Alright well, since I was as little as I remember I've been obese. It runs in my family, but I'm positive that I don't have to follow the same course as them.

I started dieting + exercising a week ago. What I've basically been doing is, eating a bowl of corn flakes cereal with milk when I wake up, around noon :o . Going to the gym after I'm done eating, and doing the tredmil for 20 minutes and then the eliptical trainer for 20 minutes. I get home around 2, then I eat dinner around 6-7 which usually consists of some boiled rice and girlled chicken breast. Oh, and I only drink water or mineral water.

I'm 5'6'' and I weigh 270 pounds, so as you can see I really need to drop a lot of weight, so I don't end up with diabetes and die of a heart attack at 35.

Today I just went 40 minutes on the eliptical trainer, because on the treadmil my ankles start hurting pretty bad after around 5 minutes or so. Most likely because I weight a lot and it's unhealthy for my joints.

I've been trying to do aerobic and cardiovascular exercises since that's what I hear really burns fat. I'm not sure if I should add some lifting yet, but I plan to once I get rid of these layers and layers of fat.

Alright experts! Help me out here!

Well, what most people around here will tell you is that you need a healthier diet. From what you said you eat (corn flakes in the morning, and chicken and rice at night), it doesn't sound like you are eating enough, or the right things. You need to include vegetables in your diet. Also eating 5 or 6 small meals a day instead of two larger ones will get your metabolism going. You should be eating about every 2-3 hours.

As far as the cardio goes, you want to be in the 60-70% of your maximum heart rate while you are doing the cardio. At your weight, it sounds like the ellyptical is a much better excersize, because it does not put nearly as much stress on the joints as does the treadmill. For a 16 year old, your max heart rate should be 204 (220-age). So you should be keeping your heart rate between 122 and 143 beats per minute during your excersize. I would try to keep it in the upper part of this range for greater efficiency. Also, you might try increasing your cardio to 45-60 minutes a day.

As far as weights, the benefit of adding muscle is that muscle uses more calories than fat, so if you have more muscle, then you will have a higher metabolism, and thus burn more calories. Muscle also is more dense than fat, so it takes up less space.

From my own limited experience, I would say that you should focus on cardio for now, and drop some of that fat before starting a weight program. Others around here have more knowledge and experience than I do and I am sure will give you more advice. Keep up the good work!

Also remember that losing weight is a LONG TERM PROCESS. Keep a journal of your weights each day and then average them for each week. Then to see if you are losing weight, look at the results over a MONTH. This will tell you if you are losing weight in the long run. Keeping track of your weight on a spreadsheet can help a lot. Also, you need to be taking a measure of your body fat percentage regularly so that you can keep track of that. Since muscle weighs more than fat, if you gain muscle and lose fat, you might stay at the same weight, but be more healthy, which is why you need to know what your body fat percentage is.

Welcome Trembles, and congrats on deciding to take control and make a transformation! The guys here really know their stuff. And if you stay dedicated and make good choices about your health, you will definitely see results, and fairly quickly, too. Still, though, always remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint. You're going to want to make some permanent lifestyle changes, and you shouldn't do anything so fast or so intensely that you can't do it on at least a fairly regular basis. The caveat is, of course, that you are probably capable of a lot more than you think you are, so no need to sell yourself short.

First things first, though. If you haven't, you should probably talk to your doctor about your obesity. It's possible that your obesity is at least partially caused by a genetic or hormonal factor that needs special attention. If there's a medicine you can take that will make things safer or easier for you, you're going to want to know about it up front, before you put in a lot of work. If you do have an issue like that, if you don't get the help now, you're going to need it later. Chances are you don't, but, still, it's better to know for sure.

You also should make sure to get advice on your diet and exercise from your doctor. 270 at 5'6" means your body is under a lot of strain, and your health should always come first. If you don't make sure you do what's healthy for you, you won't get optimal results. Also, since you might still be growing, it's important you get the right nutrients.

Read the stickied threads in the forums. Read John Stone's FAQ. You'll get a lot of basic information this way, and it'll give you a good foundation.

The guys and gals around here have lots of experience and have generally seen a lot of results themselves. Some of them are even professionals who make their livings helping others. I'm going to back off giving you too much specific information and let the experts handle it. There's a lot of info on this site. Good luck!

Congratulations Trembles, the first and most difficult step is over: GETTING STARTED. I admire you for admitting you HAD a problem and willing to fix it. You'll find great info and advice here.

If I were you I'd take it easy on your 1st couple of weeks and work your way up to 40 minutes of cardio training. See a doctor and let him know that you plan to do this - so you can educate yourself first. He can help. Other than that, the key to losing weight is all about nutrition. You can learn good nutrition here or on the Internet, but you might want to pick up a book. "Body for Life" (book on training and nutrition) or something of that sort has some real good information for beginners. I wish you well!

Best of luck bro!

Another good zero-impact sport (I'm going to get kicked out of these forums because I preach it in almost every post I make ;) is cycling.

I swear by it. If you have a bike, even if it's a simple cheap Huffy, it's a GREAT way to lose weight effeciently and with zero impact.

Start off slow and steady, and build distance over time. It's fun, and you can see the country side. OH, and you'll lose weight too! ;)

Remember to eat healthy, not starve yourself. As the other guys have said, lot's of small meals a day.. a banana here, a sandwich there, a bowl of cereal.. etc.. and separate the meals by 3 hours or so. The idea is to never feel hungry, and never feel full.

Just remember wheen you're craving a cheat, DON'T DO IT! You're bigger, meaner, faster and stronger than the cheeseburger. ;)

Good luck man, and here's to lookin sexy same time next year right?!

