Hello one and all. I thought I'd begin by answering the questions as suggested in maleficent's diary welcoming post.

How much weight do you want to lose? from beginning to end, around 190lbs. I have already lost 33 since this process started.

What is the timeframe? I have yo-yo'd about in terms of my weight for years now. This time, I want to do it steadily - I don't mind if its fast or slow, so I don't have a target date. I would like to get it all done in 2 years, but I won't be beating myself up if I do not.

I've been going at this now for approximately 6 and a half weeks.

How do you want to accomplish your goal? Well, I've realised that personally there are a number of things that work. I have lost a lot of weight before - around 8 stone at one point. I was very determined and steadfast, and I'd like to recapture that as the lbs start coming off faster. I used a combination of lots of water, exercise (mostly cardio) and healthy eating. I like to view the body as like a furnace, if you put slag in you get poor performance. If you put in finely powdered coal you get excellent performance. And so, if I put junkfood in my body i'll feel lethargic and fat (which I have done in the past) and if I remain eating healthy, I'll feel normal.

Who or what can support you in reaching your goal? Well, obviously I'm hoping the guys here can lend a hand in that area. My family currently support my goal, but I can tell that when I get down to around 15 stone they'll want me to stop. That's when i'll have to be steadfast and continue despite them.

How realistic is your goal? Many people say to me that i want to lose too much. The idea is to lose nearly all of my bodyfat down to around an atheletes level, then build a lean physique afterwards. I've read about the dangers of putting on fatty muscle and I'm not going to risk it.

People here may see that goal as unrealistic, foolhardy, or whatever. I will say that this is my goal - you can try and dissuade me if you wish to, but I won't appreciate it. So I ask, humbly, for your help in acknowledging my goals to be my own right and responsibility, and be supportive of them because I need to do what I think is right. If you can't, then please be kind and forego commenting.

What are your current height and weight? I'm 297lbs and 6'2". I have a thin frame, so I look more like 260lbs, and believe it or not, when I was a 32" waist those many moons ago, I still had a paunch.

Why do I want to lose weight? I want to be able to consider myself an attractive person. I want to gain the confidence that allowing myself that attractiveness will bring. I work in an office environment and such confidence is necessary in my day to day life.

I'd also like to be able to go places on hot days without sweating like a pig - its not a nice image, I know, but its still true.

What obstacles could get between you and your weight loss goals? Other people, mostly. Before others have tried to influence my decisions and have given me major setbacks when I haven't needed them. When I lost 8 stone before, I did so under my own supervision with no interference.

The trouble is, I've now come to the point where I've gone up and down so much that maintaining my determination is difficult. I do still want to do it - a large part of me still wants to at all times, but sometimes it feels like a very big mountain to climb without a winter coat.

I guess that's why I'm here. I'm hoping that this forum and its people, and even this diary will give me a base in which I can continue to gain determination and carry on in my own way. Everyone has their own way of dealing with their own personal bodies, and my personal strategy is important to me.

In terms of exercise, if anything, what are you currently doing? I am currently taking a break from exercise, but when I go back to it (hopefully soon) I shall be using an exercise bike daily and doing freestyle exercises (crunches, pushups, leglifts, etc) When possible I would like to ramp this to exercise bike twice a day, and eventually work in some swimming.

I am very keen to keep it mostly to cardio during the first half of my weight loss. I am not wanting to put on any muscle, if anything just to tone what i've got. that way, when in the future I am ready to start building a physique, it shall be much easier.

Thanks for reading guys. I'm sure it'll be a long time until I am down to what I need to be, but I'm hoping you'll be with me during the process.

heya and welcome to the forums.
I was once where you are! i think i arrived on the forums at about the same point you are also

Chin up! If i can do it, so can you!

Thanks wishes, i'll certainly try

Hey - good luck. I know you can do it cos you've done it before! X

You sound as if you know your goal and you know how to get there. Good luck with it, I'll be continuing to read this.

ah, thank you for your kind wishes and support, karmann and Peepop. I hope to start getting somewhere after tomorrow, where I think i'll be taking a hiatus from this process to make me feel guilty and remind me why I'm doing it!

Good luck with your project. I can certainly understand your desire to lose weight - and I am trying to lose a similar amount of weight.

I have just fed your data of 6ft2 height and 140 pounds aspired goal weight into a BMI calculator - and it tells me that is a BMI of 17.5.

I know that is considered to be underweight here in the UK. I would therefore suggest that you read around that subject and possibly reconsider the goal weight. It is just as unhealthy - as being overweight and I am sure that you will want to be at a healthy weight at the end.

I knew I would get this comment, which is why I purposefully put this line into my introduction:

"What are your current height and weight? I'm 297lbs and 6'2". I have a thin frame, so I look more like 260lbs, and believe it or not, when I was a 32" waist those many moons ago, I still had a paunch."

BMI calculators dont work for me. I have a thin frame; I was born an ectomorph even if I am a mesomorph now. I do not need to reconsider my target weight, because I have approached it before and there were no ill effects, problems at all. I was not bony, I wasn't even particularly lean. Just normal looking.

17.5 Is thin. If some scientist who has invented an arbitrary scale wants to come along and judge me with it when my body, just like everyone elses, is different, they can. But I don't stand by the calculator because it works for the averagely built human - underneath all this fat I've got a thin frame.

I appreciate your concern for my wellbeing, but I have been through this process before. Many times in fact. I know what I'm doing, I've done research coming out of my ears, I know the warning signs and what to expect. So there is no need for concern.

I hope you will all accept my words here and listen to them, instead of immediately jumping to the conclusion that I might be anorexic or have another form of eating disorder.

Back to the diet today, which I hope should be for good. Going to give the exercise bike a go later this afternoon, I expect to have similar results as last week and be able to stand about 10 minutes. Slowly but surely I'll push that up, and tomorrow I'll be doing it twice a day, pushing both sessions up to 40 minutes in the long run. Cardio is known to be intensely boring, so I generally play music at the same time.

This evening I shall be doing some freestyle, which the program is as follows:

- 30 situps (will change to crunches, aim for 150)
- 30 pushups (will aim for 100)
- 25 inner leg lifts
- 25 outer leg lifts
- 25 inner leg lifts
- 25 outer leg lifts
- 25 saddlebag slimmers x4, left, right, repeat
- 40 ass thrusts (will aim for 100)

That lot generally takes about 20 minutes or so, and as the toning increases, so does the speed, and the ease of the exercise. that's when I start increasing reps, so it remains about the same time.

My brief sojourn away from my diet on Friday/Saturday appears to have had no ill effects, quite the opposite in fact. I suddenly find that I am now a 42" waist, having dropped a size over the last week. I suppose sometimes you do have to listen to your body.

I've not tried the scales since, but I shall probably work up the courage later this week. For the moment, I must concentrate on getting my exercise regime to a point where I am actively losing again.

I am greatly encouraged by this apparent loss of inches. I felt quite strained in my 44" just last Friday, so I am surprised. Pleasantly of course. lol

I am confident, given my previous experience, that once I get down to about a 38" waist (about 18 or so stone) then it will be easier to do exercise. I guess you could call it like a snowball, keep it going, it gets bigger and better and rolls on its own. Just need to tip it over to get it going.