Mmm, 6'2, 22st and 9". Sounds HAWT - an all round big boy. Any chance of a torso pic in your gallery? :veryhappy:
Right. Now I've got that out of my system, to the matter at hand. I've been training at a gym for a couple of years now. In my case, it's to put on weight in the form of muscle. Every January, there's an influx of overweight people. They seem to be fixated on losing weight and do loads of aerobics in an attempt to burn off their fat. They've gone by late February/March. Bored, discouraged, disappointed.
I'd suggest you focus on building muscle and fitness rather than losing weight. You might not lose much weight, but you can lose fat tissue and gain muscle mass and improve your strength, stamina and cardio-vascular health. In my first year my weight stayed the same, but I lost 2" off my waist and put 2" on my chest. The thing that kept me going though, was how much fitter and healthier I felt.
It is possible to train at home, but most people find it easier to join a gym. At home you have to motivate yourself, but once you've got yourself down to the gym there's only one thing to do - exercise! Plus there's professional advice available there - you don't need a Personal Trainer for every session, unless you're very rich, lol, but you do need to be shown how to handle weights safely and how to do the exercises properly.
Being attracted to fat guys (amongst others) yet health-conscious, I've taken an interest in obesity issues. I'm coming to the conclusion that the body responds to the environment, not the mind. In other words deciding you want to be slimmer and making yourself eat less (dieting) will not work. Your body will percieve that there is less food around, and hold on to every calorie it can.
As I understand it, apart from immediate food intake, there are three resources the body turns to when demands (exercise or survival) are put on it.
The first is glycogen (the animal equivalent of starch in vegetables) which is stored in the liver. This is easily and quickly utilised. It's converted to glucose and released into the bloodstream to be used by wherever it's needed, primarily by brain cells and muscles.
Now you might think that the second resource would be fat. Unfortunately it's not. It's muscle tissue. Although muscle tissue which is not being used much. To the body, in an uncertain world in terms of food reliability, excess muscle is a luxury. It's expensive because even when at rest it consumes far more calories and oxygen than the equivalent weight of fat tissue. So the body will only grow muscle on demand - in response to the demands the enviroment puts on it - the exercise it gets.
Fat is the precious resource of the body. To be used gradually, and only when necessary. So push some weights, big boy - re-balance your fat/muscle ratio. Do aerobics, but only 20 minutes at a time. Three 20 minute sessions are much better than one continuous hour. Because your liver will provide the glycogen for up to 20 mins, and after that you'll start consuming (non-essential) muscle. But your body will give up it's fat to re-fuel the liver when it's at rest after he exercise. And your heart and lungs will benefit too.
