Hey if you have the time to do a little bit of reading, I'd recommend grabbing a copy of Enter the Zone by Barry Sears. I know a lot of people roll their eyes at diet plans / books / etc, i know i used to. Read the first chapter or so, I think that's all anyone might need to get hooked. I like it because it doesn't restrict what you can eat per say, just the ratios of what you eat and you can apply it to any meal.

I do a lot of reading with stuff like that to train for different events, if you want more info, drop me a line

@broderboy

PS, can't wait to watch batman this weekend

Josh,
I was in the same boat a couple years ago. I had been laid off, and went from my normal 175 up to 198 (so I understand you completely). I had a wedding coming up (I was the guy that asked for comic book ideas for my wedding on the romance video show) and wanted to loose some of that. The biggest thing I did was changed the way I ate, and how much I was eating at a time. I cut out my nightly TV watching bowl of ice cream, and just tried to be more aware of what I was eating. Cutting out fast food helped a whole lot too. Another thing I did was I would drink a glass of grapefruit juice every night before bed, I had heard that it helps your metabolism, now whether that's true or not I don't know, but I was able to drop down to 160-165 in a couple months. Now a days I stay in my 170-175 pound range.
So I think you can do it! Good luck man!

Brody

I've lost at least 10 pounds this year, and almost all of it has been from portion control (I just recently started seriously exercising – about a month ago). In this culture, it's so easy for people to overeat – portions served at restaurants, fast food or not, are huge. The easy step is, when eating out, splitting you meal with someone (wife, friend, bulldog, etc.). It works out easily for me and my girlfriend because we're both vegetarians, and there are usually just one or two things on the menu at any given restaurant around here that we can eat. I don't know if you drink soda, but that's usually the first thing that can go. And if you drink a tall glass of orange juice in the morning, you might cut it back to 8 oz. There's a reason that juice cups are really small. I think maintaining a balanced diet, albeit scaled back in portion size, is going to be better off for you than trying to cut out a bunch of carbs. Cutting back, maybe, but not cutting out.

There are about 3,500 calories per pound, so, in a month, you have 35,000 EXCESS calories to burn. That means, ON TOP OF a net zero intake/outake of your normal diet and physical activity (which may take some work to get that balanced), you need to burn about 1,200 calories a day, every day, for a month. No small feat. Maybe, rather than trying to cram for a single month, you might cut back your goal to something more manageable, and then repeat the same process for several months.

I don't know how fit or athletic you intend to be in the long run, but setting a goal of a different sort might also be helpful. For me, my goal right now is to be able to run five miles continuously. Right now, I'm up to 1.5 miles at a decent pace, and about 2.5 at a slower pace (I could barely do either of those things when I began). I started working on that rather than weighing myself everyday. Then, after a month, I weighed myself again and had lost about four pounds. Or another goal might be a trip or event – like a 5K, a bike race or a backpacking trip. My goal of running 5 miles coincides with being fit enough to handle a backcountry trip in the Rocky Mountains.

Good luck! I look forward to the updates.

Josh,

I'm 32, and never lost the weight I had gained from college (and added some). At my heaviest I was at 215 lbs. I hated feeling sluggish and fat but as you say there are always excuses and easier alternatives to eating correctly and getting exercise. I tried to force myself a few times to do diet and exercise, but when done simultaneously it ends up that you want to eat more and it makes it extremely hard to control calories. Last summer I started Weight Watchers Online (~ $17 a month) and tried very hard to stick with it, and I was slowly able to see results. After an initial weight loss of about 15 pounds in the first 8 weeks I was losing about a pound a week. Eight months after I started I had lost 42 pounds and have been hovering at about 165 lbs. since. It really boils down to how many calories you are taking in versus how much exercise you do. If you don't mind tracking all of your food, WW really is an eye opener for how much you consume. I tried not to think of it as a diet, but as a tool to tell me what I needed to do to reach my goal. Good luck!

I recommend contracting a stomach flu.

Is that a stunt gut in the photo?

