I come with open arms in defeat. I'm tired of being this way, and I know if i keep going, ill be a fat person living in bed with a crane to use the bathroom. I need help, period. 5 years ago I ran track, played football, ate right, ect. 5 years later, Im 330 lbs, my weight has made my feet lose its arches, and its killing my back. Late last night i saw a P90x commercial, and I was thinking, "is this program for me?" thinking all the pullups and pushups, would be way to hard for my weight. Please dont bash me for my stupidity for doing this to myself, im posting for support and help. 6'0", 330 lbs. help. Will this program help me lose this weight? Because the entire commerical was about people that were 20-30 lbs overweight, or people just wanting to get ripped. In my case, Is this the ultimate weight loss program?

Daniel

At 330, unless you're REALLY strong, P90X is probably not the place to start.

At my heaviest, I was 239. I wanted to do P90X, but after researching, I realized I couldn't do it. So I started with Power 90. It's kind of a starter version of P90X. The workouts are much shorter, and not nearly as difficult.

But they do get boring. With P90X, you have something different every day. Power 90 is the same cardio workout 3 days a week, and the same weight lifting workout the other 3 days.

Try Power 90 for a while, build up some strength and endurance, and then move on up to P90X.

The hardest part is the first step. You really have to commit, and realize that it's going to be hard. It's so easy to sit in front of the TV and eat pizza and drink beer. It's a lot harder to spend that time working out, and even harder to eat right.

Your body is made in the kitchen, and refined in the weight room. Remember that, and the whole thing gets a lot easier.

I agree. I've only really just started on P90x, but I have a pretty good handle on fitness in and of itself, so I can offer some advice. You were fit in the past, so you know what you need to do to get there again. The first thing you need to do is examine what made you get to your present weight and address those issues first. Was it a breakup, a job loss, a death? Whatever it was that caused you to gain the weight will need to be resolved before you proceed with ANY program. Success at weight loss/fitness is one part diet, one part exercise and one part mental/mindset.
That said, P90x may not be the right program for you to start at this point in time. It is a very rigid, structured, intense program...it has to be or people wouldn't be getting the results they have been. You have to commit yourself to eating better and working out according to Tony's schedule. Vary from it and your results will falter.
For you, I would recommend starting with light physical activity, depending on how active you have been the past 5 years. If you can walk comfortably, start there. If you can jog a little, start there. The key is to get up and move, no matter what it is. If you want to join a gym, do it. If you are more comfortable working out at home, buy some videos, there are thousands to choose from. The Biggest Loser workouts are great from what I hear. I'm a fan of TaeBo and the Jillian Michael's videos, but the choice is yours. Get outside and walk, run, skip, ride a bike, just do something to get that heart rate up.
Don't forget to eat! People often think that if they drastically reduce their calories, they'll lose weight. They couldn't be more wrong. What happens if you don't eat enough is that your body gets "scared" so to speak, not knowing when you are going to feed it again, and goes into starvation mode, hanging onto every calorie you eat because it doesn't know when you are going to give it more. This successfully derails a healthy weight loss. If you have a recommended daily calorie intake of say 2500 cals and you eat those 2500 cals in one sitting, you will still lose weight, but you would rather those 2500 cals be spread out over the course of the day so you don't get hungry. That is where your food choices come into play.
Try out a free online diary like Fitday.com. There, you can enter your weight, goal, all the food you eat (and create custom foods), enter all your activities, and it breaks down your calories in vs. calories out, and it even breaks down your food into percentages of protein, carbs and fats. It's a great tool to use when you are just starting out and beginning to learn about this new lifestyle.
Now that you have completed Runningjunkie's diet/fitness 101 (lol), while P90x may not be the right thing for you at this point in time, I hope you stick around for support. I'll be glad to help you any way I can.

I am fairly certain if I'd attempted P90x when I was 265 and hadn't exercised real exercise in years, I doubt I would be able to handle it. As it is, I'm 220 right now, been exercising moderate to heavy for a year and I can manage P90x but it is brutal... BUT I can do it. A year ago, no way, I would have quit.

I actually started out doing Body for Life, 3 days weights, 3 days HIIT cardio. I did that for all of 2008 and it was still hard, but do-able. I also have done yoga since October. (not pretty but I do it LOL)

I understand there's Power 90, a more moderate program that Tony has done, I think that's the name of it. Perhaps look into that to get started then pick up P90x later?

I doubt anyone would give you more hassle than you've given yourself for allowing your weight to get out of control. Nothing anyone had ever said to me was as harsh as I was on myself with I was pushing 300lbs...

I'm not trying to discourage at all, you may be able to jump into P90x and be fine, but it's time to do something, and P90x might discourage you before you even gave yourself a chance. It's not easy LOL but it's awesome!