Youssarian's Ascension Begins

[YoussarianAscended]

I am 25 years old. In a few months, I will be finishing what many consider my "extended adolescence" of being at college. I will hopefully be accepting a job offer in the software engineering industry. I will move out of university apartments and away from the family home, and into my own place. I will become a full-time employee to some company, a new attendee to a church, and a member of some community. I don't want to go into that as a fat person. I would find it personally shameful. I want to have the physical health and strength to carry out my responsibilities in all areas of life, and to pursue whatever goals I may have. Obesity has never been part of my vision for adult life, and I don't want to make it a reality.

 

I've chosen the Ranger class to begin with, because I see myself as a kind of middle-of-the-road person. I'm not interested in being perfectly fit, or highly muscular. I just want to be able to do what life, or my own desires, call me to do. I want to be better than I am now.

 

I'm not really sure what I need to do. For now I want to focus more on weight loss. I've yet to try the paleo diet but I'm interested. As far as exercise, I keep seeing the phrase "high intensity" thrown about, but I don't really know what that means. Hopefully I'll learn some things while I'm here!

 

EDIT:

 

My plan is to get down to 150 pounds. Given my height and age, this would put me around the middle of the healthy range on the BMI. I'd also like to develop some more muscle mass. I'd like to be proud of my body for once.

[turboseize]

On 7.1.2017 at 1:27 AM, YoussarianAscended said:

I am 25 years old. In a few months, I will be finishing what many consider my "extended adolescence" of being at college.

 

Congratulations! I jumped back into "adolescence" aged 32, when I started my studies... next semester, I'll be double the age of the freshmmen. And still not grown up... 
 

Quote

EDIT:

 

My plan is to get down to 150 pounds. Given my height and age, this would put me around the middle of the healthy range on the BMI. I'd also like to develop some more muscle mass. I'd like to be proud of my body for once.[/quote]

 

Could you do me a favour? Yes? Good.
Please forget the BMI. It is utter bullshit. At least the way it is used now. BMI was developed as a statistical tool to quick judge the nourishment of populations, so as to determine how to prioritise food shipments in times of war. It was never intended to judge individual persons. And it is just not the right tool for this job. Both in short and tall persons, BMI results are terribly skewed.

At 1,9m and 107kg, I have a BMI of 29.6. That would be interpreted as severely overweight, borderline obese. This is me, today evening, during my workout. (Yes, that is only 120kg/265lbs, which is way to weak, and yes, I might still be able to loose a bit around the midsection... But I'm pretty sure not many people would use the word obese to describe me. Especially if you take into account the unflattering 90's jacket. Btw, the jacket belongs to a sport suit my mother bought me back in school. I do not know exactly when, but I know I was still playing handball at the time. So this thing is from 1995 or even earlier...)

I would even go further. Do not only ignore BMI, please also do not overestimate weight. Weight alone is just a number, it tells you nothing about your body composition. You might be at a totally normal and "healthy" weight for your height, but still be incredibly weak and have a high body fat percentage. Or you could be ripped like Leonidas, all muscle, no fat, and still be "overweight" by some silly metrics...
Instead, focus on how your body looks, feels, and what it can do. When you are getting stronger, when you have more endurance, when you "just feel better" and when you can tighten your belt or even drop a clothing size, then you are doing ok and should keep doing whatever you are doing,´no matter what the scale says.

[Guzzi]

Welcome @YoussarianAscended!

 

It sounds like you've yet to formulate a plan on how to achieve your long term goals, am I right? Have a look at this page. Yes, I know it's about the 4 Week Challenges, but I think no.3 "planning your challenge" would be a good place for you to start. It can be a really daunting thing to start, so do some planning and break it all down into small steps that don't overwhelm you. 

 

As for diet, there's a lot of different approaches and ideas as to what makes for a "healthy" diet. Although there are a lot of people on here who eat paleo, it isn't for everyone so don't worry if it's not for you.

 

There are many ways to eat more healthily and it can be very difficult to to switch from a poor diet to one as restrictive as paleo. I'm not saying that you shouldn't keep reading about it, but maybe take things in small steps here too. Start making little changes, nothing too drastic, just slowly improving your diet - eating more vegetables, less processed foods, reducing your sugar intake etc. 

 

You'll notice that I've said "improving your diet" and not "losing weight". That's because I really think the best way to approach weight loss is to start eating better, not necessarily less. If you don't correct your diet in the first place then you might lose a lot of weight only to put it all back on again when you let your guard down. 

 

**raises hand** Yup, I did that.   I dieted the stupid way then put almost all of it back on when I hit the first bump in the road. I learned my lesson though, and the second time around I did things right. The weight has stayed off for 2.5 years despite me developing some pretty serious mobility problems. Read - BIG bump in the road.  

 

There is also a lot of variety when it comes to exercise types. Have a think about what your capabilities are right now and what kind of exercise appeals to you. Work to your strengths, what are you good at, what do you enjoy? 

 

Be realistic too. If you are really out of shape then consider doing some low intensity exercises to build up your basic fitness rather than joining a class that's at a pace that leaves you feeling like you're going to puke, and would just put you off going back. Walking, swimming, bodyweight exercises are all good starting points. Don't underestimate the benefits of walking, Google it if you don't believe me, lol! 

 

High intensity exercise is basically just what it sounds like. They're the ones that might make you want to puke.  Anything that involves pushing yourself and really working your muscles, heart and lungs. 

 

If you Google HIIT (high intensity interval training) or Tabata you can read about the benefits of that style of workout too. These are more something that you would add in if you're looking to push yourself a little further. It's not something that someone would do unless they were already fairly fit. 

 

I hope some of that was useful to you. If you need any help finding your way around or anything then just ask.