I bet if you google “fat guy dies of heart attack” you’ll get more hits.
Probably starting to sound like a broken record, but personally, I’ve been doing [http://crossfit.com]CrossFit. It has worked a lot better than the typical weightlifting, aerobics thing I first did to lose weight. I’m in better shape than I’ve been since I was a high school athlete, and I’m a lot stronger than I’ve ever been. The workouts are constantly varied, so you never get bored. I can only do about 3 or 4 days a week, but I’m still getting great results. If I could get in a full 3-on 1-off schedule I’d probably be in awesome shape instead of just better shape than anyone I know right now.
There are a lot of body weight exercises, if you don’t have equipment. For example, yesterday I did “Cindy;” which is as many rounds of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 un-weighted squats as you can do in 20 minutes. I did 14 rounds, which is decent, and 2 rounds more than I managed the last time this one came out of the hopper. That’s 72 pull ups (started round 15 before time ran out), 140 push ups, and 210 squats. I started out only being able to do about 3 or 4 pull ups in a row, and maybe 20 push ups.
You can self-scale, use Brand X guidelines, or find an affiliate — probably this one if your location is accurate. I’ve been following the information on the main site and learning the Olympic lifts on my own, which is not ideal. I’d kill for a decent lifting coach. Even so, it is possible to learn on your own using the videos and other resources they’ve got on the main site.
Probably. At least I got the age right. Batting .500
You really should. If you can find one close enough you can jog/bike there. Get your warmup in on the way to the gym. Don’t worry about feeling out of place. If anyone thinks anything about you it will be, “Good on him for trying to improve himself.” That’s all anyone is truly there for. Most people don’t give a damn about you either way or they are busy being self-conscious themselves. Anyone that does anything dickish is probably well-known for being an asshole at that gym anyways.
I hear ya. I just spent some time trying to work out from home and I realize now that my time could have been better spent. The problem is it is extremely hard to scale your progress with bodyweight exercising. Trying to let you know about my personal experieince. A home gym would be cool if you can and don’t mind the lack of socialization. Really look into Craigslist, and don’t do the Bowflex/machine gyms.
I should have noted earlier that I haven’t gone through all of those websites, but at the very least I have poked around. Some of them I do use. I found a couple more for you to browse (aimed at women but you can take stuff away from it) around too.
Be cautious of the personal trainer you do use if you decide on one. There’s another thread in this forum where I talk a little bit about personal trainers, but most of them are basically paid personal cheerleaders. If you can find a good solid one who is willing to work with you for the first couple of sessions to show you proper weightlifting form then that is great, but if they start sounding gimmicky or "used car-salesmen"ish then let them know you’ll get back to them and go verify what they have been telling you (PM me if you want and I’ll see if I can help). This is a good resource.
Crossfit looks cool and I’d like to try it sometime in the future, but I don’t believe that fits your needs at all right now.
Caveat emptor. Good luck. Same disclaimer as always.