Weight Loss Forum

Keeping in mind that this is all based on my experience and common sense without any formal nutritional or fitness training, here's what I'd do in your situation.

First, you'll need some sort of cardio exercise, and jogging can be done just about anywhere. Walking is okay, but you'll do your heart a favor and burn more calories per minute by running. If you haven't been running, start off really easy. Jog a couple hundred yards or until you can't keep going. Walk until you catch your breath, then run again. On your first couple of days you can stop at this point. Don't worry about your speed too much. Over time, very gradually, you'll be able to run further and further. You'll won't believe it now, but eventually you'll be running a mile in one shot. When you can do that a few times, start gradually increasing your speed. You'll know at this point whether you want to work on running faster, further, or both.

Note that you may get shin splints, i.e. pain in your shins (the front of your lower leg). This is common and Googling the condition will reveal myriad results. All I can say is to just keep running through the discomfort. Run until you're forced to stop by your breathing or energy, not by the shin splints. They will eventually go away once the muscles there build up a bit.

If/when you have access to a gym, I recommend using the elliptical or arc trainer machines -- the ones that make it look like you're running, but not the treadmills (yet). These take out all the impact of running -- your feet won't be smacking the pavement, your knees and ankles won't be banging and grinding, etc. Work with the incline and resistance settings on these. Start out at 20 minutes for a couple weeks, then 30, then 40. You should feel like you got a good workout when you're done -- sweaty and breathing hard, but in a good way.

Second, you will need to lift weights. This is probably more important than the cardio and just as important as the diet. I can't stress that enough. Muscle burns calories all day, so if you have a bunch of muscle in your body, guess what? You'll be burning calories all day, even while you're sitting at your PC.

You don't need a Nautilus machine or Bowflex or anything fancy. Go to your nearest sporting goods store and buy some dumbbells (the kind you hold in your hands). Start off with a pair each of 5 pounders, 10s, 15s, and 20s. Weights are just fine when they're used, so ask your friends and family if they have an old set in the basement collecting dust (someone probably does), or check on craigslist.org to find someone locally, or try a used sporting goods store (Plat It Again Sports, etc).

Look up the following exercises for instructions on how to do them: bench press, shoulder press, lunges, fly (or butterfly, not sure what the name is, but you lie on a bench and open and close your arms as if you had giant wings), and squats. While browsing for those you'll probably come across some other exercises that pique your interest -- do those, too.

Split your chosen weight exercises into two groups, A and B. Maybe put the arm stuff into A, the leg stuff into B. Do group A one day. Try doing 3 sets for each exercise, with 10 repititions (reps) per set. Go easy! If you fancy yourself a powerful person, go with the 10 pound weights, otherwise do 5. You'll think you can easily do five times as much, and you can, but you'll be very sore the next day. On day two you'll be sore because you didn't listen to my last sentence I make this mistake every time I start lifting again. On day three, do set B. Keep alternating between the groups, giving each group two days rest before repeating it. Example week: A on Monday and Thursday, B on Tuesday and Friday.

It'll be a couple weeks before you can see the difference. Keep it up, it will work!