Looking for some advice (Running & losing weight)

[Zafire]

A little bit about myself, and I'll try not to dabble on too much.

I'm a 26 year old male. I'm 5'10". I have little muscle mass in my arms, but my legs are built strong. I used to do a lot of biking, walking, and skateboarding. Back in October I weighed 204 lbs. I was a good weight my whole life up until I turned about 20, always being roughly 165~. I was always healthy and felt comfortable with my body.

I had a life changing event in the middle of September that made me want to get back into shape. I started out slowly, taking LONG walks once a week (5 miles). In November I started jogging once a week the same 5 miles (resting for 1-2 hours at the halfway mark). I noticed SIGNIFICANT improvements every week. I purchased a watch to keep track of my progress, and was always very happy to see how much the times dropped.

I push myself much harder than I should when I work out, because I like to feel successful. I am a bit scared to work out more than once a week. My main concern is that I will get burned out on it. My other is hurting myself. I keep reading horror stories about how awful running and jogging is to your body. The main reason I can assure I do it every week is I run in between my laundry loads (because I can't do laundry at home). Ever since December I started running in an indoor track once a week, jogging as hard as I can for two miles.

I have managed to push the time down to 19~ minutes for two miles. That's with pushing myself very hard, as I generally am slightly dizzy and gasping for breath when I stop. I am at a wall now, though. I see very little progress. I don't really feel proud about my 19 minutes either. From others who I speak to at work about this; they claim in their prime in highschool they were at 6 minute miles. One guy (Who actually came in 4th place out of 200 people locally this year, and he's 48) claims in his prime, his best was a 4 minute 48 second mile. He claims not to be a fast sprinter, because in highschool there were people always beating him by 10~ seconds. This speed seems out of the realm of possibilities to me and it's very discouraging. I can sprint fast enough (38 seconds for 1/8 of a mile), I just run out of breath too quick.

In spring/summer I fully intend to jog more (At least three times a week). TLDR; I guess what I'm asking is what can I do to see improvements, am I doing anything I shouldn't be doing (Is over-exerting really that bad when it doesn't leave you sore the next day?), and what can I do to make sure I don't hurt myself? Any kind of shoes or other products recommended?

PART II - Weight loss X.x

I went from 204 down to 175 over the course of four months by going on a 1600 calorie diet and letting myself eat one bad meal a week (Usually on Sunday). With the jogging helping me burn calories too, I started going down pretty fast. Then Christmas vacation came, there was a lot of bad food every day for several days. Then there was new years eve, and several free dinners at work...Well, I didn't exactly eat very good those two weeks. I had a VERY hard time getting back on my diet in January. I finally started getting somewhat back on track with it in this last week, but I am now back up to 182lbs. While it could be much worse, I would likely be back where I should be by now if I just behaved.

My main problem is I never feel full. I'm used to eating whole pizzas by myself. Feeling full became an instinctual feeling, and I would always eat until I hit that. Unless I gorge down spinach or pickles, I can't really achieve that feeling. I don't really feel hungry, per se, I just feel like I could eat the whole meal two more times over. I came to accept that it was something I was going to have to get used to. That, however, makes it VERY HARD to diet. Any tips besides "suck it up"? :/ Maybe I should add more calories to my diet? I still want my bad Sunday meal, which is why I chose 1600. It's still generous enough to allow pretty much anything I want in it (like a 150 calorie bag of chips). I never realized how deadly a sin gluttony was until I started to diet.

[Deleted]

How about doing 30 minutes of walking / jogging / swimming a few times a week? It's possible that your body is used to your usual routine by now and has hit a plateau. Changing it up a little will keep your body guessing and burning the calories. It could also be helpful to go and exercise with a friend or PT to keep it interesting and fun. A PT could also plan you a solid exercise program that is safe for you (-> eliminating the fear of burning out or hurting yourself). As long as you've got good shoes that give your feet proper support, you're all good (if not sure about what to get, just go to a sports shop and ask for advice).

Regarding not feeling full, drink more water! I drink at least 3 litres a day and it keeps me feeling fuller and stops me from snacking between meals. Also might be worth following the three way split with meals - 1/2 of your plate should be veg, 1/4 carbs of your choice (pasta, rice, potato etc) and the last 1/4 protein. Look into replacing white flour and rice with the wholewheat versions, it'll keep you fuller for a lot longer than the nutritionally blank white fluff.

