Frustrated Fat-Boy

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

At 37 years old, 233lbs and a +/- 28 BMI I’ve finally had enough of the sedentary lifestyle.

I was invited to go to the gym with my much younger brother-in-law and was embarrassed by my pathetic performance. I’ve read a number of posts from experienced lifters and frankly my 1RM wouldn’t even qualify for your warm-up sets.

As a result I’ve spent the last month during spare moments lurking the T-Nation forums and reading articles. I spent two weeks logging everything I ate and found too many problems with my diet to count.

Last week I started working towards more healthy eating habits and have been logging those as well. I’ve looked at picture after picture and watched video of exercises to try to learn them and have practiced them using light or no weight to try to get the feel.

I’ve written down my short, medium, and long-term goals and compared them to workout templates and their expected results to create a plan that seems best suited to me. I’ve talked to my wife and kids and have their full support. Is there anything obvious that I’m missing?

2

sure…

consistently going into the gym three to four times a week and busting ass…

consistently kicking ass in the gym and consistently eating healthier food choices will make all the difference in the world…

consistency is the key…

good luck!

3

That’s great that you are getting into the gym. I’m good at going to the gym (as I really enjoy it), but I am TERRIBLE about my eating habits.

Be patient, but be consistent. You will really enjoy the drastic changes you’ll experience if you get on a good program.

Best of luck to you.

4

Body Mass Index [BMI] is a bad way of calculating overweightness. I know a few people who are ripped to the bone that would be “obese” according to a BMI chart. A good thing to do would be getting your bodyfat measured, as that gives you an accurate idea of what you need to loose to ‘look good nekked’.

It might also be worthwhile listing what routines / diet you’re using - they might be to fairly advanced routines and thus have alot of their benefit ‘wasted’, so people might be able to recommend others that would be more effective. Good luck, and Gratts on making a change.

5

I take it that your goal includes losing a lot of fat as well. My advice is to get moving outside of the gym. Walk, walk, walk and then walk some more… it’s a great way of spending loads of energy without putting any greater stress on your body and muscle recovery. You can eat more of the healthy stuff that way too and still lose fat.

6

CCfan,

It sounds like you are off to a good start. However, when you are just starting off, remember to keep the “90% Rule” in mind. That is, don’t have the mentality that, “if I miss one workout, it’s all over,” because you probably will miss a workout here or there until it becomes your routine.

Just remember if you miss a workout that you have to work your ass off that much harder the next time. Lifting is a little difficult to begin with because you’ll probably suck at it to begin with. However, if you stick with it you will start to love it- nothing is more exciting than setting a new PR.

Let us know what type of progress you’re making!

7

All very good points on here. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of what they’ve all said.

However, I would just like to add that it will probably take awhile before you start seeing improvements if you’re just starting out. At least, I didn’t see any for what seemed like a long time.

The first thing I really noticed (finally!)when I started was that my waist size began to shrink–everything else appeared the same (even my cardio times, and weight amounts never improved even though I was supplementing, dieting, resting, and lifting properly), but I was suddenly notching my belt a rung tighter than I ever had before. And then it was not long after that point that I started to make “real” progress in my appearance, bf%, strength gains, endurance, attitude, and other indications of health.

I guess what I’m saying is, don’t get discouraged because you’re not seeing or necessarily feeling any changes at first–it took me over month before I noticed my waist had shrunk a bit, but once that happened, it was like a viscious cycle had started and soon after I was seeing improvements all over the board. Now I look forward to kicking my own butt on a regular basis. But that first stretch was a real bitch to stay motivated through, especially when I kept feeling worse during the days after my workouts.

Trust me, if you can keep up with it, there’ll be that one time, perhaps when you’re about to jump in the shower after your umpteenth killer workout, when you’ll catch yourself in the mirror and say, “Holy shit! Where the hell did those come from!?”–and suddenly all the punishment just became worth it.

At least, that’s what I think I’m finding out right now. I’ve still got a long ways to go before I reach all of my goals, but there are many unexpected rewards along the way that keep making it easier and easier to stick with the plan. My problem now is that I’ve got to watch that I don’t overtrain and injure myself, which for me was unthinkable only two months ago.

Good luck!

8

Good start slow and steady permanent steps. No quick fixes and in no time youll be on your way and meeting/beating goals.

9

-Did you visit a doc to get a check?

-Did you analyse your posture?

10

Did you read the Chris Shugart article about Bob digging a hole. It’s in his blog.