Best of luck with your efforts. I have a sedentary job, encouraging others to get off their butts! The irony is not lost on me.
Last year, as the waist line burgeoned, I cut out all alcohol and takeaway food and started back at the gym.
Now I'm trying portion control, aiming for a little extra protein (like the Atkins diet) but keeping a healthy amount of fruit & veggies (unlike Atkins). It's important to have a good breakfast to set you up right for the day, and plenty of water to keep yourself feeling full and hydrated.

If you want to use the internet for a more positive psychological reason than being your guilty conscience, you could join a site like http://dailyburn.com/
It's free to join (unless you really want to pay for the diet plans etc), can record your workouts and monitor your progress. It'll even inform your Twitter fans when you've done your work out! I find it hugely motivating to look back at a month to see how often I've been and how many calories I've burnt off.

Hope all goes well. Chris

PS - Jogging rather than walking with George would help too!

Wow Josh... That there's a photo of your belly... Thanks for sharing.

Its simpe...glass of water right when you wake up. Stop eating at least 3 hrs before bed. and...jog! works for me. Dont starve yourself. Try to control portions.

Good luck josh

It's best to identify you do have a problem rather and then act on it as you have written then to deny it.
I never had luck with diets as such but stuck to using the gym (I use to be a 34" waist am now a 29").
Fortunately I was commuting during that time of life as well, my job also requires me to be quite physically active compared to sit down jobs. Most of the time I'm standing, whether it's in surgery or consult.
I've found once I had a solid gym routine I could eat like an ass hole and not put on any weight, granted I had a buddy who would drag me to the gym 3 - 5 days of the week for a 45 minute session at lunch.
We never did any cardio because it's the slowest way to effectively loose muscle and would jump into weights each day. Weight training forces the muscles to continue to use energy in recovery of the gym workout and also use energy to build muscle which is the body's response to repeated muscular actions which require effort of isolated muscles.
Anyhow good luck with the gym thing I lost 17.6 pounds and gained 4.4 pounds of muscle in 2.5 months (I assume so because I was still doing the same gym routine and did see any fat stores pop up).

P.S. Why not do a whole iFanboy weight loss program, you're the only guy on the show that looks like he has a healthy proportioned body

I've had a simmilar year. Boy, it can creep up on you from nowhere. The real kicker comes (and you may have this problem too since my other halfs hobby is what you wofe does for a living) when you look at a photo that someone's taken and go "who the hell is th--wait...that's me??"

The comeback starts here.

And i would also like to apologise for the spelling in my previous comment. Oh boy, that was bad.

For the record, that isn't my belly.

Oh thank god! I was wondering how I'd be able to look you in the eye next time I saw you.

If you are getting close and haven't made it you could always try this: http://www.ehow.com/how_12683_lemonade-fast.html
It is referred to as The Lemonade Diet. Everyone I know who has tried it has lost weight (3 people in the last month). I wouldn't use it as a first option, but if you are nearing your deadline and have only lost 7 pounds this will probably push you over 10.

It may not work as well as Conor's stomach flu, but it could be close.

That sounds horrid.

My goal is sort of arbitrary, and just a way to keep me going to the gym, and not overeating.

Wow, good luck I have the same goal, tough I am obese I have been lossing wait since last christmas and I am about 10 pound for my goal, Its not my final goal I still got to loose a lot of weight but I think its better to have shorterm goals...good luck.

An issue close to me. I just got married a month ago to a lovely lady. She's 5'4" 110 and I was 6'6" 280. I didn't want to look like a carnival couple in our pictures, so we hired a personal trainer to draw up a program for me. 3 times a week in the gym doing strength training, cardio (20-30 flights of stairs) and cutting my meal portions substantially.

By replacing Coke with Coke Zero, white rice with brown, and absolutely no high fructose corn syrup, I lost 47.5 pounds in 4.5 months. Now, I'm a svelt 235 and look like I did in college! It's all about doing something you hate for a month, then it's routine. Good luck!

Josh,

I recently went through the similar weight issue, and what I find help me shed 20+ pounds was just pure cardio. The bike is an awesome start but also make sure to get some situps in there and some push-ups. Try to do the push-ups and sit-ups every day. I'm sure you'll see awesome results. Also drink lots of water and cut out anything bad from your diet (I.E soda, chips ). Good luck man :)