So where do I begin?

[ActionB461]

So i'm male, 277 pounds, and REALLY want to get into shape. but im not sure where to begin. I also need to getting my eating under control, where it stands now i have a voracious appetite and feel like I'm almost always hungry, so some tips with dealing with that would be very appreciated.

Can anyone recommend some excercises to really burn down extra fat as well as some excercieses to help build upper body strength? I was thinking about starting out trying to do squats and push ups and see where that takes me, but right now Im more concerned about getting my weight under control and toning down my appetite. any words of advice will help, thanks everyone.

 

[FalconHorse]

I used to weigh over 300lbs and lost ~100lbs by adopting a paleo diet and lifting weights. The average 'powerlifting' split, squat/bench/deadlift MWF plus accessories. While there is undoubtedly a synergistic relationship with diet and exercise, I think the diet change accounts the vast majority of my weight loss. I also just upped my overall physical activity (hiking, bike rides, walking etc). Will it work for you? No idea, but that's my story.

 

[lsd]

You need to get a handle on your appetite or it's all for nothing. As a beginner you can work out all you want but if can't get a hold of your eating habits it will be a losing battle in the end. You won't see any loses and probably give up. You need to set a goal date or dates. That helped me stick to my diet.
For now get rid of the carbs and stick to protein heavy foods. Something like Chicken breast or tuna is filing and can help with cravings. I say go to the doc first and get your physical and blood work done before you work out.

 

[tenpole]

I could do with going on this diet but I love bread and that is a no no as it is in the carbohydrates group.
Well I will need to do something about it, I am 47 and just get so tired all the time from being overweight 120kg.

 

[cbrunny]

Paleo is a trend diet. Ignore that.

Calories in < Calories out. Do that.

Start by signing up at myfitnesspal and commit to logging your calories. The app will define a calorie target for you and as long as you're diligent in tracking your calories (never lie to it, even if you go over) you should at least become more aware.

I've lost ~40 lbs using myfitnesspal and some combination of fitbit/exercise.

If I were near 300 lbs, I'd start with walking. Walk daily until you can do 5k in under an hour. You can mix it up with stationary bike work, 30 mins at a time. Your legs are HUGE muscles physically, so toning them has a huge benefit to increasing your BMR. Your arms are small relatively speaking. Lots of time for toning them when you're ~200/~225. If you're committed to doing something that works arms, swim. Cardio is your friend.

Controlling your apetite probably has more to do with what you eat rather than your size. Cut as much sugar as you can reasonably - sugar can be addictive, making you want more sugar. Artificial sweeteners too.

 

[edro]

I highly recommend tracking EVERYTHING you eat. (for a while at least)
I do this with a Google Sheets spreadsheet that is easily updated with your phone, so it's always accessible.
All you have to do is track the Calories and Macros (fat, carbs, protein).
Once you start writing everything down, you realize that you are overeating, every day of your life.

Go to IIFYM.com and use their calculator to see how many calories you should be eating per day to lose weight.

I can do a quick split for you now.
277lbs, sedentary life style
2200 calories per day and you will be at a 20% caloric deficit, meaning you will lose ~1lb/week.

Now choose whichever Fat/Carb/Protein split you want.
I use 33%/33%/33%, because it is easy to remember.
Traditionalists like 20/40/40.

Fat=10 calories per gram
Carb = 4 calories per gram
Protein = 4 calories per gram

2200 * .33 = 725 calories / 10 = 73g Fat
2200 * .33 = 725 calories / 4 = 182g Carbs
2200 * .33 = 725 calories / 4 = 182g Protein

Eat this every day, however you want.
Mix in weight lifting and you will be "fit" in 6-12 months.

 

[fleshconsumed]

You begin with the fat loss sticky at the top:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=162171

Clean up your diet, like really clean it up, watch your portions, hit the gym/trail, and watch the fat disappear. It's not magic. The how is easy, the hard part is sticking to it and not giving up.

