Thread: New member here...getting back into shape!!

Hello all, I am obviously a new member here and would greatly appreciate any help and/or comments about and/or pertaining to burning fat, gaining muscle, and improving health in general. I am out of shape extremely, I am so out of shape that at this point I look in the mirror in disgust. I am 21 years old and in the worse shape I have ever been in my entire life. I have always been overweight, even back in elementary school...I got up to 285lbs during the summer before my 8th grade year and thats when I realized it was time to do something about being fat. I joined the football team, I was a preety good athlete in general but when it came to football I was extremely good. By the time I got into 9th grade (high school) I had already gotten down to 235lb, and this is all without lifting weights...all I did was run, run and then run some more while ocassionally taking a break from running to push my fat coach around the field on the sled. I started to even notice abdominal muscle by the time I got into 10th grade and I then started to actually lift weights. Benching often and forgetting about other exercises left me with the best bench in high school but in almost every other lift category I was slacking. I got into a very bad car accident during my 11th grade year which haulted my training for a few months and then in my senior year I started to get out of shape, skipping practice, eating fast food where I worked at all the time, snacking on junk food (nutty bars are the best) and basically letting myself and all that hard work go down the drain. It was near the end of my senior year I realized that when in college I would want to be in shape for the girls and had to start back up again. Well I started back up when I reached 260lbs and dropped down to 230lbs within a few months. I then started drinking more beer then everyone, I would walk into a room at a party at the frat houses around campus and out drink the biggest and baddest brother there, chugging, beer pong, keg stands...it didnt matter as long as someone else was ready to deal with the fact that I could out drink them on my worse day. Smoking pot and having muchies did not help the fact either and now at age 21 I am at a gross 300lbs...yeah thats right, 300lbs...which would be nice if I was around 7'1" but I am only 6'3" and when I say 300 I mean a sloppy 300. I have quit smoking pot and have not smoked any for about a month now, which is great considering I use to smoke about a 1/8th of kb a day. I have not stopped drinking as of yet but I do limit it to only on the weekends. I joined the gym about a month ago and have worked out everyday since I joined except for a few days when I would go swim or hit the steam room. I alternate upperbody one day and then lower body the next which seems to be too much since by the time I go in every other day to do legs I can barely walk and doing them is a struggle because of soreness and tightness, I am going to change my workout routine and would really appreciate if some of you all could help inform me of what would be best for someone of my size. I do cardio at least once a week and always do a little cardio for warmup and cooldown. I have lost 10lbs already and it has only been a month which is great for me, although I would like to lose faster I realize fast weight loss means starving my muscles and that would make me lifting pointless. I am around 35% body fat and would like to get down to at least 20% and weigh in at 250lbs at most by December at the latest. If anyone could help me with a workout routine or a little bit of advice please feel free by all means.

floored welcome to IM!

and ditto to what he said.