I am completely new here, and this is a new world of information for me.
I have been way obese and out of shape my whole life. I’m 20 now, female, and I weigh in at 256 at 5’7", which is still pretty bad but I started at 280 2.5 months ago. I’m pretty much sick of staring at my fat body. I’m trying to get in shape so I can join the Army (as noted by my name, i want 74D) and just be healthy.
All I have access to are some dumbbells and my boyfriend’s Soloflex. My father runs a sporting goods store so there’s never a shortage of resistance bands and sizes of dumbbells, though I wish we had room for a nicer gym or money for a membership. It seems to be working okay thus far.
I get plenty of protein, enough fat, and carbs to keep me going. I just don’t eat much more than 1800 calories every day now. I used to probably eat around 6,000 and was sedentary! I am told to gain muscle you can’t have a deficit, but to lose fat you must, so I’m a little confused as to what I should be doing first.
Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself… and hopefully have some flattering pictures to post on here as my journey creeps along.
I reckon you should put this same post on:
http://www.figureathlete.com
will probably get some advice from more like minded people.
Brittany
First off, congratulations on chosing to make the journey and losing the first 24 lbs! I am by no means an expert but here is my opinion. At this point your primary concern is losing weight. You are correct, losing weight and gaining muscle at the same time are very difficult. However, I would think you would want to drop your weight before worrying about adding the muscle. Hard to say what your goal weight should be for now but I would say for sure drop under 200 before thinking about the next stage in your development.
Keep us up to date on your progress and let everyone in here know when you need some extra motivation (we all need it at times).
if i wanted to lose alot of weight fast i would do a mountain hiking/camping thing. i heard this one guy on television recomend it but he was joking since it was kind of dangerous since the people that did it were not trying to lose weight but they did. i think it was the army actualy
In your case, you should focus on losing some weight before you worry about trying to gain muscle mass. Honestly, you’re just starting out, so you should see some muscle gains while losing fat. The longer you train, and the leaner you get, the harder it is to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Right now, even though you are eating at a deficit level, you are taking in plenty of protein, and you’re body has plenty of “fuel” stored away which can be used. Also, since you haven’t done much weight work before, any lifting you do will have a much greater impact then if you’d been training for 2 or 3 years.
[quote]eremesu wrote:
if i wanted to lose alot of weight fast i would do a mountain hiking/camping thing. i heard this one guy on television recomend it but he was joking since it was kind of dangerous since the people that did it were not trying to lose weight but they did. i think it was the army actualy[/quote]
Hiking is a great idea. Walking on rugged dirt roads is way harder then flat streets. I say she should try to find some mountain biking trails.
Eat low carbs, lean beef, fish, and turkey.
Wow, thanks everyone for the replies!
I don’t have my own bicycle yet, but I should soon. I want one so bad, but I want a good one with a long lasting frame. Looking at Raleighs. I’m just more than a little broke right now, so hopefully in September I’ll have a bike again. I’d prefer it anyway, considering the gas prices around these parts nowadays.
I failed to mention I also go to Tai Chi Chuan 5x per week and after dropping some more weight (to a level that higher impact is OK) I’ll be training in Hung Gar. Sorry I’m a bit of a TCMA freak.
I should start walking again, I just get ungodly bored after about 6 miles by myself on a flat paved road, that’s why I stopped. Central NJ has little to offer in the way of good trails, at least in my neck of the woods. I think I’m gonna start walking the 2.5 miles to Tai Chi practice and back, and go from there.
So thanks again and thanks for the Figure Athlete link, I’ll be sure to read some good articles on there.
Bis Später,
Brit
Is there any reason you can’t use the equipment after hours?
Good thinking on the walking - I think it will have a huge impact on your weight loss and mental well being, as well as prepping your body for all the running you will eventually do in the Army. I personally think you can never have too much of a walking fitness base before you actually start running.
Good luck with your training and future career. I’m not a huge fan of things I can’t return fire to (NBC and mines), but sounds like you know what you want!
[quote]HoratioSandoval wrote:
Good luck with your training and future career. I’m not a huge fan of things I can’t return fire to (NBC and mines), but sounds like you know what you want![/quote]
Hey, I hate to say it but 11B just can’t happen for me, since I am of the female variety. Alas, my obsession with NBC will come to use I guess. Blame it on growing up with a chemical engineer.
And to answer the above question, I just got done talking to him; apparently he works out on his own equipment during downtime and wouldn’t care if I used it! 
of course you stopped walking. walking is okay for transportation, though if you drive to the gym then you can do a real exercise and be finished and back at home in the time it would take to get there by walking. so walking really is useless. exercise is supposed to be intense, your body should at least know it is doing something challenging.
i saw a guy at the gym, he was walking on the treadmill for an hour. firstly this moron wasted his forty five dollars. probably more since these oafs dont bother to cancel their contracts. does he not want to be too far from a refrigerator? say he walks an hour three days a week. great, he burned a hundred extra calories that week. what sort of foresight do these people have? do you think he is going to walk three hours a week while staring at trash television? of course not. does he? yes. that makes him an idiot.