 

[SP33Demon]

Yep, what others said. Clean up diet by reading fat loss sticky. Then hit compound movements like squat/deads/benchpress for 3 days a week. Studies show that it will boost your metabolism for 72 hours so the muscle will be burning all those extra calories in that timespan. Much easier to burn calories internally than trying to do it on a treadmill everyday.

 

[SlitheryDee]

In march of last year I got a throat infection that sent me to the after hours clinic one saturday for treatment. When they weighed me before seeing the nurse practitioner I was shocked to see 277 lbs on the scale. That marked the moment I decided to change my habits and get into shape. I thought about that because you apparently weigh exactly what I did when I started. You could conceivably use my progress as a model for your own and expect similar results if you were so inclined. Lemme show you some before and after photos.

The first is me at 277 pounds. Specifically it's on the birthday previous to the visit to the doctor's office that spurred me to change my ways. The second picture is from about a week ago. 92lbs lighter and with over a year of exercise behind me I think I look much better.

To start with I'd put the idea of exercising to lose weight largely out of your mind. It really does burn a trivial amount of calories compared to what you're likely eating every day. The majority of your efforts and willpower need to be focused squarely on reducing the number of calories you take in every day. In order to do that with any kind of reliability and accuracy you'll need to track what you eat. I've extolled the virtues of calorie counting apps like myplate (the one I use) and myfitness pal ad nauseum on this forum, but suffice it to say that they work, and extremely well when you use them correctly. I'm living proof of that. Everything that goes into your face should go into the app. When you hit your daily calorie limit you stop eating. Do that every single day without fail and you'll lose all the weight you want.

On the surface it's that simple, but when you get into it you'll work out the finer points on your own. For instance, there's really nothing stopping you from eating your entire daily limit in cake and ice cream if you want. Do that a couple of times and you'll quickly realize that it isn't sustainable. You'll blow through your calories fast and the insulin response generated by all that sugar will have you feeling famished again before dinnertime. You'll find yourself naturally gravitating toward more wholesome and filling foods like lean meats, fruit, vegetables, etc for the simple reason that you can eat more of them and stay satiated all day. What I'm saying is that counting calories will cause your diet to correct itself out of necessity.

All that said, I'm not saying that you don't need to exercise. Exercise will help you immensely in your goals. Getting stronger and increasing your cardiovascular health will make you feel better and more energetic all day, which will bolster your willpower and help keep your diet in check. You won't really lose weight that much faster because of it, but your perception of your progress will be practically doubled as you see muscle growing on your body at the same time fat is disappearing. You'll feel you look twice as good in the same time frame lifting weights and dieting vs just dieting because of how weight lifting changes the overall shape of your body. This will keep you in the game more effectively than just waiting on the weight to drop off. There are any number of simple beginner programs you can get into for this. I think I would recommend starting strength or stronglifts 5x5 merely because they aren't complex, they scale very well in difficulty from trivial in the beginning to quite difficult as you get more advanced, and they allow you to easily track your progress. anyway, good luck to you. I hope I provided some inspiration and useful advice here.http://forums.anandtech.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/

 

[tenpole]

Well SlitheryDee you have given me something to think about now. I have an app called S Health on my galaxy. It runs in the background and once a month it chimes when I do actual reach a goal of 10000 steps. But that only equates to 500 calories burnt off. S Health does have a section where you can enter the food you have had and works out the calories for you. I have never bothered but after reading this advice from you people I will put it in to see what it comes out with.

Cbrunny are artificial sweeteners addictive also did you mean? I have been using sweeteners in my tea for years now. I prefer them now to having sugar in tea. I thought I was doing a good thing by having them but I guess all the other junk has not helped.

 

[cbrunny]

Cbrunny are artificial sweeteners addictive also did you mean? I have been using sweeteners in my tea for years now. I prefer them now to having sugar in tea. I thought I was doing a good thing by having them but I guess all the other junk has not helped.

