigh almost 400 pounds, I know it's a lot.. a whole lot, but I'm deffinately ready to change everything I can. I started gaining weight when I was in 3rd grade due to some custody battles between my parents and in less than a year I gained 100lbs and I've steadily gone upwards from there. Things in my life are going good now (haha, well.. as good as I guess they can for now) and I feel motivated to fix what I've done to my body, if possible. I'm looking to get down to about 180lbs, and honestly I don't know where to begin.

I've wanted to join a gym (like the local YMCA, they have a great fitness center) but I wouldn't know what to do when I was in there, and there's a little bit of some emberassment that goes along with that too, lol. So I almost joined a gym where I could see kind of what to do, and they charged way too much, and tried pressuring me into using their personal trainers who just wanted my money.. not that I have any to really begin with, so I ended up not doing that either. I figure for now, I could start with walking, doing sit-ups and trying push ups, but I've got a lot of weight to move.. some of you guys out there, imagine a 200 guy sitting on top of you while you're doing push ups. Haha, it's not easy. So, I'm not really sure what kind of regime to go with here, I'm not even sure how many sit-ups I should start with.. encouraging words here would be great ;) lol

Then there's also the food part, I know people are probably going to be mad at me, but I don't really eat a bunch. Usually it's one meal a day (rarely two) and I don't eat a bunch during that meal either. Sometimes it's a bowl of cereal (about 2 cups of cereal, and some 2% milk) or a couple of nights ago I was out with friends, and I only ate one slice of pizza.. I know, it's tons of fat, and not a good choice, but it was free!

So, I know I need to set up a healthy meal plan and work out.. but where should I start? As with everything, it seems to take a lot of $$$ to get started too. I appreciate any help that I get from here, and I really hope to get this under control. Hopefully in the near future, I'll be a success story on here

Welcome, Jerome! Stick around, and I'm sure you'll get lots of support to help you reach your goals. You're young, so you have a lot of things going in your favor. You just need to stay committed! At this point, just about anything you do will help. There are plenty of people who have been where you are and lost weight. You don't need a gym, a trainer, or special food. What will help you most right now is knowledge and support.

You have the right idea to start walking. It's something you can do anywhere, without excuses. There are plenty of people here who can give you better advice on the sit-ups and push-ups. Anything you can do without equipment is good, and there are LOTS of exercises that don't require equipment that can get you in shape.

Are you already starting to diet? I would imagine so, since you are only eating one meal a day. You didn't get to where you are now on one meal a day. Furthermore, you won't get out of where you are now on one meal a day. You need to eat regularly. You can eat a healthful diet without spending a ton of money.

Do you have health insurance? If so, look into getting a consultation with a nutritionist/dietitian who can give you ideas and a good plan to follow. Some plans will even pay for a gym membership.

Get your friends to help you out too. If you get your friends on board, that can help you more than anything else. See if someone will work out with you, so you have accountability to a partner. Set some reasonable goals, and state them to your friends and in the forums here. I'd start with something like walking xx minutes per day this week, etc.

Good luck!

Yes, Cindy N. is right. You have to eat more regularly, healthy meals. Preferably 6 small meals spaced 2-3 hours throughout your day made up of healthy foods.
My father is 6'1 and he was up to about 380 lbs. He started off slowly by eating 6 small healthy meals a day and just walking on his treadmill for about 20-30 minutes (low intensity) each evening. In the first few months I think he lost about 15-20 lbs just by doing this. You don't have to have a treadmill to get the benefits from walking, though. You could walk around your neighborhood and even invite your friends to join you. If you feel too self conscious at this point you could even buy some walking dvd's or tapes to use in your home.
Eventually you would probably want to also add some strength training (weights) into your workouts which can be done with simple dumbbells and also by using your own body at home.
I, too am not really good at this whole fitness thing, I am just getting started myself, about 3 months into it but I hope that my advise was helpful and I wish you the best of luck!

P.S. For the amount of calories you eat in only one slice of pizza, you could consume a whole plate of certain healthy foods for the same (or even less calories and less fat). , but yeah, free is good and I have fallen into the trap now and again but you just have to remind yourself of what your working towards.

I would agree that at your weight you don't need a gym. You'll just feel self-conscious and I doubt you could make much use of the equipment yet. Walking, like you said, and dieting will get you down to a weight where you can get into the gym and really kick your weight loss into gear.

If it helps at all, some people your weight find that their weight comes off fast. I have a buddy of mine who was 330 at the start of the summer and is down to 280 now. He's done it by dieting and working out at the gym for about 45 minutes every workday. Also, as stated, your age will greatly help and you're smart to try and fix this while you're young before it (1) reaps havoc on your body and (2) becomes considerably harder to come off.

