Never posted here yet but I am 40 pounds down after 2 months. Starting weight was at least 410 not entirely sure because the scale was only to 400 (M,21). I'm down under 370 now and I thought I would share a few things about my experience so far for anyone struggling to lose weight.
Firstly, I have struggled when I travel for my activities as a coach and competitor in debate having to eat out a bunch is super tough to deal with, and my family inviting me out has been difficult too, as a poor college kid of course I want the free meal lol. I use myfitnesspal app to track calories, and it's helped a lot, especially when you plan on drinking or eating out then. If you track calories it allows me to see where I am roughly at calorie-wise, and I almost always overestimate portions and calories to ensure I stay under.
Secondly, my workout schedule is usually very good beyond traveling, I love lifting weights and challenging myself from beforehand. To anyone trying to lift better, always remember to challenge yourself from the last session or last week. Try going up 5 or so pounds on heavy lifts every time, and every week the same on things with dumbells and stuff. Always see if you can do more, it's worth the set trust me. Don't just play it by feel of the current set, as that has led to me staying near the same weight for weeks and barely increasing, versus overloading more every session where I see huge gains in lifting. My chest flies, for example, were at 20 to start, only got them to 30 in the first month and a week but I've really focused hard on going heavier every session if I can do 8 reps in more than 1 set of that weight. Did 45 for 7 reps 2 days ago and I plan on doing 2 sets next chest day. I've done more on other things too, but I just wanted to give one example I was really happy with improvements in.
Thirdly, I write down everything I do in the gym in my notes section on my phone. I am somewhat flexible on my workout, switching off between muscles to let the other rest. Back and bi day is usually rows, curls, side lat pulldowns, EZ bar curls, face pulls, lat pulldowns. I am starting to do core a lot more, going to work up to every day, and cardio is essential (will talk about it below). I can check my progress from almost the very start when I started writing it down, to now, and it amazes me how far I have already come.
The last thing, cardio is super important even if you are lifting. If you struggle with weight like I do cardio feels terrible. And it still won't feel good, but there are ways around all the stress on joints. My favorite is a stationary bike, I'm big so the sitting down one is what I use. I have been doing a circuit of resistance, doing 10 out of 25 resistance total as my low, medium being 15, and high being 20. I started with doing 4 circuits, 3 mins of easy, 2 minutes of medium, and 1 minute of hard. the great thing about this is you can go hard for 3 minutes and get a bit of a rest for 3 minutes. I've been able to work my way up to more sets and more calories burned per minute. When I didn't do cardio for a week or so my progress stopped almost completely, doing both lifting and cardio has seen great benefits to weight loss so far and my cardio levels are significantly better than before. If you are overweight, don't stress your body with bodyweight stuff too much, working hard on a bike still gives good results.
Hope this was some good incite for people. My method isn't perfect for sure, but thought I would share some thoughts of me getting back in the gym for the first time for more than a week since my football injuries 5 years ago
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