-The Rooster

P.S. - If you would like an example and are interested in getting into cycling (I can't tell you how fun it is once you get into it) you can check out my logs: http://sweb.uky.edu/~sdgrea0/activity
And you can also sign up at www.bikejournal.com for a really nice way of tracking your distances, etc.

I just broke 1000 miles on my bike since June 16th.. and adding mileage to your bike really becomes addictive after a while. ;)

I agree that your diet needs work. Weights are important, but at this stage fat loss should be your primary goal. Put weights in if you want - you should definitely at some stage, but for now make sure you're getting your cardio done.

Now, in terms of diet, you need to be eating more frequently. Your calories are too low (unless you're gorging at dinner). Eat frequently smaller amounts of food. If you eat infrequently in large amounts, yuor body won't work as well, and if you eat too little (like it looks like you're doing), then your metabolic rate will plummet.

Eat first thing when you get up. But then eat something small when you're back from the gym. Just eat every several hours a small amount. You can keep the portions humble if you're unable to avoid eating a "hearty" meal at dinner. You want to keep that meal small, but I remember living at home that sometimes you'd be "forced" to eat at least a decent serving, and that can have a good many calories in it.

The quicker you churn this weight off, the worse you'll be down the road for it. Don't rush it. Even at a healthy rate you can lose weight quickly, so please do not make the mistake that SO MANY teenagers make when dieting, which is to think that they can almost stop eating and just watch the fat fly off. It will go off quickly, at least for a while, but take along with it tons of muscle.

If you want, you can count calories (you may need to estimate those at dinner though) to see how you're doing.

Hi Trembles!

I know where you are comming from! 5 months ago, I was 290 lbs and started having consistent heart-fluttering (!). Now, I AM in fact 35, and have been fat since I was 14. The 290 of march 27th of this year was my fattest though. Lemme tell ya, that heart stuff scared me silly!

My hat is of to you for deciding to change your life, believe me, now, at 16, is WAY better than later. And everyone inhere who have been obese at some point will nod at that statement!

Today, 4½ months later, I am at 205 lbs, and in the best shape i have ever been in as an adult. Still fat, but no longer worried, cause I know that my life has changed forever.

Let me tell you how I did it.

First thing, I got a scale that can measure bodyfat and use it every day.
I got myself a stair climber and a workout bench. They look moronic in the middle of my living room, but I dont care ;)
I read about John (thanks alot John!), and that same day I changed my diet. I started eating 6 times a day. 8am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm.
I have a golden rule about eating that worked for me: anything (and i mean anything) that you know to be "bad for you", just dont eat it. It might sound like a stupid and obvious rule, but for someone who was used to eat what I was eating, it was nonetheless very important, and simple enough for me to stick to. Anyone more or less knows what is good and what is bad for you. If not, this site can teach you :tu: Since I started, my golden rule has been somewhat refined, and I have become better aware of how to mix proteins, carbs and fat. All stuff that these awesome guys know almost everything there is to know about. And whats more they are not shy about passing their knowledge on!
I immidiately started seeing results on the scale after the change in diet, and the pounds started comming off fast. At that point I was getting more and more educated, and was looking into how to train smarter.
In the very beginning, I was so much out of shape, that the very first day of stairclimbing, i could do only 6 minutes (no kidding!) and I was completely toasted. I thought to myself: OMG! - how am I ever gonna do 45 minutes of this, and at 130 bpm?
The solutions was simple, same approach as for dieting: I needed a plan of attack! - so I figured: I will increase the time i am on the ting by 1 minute every day. After 5 days i was doing 11 minutes, and felt like I could perhaps do 1 more, so I did. After that I took on another 2 minutes every day, until that marvelous day when I did my first 45 minute session!
I then progressed to do that every day for 2 months or so, while starting up weight training.

I have now realised that 45 minutes of cardio + weights every day is simply to much excercise for me to maintain, so I am now doing cardio 4 days a week, and weights the remaining 3.

And that is how I got to where i am today, 85 lbs lighter, and 100% happier.

A good word for me through all this is: consistency. I read it somewhere as a comment to fatloss, and it has stuck in there and helped me on days when I might have skipped excercising or binged on a cheat meal.

I hope my little story helps you, and I wish you all the luck in the world on your new life!

A good word for me through all this is: consistency. I read it somewhere as a comment to fatloss, and it has stuck in there and helped me on days when I might have skipped excercising or binged on a cheat meal.

Consistency means the world in this game - and after a while, you find yourself feeling incomplete on days where you don't get to do your workouts. I feel lost today, but I have a good excuse... I'm sick.

What an inspiring story, J. Keep it up, and I hope you're documenting all this - because I know there will be a day soon where you can look back and say ... "Look what I did"... and it's going to feel great.

Continued luck to you and good luck to Trembles, who's just starting his journey...

-R

Obesity is not neccesarily hereditary. Of course, if your parents eat a lot then you're in that environment and will follow suit, so don't fret, a change is definitely on the horizon.

For one thing, you want to get up a bit earlier. Getting up at noon is not only extremely lazy, but also bad for fat burning. If you get up at about 9 o'clock at eat, you're boosting your metabolism three hours earlier.

I'd reccommend introducing weight lifting to your workouts now. They will definitely give you the kind of bodily changes you are after. Try a three day split (back + biceps, legs, shoulders + chest + triceps), with cardio sessions on the non-lifting days.

Eat more protein. In fact eat more meals full stop. Two meals per day is just ridiculous and if you're used to eating a lot, then you simply won't be able to maintain it (not that you'd want to anyway). You will burn more fat eating two to three times as much as you are eating now.

Consistancy is the key... let us know how you get on.

Yeah I only have like 3 weeks of vacation left, after that I don't have a choice when to wake up.

I don't know much about free weights, is it better to do lower weight more reps, or higher weight and less reps.

Goodjob, jdalberg. Trembles can follow your success too if he wants too :)