Sedentary 23 year old trying to change his ways

[Coffan]

I just recently started hitting the gym and I did a complete overhaul of my diet I went from chips and soda being my main food groups to completely 0 I have been struggling not with the diet but with the gym I am so out of shape I can barely exercise without my heart feeling like its going to explode walking on the treadmill kills me the stair stepper kills me even sit ups are a chore I just want to hear from anyone who has had the same struggles and tell me how they got past the first few weeks of their new endeavor, how long does it take to notice a change in stamina/muscle definition I am 23 6'1 197 lbs any pointers on where I should start are greatly appreciated as well

[g0n4craZyloc0]

first off stop b****ing about the pain. All that pain means your doing it right and you need to learn to embrace it. If your trying to change your body and/or life its not suppose to be a walk in the park. Idk how old you are and how long you've been out of shape but it sounds like your ready to give up already. People here are able to cope with the struggles and pain because they are DEDICATED and TRULY wanting to improve themselves to the point that they dont care what they go through. Do you have that determination?

P.s: don't expect to get results in a week, a month or even a year. For me, i had 18 years of anorexia. One year of constant lifting and weight gaining isn't going to cover those remaining 17.

[Coffan]

first off stop b****ing about the pain. All that pain means your doing it right and you need to learn to embrace it. If your trying to change your body and/or life its not suppose to be a walk in the park. Idk how old you are and how long you've been out of shape but it sounds like your ready to give up already. People here are able to cope with the struggles and pain because they are DEDICATED and TRULY wanting to improve themselves to the point that they dont care what they go through. Do you have that determination?

P.s: don't expect to get results in a week, a month or even a year. For me, i had 18 years of anorexia. One year of constant lifting and weight gaining isn't going to cover those remaining 17.

Very aggressive post not exactly an answer I am posting in the motivation section because I'm lacking the motivation I don't need some bs from someone repeating what I've already said I'm posting to get experience stories from people who have had the same issues of being sedentary their whole adult life then up and making a change

[j1akey]

I started out at over 300 lbs. I know all about feeling like you want to collapse after 5 minutes with your heart exploding out of your chest and your muscles being on fire for seemingly little or not work but for me it wasn't even on a treadmill, it was on an eliptical machine which is even more low impact.

How did I get past it? I told myself to stop being a pussy, sucked it up, and kept going day after day, I wanted to get in shape more than I wanted to sit on my fat ass playing World of Warcraft feeling sorry for myself about out of shape and pathetic I was. Each day I'd add a few minutes. I started at 5 minutes and almost crawl home from the apartment gym just after that. Eventually was able to go for an hour. Then I just got bored...

Then I got my diet squared away
Then I added weights
Then I joined a gym
Then I pretended that I knew what I was doing and spun my wheels
Then I picked up a few books, educated myself, and started seeing gains
Then I joined a 2nd gym and started doing Mixed Martial Arts 2 days a week which is all the cardio I get now.

I've been working on it for about 14 months now. I'm down about 60 lbs with a ways to go. This stuff doesn't happen over night but your initial gains will come fast.

Now I can actually flex my arm and see muscle starting to poke through (my profile pic). Hopefully alot more muscle in the months to come.

Time, dedication, and consistency are keys here. You'll stall out at times but it happens to everyone and overall you'll improve.

[slopecarver]

look for the motivational threads on here, The big one is how people treated you differently.

It will take only a few days to get over that hump, just go out and do things. 2 months ago I could barely run a half mile at 5.5mph, today I can run a mile at 7mph and 2 miles at 6mph and I still weight 270lbs. Don't push too hard and injure yourself but soreness is great and temporary.

[T4344]

I have made a recent post over reward/results. I have been going back to the gym since my 4 year lay off to a month now. First week hard for me to do 10 mins of elliptical straight on level 6 and 3 weeks later I have had success with 45 mins of cardio - i have been taking supplements and test boosters for a month and increased 20 lbs on dumbbells in flat press and 5 - 15 lbs on shoulders / biceps / back . I am not sure if this quick gain is muscle memory or if it is just hard work. Anyways the point is you might not notice a body change right away but will notice performance changes first. Of course everything I have said is for me, might be different for you.

