Where do you recommend old fat folks start?

[kr1980]

I'm male and 43 years old. I'm 6'6" and weigh 550 lbs. I'm weak and out of shape. I played sports through jr high but never did any strength training.

Last fall I started going for daily walks around my neighborhood. As I ratcheted up the distance each week eventually my lower back and shoulders started hurting by the end of each walk. Googleing for the best way to strengthen my lower back and shoulder muscles is how I discovered the blue book and this website.

I just wanted to strengthen my lower back and shoulder muscles enough so they wouldn't hurt on long walks but after learning more about starting strength I wonder if I should begin the full program. Do you recommend strength training for obese people whose primary goal is burning fat? If so, do you advise any changes to your normal diet recommendations for such people? Or follow the program as is?

My intuition is that I should stick with reduced caloric intake and daily cardio for the next 18-24 months until my BMI is much lower and then start strength training. But my intuition is often wrong.

Thank you for your time.

[Mark Rippetoe]

"Cardio" does not burn bodyfat. No one who is not already muscular has gotten lean by running, walking, or riding a bike. Muscle mass burns fat for fuel. The more muscle you have, the more calories and fat you burn. So you have to train for strength and go on a calorie-restricted diet. Paleo or carnivore or Atkins works well. If you will not do this, and you probably won't or you already would have, just go ahead and get the surgery.

[Chiaki Nitya]

Read the book, follow the program. Or better yet find a local SS gym and get an SS coach. Don't worry about eating in a caloric surplus, to paraphrase Mark "You're surrounded by calories so you probably don't need to introduce more"

[Barry Charles]

Not old.

[pd_oldguy]

Lots of good information on this topic here:

Training the Emergency Weight Loss Trainee: Training the Emergency Weight Loss Trainee | Andy Baker

Starting Strength for the Obese Trainee: Starting Strength for the Obese Trainee | Nick Klemetson

Andy Baker - Coaching the obese part1: Coaching the Obese (Part 1) - Andy Baker
Andy Baker - Coaching the obese part2: Coaching the Obese, Part 2 - Andy Baker

[Frank_B]

I cannot fathom someone getting this large without a large quantity of soda in their diet. Stopping Soda should be done along with Starting Strength.

[Jenni]

Do not want to step on toes here but having done this, Rip's right.
It's not calories, it's carbs. Read up on insulin resistance and realize that nobody gets to 550 without being metabolically FUBAR.
I was also diagnosed with CIDP at the time and sitting my fat, injured ass on a bench and lifting was about all I could do. I couldn't squat to depth to start with, even. But you make adjustments. You box squat for a while. You maybe have to roll off the bench press bench because getting up is rather like a turtle on it's back trying to right itself. But if you do cardio you are going to be hungry all the time and it's going to suck. Lean folks find it hard to lift on a carbless diet. You won't. Not for a while anyway. You have all the energy you need right there on you. Think of it as the improved diet will get the fat off while the strength training preserves the muscle so you can still get off the toilet by yourself at 80.

Docs give people like us shitty advice. Some of it accidentally works for a little while (much like the novice effect in training) and then when it stops working they want to act like we aren't doing it right. I actually had one tell me if I didn't eat fat I wouldn't be fat. I shit you not. I proceeded to eat a diet that was about 8% fat and ended up on about 13 different meds for the CIDP. Then I found Coach's videos. I'm optimistic for you. You're here, asking. You got the book. You have the tools, you can do this. You've built a lot of bad habits over the years but change is more mentally daunting than physical. And lifting is damn sure less time consuming than cardio. Eat the steak, run the nlp.

[bobman]

You lose weight be eating properly I would suggest you try fasting both intermittent and eventually true fasts

An excellent source is Dr Jason Fung he’s on YouTube and has several books

Get your diet under strict control have a goal just like weight training

Ease into it you didn’t get fat overnight and you won’t lose it overnight

Being consistent is the trick

Dr Fungs ideas really helped me I found it way easier than I thought it would be. I saw a lot of consistent progress so I stuck with it.

[Jdcuth]

All the above excellent advice. Getting down from morbid obesity takes balls of steel and I genuinely commend anyone who’s done it.

[kr1980]

Thank you for the correction!