that's very exciting.

Christmas tree trimming/open house/house warming at Steves

I am so tickled for you!!

I love that part of selling real estate. It is so exciting at closing when they hand you the keys to your dream house. Congrats!!

Hey Steve, as I have come to find out, you seem to be a really big help around the site. I am actually looking for help to be honest.

Now I went from 225 to 154, or I think I am 154 atm, I haven't checked my weight in a couple of days.

But heres some basic info

I am 5'9, male, 17, and 154 lbs. What I am looking for though, is some good ways to tighten up. I have the inevitable man boobs, yet I can feel my pecks that have somewhat large muscles. My legs seem fine and quite muscular, and my arms are as well, but what I can't seem to figure out is how to tighten up my chest and abdomen. Is there any type of certain exercises that you would recommend?

One of my problems is not eating breakfast, I have hard time breaking it in, normally in the summer I end up sleeping in, so I miss breakfast, during the school year I never have time to get something quick to eat because I am always in a rush to the bus. As for lunch though, during the summer its something along the lines of fruit, salad (romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and blue cheese dressing [not the healthiest of dressing]) or a granola bar, and when it comes to dinner, its usually what my mom would make. Which she is a fantastic cook, but her meals aren't always figure friendly. Things such as pasta with sausage, stir fry, beer can chicken, eggplant parm, steak and veggies, chicken and veggies. Its usually a mix in that type of cooking. I guess one thing I could probably already guess from an answer is to start eating breakfast.

As for exercise, I do an assortment of push ups, sit ups, stretches, and a 45 minute workout on the elliptical machine on resistance of 7-9 [it varies based off the workout]. Although this isn't even day, sometimes it may just be push ups and sit ups, or the elliptical machine alone.

We do have a weight set as well, as my brother usually uses it a lot. I would ask him, but hes not really much of a pro, what do you suggest Steve?

Let's wait until I actually have the signed agreement in hand. I'll breathe a sigh of relief once I have that signed doc in hand!

I'm not going to lie, I'm beyond stoked. At first last night the sellers were not willing to sign the contract. He didn't like the contingency of settlement for my home even though I had qualified buyers in hand who had already signed agreement with me.

So he wanted settlement to happen now on both homes, yet, we wouldn't move until the end of the year. They'd pay rent to me to remain in my new house and I'd pay rent to the people buying my house.

This and a few other things... it looked like it was going to get pretty messy and head south.

Then, he called back (he's a lawyer) and said, "I'm thinking as a lawyer and not as a human... so I'll sign and you can pick up the agreement tomorrow at 1:15."

That was a huge sigh of relief.

Now we just have to get the doc.

Thanks for all your help!

Thanks to Kimberly too. Without you guys I would have been 100% ignorant instead of 98%.

And thanks to everyone else for the well wishes.

A really big help in some cases.

A really big pain in the butt in others.



Congrats. How tall are you?

How exactly did you lose that weight?

What was the time period for that weight loss?

Your skin will tighten up over time, especially given your age.

But there are no specific exercises you can do to specifically help out unless you consider total body, compound lifting a singular exercise.

My point is, a lot of people lose a good chunk of weight. They realize, "Hey, I have lose skin on my belly." Using logical reasoning based on all the B.S. media hype on new fitness products, they decide to buy the Mega Ab Blaster 9000 or they decide to do a billion and one crunches per day trying to tighten up that skin.

Unfortunately, this is glossing right over basic physiology and shows a true misunderstanding of how the human body works.

What you should be focusing on is progressively heavier compound exercises. By compound, I simply mean exercises that call on multiple joints and multiple muscles to execute.

Some 'fluff' work afterwords for arms, shoulders, calves, core etc can be thrown in to the mix... it simply shouldn't be emphasized.

So what equipment do you have available to you? Have you considered joining a gym? When I was 15 I joined my first gym and I never turned back.

Well I know a lot of people with amazing physiques who don't eat breakfast. While I'm a fan and believer that breakfast does more good than bad, I definitely am not in the camp who believe it is mandatory to have a good body and good health.

That said though, you mention you don't have time.

I started working out seriously before I could drive a car. The first year or so was a joke. I was just going to the local fitness center, playing some basketball and after I'd head into the weight room and admire some of the bigger guys and watch what they were doing.

Fast forward over a decade and I now know that those guys knew nothing and were poor examples/teachers.

However, I followed them. My body did change. In the beginning, anything makes a difference.

However, that was short lived. It wasn't until a few years later where I really decided to commit myself. By commit myself, I mean I truly prioritized my training and nutrition above most everything in my life. I focused on consistency and ball busting work. Sacrifice. Undying, relentless passion to achieve that which I did not have but wanted.

