[Vickie]

First I hope you meant 20-25 pounds overweight and not percentage which would put you in a very high health risk category. I hope you can shed some light on this for me. But for my part Bagger, your most obvious starting point is to get into regular exercise. Your existing level of cardiovascular - pulmonary health (heart, lungs, and vascular system) would establish how much and how rapidly you move your work up. For bare bones beginners, I always recommend starting with a two day a week full body strength training program that is followed by about 15-20 minutes of cardio. The first two weeks would include two more days of cardio/aerobics/walking for 20 and building to 40 minutes. At this point you would add two more days at the 20 minute mark and move up to 45 minutes on those days as well. It is a general rule of thumb that 3 days at low level cardio is heart smart and at higher levels is low level training. To change body composition; that is to say to reduce fat and increase muscle function you need 5-6 days a week. Remember the goal is to reach your goal in a short enough period that you would be able to maintain your weight and positive body composition with good diet and go back to 3 days a week cardio and incorporate more strength in the mix. Once you have your frequency of cardio set you can begin to worry about how fast your are going (pace) and increasing your time and mixing up the levels of intensity you use. Frequency is king in the beginning, duration is second and pace is third for maximal conditioning and long range results.

By having a strength workout, which you will remember burns calories like crazy, you will improve the capacity of your muscles to use oxygen, thereby improving your results from your cardio. As you become stronger you will feel your capacity to keep your aerobic program up become easier which is the catalyst to take your work to higher levels of intensity.

Since I do all in home training with mostly golfers that fit your profile I know the biggest challenge we have is creating a program that doesn't overwhelm mentally, scheduling and energy. I would approach this differently if you were already exercising regularly but only in terms of how quickly you exercise.

Don't forgo your strength training at the expense of the fat burn aerobic work. Muscle stimulation requires a lot of calories, in fact when you are working at a high strength level you can actually burn more calories than in a fat burn cardio level workout. The only difference is in the percentage of fat and carbs you burn. I have examples if you are interested but it's pretty confusing. The important point is that muscles are your metabolically active tissue and use up lots of calories and the better muscular health you have the better cardio system you have, the better posture you have and the more energy you will enjoy in your life.

So I certainly didn't answer your question. It is really all so relative to your present health, your diligence, and the energy you can bring to a program that can only be specified for each individual. There is no reason in one year that you could not methodically and safely loose 20 lbs (and it can happen sooner if you can bring yourself to the work).

Remember CALORIES IN - CALORIES OUT. If you really want to track a program then you need to find a personal trainer and let them help you put together the numbers. Make sure you get a trainer that passes your interview not only so you trust them but so that you are sure they understand your objectives. I often work with someone for six weeks to put together their program and then we touch base several more times, to tweek their program, throughout the year.

I'm so glad you started this thread. I can assure you that there are many opinions regarding the best way to approach your program. It is all subjective and should be based on mental and personality strengths and weakness in addition to more fitness based criteria. Take it all in and enjoy experimenting. Get to know your body thru your mind. And finally trust that the program you define is right for you. Less is not necessarily more and more is not necessarily better. It must be something that feels right and works in your life and finally provides some measurable, if somewhat slower than magic, results.

Let's keep it going. Vik