Search the Community

Hey everybody- I'm mostly here looking for advice on forms of exercise that have worked for you, or anything you know of that might work out for me. I am 25, female, 5'4" and 300lbs. (severely overweight, obviously) My main concerns are: 1. My size 2. I struggle with severe depression 3. I have a bad left shoulder part of the reason I am so overweight is because I do not cope with my depression or anxiety in positive and constructive ways. I tend to oversleep and overeat instead. So I am interested in some form of exercise that is not mindless or without purpose. I did Yoga a few years ago, and lost quite a bit of weight that way- almost 50 pounds- but since hurting my shoulder I've been hesitant to try it again.

So if anyone is a part of the Ladies Nerdfitness Academy Facebook page, you may know that I have been through some major shite these past few months. Because of that, my timing is way off. I realize I only have 13 days left, but, I'm going to start this anyway. So what am I going to do in these 13 days? Continue going to Planet Fitness and follow the personal trainer's advice (see rant below) Meditate the embarrassment, guilt, and desire out of myself. Get a short comic up. Get to Chapt 2 in my Japanese Language course 1. PF- see below rant 2. Meditate: I have a lot of anger/frustration to deal with. And have been dealing with. Considering my breakup I have about 14 years of emotional stress to deal with. I also have about 2 more months of family emotional stress to deal with. Plus, I have to deal with the fact that while the weight is coming off, there's a really good chance (I'm betting about 95% chance) of me being alone for the rest of my life. I was afraid of that for a long time which is why I stayed in a bad relationship for so long. But I got to the point where I'd rather be alone than deal with his bs. A lot of people say, "oh you don't know what Goddess/God/Creature from the Black Lagoon has in store for you" and that's right. But I also don't like The Game. The Dating/Relationship/Hookup/Swipe Right game. I'm 35. I'm not hot. I'm a nerd. I like reading, playing video games and watching martial arts movies. I'm not a girly girl. You call me that I will make sure your legs bend wrong from now on. I am in no way shape or form hot enough for some guy to come along and pick me. Plus we're in a stage of society where they don't even have to get into a relationship if they don't want, they just sign up for Tindr, find a hook up for the night and boom, instant happiness. That's not what I'm into, so I'm out. Now, that's not me being all man hatey, not at all. That's me saying they do whatever makes them (and the women who do the same) happy and that's great. That's just not for me. So I get to sit this one out. Now, it's hard to do that because guys are, unfortunately, attractive. So what I'm going to do is what the monks in temples out in the middle of nowhere do. I'm going to meditate that side of me away. I'm going to meditate so that I can: be more in the now not worry so much about everything forget companionship (I need to heal anyway) understand what life is about So what I'm going to do is every day for the next 13 days, continue with my Headspace meditations and possibly add some more. I think it's going to do me wonders. 3. Comic I had a comic strip going, then life got in the way. Now I'm going to axe that, and do something based solely on my experiences in the past, and it's going to be a very short story of an instance that happened. With some dragons, magic and a school for the magically talented thrown in. I have not read any Harry Potter minus like 20 pages, so I hope I don't overlap too much. I'll read it after I am done with my story. So on Wednesdays or Thursdays, I'm going to write/draw (depending on which section I'm on) part of the story. I'm going to try to make it 14 pages long so I will see how far I can go. 4. Japanese Japanese is coming along, I still remember Hiragana and most of Katakana, but I need to drill myself every single day without fail. If for no longer than 5 minutes. I have Memrise for that. But that book I have needs to be something I do every day regardless of anything else. So at least 10 minutes a day I am going to read and study Japanese. The Stats as it was before: Str +1 (37) Int: +1 (8.5) Wis: 1 (14) Chr: +1 (20.1) Agi: +.2(20.5) This is where I was last time. Now, I'm going to add a few things because of what happened to me over the course of the difference between May 30th and now: Str: +4 I started doing weights again, and pushups. I can do 5 regular big boy pushups now. No knees here. Oh and I joined Planet Fitness!