Lots of advice needed

The best advice I can give you (and this goes for any goal you want) is to be patient and consistent. As you stated in your post, this is your 10th consecutive day... So congrats on that!! Now set a goal to do 20 consecutive, and so on. Every milestone you set should make you that much more excited about accomplishing your goals.

As for actual exercises/routines, there are wayyyyyy too many out there to explain. You say you are clueless, so just keep it simple at first (develop coordination and a sense of how your body reacts to certain exercises/routines). Push yourself, and progressively do more sets/add more weight (or miles on your bike). Good luck, and kick some *kitten* in the gym!

Find something you love to do for exercise and nick anything you can't see yourself committing to do on a daily basis. If you like riding your bike find a group or friends to bike with. If the gym ends up boring you and you don't see yourself committing to it, ditch it. Explore a little...try boxing, hiking, swimming, anything that sparks your interest. Exercise will always suck at first...always. It will get easier as you get more experience. Once you get comfortable with your routine, take it up a notch- you will have to in order to get stronger. Your success long term will depend if you stay active and find something that will keep you active.

Keep track! I never exercised consistently until I could see my improvement. It is so encouraging to keep getting better at whatever exercise you choose!

A personal trainer has done great things for me, but that really does depend upon the trainer. I got a recommendation and signing up with him motivated me to regularly go to the gym. He was able to show me what machines and weights and cardio to do and at what levels. I am a 59 YO woman who started at 345 and am currently down to 234 after 20 months. (You are younger and male, you will lose weight faster.) I still go to my trainer and plan to do so indefinitely--I still have plenty of weight to lose.

A recumbent bicycle is very good for someone like me with a cranky knee. After I lost 20 pounds I moved to walking on a treadmill part of the time. After 50 pounds I moved to the elliptical and the rowing machine, but I still have to baby my knee (arthritic) so sometimes I go off the rowing machine for a while. Also, a heart rate monitor has been very helpful to me--I find that I am better at doing high intensity training and the "calories burned" calculations are pretty accurate for cardio work (I just turn it off when I'm doing weight work).

But all this is what works for me. I don't like to run and I do like working out in air conditioning, so that is why the gym with weight training has worked for me. Other people are successful with pure cardio work and/or working out at home. The main thing is to try some stuff and see what you actually enjoy, even if it's only mildly. Oh, and I do believe that doing weight training while losing is important, since I believe it helps you to lose less muscle while you are losing.

Just wanted to say good luck to you Michael :-) you can do this and there's already some good advice here. Also there are loads of apps you can download on your phone with mini exercises that you can do at home, I love these.

Littl3wood wrote: »

Hi thank you for all the replies. I have taken what you have all said into consideration and I am going to start going for short bike rides and walks. I am also going to start doing some basic weight lifting excercises.

I will be sure to keep my profile updated so feel free to add me if you want.

Michael, if you can afford it, a couple of sessions with a personal trainer to get you started with your weights might be a good idea.

At this stage, the act of simply moving around will burn lots of calories for you. Walking and bike riding are great activities, first because they are easy and second because they are low impact. With your extra weight, you'll want to avoid higher impact exercises for awhile as they will be particularly hard on your knees.

I highly, highly recommend weight lifting so I'm really glad to see that you're planning on it. When we lose weight, it's a combination of losing fat, muscle and water. By lifting weights in a progressively heavier lifting program, you'll retain more of the muscle you would have lost. So, not only will you lose more fat but your metabolism will stay a little higher. In addition, maintaining muscle you already have is much easier than building new muscle later. Your body has built up extra muscle over time to carry your excess weight. If you can keep more of that muscle while losing fat, you're going to look amazing when you get to your goal weight!

Start slowly and gradually, but whatever you do, try to do it daily. Even if it's a 15 minute walk. Consistency is the key. Good luck!