Yes, they're addictive too. That's part of the problem with them. They can be zero calories but they make your body crave more sugar. If you can control the cravings or if its a once in a while treat then probably ok, but I'm also not a doctor and don't drink a lot of sweeteners. My advice is to cut out sweeteners as much as is possible, artificial or otherwise.

My wife swears that your body converts artificial sweeteners into sugar once they're in your body, so they're only zero calories until your body starts to digest them. I have no idea if this is true, and it doesn't really make sense to me, but she swears by it. Colour me skeptical.

 

[deadlyapp]

Yes, they're addictive too. That's part of the problem with them. They can be zero calories but they make your body crave more sugar. If you can control the cravings or if its a once in a while treat then probably ok, but I'm also not a doctor and don't drink a lot of sweeteners. My advice is to cut out sweeteners as much as is possible, artificial or otherwise.

My wife swears that your body converts artificial sweeteners into sugar once they're in your body, so they're only zero calories until your body starts to digest them. I have no idea if this is true, and it doesn't really make sense to me, but she swears by it. Colour me skeptical.

From what I understand about artificial sweeteners is that they chemically cannot be absorbed/converted and simply travel through your digestive system until you excrete them. But, as you say, when you have an artificial sweetener your brain tells you you had something sweet but your body gets no corresponding glucose/energy increase, so your hunger does not go away and you continue to have that appetite/craving.

 

[SlitheryDee]

Well SlitheryDee you have given me something to think about now. I have an app called S Health on my galaxy. It runs in the background and once a month it chimes when I do actual reach a goal of 10000 steps. But that only equates to 500 calories burnt off. S Health does have a section where you can enter the food you have had and works out the calories for you. I have never bothered but after reading this advice from you people I will put it in to see what it comes out with.

I'm not familiar with s health, but it sounds like it should work just fine. If you do this you have to make up your mind that you're going all the way with it though. If you eat so much as a pistachio you need to get into the habit of pulling your phone out and logging it in the app. The temptation will be to let all those little bites here and there slide because using the app for each and every one will feel like a nuisance. That way lies failure however. Don't budge on it. In fact, use that to your advantage. When the temptation comes to take a little bite of something, remember that you're going to have to log those calories regardless of how few they are and maybe it'll cause you to pass on some of that, which can only help you in the long run.

 

[solidstar]

You begin with the fat loss sticky at the top:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=162171

Clean up your diet, like really clean it up, watch your portions, hit the gym/trail, and watch the fat disappear. It's not magic. The how is easy, the hard part is sticking to it and not giving up.

Yes, I agree. The how is easy but you need to be disciplined enough to stick to it. Been there, done that

 

[tenpole]

Update
It is now coming up for 2 weeks and I have not cleaned up my diet. Still eating pizzas at weekend, steak and chips the other day and deep fried fish on Fridays with curry sauce.

Both weekends Sat and Sunday ended up going over 3000 calories.

Despite this, by monitoring my calorie intake I still have gone from 117.8kg to 115.6 kg.

What I have done is skip the biscuits after meals. Cut out crisps (chips US) except at the weekend I succumbed come to think about it.
I have changed my eating habits and have a light lunch instead of not eating AT ALL until the evening and then binge ing till bed time

Some of the calorific values have surprised me where I thought something might be low in anything but. A pot noddle, dried fruit very high and Italian focacci bread (I expect high, but not that high).

So even a little discipline has shown results.

 

[edro]

Holy crap Slithery!
I'm surprised your abs look so lean after a 92lb loss.

Very nice job!

 

[Carson Dyle]

Holy crap Slithery!
I'm surprised your abs look so lean after a 92lb loss.

Very nice job!

Agreed. Pretty incredible.

That's not just a loss of 92 lbs of flab. He probably also put on a good 15-20 lbs of muscle.

 

[Pantlegz]

Paleo is a trend diet. Ignore that.

Calories in < Calories out. Do that.

