And we're off! Hi all

Hey all: I'll give a brief rundown, and hope to hear some feedback and maybe get a few good ideas from you folks in the know.

Back in September, I weighed around 265-270 lbs. I am 6'0" tall, male and 41 years old. I have a pretty sedentary job all in all and put in a lot of hours (around 60 hrs/week). My eating had gotten way out of control, as I was eating junk food and fast food pretty much every day of the week. I was also drinking about 6-8 beers every day, more on the weekends (and not 'lite' beers, either). Eventually, I noticed that I was lacking pretty much all energy and was not happy at all about myself or where i was at in terms of location or my job (like the occupation, dislike the place I'm at).

So anyway, I put a plan in motion. My first month, I just started to focus on watching what I was eating. I cut back on the calories, and tried to be sure I was eating a fiber or protein bar every mid-morning and mid-afternoon. I also cut back on the beers. I switched beers from regular ones, to a 64 calorie/can beer and pretty much limit myself to no more than 3/day.

After 3-4 weeks of that, I started to get myself back into the gym. Since my work can keep me out late into the evenings at times, I go first thing in the morning. I am able to put in just shy of an hour every morning of the week. I try to get in there at least 4 weekdays/week and one day on the weekend (if not both days on the weekend because on those days, I can spend almost twice as much time in there). I do a brisk walk on the treadmill for anywhere from 30-60 minutes. Twice a week, I try to do an upper body workout which only lasts about 20-30 minutes, where I do some dumbell curls, lat pulldowns, upright rowing, chest crossover and upright dumbell press. (I have to be real careful about any stress to my lower back as I have a bad lower back that goes out if I get out of position at all). In the next couple of weeks, I plan on adding some dumbell bench presses and pushups as well. On my lower body days, I don't do a whole lot more than the following: Leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises and I increase the incline on the treadmill on those days.

For the last 2-3 weeks, I have really plateaued in my weight loss. I was able to survive the holidays without gaining anything, but I didn't lose anything either. On the other hand, myself and my fiancee have really noticed the difference in appearance over the last few weeks. From clothes fitting better/looser and just in my overall body look.

I really want to avoid losing mass in my upper body, and I'm thinking that it is time to start working on increasing my chest and arms but want to be sure that I do so in a way that will help me more efficiently lose weight. The weight loss is my primary concern right now, and my girlfriend's primary concern is that I don't lose my chest and arms (LOL).

That is me in a nutshell right now. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.