What I'm getting at is this: You need to ask yourself right now and answer with the truest of truths... what exactly do you want? How bad do you want it? What does it take to achieve it? And what exactly am I willing to do day in and day out?

Read that again.

Now answer.

If you simply want to be in shape and feel good, that doesn't take all that much effort. A little consistent exercise and you'll be good to go.

If you want to be ripped, things are going to have to change in how you view your life and world as you know it.

No longer is 15 minutes of extra sleep worth skipping out on something that might help you reach your goals.

Follow me?

I'm not trying to be a hard ass at all. I think I sound like I'm coming from the bodybuilding.com camp where it's train for life... eat, sleep and breathe the gym bro; or die.

I'm not suggesting you have to become a robotic maniac.

But you do have to put things into perspective in relation to your goals.

/rant

Hopefully you can tell this wasn't all about you skipping breakfast. It was more about your comments with regards to sleeping in. That sort of attitude can seep in to all other decision making areas of your life and once that happens... life can be real frustrating in the context of your goals.

Goals are great but unless you walk the walk that takes you to them... they're nothing more than a figment of your imagination.

I'd try to get some more protein into this meal.

Ideally, each time that you eat, you get a balanced meal in. That's tough to do at your age since a) you go to school and b) rely on your parents to supply you your food. But you should shoot to get close to balanced each time you eat.

By balanced I mean some proteins, fats and carbs at each sitting.

Mmm mmm mmm.

Gotta love mom-cooked-meals, dontcha?

Not necessarily.

But I will say this.

Based on what you highlighted as your daily diet above, I'd say you eat far too few calories and far too few grams of protein.

Now let me couch this by saying I don't think it's mentally healthy for a guy your age to go getting all serious about weighing and tracking every single morsel of food that goes into your body.

I'm of the belief that you should just eat sensibly and exercise appropriately and things will fall into place. Personally, I didn't start tracking my nutrition to the extent that I had a food scale until I was in college and even then I was lax. I only got serious when the 'fly by the seat of my pants' approach wasn't working. I still do this today, lol.

That said though, eating sensibly entails eating adequate calories (energy) and protein. Without these two variables in place, sure, it's possible to lose weight. But you aren't doing this to lose weight. You are doing this to look and feel good. And a large part of the reason why you ended up lighter but still soft is b/c you didn't eat appropriately.

You left out the most important variables for muscle maintenance; calories and protein.

In addition, it doesn't seem like you were doing any sort of structured weight training to boot which is another huge promoter of muscle maintenance.

Bottom line is and always will be: Lose fat while maintaining as much muscle as humanly possible to look trim. Focus solely on losing weight without caring where said weight comes from and chances are good you're going to wind up looking in the mirror and see the reflection of a smaller, lighter, yet still soft version of your former self.

That's the past however.

From here, you need to adjust accordingly.

Prove to me that you comprehended the big picture I painted in this post and we'll discuss more nitty gritty details in terms of exercise later.

congrats with the house!!!

thanks dood

Haha, do ya think that's in poor taste? Hahahahaha, ME, talking "poor taste" Glad it's looking "very good".

Nope, what's wrong with a fat lady singing?

Or is fat too politically incorrect?

Hahahaha, nothing is on THIS site

You trying to tell us something about yourself?

Congrats on the house. Too bad those damn buyers came in at the last minute. Otherwise, you'd probably have gotten the seller to do more re the septic.

That's a smart move swapping vehicles. As long as you're reducing your debt you're fine re your mortgage. No worries, mate.

So when are the closings due to take place?

Settlement isn't slated until November some time!

They can't get out before that.

I really don't care except for interest rates. I think I can only lock in for 60 days or something.

So the agreement on the house has been signed. I'm a bit concerned about interest rates so I'm going to have to figure something out with them. I have an email sent to my mortgage banker to see what he suggests.

I went to test drive a truck last night at a real shitty dealership toward philly. Wow were the salesmen rude. Usually they're kissing my ass b/c I drive a sports car and am willing to put a large chunk of money down relative to the price of the car.

Not these guys.

The one, who is the owner, went as far as to say I'm fabricating the numbers that were handed to me from another dealer. At that point I stood up and said, "You've got to be shitting me."

Him: "I suggest you sit down....."

Me: "Hahaha. I suggest you stay seated. Buhbye."

I'm going to another dealership tonight. Should be interesting.

Oh yea, and when I was driving into the city I got stuck in a traffic jam. Right next to me was this guy, Wiser Fitness - Home. <free publicity>

I was yapping to him for a while. Real nice guy. Didn't seem to know his ass from his elbow when it comes to training and fitness though. Sure he is doing well, which he says he is. He has his business name, logo and site plastered all over that damn vehicle.