Start by signing up at myfitnesspal and commit to logging your calories. The app will define a calorie target for you and as long as you're diligent in tracking your calories (never lie to it, even if you go over) you should at least become more aware.

I've lost ~40 lbs using myfitnesspal and some combination of fitbit/exercise.

If I were near 300 lbs, I'd start with walking. Walk daily until you can do 5k in under an hour. You can mix it up with stationary bike work, 30 mins at a time. Your legs are HUGE muscles physically, so toning them has a huge benefit to increasing your BMR. Your arms are small relatively speaking. Lots of time for toning them when you're ~200/~225. If you're committed to doing something that works arms, swim. Cardio is your friend.

Controlling your apetite probably has more to do with what you eat rather than your size. Cut as much sugar as you can reasonably - sugar can be addictive, making you want more sugar. Artificial sweeteners too.

So much bad information here it's not even funny. For starters Paelo is a perfectly fine guideline for what to eat. No refined grains, sugars and such. But use it as a high level guide and don't worry about what potatoes/beans/etc are paleo and what aren't.

Cardio can be helpful but it's a slippery slope because cardio can also reduce muscle mass which reduces BMR which is more important to sustained fat loss than a jog that might burn a couple hundred calories.

You can't tone muscle.

OP, the quickest way to lose weight is to get your insulin under control, obesity is a hormonal problem as much as anything else. This means ween yourself off sugar, I tend to follow the WHO's recommendation of no more than 25g of added sugars a day. This means outside of what is naturally found in the non-processed foods you're eating. Fat is your friend.

Aside from that, get in the gym and lift some weights, I'd highly recommend Starting Strength for a solid 6-12 months and go from there.

 

[edro]

OP, the quickest way to lose weight is to get your insulin under control, obesity is a hormonal problem as much as anything else. This means ween yourself off sugar, I tend to follow the WHO's recommendation of no more than 25g of added sugars a day. This means outside of what is naturally found in the non-processed foods you're eating. Fat is your friend.

I agree 100%.

I truly believe sugar is the main reason most people are overweight or obese.
I used to think it was our high fat diet, but I now believe it is refined carbs.

Almost all cheap convenience foods are pure sugar, which is a large part of most American's diets.

 

[edro]

Agreed. Pretty incredible.

That's not just a loss of 92 lbs of flab. He probably also put on a good 15-20 lbs of muscle.

Good point. He probably lost 110lbs of fat!
His is one of the best body transformations I have seen.
Lower ab vascularity is very tough for someone who has been 35%+ body fat at some point in their life.
He has some awesome genes to go along with the awesome effort.
Not taking anything away from him, just jealous.

 

[Kaido]

I agree 100%.

I truly believe sugar is the main reason most people are overweight or obese.
I used to think it was our high fat diet, but I now believe it is refined carbs.

Almost all cheap convenience foods are pure sugar, which is a large part of most American's diets.

I dunno, I used to think that sugar was really bad, but ultimately I think what it boils down to is two things:

1. A lack of education
2. A lack of personal responsibility

Most people simply don't know that eating too many calories makes you fat, regardless of the source of those calories. Sugar, carbs, and fat don't automatically make you fat; eating late at night or skipping breakfast doesn't make you fat. However, sugar & junk food do make it more convenient to eat a lot of calories in one sitting (and then get hungry again sooner & repeat the cycle) - which isn't to say you can't have those things & still be in-shape, just that if you're living on the standard American diet, it's more of a trap than most people realize. But if you don't know that food controls weight, and subsequently if you're not being responsible for what you eat in some way (by eating clean, by tracking your calories, etc.), then it's really hard to make progress because you'll have to kill yourself at the gym or starve yourself to get results, both of which aren't very sustainable. And the good news is, you don't have to eat plain chicken & broccoli all the time get results...I eat a looooooooot of junk food, but I manage my macros every day so things work out properly. So I'm back to eating the same junk food I was before when I was fat, but I'm also not over-eating on my calories & I'm hitting my macros for protein, carb, and fat grams every day, which is still a LOT of food to eat every day.

