Hello!
Firstly i want to thank you for even reading this because that in itself is help.
Okay, i'm going to be completely honest because lieing wont exactly help things!
I'm sorry that this is long and sounds like i'm making a lot of excuses but i honestly have some issues that i need to contend with, sorry if i word this badly as i am dyslexic!

Right! As i said i'm dyslexic which hinders me in many ways, i can't think very well on my toes and i kind of rely on the help of my fellow friends, this is annoying when it comes to working out as i find it near to impossible to discuss! it hinders me in other ways too, i am very easily confused and my mind manages to forget a lot of instructions!
Anyhow, moving on from my dyslexia between the ages 14-16 i was pretty well maintained as i reached my steady height of 6 ft 4 back then i use to play rugby and go to the gym 2-3 times a week, i was weighing in at 14 stone 5 pounds well on my way to a six pack, but one lovely day i was playing rugby on our grounds, against a obviously quite new team, i can't remember exact details about that day but what happened was i had the ball and was runnig to score a try, but i got "Dump" tackled but they did it very badly, what happened was they got me by the legs and with quite a lot of force basicly whipped me onto the floor, this was very bad as it caused me to land on my shoulder which caused me to have to go to the hospital, it was damage to my shoulder and they were worried i could have a bit of damage to my spine, meaning for 2 years now ive had to stay dorment he has only just given me the thumbs up to build up my training slowly, but as you can guess, being forced to sit and do nothing for 2 years has caused quite a bit of an affect on my body shape, as my mum was looking after me it was always "Oh maybe some cake would help you feel better." etc etc etc..
So that brings me to now..

So i shall list facts about my lifestyle

I am male, i am still 6ft 4! i now weigh 15.5 stone and i can say i did not retain much muscle from rugby (Except my outer thigh muscles are oddly strong..)
Right now i am 18, i am a first year student at university, studying Game Software Development (Oh no more sitting!)
I think it would be good to post my weekly meals: (Bare in mind my closest shop is aldi and they don't really have a wide range)

When i wake up i have a coffee ranging from 1 - 2 tsp of sugar

during lunch i have the option of ordering food such as a baguette with chips (covered in cheese but thats just how they make it)
or i can go to the shop and have a choice of rather disgusting sandwiches and a drink

and when i come home, if im honest i don't have much money left over at this time so it ranges from a pizza or 2 cheese toasties or a couple tins of soup or pasta and sauce

i drink around 1-2L of water a day (and i'll have a 1 L bottle of water by me at night i generally finish)
but sometimes i can have up to 3 bottles of diet coke a day

The reason for the terrible diet at the moment is just due to lack of money, and when i change for healthier diets it really affects my lifestyle and concentration, i have issues with my dyslexia and concentrating already when i have a healthier diet it seems like i cannot focus on anything and i start falling behind with grades, so i think for the greater good i change back to my unhealthy foods and i do better at uni.

Another issue is i don't have the time to make the food as i live with 5 room mates (which i really don't like) and i get around 20-25 minutes to cook my food or the oven has been taken.

i walk to uni and back every day which is around a 15 minute walk twice so 30 minutes of walking a day, but ever since my accident this walk will actually tire me out.

I would like to add finally that i feel very sad when i think about the weight i have gained, and would appreciate any help i can get!

I would be really greatfull if someone could help me out with all this, i know it's a lot to ask but i'm on a very slippery sloap to becomming extremely overweight.. And if anyone would be willing to keep in touch with me on skype or something it would be so much of a help.

Anyway sorry it's a long post but it's just a big concern of mine and now allowed to excersize a little i would love to loose my pounds!

Thank you so much!

15.5 (217 lbs) stone for your height is hardly overweight at all. There's nothing forcing you onto that slippery slope. I suggest you simply start with portion control. Eat what you want, but a bit less of it. If your university has a gym, go there and do some light pumping or work on the cardio machines. You'll feel happier and more energetic. Don't do anything drastic, which could set you up for a rebound. Slow and steady always wins the nutrition/fitness race.

F.

Hi, welcome to 3FC

I think it's great that you have recognized that you could have a problem and are ready to take control! I think a little bit of weight gain is common in your first year at uni. The Freshman 15.

Having to rely on school food or quick meals from a local shop can make it difficult to make healthy choices. Healthy ready meals are available which could be packed for lunch, but those can get pricey if you eat them every day. Can you keep ingredients at home for green salads? I would imagine that fridge space is limited, with 5 roommates. There are a few threads around here somewhere by students who deal with school lunches. I'll see if I can dig them up.

It sounds like you were raised to use food as comfort, as so many of us were. That can be a difficult habit to break, but it can be done! One good method to overcome this is cognitive therapy. The Beck Diet Solution is probably one of the most successful programs to help retrain how we think about food. It's made a huge difference for a lot of people.

