Measurements. (I'm a guy.)

44" gut
40" waist
38" butt
42" chest
14" left bicep
14" righ bicep
21" right thigh
24" left thigh
13" left shin
15" left shin
11" left tricep
11" right tricep

I didn't remember correctly, but I thought the muscle between the shoulder and elbow was the bicep and the one between elbow and wrist was tricep.

Obviously I have to lose some fat in several places... or I just have a very broad back...

between shoulder and elbow front side is bicep backside is tricep, from elbow to wrist is forearm?

Correct.

There is no way to measure the actual Bicep or Tricep muscle individually externally. That portion though is always labeled "bicep".

I'm not exactly measuring the muscle itself, just making a note of the external size (measuring the "meatiest" part of the area for circumpherance). Later on, after figuring out how to do it, I'll check my actual fat percentage. (Or is that impossible? Maybe there's away to test for body mass, but doesn't that include muscle as well? BMI?)

I haven't even begun to work out yet. I have a weight bench in the basement with a bunch of crap all over it and around it scattered everywhere and the room its in has aesbestos floor, so I'll have to see about moving it to the garage. I haven't ridden my crappy bike in a year or so since I started driving again. When I did a little weight lifting in the past, I could lift 60 or 70 or 80 lbs... not sure which. That's not much. My upperbody strength is terrible and my legs fall asleep if I sit on the floor to play video games or sit on the toilet for awhile reading a book. And I might have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. And my pychiatrist, looking over my blood tests, told me I was borderline between having and not having diabetes.

There are many different ways to check body fat % and IMO the best one is water-displacement, measurements can get close enough to give you an idea where you are at.

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en...&um=1&ie=UTF-8

BMI is pretty general (and generic) and can be misleading.

So now, despite all my best efforts, I'm single again. Crap. And I was SO looking to get married to my girlfriend two or three years from now.

Sorry to hear that

If you need any help loosing weight though (sensitive issue) Im more than willing to help.

Im 10 stone 7 and Im pretty confident about how to stay there and I hardly do any exercise(shame on me).

Hi facattac,

Two things you didn't mention... frame type and height.

It's not always easy to lose. Everyone is different, but many know how to adjust for those differences to reshape themselves. I say reshape because muscle and water weigh more than fat. Many people when they first lose weight, lose muscle & water before they lose fat. Some people exercise without losing fat. Many starve themselves thinking they'll lose weight, and they do... muscle.

Think of your body as a car; calories, carbohydrates, proteins, sugars, etc. as fuel; your stomach as the main fuel tank, and your fat as a back up fuel tank. If you don't enough or any fuel in your car, how far can your car travel on little or no fuel? The car (your body) needs fuel to work, exercise, have fun, even to think. But a car needs to be driven... you can't just start it up, then leave it running in the drive way... you need to take it down the highway (aka exercise it).

Getting fit isn't about losing weight, it's about losing fat, building lean muscle mass, increasing lung capacity, and changing your metabolism. The combo special. Meaning meals appropriate for your activity level. Good nutritional intake. Reasonable exercise (aerobic burns fat, builds lean muscle, endurance, lung response, and is good for your heart... like walking and swimming; anaerobic does not burn fat, but builds muscle size, lung capacity, and lots of things that don't help you "lose weight"... like weight lifting, etc.). Don't get me wrong, using weights is good, but not for losing fat.

Okay now this is going to sound weird to many, but the body (actually the brain, but the body for this example)... remember what you put in it and when. Especially when. Remember the car... your body? Well the car knows when you put fuel in it... how often, what time and what type. So if your car knows that you have a tendency to not fuel up often enough, skip meals, or put something bad in it... it will take the calories, carbohydrates, proteins, sugars, etc. (the fuel energy) and store it for later when it does or might need it. The body cannot store raw calories, carbohydrates, proteins, sugars, etc.; so it has to convert that energy into something it can store but still be able to burn when it needs it... fat.

Good food (healthy but what you want), not a lot (cup your hands together side by side... that much) but more often, eat on a strict schedule (consistency here is key). Regular exercise (walk everyday, start light and work up). Plenty of fluids (nothing carbonated, not even diet soda). Take a vitamin (even just a daily 1-A-Day type). Make this your life.

Good luck, I'm cheering for ya... I need to do better too.

Uh... 5'11" is my "real" hieght but because of my bad posture, I normally measure myself as being 5'9". When you say "frame" does that mean I should measure my bone structure? Like my shoulders, back, etc. etc.? Well.... anyway, here's the YouTube video I had my girlfriend shoot of me wearing my sweat pants. YouTube video of I had my girlfriend shoot of me wearing my sweat pants.

I vaguely had an idea of learning.... uh... Judo. Ideally I would learn Capoeria because I fell in love with watching... uh... well, one of those martial arts movies. In the movie, this guy came to an inner-city school to teach kids Brazilian Capoeria to give them discipline. But, anyway, I'm tall, lanky, with very little actual muscle and balance issues. I'm a bipedal elephant. I wanna be like Taz from his ECW days (watch the "Barely Legal" PPV tape) but I fear I'd never have his muscle mass or coordination. I'm too tall, spent too many years sitting on my butt. Hm. Then again, Dan Severen is about my size if not bigger. Anyway, Judo might be up my alley. I wanna learn how to do throws and grapple. Sorry for the tangent, but I wanna be in just enough shape to be good at Judo. As for my girlfriend... *smiles* I was thinking she could learn some Wushu so she'd be like Chun Li from Street Fighter II.

Most of everything in your post is pretty but this statement here is wrong wrong wrong! And you show why it's wrong when you said

Building muscle will burn more fat than maintaining muscle.

Just for a visual, think of the make-up (body composition) of a marathon runner (skinny, slender, in good shape, but could in some cases actually look "sickly") compared to that of some professional sports athletes (football players - 60 minute game, full of stops/timeouts/breaks but also full of short bursts (10-15 seconds) of intense work).

In the end, if you are looking to reshape your body, look to those that you wish your body looked like, and emulate what they do.