Weight Loss Topic

[IdEngager]

I'm a smallish person who used to have have a body fat % around 20% in HS and college (I was around 5-8 160s at my heaviest). Down to 140s and 13% body fat now, which isn't perfect or anything, but what can I say, I really like beer and tacos still. I pretty much agree with you, like they say at the gym, abs are made in the kitchen. A lot of how you look and how your body reacts to the gym and diet is genetics (you have your freaks like Allen Iverson who can pretty much eat and drink anything they want and will be skinny ripped and successful athletes, then you have your folks who pretty much have to be salad eaters just to maintain a decent weight), but good habits are an all the time thing. Personally I find that simply not having bad foods around is a huge step in the right direction. I never keep soda or deserts at home, so there's no real temptation to eat it. But if someone offers me cookies or ice cream, I'd be damned not to indulge once in a while (I try to keep this to once a week really).

I've found that joining a sport is also a huge help as far as working out to be healthy. I know not everyone's the sporting type, but I never quite understood the going to the gym for vanity thing. It's such a movable goal, your body and metabolism changes as you get older, it's hard to keep it up if your only goal is to stay pretty and ripped. I know personally my fitness levels jumped up when I joined a league frisbee team and then up again on a club one that goes to tournaments once in a while, as opposed to just lifting and running a few times a week, and I look and feel better for it. Maybe it's just my competitive side but I get a whole other level of motivation when I'm trying not to suck and trying to play well and win (also, not to get hurt) at a sport than just look good. Seeing older folks like my dad (55 and still playing in basketball leagues) and other older folks I know who still like to compete (watching my 40 year old coworker drop over 100 pounds so he could race in 5 and 10Ks was pretty inspiring) still get at it is good enough case for me.