I can understand that your physical limitations have caused you to be less active. Does your doctor think it would be ok for you to become more active than you are? If so, maybe you can start by increasing the amount of time you walk every day, but just a little at a time. Take a different route home to add 5 or 10 minutes, then when you get used to that go another route that takes even longer. Your doctor may suggest a larger leap. It would be an easy way to get started. As you become used to more activity, your body will start to crave more

We have a few forums that might interest you.
UK Fat Chicks
Men's Corner
Dieting with Obstacles
Beck Diet Solution

Good luck!

Hey thank you for replying so quickly both of you !

At the moment i am just worried about it and it can put me down a bit.
217 lbs from 194 lbs and loosing a lot of my muscle mass in 2 years is quite a worry for me if I kept this up, as it seems to me that the less muscle of have the quicker my weight is rising, which isn't good!
at the moment my uni has an expensive gym so i'm resorting to doing working out at home, at the moment i'm doing a few mainly abdominal work outs but i'm starting slowly. oh and i have to do shoulder stretches too!
I shall start to lessen what I eat and at the moment i'm trying only to drink water!


Thank you
Aha, yeah it's weird though I don't drink very often (basicly never) so i was expecting the more walking every day to be a bit of a kick starter to weight loss but i seem to be getting bigger D:

and yeah I wouldn't even call the it fridge space if im honest i have half a shelf and 1/5 of the cupboard door, which is annoying!

Yes, my mum was one who loved to see me plump up as a kid, but when i started rugby I had reason to refuse it hence why I slimmed down, but when it got to me sitting at home spending a lot of time in pain the cake always did seem to help. I am strong willed when it comes to eating but it is just finding food where i live at the moment to be healthy!

I saw my doctor 2 days ago, hence why i posted on here he said it's okay for me to walk to uni and back at the moment (I have a bag with a laptop in it with an ergonomic strap for me) but he said I can do up to 30 minutes of light excersize every other day, but to always take 4 days off, which in my head just shouts monday, wednesday and friday he says I shouldn't do intense work outs because my shoulder will never fully heal, i never understood why this was but i just agreed with him.

So all in all ill take your advice about extended walks i'll see him in a couple of weeks so he might tell me i can increase my workout!

I'll have to look at those forums later as i have an assignment i need to finish tonight but thankyou for posting them

I have a question that seems to be so vaguely answered online (even after looking for hours)
The slendertone flex max abs belt thing.. I know it doesn't help you lose weight but it seems it does help you gain muscle, and i was thinking, would it increase endurance and stamina? maybe help me increase the amount of stomach crunches i could do for example, as this would actually strengthen my back if true. Stomach crunches are actually recommended by my doctor

But seriously thank you both for replying i appreciate you taking the time

In my opinion the media has messed with the heads of many people.

For female models, even professional fitness models, don't look like the pictures you see of them year round. Assuming they haven't been photoshopped, they have prepped for that one hour photo shoot for weeks, if not longer. They have an on season, and off season. On season they starve themselves to get extremely lean and off season look much more like a normal person because they're actually eating.

For men it's much more simple. 99% of the men you see online and in magazines are on steroids. Doesn't mean they don't work hard in the gym or watch their diet but drugs change everything. Same with hollywood actors who supposedly worked out for three months and changed their body ... as if... and don't even get me started on the plethora of before/after pictures for this diet or that workout program ... if they're not photoshopped or have massive lighting differences they're still almost always heavily manipulted.

I'm not sure if this is helpful or not but the point is that you sound very stressed out and based on the facts you've presented you really don't need to worry about weight. Find and exercise routine you like and eat a diet of primarily whole foods. After you get into some good dietary habits you can worry about dropping a few lbs of fat if you really feel the need.

I'd recommend sticking with crunches. The slendertone belt works by sending tiny electrical pulses which will cause your muscles to contract, as I'm sure you can imagine would happen when you get shocked. The technology was designed for medical use to help certain types of injuries to heal and they work well for that. However, it's my understanding that it's impossible for them to produce the types of results the marketers claim.

Slendertone did do a study that showed a small amount of success, but not really... 41 people used the machine 30-40 minutes a day, 5 days a week for 2 months and measured about a 1 inch reduction in their waistlines but their was no fat loss so they didn't look different. However, the same doctor did a follow up study to verify results but this time there was no difference at all in waist measurements. Slendertone is quick to use the words 'clinically proven' but not so willing to mention minimal results or that the second study showed no results at all.

I hope that helps

to support john's comments i like this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=M957dACQyfU&feature=plcp

it really shows how even the same body can look entirely different even in a few hours.

You might also be interested in fitocracy.com, which is an app/website that allows you to track your exercise and offers support and ideas for increasing muscle. It seems to me that you're pretty close to weighing what you should, and other than cleaning up your diet a bit for health reasons like more energy and adding a bit of exercise and muscle, you probably don't need to do much. Good for you for getting on it before it becomes too much of a problem!