Help! How do you start a diet/excercise routine?
 

I'm sort of nonchalant and never been serious about my weight. Sure, I feel good all the time. Little lazy in the eye, perhaps, but I have energy and I feel strong...I don't need coffee like others may need.

But the excuses can only go so far.

Thing is, my weight is starting to get a little ridiculous. I'm not interested in a nice, feminine (it's impossible for me anyhow) or slight body-I'm interested in a strong one. Thing is, I'm unsure about the foods/workouts to get one. I don't have rolls to burn-but my arms need muscle badly since they are flabby higher up...my legs could use a tiny bit of help, my stomach needs some help...and then there's my back. It's my upper back that is problematic and annoying.

Okay, okay...sorry guys for drawing out-what I mainly am looking for is some little tips to toughen up and shave off some pounds, maybe increasing my metabolism. It's something that I never really tried so I don't know where to start, other then sit-ups and running...

Thank you for any help!

When I was in your situation, I started working out at Curves. They are set up to do only one type of routine, and once you learn what it is, you don't have to do much thinking about it. Perhaps there is one near you.

Figure out what you want to do in terms of your diet. Is there an eating program for weight loss that appeals to you. When I first started my weight loss the first thing I did was eliminate bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and sugar. Then I started adding different things to my program.

I understand that doing some type of interval training will increase your metabolism. Run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes, Run 2 minutes, Walk 2 minutes. I also started lifting weights and this can help your metabolism.

Hope this is what you are looking for.

Diet will do more for slimming your body than exercise will. Cutting out processed, simple carbs (white rice, white sugar, all-purpose flour), soda, sweets and junk food, reducing fat, cutting calories/portion sizes will probably lead to huge changes in your body and obvious reductions in the amount of visible (and non-visible!) fat. These are simple steps to get started.

*Any* sort of exercise is good for getting started. Even walking a few miles a day, or as much as you can, is good. Power walking, running, biking, going to the gym and hitting up the elliptical/treadmills, biking, etc- all of these are great, but if you just want to start with walking that's a step in the right direction.

I'd check out the 'exercise' forum and some of the sticky threads at the top to get ideas on general exercises practices. Stumptuous.com is a great resource for at home-training.

For right now just to get started *any* sort of healthy change is good- again, cutting out low-nutrient/high fat/processed food (or at least cutting it way back), portion size, and starting to move more are great first steps. You don't need a very technical, complicated exercise/weight loss regimen to lose weight, especially at first, just some common sense choices :) Good luck!

Dietary changes are the most important thing to weight loss. Research some of the popular plans and see what sounds the most doable for your tastes and lifestyle.
If you don't want or don't do well with the structure of a plan you can always just make a conscious effort to cut out your problem foods.

I am lazy when it comes to exercise too. Going to a gym is a pain. I like yoga or pilates. All you need is a dvd and a patch of floor near the tv. No heart pounding, sweaty, jiggling around in front of strangers.

Bonus that it has benefits outside of toning muscle and weightloss, like lowering levels of stress hormones. I need to dust off some dvds myself ;)

I would suggest a pre-workout drink and a multi-vitamin 30 min before the last meal of the day. Pre-workout drinks really help rev up your workouts, especially if you are planning on doing a little weight lifting. To tighten up, you need to find out your target heart rate to burn fat and do that for 30 min and then find your target heart rate for cardio and do that for 30 min and then also do 15-20 min of weight training. Right now I'm on the fat smash diet, I'm barely flowing the plan and in 3 weeks i've lost 8lbs and your suppose to lose 12. However, I've been eating way more than the plan permits.