I'm a 300lb guy trying to lose weight. I need some help / advice.

 I'm a big guy (300lbs), who is trying to lose weight. I set a goal for myself, I'd like to get to 175lbs. I've been fat most of my life (I'm 22), and just can't live like this anymore. I feel out of shape, tired, unhappy, and want to be able to enjoy life like everyone else.

I was reading various stories and even saw some TV shows that show the transformation from people who were way over 300lbs (500lbs+) losing a ton of weight with diet and exercise. My weight-loss plan is to incorporate a daily run into my schedule, every single day, and eat healthier. I was hoping to lose around 2lbs a week, which would bring me close to 175lbs in a little over a year.

The problem I'm having is that when I run, my knees hurt very bad. I started running this past Sunday (it was my first day of the new diet and exercise plan), and did fine, but by Monday my knees were hurting, and it made it hard to even walk around. I somehow pushed myself to run everyday until yesterday, even though I felt like my knees were about to break off.

I'm almost positive that my knees are hurting because I'm so big. What can I do to lose the weight? Should I keep running with hurt knees and hope they'll get used to it? Should I transition to another form of exercise until I've lost a certain amount of weight?

I don't have the money to spend to talk to a nutritionist or a personal trainer, or I definitely would.

Answers:

Running is not often recommended for someone so heavy, especially not daily running. Thankfully, you don't need to do it. What you do need is to cut your caloric intake, cut out simple carbs completely, cut down your complex carb intake to reasonable levels. You need to continue to eat healthy fats and plenty of protein. Diet is paramount to weight loss. You can lose weight and fat without exercise, but you can't do it on a shitty diet.

Now, the other part of this equation is not running - although you should be doing some form of cardio for half an hour 3-4 days a week - but weight training. While losing weight, you must perform an adequate strength training program, or your weight loss will consist of much more Lean Body Mass than you'd want. What happens then is you lose weight, but your metabolism is so slow that you'll gain it right back. And instead of being 300lbs with 170lbs of LBM, you'll be 300lbs with 150lbs of LBM, and fatter than you were before. This is bad. Avoid it by lifting heavy things 3 days a week. You may lose weight more slowly, but you'll lose fat more quickly.

***

As a former 300 lb overweight male who recently weighed in at 197, here are the instructions that I followed for success.

1. Running /w knee pain - invest in a GOOD pair of running shoes, I also spent the $60 for a pair of the custom Dr. Scholls pads from Wal-Mart.
2. Eat small meals throughout the day, this will cause your metabolism to speed up. And if you time it right you'll never feel extremely hungry because before you know it, you are eating again!
3. Join an exercise group at a gym. I was attending my local gym's "Boot Camp" classes 4 to 5 nights a week.
4. Cardio Cardio Cardio! - Obviously you won't be sprinting long distances right off the bat, but it's important to gradually increase difficulty. The first type of exercises I started was called Cardio Intervals, so 5 mins jogging on the treadmill, 5 minutes on the Stair master, 5 minutes on the bike. And I would try to do as many rounds possible until I was way too sore to continue.
5. Weight Training - this is quite important, remember this - lighter weights, more reps.
6. ALWAYS have a full bottled-water with you at all times.
7. Eating healthy - My diet consisted of the following -

7:00 AM - Bannana + Fiber-One Cereal 8:30 AM - Apple + Hard-Boiled Egg 10:30 AM - handful of Almonds 12:00 PM - Tuna or Chicken salad, light vinegratte dressing NO RANCH 2:00 PM - Celery 4:00 PM - Hard-Boiled Egg 5:00 PM - Skinless Chicken /w mixed veggies

And just remember, you're ability to lose weight is possible. Being a 23 year old male, I was heavy my entire life until this passed year. After a while your entire mood and perspective on life will change.

***

I know for a fact your knees are hurting because of the weight. when I would climb stairs, I would feel them grinding. eventually, that led to clicking/popping sounds, and eventually pure agony when standing up too quickly (without preparing my knees for stress). most of the pain could be solved by popping my knees, but it was still amazingly painful after a while.

I started on Jenny Craig when I was in 4th grade. lost weight but ballooned again. did Atkins when I was 19, with the same results. I`ve bounced from fat to less fat and back again multiple times.

This time, I've just started reading ingredient labels on food. if it's made with:

• Glucose
• Glucose-Fructose
• HFCS
• Dextrose
• Maltodextrin
• Monosodium Glutamate
• Aspartame, or
• Sucralose
  I do not buy or eat it. those ingredients are what make us the diabetic society we are. Each of the above (minus sucralose and aspartame) trick your brain into thinking it's still hungry, so you eat more, often twice as much as normal. I've smoked weed and not had the munchies that those ingredients give me. if you cut these ingredients out, you will drop weight rapidly. Aspartame has direct ties to two things I severely dislike:Cancer and Donald Rumsfeld. it will destroy your body and your mind, so avoid it like the plague (most diet foods that don't use splenda are using aspartame).

For me, this switch cut out most soda, which was a bit of a struggle (I was drinking a 12-pack of Mountain Dew a day). Eventually, I learned to love tap water. before the HFCS withdrawals ended, I resorted to drinking Orange and Grape Juice when I absolutely couldn't stand it anymore, and craved sweetness. Dropping soda accounted for the first 15 lbs I lost. once I saw there was something to it, I cut it out of the rest of my food.

You're gonna have problems finding staple foods without the above listed poisons (and I'm not using the term "poison" lightly). Bread from a major label will almost always have Glucose-Fructose in it. 4 out of 5 brands of bacon will have it. You will not find an Ice Cream brand without it. Eventually, you learn which products are safe to eat, and you keep to those brands. When I was in Oklahoma, I had to buy a breadmaker and an ice cream maker, because it was the only way I could guarantee safe food. if youre in a larger city, youll probably be able to find healthy staples easier than in a rural area, but dont think you wont feel a little funny reading the ingredients list for every piece of food you put in your shopping cart. if you're over someone else's house, and you see brands you know to be bad for you being used in whatever food they're giving you, be polite and eat 75% of the portions, and make a mental note that you'll be going insane with cravings in a few hours. Surprisingly enough, there is usually one item on a fast food menu that isn't bad for you (McDonald's Chicken Snack Wraps FTW). once you google their ingredient lists (all fast food restaurants have them), you can remember what's safe to eat if you find yourself in a drive-thru.

I'm sure this sounds crazy, but I've lost 100lbs in 3 years. I have a lot of loose skin because I haven't exercised enough, but I was honestly terrified of dying from a heart attack while exercising due to my size. I`ve recently started swimming, which has noticeably tightened my loose skin in the past month, but before that I was terrified of exercising. Swimming is extremely low-impact on your body, so my knees never feel it.

The knee pain went away by the time I was 280lbs or so. your mileage may vary. just know that it goes away eventually.

Good luck with your weight loss. it always sucks at the beginning, but it'll be better sooner than you realize.