When I was overweight, I always thought that exercise = fat loss. I don't like exercise, so I never really pursued it; I could chalk that up to lack of responsibility, but at the time, exercising didn't feel great & seemed unsustainable to me. The bigger problem was that I had zero clue that food controlled bodyfat. It took me a loooooooong time to come to that conclusion. That's why I really like IIFYM...you still get to enjoy food, but in a more controlled way so that you can achieve specific results. And once I learned that food controlled bodyfat, I thought that eating clean was the only way to go. And it did work for me (I lost a good 50 pounds) because it's kind of hard to over-eat plain chicken & broccoli But then I learned about the macro-based style of eating & that really opened up a lot of doors to eating what I wanted to every day rather than just on cheat days or for cheat meals. Now I can both enjoy food & get results, simply by figuring out my menu & numbers for the day.

So anyway, I think that's what the real story is - sugar isn't to blame for people's waistlines, it's a lack of education & the subsequent choice to not take personal responsibility for your health. Lack of a proper education regarding food & how it affects your body is a REALLY big deal though...there's an enormous amount of confusing information out there from broscience, product marketing, and so on that it makes it really hard to figure out what works & what doesn't, as well as what is sustainable for you personally & what works for your specific body. For fatloss exclusively, it really does just boil down to calories in vs. calories out. If you want to be fit, you need to add in macro tracking, if you're doing the calorie-counting thing. If you want to be healthy, then you'll also benefit from the micronutrients & phytochemicals from whole foods. I know people who don't count & eat paleo and are pretty healthy. I know people who live off protein shakes & protein bars and are pretty healthy. I know people who eat ice cream every day, but also track their macros and are pretty healthy. I also know people who simply watch how much they eat & don't track anything and do just fine. So while there's not just one way to getting in shape, I think there's more to it than just pointing the finger at sugar & carbs, because you can include those as part of a fit lifestyle...it's more about getting educated & then deciding to stick with a plan to get you where you want to be.

 

[edro]

Understood and I agree. It really is about ignorance.

But... if you are uneducated, you are much more likely to overeat on sugar rich food than protein or fat rich foods, due to their convenience, taste and cost.

If protein was just as cheap, convenient and tasty as sugar foods, we wouldn't have a weight problem.

 

[Tweak155]

I never really calorie counted and have managed to lose ~75lbs just by walking and minimizing the eating of things that are pre made / packaged.

While I slowly started to become more aware of what I was eating, it really just came down to "can I replace this thing I'm eating with something that is a healthier choice".

For example, way early on I substituted mayo with mustard. Make small changes like that over time and you get really good results.

I still eat quick-grab bars, but other than that - it's all prepared food or things like bananas. I eat pizza every 2 weeks and order a smaller amount so there are no leftovers. I eat candy or something similar once a week and only drink water and black coffee (or pop if I want that for my "candy").

I now should get into more exercise types since my back has healed (I walked so much I injured my back)... going to look into getting a home exercise set.

I've tried different things over time (I'm over 100lbs lighter than my heaviest point), but the trick above is what stuck. Small changes make it easy to do and less noticeable.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I now should get into more exercise types since my back has healed (I walked so much I injured my back)... going to look into getting a home exercise set.

How did that happen, and what kind of injury was it? How long/far were you walking to do that?

 

[Tweak155]

How did that happen, and what kind of injury was it? How long/far were you walking to do that?

I was walking at least 6mi per day. The injury happened when I went on vacation and was then walking 10-15mi per day. I think overall I just did too much walking. It only hurt when I walked, and then would hurt more when I walked more.

It was my upper back under my left shoulder. The doctor told me it would heal, but it definitely took a long time (5-7 weeks?). I basically had to quit walking.

I can still feel it very slightly, however it's all but gone now.