Brand new here, want to see what you think.

Hey everyone , this is my first time on a fitness forum. My name is Josh I am 26 yrs old.
A little back story I use to lift weights heavily, for about 3 yrs. I got stressed out and quit working out but kept eating a lot.
Fast forward a year and I got to my heaviest at 260lbs @ 6ft. So I got on a diet and have lost all of the weight plus more.
Right now I weight around 187, which is lower than I weighed in high school. My plan is drop just a little more weight and then get back into weight training to put back on the muscle I have lost plus more.
What do you guys think of my progress, and how do I look ? I am a very shy person, and have had low self esteem for the past couple of years. I do not know how girls perceive me. But I would like to know.
Me now.


This was around 225lbs.


The before pic I was at 238lbs and after around 185lbs.


So what do you all think ?

Great job! Kudos for losing the weight.

I too suffered from low self esteem most of my life; the best thing I can tell you about that is be comfortable with who you are and love how you look....at every weight.

Write down a list of everything that is positive about yourself; what are you good at? What do you like about yourself? Be very specific....dig really deep. When you find all the great things that are YOU....you will be more confident with sharing yourself with others. Girls will perceive you, how you project yourself....so make sure to love yourself first.

Good luck with the rest of your weight loss and fitness journey; I know you'll succeed at your goals!

Hi Josh! I think you look awesome and did a great job losing the weight (fat).

Now, hit the gym!

I'm a huge fan of weight lifting for everyone. Here's why:

Everyone needs resistance training to improve their health and bone density and this will especially improve your quality of life when you get older. I recently had my DXA scan done and at 51.5 years of age I have the bone density of a super athletic 30 year old. That is a direct result of lifting for over 30 years. Now if that is not scientific proof that lifting weights keeps you younger I don't know what is! Also I believe it is why most people think I look much younger than I really am. Because of this I don't have to worry about osteoporosis. If you wait until you are older and your bones start to deteriorate it's a bit too late, you can't get back what you lost, and you can only start a resistance routine that will prevent further damage.

Cardio is good for you but it is optional. I love cardio, but you can't out exercise too many calories. Of course you burn calories, but not near what all the HRM's say. I learned the hard way, running marathon after marathon (yes even multiple runs during the day), as well as hitting the gym hard, martial arts, staying active all the time, not eating while watching TV, not binging, not mindlessly eating, not pigging out, not having emotional eating issues, yet I gained weight year after year, each decade putting on the pounds. I worked harder and harder, not able to figure out what was wrong. It didn't seem like I ate too much, but for my small size I did and didn't realize it until just a few years ago when I finally started losing weight by eating less.

Anyway I didn't really change my shape until I lost the fat and put weight lifting first and cardio in 2nd place (although I still do a lot of running)

Wishing you the best! -Bobbie

Great job Josh! Keep it up!

Thank you, and how do you do this with the pics?

If you push the quote button on the bottom of my reply that brought up your pics, you'll see how to use square brackets and the img tag around the address of your picture to make the image come through.

You look great Josh. Nice work!