i started lifting freshman year of high school for football, i was a fat kid, there is no way around it. i played lineman so i had no intention of trying to lose a ton of weight, i just wanted to get strong. and i did pretty well for 9 months of lifting, after freshman year i didn't have a coach worth playing for, he drove our team into the ground and i had no reason to roast in the arizona for two hours a day to lose every game come friday night. i didnt get weight lifting my second year and was too poor to join a gym, plus i had no way to get there even if i could have. i tried again my third year and did pretty well under the circumstances, i worked after school till late and worked nights on the weekends, plus i graduated early so i had a ton of homework after all of that. i rarely got more then 5 houres of sleep, but i was still able to go from a 190lb bench to a 280lb bench and 325lb dead to a 520lb dead lift but was still fat probably around 33-35%, i was 6'1'' and weighed 255. the end of the year i started dating a beautiful little brunett, but i never wanted to take my shirt off around her. at the end of the summer i decided to do something about it, i joined the local ymca and started doing circuit training and cardio. i had lost most of the strength i had from high school so it just sucked starting out, but i didnt want to end up like the rest of my family(oh yeah all but one person in my family is obese, and that one person is still overweight). i worked out everyday, sometimes twice a day and cut out all sugar and most fat from my diet. i went from 255 to 208 in about 2 months all the while doing all the research i could on lifting, training, diet and nutrition. i learned alot but didnt actually stick to one program, or even idea of taining, i would work out to bulk up but woudnt eat enough to support growth. i joined the army about 9 months later, i still remember telling the recruiter he was out of his mind when he said they ran 3-5 miles a few times a week. i started running and joined a golds gymabout two months before leaving, there i met john. john was 52 and put me through the hardest workout i had ever been through he put up 315 8 times naturally. we just started talking one day and it was a chest day for both of us and he asked if i wanted to work out with him. he told me about the different phases(bulking and cutting) and told me i would have to stick to one or the other to get drastic results. i went to basic and dropped down to 198 which really wasnt good. but in ait(job training) i started lifting again. i got onto a combatives team and started lifting with DS. Oliver, he was huge and also natural, he pushed us farther then i thought i could have gone. after i got back i stared going to a local collage for nutrition and excersise science, i had some great teachers there too but i got deployed a month before the semester finished. i got a little lazy for a while but am back on again, I am currently 220 and about 15-17 % body fat. i would like to compete one day just to try but for the most part i really just dont want to end up like the rest of my family.
sorry, that was longer then i thought it was going to be, hope i didnt bore anyone.
ps. both my sisters started working out and my dad has lost 40+lbs since i dropped weight after high school, and they all thank me for showing them that they can, that was the best part for me.