Hi all,
I’m 19 years old and I currently weigh approximately 230 pounds at 5’10”. I’ve never really been the active type of person and rarely played sports when I was younger. I’ve always been chubby and obese and now I feel it’s time I start changing that. My aspirations are to go into law enforcement or the fire field which would require an elevated level of fitness discipline, specifically when it comes to running. I still have some time before I get there (about a year at minimum) but due to my slow pace of improvement, I need to start getting to work now.
For the past couple of months, I’ve started to go to the gym with a friend. I started lifting weights with a gym partner and I definitely saw improvement with the muscles I worked on. My weight did not fluctuate much (I guess that means I burned fat and gained muscle, but idk). After about 3 months of doing this, I had to take a break due to changes to my work schedule and inconveniences that arose. My gym partner then never went back to it either, and I lost 100% of my motivation. For the past 2 months or so, I’ve started going back to the gym to do nothing but footwork on the treadmill. I’ve been using an app called c25k which progressively increases the exercise workload between walk/jog intervals. I do now work a full-time job, a desk job, overnights, so this definitely makes it more of a challenge to keep up my activity on the daily. Nonetheless, I’ve worked up through weeks 1-4 and am pending to start week 5. I’ve repeated the week 4 intervals several times as opposed to moving on because this is where I feel I’m starting to find true difficulty.
One issue I’m having with running are my lower shins. I always used to have shin splints when I was younger but I’m not sure if that’s what I’m feeling now. Throughout the run, I feel the heavy painful pressure on my lower shins and I can feel the muscles super swollen to the touch. Though, once I cooldown after a couple mins, I don’t feel it at all (though its still swollen). This has limited my workout intensity by having to jog/run at a low speed of around 4.7mph. My breath, nonetheless is able to keep up better than my legs (are my legs just unable to sustain my weight).
My diet is not bad, but it is not the best either. Due to my work situation and my altered lifestyle, I might have 1 large meal a day, and maybe a snack in between. (Bagel, sandwich, etc). I have worked to improve it recently and no longer drink soda and other drinks alike or eat terrible junk food. I do, however, have a very slow metabolism if that matters.
Maybe I just haven’t worked hard enough, but I do not see any drastic changes on the scale besides a pound or two throughout all this time. I really would like to hear any advice anyone might have, because my future career depends on me now. It’s not me just wanting to change, I HAVE to change.
Thanks for reading.