[Spectral]

I'll focus on the running because I really have nothing other than "suck it up" and "eating filling foods" with weight loss; appetite just isn't an issue for me.

The first thing you need to do is not worry about what other people are doing with regard to speed. Someone running a 4:48 mile but being a mediocre sprinter is entirely possible, he was probably a decent cross-country runner that was comparing himself to strong track guys, not someone just starting to run. That sort of aerobic and muscular fitness takes years of running significant mileage on an almost daily basis, it's a very different level of running to someone getting out and starting to do it for fun.

The biggest single piece of advice I can give you as far as improving your own running fitness is to slow down. Going as hard as you can every time is a recipe for injury and it's not optimal for improving fitness. You want to focus on improving aerobic fitness and increasing your ability to run more mileage in a week; both of those entail slowing down to wear you can talk while you're running. This will feel weird and awkward at first. In fact, it'll feel embarrassingly slow. The reality is that your typical easy run pace should be significantly slower than your sprint pace. Eventually, you'll want to start adding speed work and such as you grow into your running fitness, but for now, focus on running easy, not on running fast. Before you know it, what feels easy will get faster and faster.

Plan to enter a race in spring if dropping the ~$25 isn't a problem. The atmosphere is great at a lot of these and you'll get a better idea of what your actual best speed is. If you do a couple months of easy aerobic fitness work and enter a 5K, based on your current 2 mile time, I'd guess you're going to run an ~28 minute time. The exact time doesn't matter, getting a time is what we're looking for here. What's great about that is it'll give a better way to build workouts around specific training paces, using a site like McMillan Running. It'll also give you a specific next target to shoot for; you might find that running longer races is what sounds fun, you might find that running faster is what sounds fun. If this isn't feasible for you, plan on a time trial where you do this on a solo all out effort.

On avoiding injury, focus on running with good form. The most common new runner mistake is overstriding, where you land with your foot in front of your weight. Don't do this! Run in front of a mirrored surface somewhere if possible to see what your stride looks like. Don't hunch, keep good posture, land your food under your weight. Midfoot strike if it's comfortable.

Recommending specific shoes is kind of impossible because no one knows what your stride is like. I recommend a good running store where they'll be able to work with you on a treadmill. They'll also have a little surface that shows where you rest your weight and how high your arches are. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the Saucony brand, but there's tons of great brands. I've been running in their Guides on longer runs and Kinvaras for speed work and both are quite good. My girlfriend runs in their minimalist A5s and she's very happy with them.

Good luck and feel free to ask tons of questions. There's lots of different perspectives and a lot of different, good advice that comes around. Don't ever feel bad about speed - everyone's different and you'll get better over time. The important thing is to have fun.

[felcommander]

I've lost a lot and improved cardio wise and strength wise over the last year. The biggest piece of advice I can give you is when something stops showing significant results, change it.

Not losing weight, change your diet; not getting stronger, change your workout; not getting better cardio, change your splits.

More specifically things you can alternate.
Diet-Balanced diet with calorie restrictions, Low fat diet, Low carb diet, High protein diet
Strength-Heavy sets, Light sets, Explosive sets, Compound sets, and incorporate new exercises
Cardio-Jogging, HIIT, Swimming, Row machine (sprint or endurance), stair master, bike. One thing with cardio to keep in mind is its much more motivating to get out and do when your doing it outside and not just sitting on a machine or indoor pool.

[Spectral]

One thing with cardio to keep in mind is its much more motivating to get out and do when your doing it outside and not just sitting on a machine or indoor pool.

Completely legit. I can sort of get lost in thought for 10 miles of running outside without really noticing the time go by. On a treadmill, I have to gut it out to even get 5 or 6 measly miles in. Changing paces and inclines a lot helps with that.

[Dayjungenie]

Your not feeling full because of one of two things, or both.

#1 You're dehydrated, hunger is also a signal of dehydration.
#2 The food you eat has no nutritional value. So it takes more energy to digest your food than you gain from your food. Try to eat organic foods, and lay off the processed foods.