Chubby guy looking for all types of advice. (Read 1117 times)

OK, so heres the deal. I was a state champion wrestler in high school, decided not to wrestle in college when I hurt my back at the end of my senior year, went to college, and started drinking beer. 10 years later, about hundred pounds more than when I graduated, Im turning 30 in 4 months and finally have gotten sick of looking at my waist go up and down every other year. Anyways, here is the deal. Im 29. Im 5'11" I weigh 260 (theres some muscle in there, not all chunk) Quit smoking more than 3 months ago And I have something burining inside of me to get back into shape and also to start running minis with my friends. (About 75% of my friends are runners, thats how I found this site) What am I looking for? Several things really. The first is what you all consider the best, most affect way of losing weight, as well as staying healthy. Next is how to add millage onto my runs. Last night at the gym I did a Nike + session on the treadmill, first time I have worked out in a LONG time and did 2.1 miles in 30 minutes. I know that isn't very impressive, but it was my first day. I know its going to take time to add distance but any tips to break through the mental block? Any help, hints, or words of encouragement would be great. I'm very serious about this and am ready to make a life change. Thanks Huber P.S. I seriously like how the site works with recording info to see how your doing. After I get a few months in, I think it will be neat to track my progress.

Hi there from one new runner to another. I think running for 30 minutes for your first workout is impressive, personally...I couldn't run more than 2 minutes at a shot 6 months ago! I'll leave advice to those with mroe experience... but I will say, why not start tracking your workouts now?? I find it pretty satisfying to see the miles I've collected already...no, it's not a lot by some standards, but it helps me to look back and see the progress. It's motivating on the days when I'm coming up with excuses to do other things than run!

huber-- Welcome! I'd say join the Couch to 5K group. Take a look at the workout, too. http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml Great for beginners, and the group is supportive (and need more members!).

Hey Huber, welcome to the site and congrats on a big first step. Excellent advice so far in this thread. I'll only add that there's no magic formula, we all know what's needed to get in shape or lose weight or tackle a certain distance. It's a pretty simple equation where you take your resting heart rate minus your age multiply that by 60% take that product (factor it by 101% if you want to go above and beyond) then NEVER go above 10% week-over-week mileage gain but also remember to add 30 seconds per mile for every degree the temperature is above/below the mean temp in Wichita, KS as a baseline. Of course this doesn't account for wind. And I'm only kidding. Run more, eat less. Run a lot more, eat a bit less. Eat a lot less, run a little. You know the drill. Good luck.

Hi! Congrats on getting here and good luck staying!! Have you looked into logging your food? Or becoming a portion control lover (if logging is not up your ally then you want to be really cognizant of portion controls and try to stick to 1)? My suggestion is for a week or two log what you eat in a notebook. Be honest about everything you swallow and try your best to guesstimate portion sizes. Do this without changing your habits. You will probably be amazed and easily see where problems are. My guess is you are probably also overeating. I've tried to solve this problem by using a smaller plate (salad maybe). I fill it up and eat it all, but it is MUCH less then when I filled up and ate my dinner plate! As far as running. I'm not a pain person so I started running 3x a week. And I would go around my neighborhood loop. I would walk when I had to. It took me a while to run the whole thing but when I started getting close to being able to do that I added on a second loop. Eventually i got to where i was running 3 miles 3x a week. Just take it slow and don't be disappointed if you can't run 2 miles every time right now.

You've already gotten some very good advice, I'll just add my usual favorites. When you hit the road, do it in good running shoes. It's worth it to buy from a specialty store, they'll check your gait and recommend appropriate options for you. After you find a shoe that works, you can continue supporting your local running store for your next pair or shop for price on the internet. It's quite likely that your shoes will lose their shock absorbing ability before they show significant wear. It's better to ditch them early than to try to squeeze too much out of them and wind up on the bench. Start slowly and listen to your body as you ramp up your mileage. Minor discomfort is OK, serious pain is not. When in doubt, back off. It's better to err on the side of caution, you want to stay healthy and foster a lifelong addiction. Even if one is a quick and easy one, run at least three times a week. Running less than three times a week makes the chance of injury much greater. Congrats on an excellent choice, keep up the good work!

Your story sounds similar to mine. I started running about a year ago. I didn't weigh 260, but definitely over-weight & I smoked for 10 years. I was a decent track athlete & football player 20 years ago. Don't expect miracles here. It takes a long time to undo the damage. Plan on 1-2 years minimum. Use a heart rate monitor. Keep your HR below 150 during your runs for a while. Take walk breaks if you have to. Check out the "low heart rate training group for more on this." http://runningahead.com/groups/LOWHRTR/ Build your milage slowly....no more than 5-10% per week. Listen to your body & back off when you need to. Ride a stationary bike 2-3 times week while you are building your miles. This will help speed aerobic development and stengthen the muscles around the knees.

Huber - Welcome to this great site. I'm new here too. IMHO, the most effective way to lose weight, and keep it off, is to find something or some things that you enjoy doing, and commit to doing it/them for the rest of your life. The red flag that went up when I read your initial post is that you appear to be so motivated right now that you are likely to overdo it and find running unenjoyable and painful. Ease up, don't go so far, just yet; and don't get injured. Keep the naysayers at bay. I agree that you should start logging those workouts now. I didn't know there were on-line running sites with running logs until August 2005, and I really wish I'd started logging my workouts when I started running again back on 1/1/02. It would be very helpful, for one thing, when people ask advice on how to lose weight and keep it off. My memory would be much better. And since we can make our logs public here, people can peruse them and provide us with more appropriate advice based upon our current level of fitness. The other thing - you've gotten great advice here. Don't be bashful about posting questions or asking for clarifications when things seem contradictory. Read with a jaundiced eye any post that seems to be coming down from the mountain: Thou Shalt do It this way. I lost a lot of weight by taking on just one bad eating habit at a time. I tried turning over a new leaf many times and it never worked. Just taking the cream out of coffee was good for about two weeks. Then cutting back on cookies (not cutting them out ) was next. Little things here and there until I was making such good progress between running and reducing calories that I actually wanted to eat less to see what would happen next. bty