Not saying it won't be hard, hardest thing you've done probably, but there are some good tools here (people, posts, trackers) to help you get there.

Keep us updated how you're doing. Take it 1 day at a time.

Hey Jerome my name is Arval and let me begin by saying I am 5'10" and I weigh 478lbs so believe me I know how you feel about going to a gym. It took me a lot of nerve to go but I did. Like you I didn't know where to begin so I went to Lifetime fitness and joined their gym. It is a little costly but they provide you with a trainer who will get you started off on the right track and, then stay in contact with you via e-mail or phone. I was totally surprised with just how good they treat me. I work out in the pool at least three times a week and I do upper body cardio the fourth day.
I am beginning to feel a little better every day. I am starting to meet new people and they are starting to congratulate me almost daily.
Keep up the good work.

Remember 1 pound at a time.

Arval

Jerome-- No matter what your weight now, at least you've started. Stick with it, and keep reading sites like this-- you'll get a lot of good information and the price is right!!!!
You might do some reading as well -- I'd recommend a book by Jim Karas called "Flipping the Switch" -- I got a used copy off amazon.com or ebay on half.com (which deals in stuff like books. records,etc). Walking is a great start !!! Don't underestimate those benefits. Also, start slow. Any progress you make is good but you don't want to kill yourself doing sit ups one day and wind up w/an injury and have to stop everything. That will kill your progress and put a damper on your momentum. Plus, as your activity picks up I can't imagine you not eating more -- that will rev up your body's metabolism. If you're walking and exercising MORE and not making progress, then you might want to check in with your doctor. IN ANY CASE --KEEP COMING BACK and keep asking questions. I got serious again about six weeks ago. I probably started in the 345lb range --just because I know what I SHOULD be doing doesn't mean I always do it--I just told myself this time it's going to be different and i'll change my eating habits for good...Take care--sometimes getting started is the hard part!!!!

Jerome,

I am going to give you some real good advice, but I must say that I know that its much easier to say than follow. But if you are willing to listen, I'll bet that pretty much most people will agree with my assessment of your situation. With that said, no matter what, I wish you good luck and I hope you keep training and get yourself fit.

Now based on your age and body size and weight situation I have a few good steps for you so that you can get a handle and correct your situation.
The first thing that I want to address is the whole diet and exercise thing. First of all, its great to think that you will go balls out and change it all the bad habits and do and eat all the right things so that all so your workouts go perfectly and all your meals go incredibly well.
The reality is that this is a myth, a lie. Its impossible and all those people who say that they do this are either lying or have substituted exercise or eating diligence for some other bad habits they had, just like a recovering alcholic does with coffee or like an ex smoker becomes a gum chewer. Now for all those reading this that have accomplished the impossible, good for you. CONGRATULATIONS, you have really done the impossible, but this is not for you or about you (although we would love to hear about your success and tricks you discovered along the way).
So anyways, here is what I think you should try. First of all, unless you are about 7'2" I think that you are way too heavy for your frame. Your goal is a realistic 150lbs and I think that you can accomplish this in about 16 months.

