Help a brother out

Input your data and goals into MFP. Eat at that number and you'll lose. You will want to get a food scale and get moving more.

If it is an issue of motivation, then there are a few things you can do.

1.) try to find outdoor activities that will distract you from your workout. Do something fun, You were obviously doing just that with playing football. Try some other activities, rock climbing,swimming is a great all over work out. Hiking, biking, kayaking.... etc... all these are out door sports and you wouldn't be having the motivated/ unmotivated feeling as much because its an activity you can look forward to.

2.) You can get a personal trainer, someone you can have booked appointments with to make you go, after all you are paying for a service, you are less likely to stand them up. A trainer can help to motivate you through your work outs, and they can give you dietary advice.

3.) A gym membership with class workouts that are interesting for you to go to.

4.) A goal set work out. For example, a friend of mine walks 2 miles into town every morning, and when she gets into town, she rewards herself with a coffee at the coffee shop.

5.) get a buddy, someone who has similar workout goals, and do work outs together, you can inspire each other.


The first 2 weeks will always be the hardest, but if you push through it, you will find you start to look forward to getting back into shape

Fifty pounds in 7 months (presuming you graduate in May) is doable but tough. That's an average of 1.67 pounds a week. I would start out with a higher deficit, aiming for 2 pounds a week of loss for the first 3-4 months, then cutting back after that as you lose weight and need to eat less.

You'll want to lift, to avoid losing too much muscle mass with a high deficit. I'm guessing you know something about weights since you played football! Don't expect to get much stronger, if you're consistently running a deficit, though you might make some strength gains if you're out of practice. Make sure you get enough protein. Cardio is also useful, because it lets you eat more with the same deficit. I was burning about 550 calories a day in cardio, on average, during my loss, and I really appreciated having that extra food to eat! Running and Nordic skiing are the most efficient ways to burn calories quickly, but do whatever you enjoy—my main cardio when I was losing was cycling, because I love it so much, and you can do a 4-hour bike ride, whereas most of us find a 4-hour run to be too much.

Finally: motivation is overrated. Make your routine a habit. I went out running today because I do it so often that it's just part of my day. It's fun, don't get me wrong, but that's because I've done it 3-4 times a week for over a year, so it's now just part of my life. I bike to work most days because that's a habit, too. Taking the car is the odd thing to do. The more you can establish a routine, the less you'll need to rely on motivation to get it done.