* Int: +2 I started getting seriously back into learning Japanese and working on my comic publishing skills Wis: +5 I left the man who was emotionally abusing me for years. I stayed away. I also have realized that I can and will be fine on my own. And that I want a dog so I won't be quite the crazy cat lady. I'll be a crazy cat lady with a random dog. Totally different. Chr: +2 I went on an outting. Granted I screwed up royally on it, but, nothing happened that would have been worse than the sheer embarrassment that already did. I can deal with embarrassment. Also, I got purple highlights in my hair. Always wanted them, finally did it. Half as a tribute to Prince, half as a tribute to my Queen side. Agi: +2 I started running! As a result of Pokemon Go (Go #TeamValor!) I started walking again. Everywhere. I even went *gasp* TO THE MALL DUN DUN DUN I went everywhere and no kidding I was having a ton of fun. The only time I have not gone out and walked around/driven around/interacted with life outside my dragoncave is when depression really took over. Not gonna lie, that happens sometimes. I can't help it, especially now after such a major breakup. But Pokemon Go has pushed me to walk around and enjoy the sun, the other people I see playing, and avoid talking to people I know are playing it. Today I get: Agi: +1 I went out and ran a bit today. Now, I had done this somewhat in the gym at the complex when nobody was around but never have I ever willingly run in public before. I remember distinctly getting into a fight with the gym teacher in high school when she told me to run. I almost didn't graduate because of it. But today, I put my gear on, went outside, and did like maybe 2 minutes total of running. You know the Couch 2 5k thing where you do a few seconds running, few seconds walking..I did that. I'm kinda proud of myself today. That's all I got so far today. I just wanted to really post about how proud I am of my fat self jiggling around the sidewalks for all to see. Ok so my totals are as follows: Str 41 Int: 10.5 Wis: 19 Chr: 22.1 Agi: 23 *Planet FItness: Ok so I joined PF. I went in there last week, totally dishevelled. I swear to Goddess I looked like a serial killer. I was shaking, I was sweating (didn't help it was literally 101 out) I was so nervous I almost died. Not to mention I went to the wrong damn PF. Apparently I signed up at the wrong location but they were kind enough to realize I as slowly having a melt down and let me just talk to the one trainer here. Now I am 1000% sure that guy thought I was going to eat him. I told him I was super nervous and I apologized for freaking out, and I could tell he was kinda scared. So I told him what I wanted, to lift heavy things to be stronger, to do pull ups, pushups, start to run for distance, and lose weight. He nodded and told me to come back next week (tomorrow). I said okay and then proceeded to go stammer on a treadmill for about 20 minutes to try to relax. The entire time I'm freaking out looking at ALL THE PEOPLE WHO WERE NEVER EVER THERE ALL THE 15 TIMES I GO DRIVING BY AT THIS SAME HOUR WHICH MADE ME WANT TO SIGN UP IN THE FIRST PLACE . I swear the place was jam packed full of all these people...I only went there because I was told that "nobody ever really shows up". BULL SHEIT. There were no joke 25 to 30 people in there. I was horrified...easily the fattest person in there. So tomorrow I get to go back again, to watch all the skinny/buff bastards who don't even need to be in there that day watch the short fat purple hair'd dragon jiggle her large ass all over the place bein sweaty and whatnot #breathes fire I HATE GYMS!!!!!!