But how? > First of all, although the walking is great, most people dont tell you how freaking boring it is. The other thing that they dont tell you is that its not really a walk that you are after. What you are really supposed to do is get your heart-rate up to a fat burning level. (check the charts) In laymans terms, that means that you have to walk fast enough to be sweating. The way to check this is that after 6 minutes, if you dont have sweat beading down your forhead, you are going too slow. (If you are breathing really really heavily then you are going to fast. ) Realistically you should try to do this for about 1 hour a day. And YES you can break it up. But this exercise (walking) has to be focused and uninterrupted. Any stopping and going will not help you achieve the results you want and it will discourage the heck out of you.
Since you are young I am going to give you some simple tips. Try any exercise for a couple of weeks at 30 minutes 4 days a week and then 45 minutes 4 days a weeks for the next two weeks. By the fifth week you should be used to doing the exercise and should be able to commit to the hour long sessions quite easily. Now here is the rub. If you did this I would guess that you would loose about 0-5 lbs for all that work. Anything more than that would be super excellent, but dont hold your breath about it.
It also takes your body some time to adjust to the new changes in exercise.
Once you have gotten to an hour a day workout sessions, consider this formula. If you workout more than 4 days a week you will loose weight for that week. If you work out for 4 days a week you will maintain your current weight. If you work out less, you will gain weight. Sad but true.
I dont know how well you will go with your walking, but try hard and get through the first few weeks to get yourself on a schedule. Seriously this is the hardest thing, integrating positive changes into your life. ! Going from no exercise to some, takes time for your body to learn and your mind to grasp, but it is worth it.
Now here comes the serious weight loosing training. Once you find yourself working out, you now have some options. If your knees can take it (I am concerned about your size), try to get on a tread mill or add some running and sprinting to your routine. You will find some great results once your body can maintain the HITS system. (high intensity training). It also will improve your cardio heartrate, overall fitness and should slim you right down. (if not get into a pool !)
The next exercise step is to integrate weight training into your workout. Now lets say you cant afford weights, well then learn how to do squats. Drop to your knees, kick out and then back and stand up. Go to google and find other squats. They are the best.
But if you can find weights then look into resistance training. Any good weight trainer will tell you that you build muscle in the negatives. Another good life tip is that weight lifting is boring and sucks. Unless you are going for a chiseled bodybuilder lifestyle (no offense it is awesome-just not for everyone) weights are often used wrongly. With that as your starting point and with me purposely withholding information so you dont get hurt, the only manner I recommend for you do use weights is at very low sizes and as many repetitions as you can manage. Try and bench 25lbs for 3 sets of 50 (or more).
What will happen is you will build that muscle and you will learn what the weight do. LAter check google "how to increase your bench press by 50lbs by Shawn Phillips at muscle media.com" and follow it to the letter. Then using the same logic apply it to the way you exercise with weights throughout your whole weight lifting journey.
Swimming and stretching. My best advice is Stretch,Stretch,Stretch,Stretch,Stretch,. Take yoga, Stretch,Stretch,Stretch,. Whatever. there is some serious strength in it and since I can barely grab my own hands behind my back (but I have strong shoulders !) I can recommend it! Besides actually stretching, swimming is a good exercise that can be integrated into your lifestyle and will help you maintain a good body.
Last thing about exercise, do not do it more than 3 days in a row and do not do it 7 days a week. Always rest for at 1 full minute between reps and always stretch before and after a workout.
Also remember that even if you give up after 20 minutes, at least you still went to the gym and guess what you will go back and you will do better sometime in the future. Even a little step in a positive direction is a step in the right direction.

Now for the eating. Try this. Dont give up anything you are eating yet. But try to figure out what you are eating that is bad for you.
Your first step should be trying not to eat anything bad, but when you do, drink a full 8oz glass of water right after. In fact try to drink at least 2 liters of water each day, plus all the extra glasses you have for pizza and candy bars .
Water is the one supplement that actually helps your body function. In fact almost all the processes that occur in your body work way better when you are hydrated.
Your next step is to start replacing bad stuff with good stuff. Or if you are just not able to do that, just add some healthy stuff to what you are eating. When you eat a pizza, also eat a few heads of broccoli. When you eat the pasta, add in some tomatoes and onions. Later when you get a handle on your diet, you should be eating a good balance of protiens, carbs, and vegetables. The best way to drop calories in a regular persons diet is to replace high calorie foods with vegetables that are fibrous and not full of carbs (not peas, not corn but califlower, broc, spinach, cabbage -look this up ) Its a bonus if they are on the antioxident list !

So if you where to take a pasta dinner and take out 1/2 the pasta bit then add 1/2 (or more ) of good for you veggies, you will reduce the calories, add some health to yourself and loose the weight. You still will eat what you like, but you fill up on fiber and its passed out later (expect gas ).

I feel like I have presented too much information for you here already, but the bottom line is hit it as hard as you can but do it as smart as you can. If you go balls out in the beginning, you will inevitably falter, get hurt and most likey quit. (true for diet and exercise)
So challenge yourself to build up to making changes and once you are doing that, keep learning and trying more things that will help you get there. Accept that this will take some time and try to remember that your body also needs rest ( I take off 1 week every 4weeks) The same is true for dieting. Try and be good for 6 of the 7 days but give yourself some freedom at least one day of the week. Later when you are actually in the exercise, lifestyle game you will find out the steps that suit you and get you to where you want to go.
Anyhow, Good luck. I am really rooting for you !

I really would like to thank all of you for the encouragement and the help too. It's good to know that I'm not alone. How many situps do you think I should start out with, and how many squats? Or say I do sets, should I go for 50 situps at a time for 3 sets like with weights? I guess I'll just have to see how many I can do, haha.

Thanks again for the help.

Hi Jerome. Start slowly! You've got a lot of changes--and challenges--ahead of you. If you try to do too much too soon, you'll end up frustrated or injured!


How many can you do? Start there.

Good luck--YOU CAN DO IT!!