How do I lose weight?

[PatrioticAmerican]

I'm 6'2 and 250 lbs former University football player yet when having dinner with a friend last night he said that I'm more fat than muscle. I then went home and realized that he's right as I've got quite a belly and am in denial. Though my neck is 19.5 inches and I've got large biceps I feel the biggest reason for my denial is that losing weight seems daunting and difficult.

Any tips on how to lose weight?

[HighlyVolatile]

I think the easiest and most sustainable way is to start whittling away at your worst eating habits, but not so quickly that you don't get used to it and enjoy it.

For example, if you consume any liquid calories, try to taper off those since they tend to provide little to no satiety. If you like sweets like milky chocolate, you might be able to transition towards the darker variety all the way until you're consuming ultra-dark chocolate (88%+ Cacao) which tends to contain little sugar and is very low in calories. If you love fast food burgers, maybe you can substitute the buns for a lettuce-wrapped burger or the fries for a side salad with low-calorie dressing. If you love fried chicken, you might substitute for air-fried which contains much less oil and calories.

Just make little tweaks you can stick to and your average caloric intake will start decreasing. That's a gentler and more sustainable way than cutting out all your favorite foods overnight.

Also if you don't already do some home cooking, I strongly recommend giving it a try since you can really experiment with recipes and ingredients to find something that makes you maximally happy while being very nutritious and not too calorie-dense.

On the training front, I really think it's much easier to get lean and stay lean when you have sufficient leg strength to feel light and explosive and springy on your feet. If that 250lbs feels very heavy on your feet, you might want to spend a larger portion of your day sitting or lying down while getting easily winded just doing things like climbing up several flights of stairs. So I recommend building up that leg strength if you don't have it as much lately (maybe something you can regain quickly if so from your football days through muscle memory).

[PatrioticAmerican]

Thanks my build was great for football but now that my University days are over I feel quite big and am uncomfortable in my body. I have a good amount of leg strength but 250 lbs is quite a bit of weight to drag around I get winded after a 1 hour walk as I embarrassingly found out.

[HighlyVolatile]

One thought I have is that if you try something a bit more taxing like climbing up and down the stairs (including some lunging motions) repeatedly, that should strengthen up your quads and hams and glutes and calves quite rapidly. Even 15 minutes of that might build up more strength than an hour of walking, and I think that might suit you better although walking is excellent too.

Then you can be burning calories, building up leg strength, and getting gradually lighter at the same time with appropriate compromises to your nutrition.

[HighlyVolatile]

Two personal hacks I swear by which aren't necessarily optimal but help me a lot are sodium and spicy. For example, if I make some Texan chili at home, I got a bottomless stomach for that if I don't make it very savory or spicy. I can eat like six large bowls and still want more.

So a primary way I can cut down on the amount I eat is to add more salt or make it flaming hot. I find either of those or some mixture of both helps me to cut down on how much I eat before I'm happy.

High sodium intake tends to be associated with health problems and obesity, but I think that's mainly from people consuming lots of processed and preserved food. Those can contain far more sodium than we might think and add to our home cooking. Plus I'd end up getting the same amount of sodium anyway if I ate like 6 bowls of chili instead of just one or two on top of 3-6 times the calories.

So you might give these a try.

[MCheetah]

Yeah. Chop off one of your limbs. You're guaranteed to lose weight that way.

[WhatTheHeckkkk]

To lose weight and be healthy, you need to both exercise and eat healthy. Without one or the other, progress will be very, very slow and not as efficient. Try doing cardio and a low carb diet. Cardio is the best option out there for losing weight and keeping in shape. Running, swimming, or cycling specifically.


Talk to a doctor to see if they can set you up with a nutritionist or dietitian to help create a specialized plan for you. These diets you search up online might not be the best, or may be unhealthy for you. Talking to a professional who knows your medical history and can keep track of it will be the best choice.

[PatrioticAmerican]

I'm a former football player and as such mostly did weight lifting I played defense. Yeah I can lift but my endurance is terrible.

[Iron_Man]

Don’t eat that much food every day cut out the crap bad foods and do a lot of cardio and do a lot of walking you’re not playing football anymore you don’t need to be 250 pounds

[In_Trance]

Get a trainer