I love seeing success stories posted all over NF. It is inspiring no matter what the starting weight! Even the smallest victory is a victory to be praised! However, I am getting a little discouraged that I can't find anyone who is anywhere near my level of (un)fitness. Even in the weight loss category... So I am posting here in hopes of finding someone else who has found themselves in a similar position, hiding in a suit of fat and unable to recognize themselves in the mirror. Here is a little about me and some stats. I have been obese since I was 5 years old. I am an emotional eater. I binge. I struggle with depression. I feed my emotions. It's sad. And it needs to stop! Age: 26 Height: 5"8' Weight: 300 BMI:45.61 I have a punching bag, some resistance bands and an elliptical in my basement and I've joined a gym to have close access to more free weights and other workout equipment. I am so thankful for the encouragement and awesomeness provided by Steve and NF. I am making progress and would love to hear from anyone else about their journey.

Swirling fire intro: Hi guys, I'm Lady_Dragon. A dragon irl, who is stuck as a female human for at least 80 years (or so the old witch said before I ate her...no offense other witches, this one was really rude and deserved it). The old witch told me, as I held her in my claws, that I was going to be knocked on the head, and be reborn as a human female to live out my life until I was able to transcend back to my dragon self. I was too busy being angry at her for trying to take off some of my scales to use in some spell or some sort to pay much attention. So, here I am. BUT what she didn't tell me was that I would be stuck in a human WHO HAS A HARD TIME NOT BEING FAT. Seriously! WTF with you humans!!! In any case, here I am. When I was a dragon, I had a nice huge size, I was very muscular, I was short for a female dragon, sure, but I was confident and was one of the fastest in my nest crew. So you can imagine how angry I am to be 35 years of human age and stuck being slow and fat. How's a girl supposed to be strong and intimidating if she's slow and fat? HOW? But I digress. My goal in this stupid human life, is to be strong. One of you humans came up with the idea of this chick and I saw her when I was like 8: and her sister Nubia Look at her! Strong...confident...you can almost see her wings! I want to be like that! But what am I instead? So what's a dragon to do? I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to: Goal 1: Lift like a dragon I want to be strong. So I'm going to lift weights. 3 x a week, Mon-Wed-Fri going to lift as much as I can. I have been following the Nike + Fitness and I'm going to continue doing that but adding more weight and pushing myself harder. Goal 2: Eat like a dragon When I was a dragonface, I ate a lot of meat that I caught myself. I can't really go about doing that anymore (hard to divebomb a field with no wings) but I can still eat like one. Meat, vegetables, and very little carbs. 50g carbs a day TOPS + 1500 calories. That's right, I'm going into ketosis again. I may give myself a little treat now and again ...let's say, once every 2 weeks I'll give myself like a gluten free cookie or something. But just one. Maybe a Starbucks to go with it. Goal 3: Think like a dragon This life is all I got until I get back to my dragon self again, so I need to start doing things that are for me and me alone. #YOLO as the kids say. So I'm going to do that. Right now, I have no friends. None. No one I can talk to about anything. Sure i have a boyfriend but that's not what I want. I want a bff again. So I have to go find one. This...is harder than I thought it would be. I'm mostly into male human stuff, and so far the only people I can get along with are as such, so, this should be interesting. But my goal is to find a friend. Goal 4: Meditate Dragons get a lot of time to think about things, and that's what I need to do. Feel the freedom to think and relax. So right now, I'm going to do a 5 min a week meditation session as a basis. I can do more, but not less. Every week, add 2 minutes. So that's it for now. I will record things into this journal daily, to see how I progress. I look forward to talking to hopefully a bunch of you in this journey to get my roar back. My base stats are: Int: 10 Str: 10 Sta: 10 Wis: 5 Agi: 2 --Yoda's wisdom for today: Eat fudge today. Allow for such, rare visit does hmm. Hmm yes. Yes. Tomorrow, feel burn and lift hard. Yesss.

Captain Inertia here, and I need some help... One of the things I want to focus on is climbing, swinging, and hanging. However, I am WAY to heavy right now to be holding onto a bar. I don't want to be doing pull-ups or chin-ups right now. I just want to condition by body to hang better from a bar, and get more comfortable with my feet off the ground. Anyone know of a good starting point for this? Any help would be appreciated.

I'm new to this program and have chosen to be a Druid because, well, I am always drawn to that role in RPGs and like the intellectual/mindfulness aspect of it. My concerns are about doing the exercises such as yoga, tai chi, etc. in my current body. I am 400+lbs and only 5'2", so it's hard to get into a lot of poses. I also have back pain due to an injury years ago. I know there are modifications and alternative types of movement geared towards larger bodies, but I can't help but feel I can't count any of them until I can actually fulfill the quests I've been given - like going to a yoga class. I'm not even sure I will ever set foot in a yoga studio, but what about online yoga classes or the NF yoga program (which I also have questions about)? How do I do this, complete quests, level up, and still perform within my limitations? Any advice?

Hi ya'll, So, I'm new to NF! I am not sure which Guild I'll want to join yet (Assassins, maybe?), but I'm super excited. I've been stalking the forum for a couple of weeks, but I finally signed up today. About Me I am currently a BMI of 45, weight of 360. This is completely unacceptable. I'm very tall for a woman, and I've been told I "carry my weight well", but that's just not okay anymore. Goals: By 12/1, I want to be a BMI of 40, weight of 320. Of course, the world doesn't always work that way. So instead of focusing on that, I will have 3 behavior goals to help me achieve that! 1: Exercise for 3 hours a week. 2: Eat vegetarian 5 days a week. 3: No fast food (Coffee is okay). Here we go!

