ExRx.net

Hello,
I am a 17 year old guy who has lost his shape this fall and just wants to lose some weight and get back into shape. I have played soccer for the last 14 years but this semester after starting college I have been to bussy with work and school to do anything but gain weight. I am currently 6'0" and I weigh 200lbs and I would say I am probably 20lbs away from where I want to be. You might say that at 200lbs I am quite obese but I am a pretty wide person so it doesnt seem like that on me.

Now, my main problem is trying to motivate myself into excercising. I keep trying but always get out of my schedule and can't keep it up. I have though started to try and cut my meals in half in order to let me lose some weight by consuming less calories. Another thing that has saved me from being even more overweight is that I never set my self on drinking pop and I have consumed nothing but water for the last couple of years.

So what do you think I could do to reach my goal of losing 20 lbs lets say by the end of the winter.

One more thing, I will soon gradually start playing soccer again in a indoor league which will help some.

Hi Guest,

It's pretty common for people to gain some unwanted pounds when they go off to college. Mostly this is a result of poor eating habits.

You sound like you're on top of it though. Certainly cutting the portion size down will be of help to you, and the fact that you don't drink pop is a big plus.

You'll want to look at other bad habits and stiffle them as well, like junk food. Concentrate on trying to eat as much healthy, whole food as you can, and avoiding all the chips and cookies and crap that come with college.

Walking is really pretty good for weight loss, but soccer is going to be the thing that works for you, since it's the thing you LIKE.

Have you ever tried any weight lifting? I was never very motivated to do any real exercise until I fell in love with lifting weights, and I believe it had a LOT to do with getting me back into good physical condition a few years ago. And I would think that lifting could even benefit your soccer.

Right now, I've been off lifting for a while and I really notice how my motivation for other exercise has flagged since being unable to lift. If you are not currently doing some kind of lifting, you might want to check out the weight room at your school. Even adding just a couple of days a week, an hour on a full body routine, could make a big difference.

If you don't think you can manage THAT, you can do a lot of work using your own bodyweight, like ab work, pushups, pullups, dips.

I always find plenty of motivation by just stripping off my clothes and looking at my naked form in the mirror! Nothing like all that jiggly flab to send me to the mats!

good luck!

dian in spokane

I agree with Diane, cut back on your college foods like pizza, mac and cheese , eat clean healthy food in its place and get into some form of exercise program, whether it be running stairs, regular gym cardio and a resistance program. Dont let school be an excuse not to stay physically fit and active. Join that soccer team as well.

_________________
Desire, Dedication, Discipline

Scott Ismari

Hey sorry that was me I guess I didn't log in correctly when I made that post. Well to tell you the truth I maybe visited the fast food chains half a dozen times this semester. I live with my mom so she fixes me with alot of good food and she always throws in some kind of meat in for dinner. As far as the chips go, I haven't had chips in a long time because I hate how they get stuck in my teeth! I did have a few pizza's but not all that many. I will see how this works out in the next month and I will get a membership to the YMCA or something and maybe their fee will get me motivated even more!

I am a soccer player. Weight training will make you a better soccer player. I started training with weights 1 year ago (not for soccer) and noticed improvement in soccer. Every 50/50 ball in MINE and no one can muscle me of the ball anymore.
Also I used to get injured a lot - small but frequent injuries. Not anymore.

Good to hear! I am actually quite the defender myself, unfortunatelly I found this out al the end my senior year but before that I played right wing or forward. Now about your weight training, how do you do it, or I guess I should say what kind of program are you on. Do you lift often with less weight or do you lift less often with less weight? I guess that would really help me out!

Well to start I did a 3 days a week full body program. I did the same exact workout Mon/Wed/Fri. I only did 1 warm up set with 50% weight and then one work set with whatever weight I can handle for 8-12 reps. Whenever you can do 12 reps with a weight increase the weight next workout. My program was:

Squat
Straigh-Leg Deadlift
Bench Press
DB Bent-over Rows
Bicep exercise
Tricep exercie

That's it! If I could go back in time I would NOT perform the same workout 3 times a week, but instead create 3 different workouts and preform them on the same schedule, but I would still keep all 3 workouts full body. Maybe I would also do 2 sets instead of 1 or maybe not.

Since that initial program I have increased the number of sets that I do for each exercise to 3 and I have tried an upper/lower split, a push/pull split and most recently a push/pull/legs split. All of these on the same schedule. I am going back to full body 3 times a week and plan on sticking with that for a while.

What about this full workout http://www.exrx.net/Workouts/Workout1LTA.html. I was thinking of taking your advice running it three times a week (MWF) and running a different option every workout day from that list. I am also planning on doing some running on the days off. So how does that plan sound? if its good I will start it on Monday.

This is exactly what I did, but without the running (becaues I was skinny and was trying to put on mass). This is a good plan. Good luck.

Come one now, we all know you gained weight from college from all the beer you drank...:-P

But in all seriousness, losing weight in college is all about organization. Girls always talk about weight gain in college and this is what they all yapped about to me (not that I stalk fat chicks or whatever):

A reason why you gain weight in college is because you have food in your dorm. Those bags of chips at midnight and cans of soda in the morning won't do anything by themselves. But when it becomes habit to eat junk food at nearly all hours of the day, the damage adds up and is shown in fat gain.

To cure this, stock up your room with healthy foods! Nuts are a great snacking food, along with fruits (fresh or dried. I personally love dried mangos), or some chips and salsa that you can keep in your fridge. That way, you'll still get all the food you want ('cause we all know college food sucks) and you'll eat healthy too.


Besides the tame stuff of eating healthy in your room, drinking beer adds tons of calories. So if you need to get drunk, try a cranberry and vodka instead. Or, if you're like me, whiskey sours make me go into the happy zone.

woops, forgot to log in. the above post was by me, BTW.

Well, I read your post and bought some nuts today, drank a shot of vodka for fun, and did a 2 mile jog. Yesterday I started doing that full body workout with some light weights so I don't feel much today. Tommorow and Friday I will keep the light weights and next week I will raise the weight.

Well here I am 2 weeks later with my update.
I have lost 3 pounds and gained some muscle. The body is feeling alot tighter! and I am going to keep this full body workout up because it feels good and I have a good mindset on eating and exercising.

well what to say my brother is more keen to Watch Football and then try to imitate the soccer stars all alone with a ball, and he feels this way he is going to become a skillful player one day, god who can explain him and take him out of this false perception that he bears. I am fed up explaining him this time and again.

i wouldnt cut too much food, you need to eat to loose weight, if you eat too little you go into FAT STORAGE mode which doesnt helpt at all, it also casues you to canabalize muscle for energy which also is not good,

find your maintence caloric intake, and then try eating like 500 calories less than that a day for a week or two, if no change to body fat reduce by a bit more and so on, you dont really need to exersize at all to loose fat if you just eat right ALL the time, good luck eating good all the time in college thou time isa huge constraint, just make sure you dont fall into the myth of hardly eating at all to loose weight, cause it doesnt work