Hi Stormrider.
Good luck with your exercise and weight loss!
I hope I can offer some help and input to you. I apologise in advance if my post is a bit long but when it comes to health and fitness... I don't shut up - I love it and I want to help people.
I am a big guy (6'3, or 191cm) I used to weigh a lot. I once weighed 128kg (282 pounds) but in nine months, I was able to shed off 32kg (70 pounds), falling to the weight of 96kg (211 pounds). At this stage, I weigh 100kg (220 pounds) and I have managed to keep that fat off, while further developing muscle mass. It's been three and a half years and still going.
I think when it comes to exercise, whether it be losing weight, or putting on weight (muscle mass) or trying to do both at the same time - there's four quarters to it, which should be followed in order to succeed.
1 - Exercise:
This is a no brainer. You need to do regular exercise if you want to lose weight. If you're looking for weight loss, I would suggest cardiovascular exercise mixed with body weight exercises (such as push ups, sit ups, squats etc). In my experience I found for my weight loss, this really worked for me.
Try going to a local park or football field or something. Go for a jog, do laps around the park or field. At the same time though, you don't have to keep jogging. If you start to feel tired or start to feel soreness or even pain in your ankles, shins or knees, slow down to walking speed. Don't stop, the idea is to keep your body moving. Walking is in a sense "resting". When you feel good again, resume the jogging.
After a completion of a lap, or a set distance of your choice... as silly as it sounds, try a circuit set of some body weight exercises: maybe ten, twenty or thirty push ups, sit ups, squats and anything else you can come up with (I liked doing push ups, sit ups, squats and then star jumps). Once you've done your circuit set, resume your jogging and walking. Make sure to do at least three sets.
I found when combining the body weight exercises with cardio, it proved effective results. I'm not sure if this is true but here's the way I see it: you're working all of your muscles and you're keeping your heart rate up high and active. The more of your muscles that you use in exercise (especially cardio) the more energy you use, thus the more fat you can potentially burn. Plus... it kept things a bit interesting.
You don't have to go to the gym to lift big, heavy weights... but perhaps in the future as you get more into fitness, you can jump into that. Also, you can start getting into more advanced and tougher exercises. Check out YouTube, there are heaps there! All for free too.
In terms of how often you should exercise per week, everyone has a different answer. Personally, I would suggest five to six times a week, at least thirty minutes per session, but ultimately it's up to you.
Exercise is only half the work. Without proper nutrition, you won't be getting what you should be getting out of your exercise.
2 - Nutrition:
Also an obvious one. Now, I'll sound hypocritical here but you don't necessarily have to do exercise to lose weight. People lose weight on nutrition alone. However, to develop fitness, muscle tone and definition as well as further your weight loss, you're going to need to exercise too.
With nutrition, it's important to just eat good, healthy foods. Lots of protein (lean meats), fruits and vegetables. In my experience, I found that eating multiple small meals a day (five to six) did a lot of wonder for me and my metabolism.
Now... you don't have to restrict yourself from junk food. It's okay to have junk food at least once a week or so. People will say this will undo all your hard work but really, it won't. Personally, I think it's fine to have at least one day a week where you can just have... whatever you want.
Don't get me wrong... this doesn't mean gorge yourself silly on everything. It just means... feel like a Coke? Drink one then. Feel like some take out food with friends? Go ahead. It does not mean that everything you eat/drink on that day has to be unhealthy. It just means you can be just a little less restrictive. Reward yourself!
3 - Rest.
Make sure you get plenty of rest (and by rest, I mean sleep). It's a good idea to try and get at least eight hours of sleep per night. Your body needs that time to recover and heal from the exercise you have done. Even if you are eating healthy and exercising regularly, it won't be doing you much good if you're not getting much sleep.
It's also a good idea to just... have a rest day. At least one or two rest days per week where you can allow your body and mind to just, take it easy. It is entirely possible to damage yourself from over exercising, so having a day off isn't such a bad idea. It also gives your body further time to rest and heal. Maybe on the weekend? Or a day when you don't have to work?
4 - Positive attitude:
If you're thinking negatively about your weight loss, then it isn't going to do you much good. You might as well quit. You've got to remember that in weight loss, there is no such thing as "fast" and "easy". It takes patience, hard work and dedication.
With all that, you've got to enjoy the exercise you're doing. If you're not having fun or enjoying yourself, it will make things harder. Not impossible, just harder. Maybe in the future you could try looking into a sports or martial arts club that interests you? Who knows, maybe you'll have heaps of fun and meet new people.
By having a positive attitude as well as support from your friends and family, you'll gladly want to do the exercise. You'll gladly want to lose weight. You'll step on those scales and see improvements every single time. You'll start fitting into smaller and nicer clothes. You'll feel better about how you look and feel about yourself and everyone around you will notice the positive change in your body and personality. You'll be awesome.
Anyway... sorry for my massive rant. I get a little too into it. I hope it helps. Good luck!
