[Zenrenn]

I've just recently joined and I'm looking for some help in weight loss of course.

In the course of my life I've tried countless times to lose weight, and in the end I quit and gain more than I had. I've never been one to go exercise because I have asthma, and I usually just play games for hours on end. I'd like to change that.

My dream once I lose some much needed weight is to trick:
YouTube - Sesshoumaru Tricking

It's been my dream for about 3 and 1/2 years now, but I've never been conditioned enough to start.

Not that I'm trying to get someone to pity me, I'm just laying down my back-story.

But besides that, I'm wondering where people get started. I'm 20 years old and at 321 lbs. I am built like a football player, but I don't have as much muscle haha. Any help would be great. Thanks.

[KaraCooks]

Two things:

The first is food. What you eat is going to be 90% of the battle to losing weight. Exercise is only a small part of the whole as far as weight loss. I would suggest you start with registering at one of the free sites like fitday.com or thedailyplate.com and logging your food. Most people are surprised by the volume of food they eat - the number of calories and the balance of nutrition. Once you have what you eat right there in front of you in black and white, it'll be easier to see where you need to cut back and tweak your nutrition to be healthier.

AT your weight, you could lose weight pretty easily on about 3000-3300 calories a day.

As far as exercise; since you say that you don't do any at all right now, anything you can do will be beneficial. Start by walking. 20 mins or so of walking each day will make a huge difference in your level of fitness.

Going forward from there, asthma shouldn't be a barrier to exercise - it's just a matter of finding the types of exercise that work for you. And for a lot of people with asthma, adding exercise to their routines helps with the symptoms of asthma. As you build lung capacity by exercising, you'll be helping to control your asthma as well.

I'd also suggest looking into weight lifting. If you have access to a gym or to some weights, you can start with basic things like presses and rows.

But first thing is to get a handle on your eating. That will be the largest part of the battle.

[Zenrenn]

Very helpful. xD

Alright that sounds good. I'll look into one of those sites and look around here a bit more. I found a couple pages I ~probably should have looked into before posting a thread asking for help haha. Thanks. =)

[Tegan]

I have asthma as well so I feel your pain on the exercise but a great thing I found was walking! I compiled some really great playlists on my mp3, got a general idea of my route off google maps and grabbed a dog! I started off spending my sunday mornings walking about 2 miles. Now most sundays I walk 8 miles. I can walk 4X as far after just 6 months. I get tired, of course but it's a good type of tired. It was hard to do it at first and it took a lot to drag myself out of bed on a Sunday morning but now I actually look forward to it! If you can walk about 3 days a week for 2 miles a day, at your weight you will burn about 400 calories at a slow pace (2 miles per hour).

So if you put yourself onto a 2500 calorie diet you will lose weight. You don't have to go insanely low (which I know used to send me on a downwards spiral), especially with the light exercise on top. Then you can gradually bring it down as you lose weight then it won't be such a shock to your body.

Good luck!