I weighed 217lbs right after having my son who is now 3 1/2 yrs old. I started walking daily when he was about 3 months old. I lost about 15- 20 lbs in 1 yr. In a way I guess thats pretty good but I was still heavy and unhappy. I've never been one to do heavy training in a gym, maybe the treadmill and then a little bit of weights but honestly it was kind of intimidating wlking in the gym and seeing all the equipment. I'm a college student and I can't afford personal traing right now. So then a freind of mine invited me to try a kickboxing class with him at LA Boxing. I have to admit I was like "yea right, me boxing, haha what a joke!" I had very low self esteem. I ended up going, he's a great motivator! The class was extremely intense. It was a one hour class. I never in my life sweated the way I did there (even during childbirth). Yes it was hard but there were real people just like me, that looked like me and felt like me and that made me feel comfortable. I ended up signing up and I dropped down to 137lbs. I've developed a lot of muscle and I gained back my confidence but in order to maintain I have to keep excercinsing. During the holiday I started to slack off. It's so easy to gain weight!!! Anyway I just started again with 3 1 hr classes a week. I'm confident that I'll lose the weight I gained (13 lbs) with dedication and food modearation. Kickboxing has worked for me and many others that I know. I'm not really an athlete, just an average girl that really wants to live a healthy lifestyle.

Welcome! Sounds like you are having a lot of fun with it too!

Great job!! Keep on kicking!!

naivegrl, you're not the only one who's lost a whole lot of weight from kickboxing! This is actually my second time around losing weight. I've been huge my entire life and in 2001 or 2002 I had reached 245 pounds and had never worked out before. I tried out a local kickboxing class and loved it so much that I signed up and did it until about 2003. In that time I had lost a total of 67 pounds! I had fun doing it too! I was so strong and with 1 roundhouse kick I could topple the bags we were using right over! Then I went back to school and stopped going and I really miss it. I'm keeping the hope alive that one day I shall return!

Our handyman swears by it too--he is very fit.