Obesity Discussion Forums

[michael lipz]

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hey guys I am Michael… just started lurking around on these forums and stuff the last couple days lol, I just gotta start off by saying this is a GREAT website, and has given me so much motivation and information. I love the idea of a website like this, and cant thank all of you enough.

Heres my story: I am 18 years old, 5’11, ~260 or so pounds. I have a big frame/bones/body type or whatever, people always comment that I look like a football player. I have big shoulders, big chest, large bone structure in general, and I gotta say that if it wasn’t for my body type I would look even worse than I do now lol. My body type hides all the fat and unhealthiness well, but not well enough. Most of my fat is in my abdominal region… my thighs have some fat over them but I can definitely flex and see the muscles, and would be pretty large even if I was lean. Got a little fat in my chest, just enough to give me some man boobs lol, and the rest of the fat is spread out on my back and sides/love handles.

I started to put on weight when I was in junior high, ive always been somewhat active either surfing or swimming or skateboarding or just whatever, but I have horrible eating habits, and that really has been piling it on for the past 7 or so years. As I matured and was in high school, I was always really popular, hung out with the “cool” kids, was on the surf team etc, but I was growing more and more self conscious because I was basically THE fat guy of my whole group of friends, always the one w/out a girlfriend, would figure out ways to not have to take my shirt off, change into my wetsuit super fast etc.

That self consciousness basically built up to the point where I became really depressed and anti social. I would just hang out all day at home playing video games or watching TV or whatever, because I had built up pretty intense social anxiety. My friends didn’t even know this was going on, they just thought I was in a phase where I wanted to play video games or whatever. I have also always been extremely sharp and intelligent, but have a huge problem with procrastination. I don’t wanna sound arrogant, but im the type of student who could get a 4.0 easily if I just did the home work, but always ended up just bullshitting my way through school work and getting 3.5s and the like. Senior year all of this kind of came to a head, and the combination of the self consciousness and the stress of being extremely behind on school work pushed me down into a pretty depressed state. I started seeing a psychiatrist, and the combo of the depression meds and talking with my teachers/family pulled me out of that. I also self-diagnosed myself with inattentive type ADD, which was confirmed by my psychiatrist. Both of these problems are under complete control now, I am on great meds for ADD/depression that are showing me how much those conditions were hindering me. The depression is completely gone, and I believe it was mostly caused by the untreated ADD, which is apparently quite common.

I ended high school with a 3.5 cummulative GPA, was accepted by a few UC schools, all the Cal-State universities, and Loyola Marymount University. I chose to go there, and went on with my summer. I started to think during summer about the option of taking a year off before I go to college, just to have that time to get my shit together, rebuild my social life, just in general become a healthy person emotionally, psychologically, and physically. My psychiatrist and parents both saw the benefits of this, and LMU was amazing about it. I got my admission deferred for a year and am still accepted by them, so I do not have to reapply or anything, I just am gonna start a year later.

After I did that, I realized that I had to tell my close friends about this whole situation. I don’t know why these guys even still liked me, they would call all the time and I just wouldn’t answer my phone, I would never call them back, all because of my anxiety/self consciousness that I developed over those years. I told my 8 or so best friends about EVERYTHING, and they were completely supportive and behind me 100%, offering to do whatever they can and everything. This was a huge lift off of my shoulders to not have all these secrets from my close group of friends, and gave me a huge boost in the right direction.

LAZY PEOPLE CAN START READING HERE LOL: So now I find myself a few months into my year off, working a part time job, keeping in touch with my friends, but also procrastinating like always about my transformation that I know I must achieve.

I am in the best emotional and psychological condition in my life, and for the first time I feel like I could seriously become a healthy person, and change the only part of my life (my appearance and health) that I don’t like. I have got a pretty good understanding of the basics – I need to eat healthy foods, limit my simple carbs as much as possible, eat a good balance of complex carbs, protein, and good fats (nuts/peanut butter/avocado/fish/etc). I know I should do cardio for 20+ minutes at a time to get my heart rate/metabolism fired up and shed the pounds. I know I should also start weight training, lifting every other day and working all major muscle groups 1-2 times a week. I’ve got a membership to a gym, and would prolly have my cardio be a combo of swimming/bike/elliptical at the beginning, and as I get in better shape would begin to jog (I am prone to shin splints, I have orthodics, but I need to get my leg strength/bone density up so that I can jog regularly).

Heres where you guys come in lol… I would love to get any tips/advice/motivation/whatever else you guys have. I am as ready as I ever will be to be fully dedicated to changing my life, and I have a huge amount of time each day that I can exercise. So pretty please!!! Hit me with whatever you guys got lol… I am the type of person who would rather do something all out than mediocre, so id love to know that I am doing the most I can to change my life.

PS. Ill definitely keep updating some sort of journal or whatever… I think im gonna take pics maybe every week or so, since that is a really cool idea.

[Irving]

that is quite the story and quite the turnaround you have going there, please do keep us updated! good for you!

[MikeB]

Being that you're young and will be able to adapt and heal quickly I would suggest a good combination of weight lifting and high intensity interval training for cardio. The latest studies show that doing HIIT after weight lifting has the best benefits of losing fat and sparing muscle. You want to make sure you are intaking at least 1g if not 2g of protein per lb of body weight. Since you're big boned you could quickly get tons of muscle mass if that's your goal.

Mike

[inlove]

Wow. I just have to say good for you taking the first step. That is great.You can do it!!! We are all here for the same goal and can learn alot from eachother. Good luck!!!