Hey guys, just wanted to pop in and tell you that you're all very inspirational. I'm down to about 173 now from over 350 about a year and a half ago. I'm so ignorant on this subject that I'm not even completely sure what questions to ask as much as just hoping to soak up the knowledge in this thread that I've been poking through the past week or so.
Age: 34
Height: 5' 7"
Weight: 173
Goal: All-around athletic build.
Current Training Schedule:About 30 push-ups a day, 5x5 standing press and curls with barbell @ 60lbs (I'm basically weak as a kitten), 5x5 Spring bar. Once or twice a week I'll do some running, and I do quite a bit of walking each week, as well as always take a ton of stairs at work.
Current Training Equipment Available: Kinda goofy here- Barbell with 80 lbs of weights available, 1x 20lb dumbbell, Resistive spring bar.
Comments:
I've been fat my whole life, and now I'm approaching a healthy weight. I've gotten here by meticulously watching and logging my intake. I'm still eating at a deficit of 1,750 calories a day since I'd like to not be medically overweight any more but I've recently tried to make those admittedly limited calories COUNT more in my new efforts to reshape myself.
I've been a vegetarian for over a decade but have recently started taking protein shakes and eating fish in an attempt to take my nutrition ratios from the previous roughly 55% carb/ 30% fat/15%protein levels I've been around. With the addition of the shakes and the fish I'm approaching more of a 45% carb/29% fat/ 26% protein ratio. So I see I'm still not up to the 1g protein-1lb figure I should be reaching.
I'm kind of scared that if I raise my calories up to maybe 1,900 a day that I'll start getting fat again. Perhaps this is irrational since I'm eating pretty damned clean now and am extremely paranoid about what I put in my body. I'm afraid, also, that I'll eat too much fish because I hear that mercury levels can be an issue so I'm considering adding baked chicken breast to my diet.
As you can see my equipment is limited. I'm open to any wisdom you gents might be inclined to share. I've been trying to build myself up for only about a month now. I've got a ton of loose skin from the weight loss and my eventual end-goal would be to be comfortable in said loose skin by filling it up with muscle as much as possible.
I'm not scared of monotony or hard work with no visible improvements, I feel those are some skills that the weight loss have helped me develop. I'm hoping that, as with weight loss, as long as I'm doing the right shit and keep doing it with or without any noticeable results that eventually, maybe even a year down the line, my body will start reacting to it.
So, again, thanks for all the inspiration everyone!