I'd Like Some Opinions.

**TurtMeistr** · 04-03-2021, 02:45 AM

Hey everybody, this is my first post here, and I would just like to make a post that clearly states my goals, my current standing, and what I am looking to do in the gym.

So I'll start with some information about me, I am 19 years old and currently stand at about 6'5, 295-300 pounds. I started my weight loss journey on November 1st of 2020. Meaning that I'm about 5 months into the weight loss progress. In those 5 months, I went from weighing my highest weight of about 380 pounds to weighing the lightest I have in a few years (295-300). So, now I have hit a bit of a plateau, I've lost about 80-85 pounds and I'm not currently really dropping weight. My current diet consists mainly of chicken and rice. I have recently made some minor tweaks, by substituting the rice, with whole wheat egg noodles. I also sometimes eat the noodles with 93, 7% beef. The main thing that I have done to lose weight this far, is just to count my calories. Which I am still doing but the weight loss has really slowed down, and to me appears to have stopped. The other things that I eat include greek yogurt and some Atkins protein bars. I mainly just make sure that I am under the calories suggested to me by the (Lose It) fitness app. I would also like to state that I am not currently taking any supplements besides a fat burner I found on amazon. The fat burner is the Jacked Factory Burn XT Thermogenic Fat Burner. If this is a product that isn't going to help me or is possibly even bad for me, let me know cause I will stop taking it. Otherwise, the only other drugs I take are, some prescribed ******** for my ADHD, and I am also taking Advil/ Ibuprofen on a daily basis because of tremendous foot pain at work and in the gym. I know that this is bad for me, which is one of the main reasons I am attempting to lose weight, as the foot pain is so bad at work that I don't think I would be capable of working without it. I don't remember having foot pain growing up and I was a fairly healthy child so I think that the reason that I have foot pain now is because of the extra weight on my body. I work 12 hour shifts on 2-3 day stretches. I also don't do a ton of cardio in or out of the gym, but my job is in a manufacturing plant, so I'm standing 90% of the day. I also generally walk quite a bit each day, problably in the 10,000 step range and beyond.

Next, I'll discuss my lifts, I currently do a mix of powerlifting/ bodybuilding workouts. My current bench for a 1 rep max is 240, my current squat is 275, and my current deadlift is 315. Other than that, I primarily just do some random lifts that target the major muscle groups. I primarily lift in sets of 5 or 10, depending on how tired my muscles feel on the day. I do think that I could greatly benefit from a schedule of some sort to map out the exact workouts I should be doing. So if anyone is interested in helping me out that way, I would greatly appreciate it.

Finally, my fitness goals, my main goal is definitely to get my body weight down to a healthy number. When I think of a long-term goal, I definitely think somewhere in the 210-220 range. Although, I do have a dream of having visible abs somewhere near the end of my diet. With me being in the 295-300 range currently, I would love to be able to lose enough weight to be near my 220 pound goal by the end of 2021 but I'm not too sure if that is a healthy goal to be setting for myself. In the gym, my goals are to hit 315 on bench, 365 on squat, and 405 on deadlift by the end of the year. I have been lifting off and on for the last 10 years or so, but I just recently got back into the gym so, I would still classify myself in the noobie gains range. So, I'm obviously not too sure if these numbers are possible to hit in a little over a year of constant lifting.

All in all, I am really just looking for some advice on how to hit my goals, and what I could be doing that I'm currently not. Or if there is something that I'm currently doing, that I shouldn't be. If you have any tips for me, anything is appreciated. Thanks!