[zilaniz]

no pain no gain

[nkweddle]

The pain will become your friend. Push through it, never stop, dont look back. You WILL get to where you need to go if you are eating a good diet and working your ass off. If it was easy then there wouldnt be so many fatties in the world. If you need help or advice or antying just PM me.

[AlanApe]

The pain will become your friend. Push through it, never stop, dont look back. You WILL get to where you need to go if you are eating a good diet and working your ass off.

^^^^ This, 100%

Working out is not easy to start with, working out is not easy after a month, working out is not easy after a year - in fact working out never gets easy. What does get easy is your willpower and desire to keep doing it! Like nkweddle correctly says, you will learn to ENJOY the pain, to relish it, to understand that the pain isn't actually pain, but a reward for the effort you are putting in. Your tolerence to the burn that you get when on the last rep of the last set of the squat, or on the last push of the last set of the bench press WILL get better and it's something that you will enjoy.

The body is a marvelous thing - it does something superb - it ADAPTS. Your body will adapt to the running, to the rowing, to the crunches, to the heavy squats, to the deadlifts. It will grow, the heart will pump more efficiently, the lungs will take in greater quantities of air. It's all part of the process. It is this adaption that drives people who lift weights - its the need to try and be one step ahead of your ever adapting body, to find new ways of growing, to find new ways of running that extra mile, to lift that extra lb.

Just give it time. It WILL get better and you WILL feel better and you WILL learn to love it all - you just have to stick with it long enough to get past the inevitable "I hate this, I want to quit stage" because the real rewards don't come until after you've broken this barrier.

Good luck, and keep aiming for a bigger and better you!

[marshiechen]

Go hard.

Remember, pain is weakness leaving the body. Embrace it.

Nothing worthwhile is every easy. The only place you can find success without hard work is in a dictionary. Remember this pain-it will be useful to you one day.

Just some quotes. Personally, I always keep my eyes on the end goal. Start off slow-do some walking, maybe jogging. Cut out chips and replace with apples. Things like that. You will get there. There is a huge learning curve in my opinion too. Once you see results or get the golden pump, you will never want to stop.

Keep moving. Don't stop. Ever.

[Trigger543]

I started out at over 300 lbs. I know all about feeling like you want to collapse after 5 minutes with your heart exploding out of your chest and your muscles being on fire for seemingly little or not work but for me it wasn't even on a treadmill, it was on an eliptical machine which is even more low impact.

How did I get past it? I told myself to stop being a pussy, sucked it up, and kept going day after day, I wanted to get in shape more than I wanted to sit on my fat ass playing World of Warcraft feeling sorry for myself about out of shape and pathetic I was. Each day I'd add a few minutes. I started at 5 minutes and almost crawl home from the apartment gym just after that. Eventually was able to go for an hour. Then I just got bored...

Then I got my diet squared away
Then I added weights
Then I joined a gym
Then I pretended that I knew what I was doing and spun my wheels
Then I picked up a few books, educated myself, and started seeing gains
Then I joined a 2nd gym and started doing Mixed Martial Arts 2 days a week which is all the cardio I get now.

I've been working on it for about 14 months now. I'm down about 60 lbs with a ways to go. This stuff doesn't happen over night but your initial gains will come fast.

Now I can actually flex my arm and see muscle starting to poke through (my profile pic). Hopefully alot more muscle in the months to come.

Time, dedication, and consistency are keys here. You'll stall out at times but it happens to everyone and overall you'll improve.

Best post in the thread so far, especially bolded.

OP, the best place to start is WHEREVER you can. If you can only lift 10 lbs, lift 10 lbs. If you can only jog for 20 seconds, jog for 20 seconds. Eventually you'll be lifting 15 lbs and jogging for a minute. Then you'll be lifting 20 lbs and jogging for 5 minutes. Before you know it, you'll be lifting 50 lbs and running a mile. Trust me, if you do the work, it will come. Look at the light at the end of the tunnel, not the water dripping through the cracks.