Argh. I typed most of this, hit the Enter key and for some reason Google Chrome decided that meant "go back." Starting over... *grumble grumble* Main Quest: Obese No More. This requires that I lose almost 100 pounds. My current weight is 261, and in order to no longer be obese according to the BMI, I must weigh 169 at least. Quest 1: Heavy lifting workout 3 days a week (3 exception days permitted). I'm permitting exception days because I know that real life can get in the way, and there's also a much greater chance of me getting sick this time of year, which would prevent exercise. Also, 2 days a week of a good weight lifting workout is still good. But for the best results in this quest, 3 days a week is ideal. Quest 2: Tracking food every day (3 exception days permitted). Stay within daily food allowance limits. Again, real life may get in the way. In my experience, especially when eating out it can be hard to track food. I want to strive for tracking every single day, though, and if I can't track something I want it to be because it's a meal that is very hard to accurately track, and not because of laziness. Also, last quest I stuck to tracking only, but could eat whatever I wanted, because I was just making myself get into the habit of tracking daily. This time, I need to stay within daily allowances and stick to healthy choices most of the time: good sources of protein, healthy fats, and of course lots of fruits and veggies. Quest 3: Lose 6 pounds. Quest 1 and 2 should lead to this goal. This is low-balling possible weight loss quite a lot - considering my weight, I wouldn't be surprised if I lose 10 or even a little more. But a pound per week is good healthy weight loss, and accounts for any plateauing that might occur. Life Quest: Complete one wearable garment for my costuming. DragonCon is at the end of the summer, which is closer than you might think. I have a bad tendency to start my costuming in June, and that means I spend the entire summer rushing to finish costumes. Things that I have a very hard time doing while rushing to finish costumes include having a social life, getting to the gym, and prepping healthy meals. So this year I'm striving to get started early because I know at least one costume will include a lot of leather work, and the other is an existing costume that I'm altering to make it look much cooler. And since "get started on costuming" isn't really a SMART goal, I've decided I should strive to complete one wearable item. Could be a leather gauntlet or armor. Could be one of the two jackets I need to alter. Just so long as I can wear it by the end of the challenge. And yes, everything I'm working on this early is either not relevant to size or else adjustable, so that weight loss won't prevent me from using it. Editing to add point distribution for each goal. Quest 1: Heavy lifting 3 days per week: +3 to STR, +2 to STA Quest 2: Track food every day: +3 to WIS Quest 3: Lose 6 pounds: +2 to CON, +2 to DEX Life Quest: Complete one wearable garment for costuming: +3 CHA Point distribution in case of failure to complete any part of the challenge is as follows: A - 100% B - 75% C - 50% D - 25% F - 0% I will also only award myself an A in lifting and tracking if I do these the set number of times (3 times a week for lifting, every day for tracking). I really only added the exception days in order to give myself permission to make a few exceptions, but still put a limit on the number I intend to take.

I've been working out on my own at home, but it's hard to stay motivated all the time. Today, I joined a gym hoping that will give me an extra kick in the pants (plus access to a multitude of free weights!!!) I would really like to have a workout buddy in the area who would meet occasionally (often) for workouts and check ins.

Hi guys, I've been battling my weight since childhood. I'm now 30, 320ish lbs with a prescription list as long as my arm. I have zero mobility/flexibility and the worst postural issues you've seen. I took up powerlifting style training a couple of months ago and am really looking for a place for a little additional support really.

Challenge #3 Ultimate Quest: Survive the Zombie Apocalypse Necessary skills: - STR: Fend off zombies with melee or hand-to-hand - STA: Outrun hordes for long distances - DEX: Be agile and quick enough to cover rugged, varied terrain effortlessly (parkour style) - CON: Have the supplies and wherewithall to bunker down and equip myself properly - WIS: Be wicked smaht. Because zombies are dumb. - CHA: Charm the pants off of handsome survivors. Steal their shit. Current Quest: 4/14 - 5/25 Main Quest: Complete a 5k in under 60 minutes (Color Me Rad 5k Run 4/27) Side Quests: Prepping for the 5k 1: Walk an average 30000 steps per week (+4 STA) A: 30k+ B: 27-29k C: 22k-26k D: 19k-21k F: 18k or under 2. Walk a minimum of 5 exercise miles per week (Steps don't count) (+4 CHA) A: 5+ B: 4+ C: 3+ D: 2+ Life Quest: Stick to my Mon/Tues, Thurs/Fri Paleo Food Plan (+2 WIS) A - Strictly Followed, no slips B- 1-2 Slips C - 3-4 Slips F - Off the Wagon Sunday will be my official check-in day, when I will grade myself for the week! I tried to streamline this plan a bit. Fewer things to track, and its scaled back a little more. I think I got overwhelmed with too many goals in the last challenge. I'm excited to participate in the Color Run in April!

So let's get started with a little bit of background. 2012 was the worst year of my life. I weighed in ad 332 lbs, I don't even KNOW what my other relavent stats were, except that my A1C was at 9.6 for those of you familiar with the medical field, that is the Wilford Brimleys right there(diabetes) I had to have a heart cath, after my brother passed away from a freak heart attack, and we lost a couple of very close family members. it was rough. Fast forward to January 2014, I had done a little to get myself in line, but I still weighed in at 324, Here' the relavent tracking stats. January 4th Weight 324 Cholesterol 228 A1C 6.4 Body Fat Percentage 37.7 BMI 41.2 Blood Pressure 140/90 Dumbell Row 35's Dumbell Press 35's Pant size 46 Shirt size 3xl(tight) April 2nd Weight 298 Cholesterol 143 A1C 5.2 Body Fat Percentage 29.7 BMI 40.2 Blood Pressure 120/80 Dumbell Row 60's Dumbell Press 70's Pant size 42 Shirt size 2xl(tight) So far huge progress, but I'm nowhere near where I want to be. so I hate deadlifts, I think they are not fun... but I should probably be doing SOMETHING like that, because i need to tone/build my belly and back muscles. I carry all my weight in my center mass, my forearms are beginning to show definition, but I'm still very fat, and have a long ways to go on the rest of me(except my calves, my calves are AWESOME) Anyone else start out in these upper ranges and get things toned? I'm not going to stop. I feel amazing, and i'm effectively kicking Diabetes ass. I'm off insulin, and off all other injectables. I just take Metformin at this point, and Cholesterol and blood pressure meds. but honestly if I keep this up i'm really looking to get off of those as well. Paleo is amazing. I was worried about my cholesterol going up. it did not go up, obviously, in fact it went WAY down, Amazing! Anyways, that's today. here's to keeping up the solid progress!

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkl

I have very low energy levels. I poke at what needs to be done, but the minimum is usually what I manage to get done. (My minimum is higher than those with a well-kept house, but it's far below any sort of rural workload.) I am weary much of the time. I do have plantar facialis in one foot, tarsal tunnel in the other. I was also reading over a previous post, and I mentioned my legs constantly hurting. I'm hoping that all of this is weight-related, and I know how to manage those aspects. I don't know how to overcome the need to spend so much time resting.

I've come here to ask for MAJOR help so please help me. Currently i'm ~5'9-6'0 (haven't been to the doctor for a while) and am about 216 pounds (I lost 15 pounds in 1.5 months during the summer but I didnt do anything different...). Currently I am unhappy the way I move, the sluggish way I do everything, and the way I look. As a Senior I feel like this should be the height of my youth but alas I am still obese and sluggish. I went to my doctor and he said even though I am 18 my body is the body of a 15 year old when it comes to hormones and what not (how this works, idk). So my question is, how can I shed down major weight while also building and toning muscle at the same and not damaging my tissue and stunting my growth because of my 15 year old internals and losing the weight in a way where it doesn't come back very easily like what happens during extreme dieting. I would need a way to do it in as least time allowed while not also doing like only 10 minutes a day because I'm currently packed with a job, volunteering, school (all honors), and I will be doing Track and Field (shotput) this year. All throughout my teen years I've been obese and unhappy with myself and would like to finally be happy with my body. What is also influencing me to do this is that my family has an extensive history of diabetes (dad, uncle, grandma, grandpa, dads cousins, etc) and i know if i don't start now it could be too late. Please help me NerdFitness community.

I've been overweight almost all my life, being a game and a software engineer has been a blessing and a curse. A blessing since I love what I do, absolutely love it but a curse since I'm always in front of the TV or my computer. I'm also diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder which means I had anxiety attacks every other day. But I have managed to overcome that anxiety by taking a stance and being a true warrior. I was diagnosed with High Blood Pressure, Apnea and I was obese actually I was size 44" XL. I decided to change all of that a year ago and managed to lose 70 pounds. I tracked all my meals, worked out and I'm at my last curve where I need to lose 30 more pounds. Now I don't have Apnea, I have normal Blood Pressure but my weight its 215 and Im 5' 11" So here are my goals. Diet & Fitness 1. Go Paleo for 6 Weeks, No cheating, No soda, No Candies. 2. Run 2 Miles without stopping. 3. Do Weight Training 4 times a week. Level Up 1. Finish up my iPhone/Android App (I'll post the submitted app at the end of the 6 weeks) so you can download. Anyhow here's a recent picture of me during the holiday weekend at Disney Blizzard Beach. I'm on Instagram as "mikegetinfit" where I post all my foods, goals, etc...