INTRO Thanks for having me

[Reta4Me]

Hey everyone. Thought I'd drop a quick intro and talk about what I've been through up to this point. I'm 28, with 29 right around the corner, and the last year has been a total transformation for me.

When I began, I was carrying extra weight, constantly drained, didn't like what I saw in the mirror, and truthfully I had lost touch with who I was. Since that point I've been putting in relentless effort to build the strongest version of myself, both in body and in mind.

Currently I'm on 4mg of retatrutide and I'm in the gym six days a week without missing. My split goes chest, back, quads, hamstrings, shoulders, and arms. Every session I go all out, because I understand that no one else will put in the work on my behalf.

Away from the gym I work in corrections on 12 hour shifts, so juggling the job, fatigue, pressure, prepping meals, cardio, and lifting is definitely a challenge. Some days I have zero desire to go, but I go anyway, because staying consistent is what makes the difference.

Shedding the weight and getting my health under control has truly reshaped my life. I've built up confidence, discipline, energy, and an entirely new way of thinking. The most important lesson I've picked up is that motivation fades in and out, but discipline is the thing that carries you forward when things get tough.

I came to this page to pick up knowledge, keep myself driven, and link up with others walking the same road. If things are hard for you at this moment, remember that results don't come overnight. Keep showing up, keep grinding, and one day you'll turn into someone you can be proud of. Glad to be here, Names Caleb. 318-260 so far.

 

[suiteheart]

i saw your intro post and just had to tell you congrats too! you're looking great and so much healthier.

i'm 25, and i'm also working on getting my life back through eating better and working out. being someone who's dealt with obesity my whole life, exercise and strength training have been really tough for me. any advice you could share? at the moment i do strength training around 2x per week, and i typically put on a "beginner" video from tiktok or youtube. i'm pretty clueless about proper form and technique, or whether what i'm doing is even helping lol. how did you manage to learn all that? i've considered hiring a personal trainer, but then i saw how expensiveeeee it gets $$$$.

your progress is really motivating, and i'm genuinely happy for you

 

[Reta4Me]

suiteheart said:

i saw your intro post and just had to tell you congrats too! you're looking great and so much healthier.

i'm 25, and i'm also working on getting my life back through eating better and working out. being someone who's dealt with obesity my whole life, exercise and strength training have been really tough for me. any advice you could share? at the moment i do strength training around 2x per week, and i typically put on a "beginner" video from tiktok or youtube. i'm pretty clueless about proper form and technique, or whether what i'm doing is even helping lol. how did you manage to learn all that? i've considered hiring a personal trainer, but then i saw how expensiveeeee it gets $$$$.

your progress is really motivating, and i'm genuinely happy for you

At the start, don't stress about the gym side of things — sticking with it beats chasing perfection by a mile. My own start was basic as well, and I picked things up along the way. Beginner videos are genuinely a solid place to begin, since almost nobody knows where to start. The real key is turning up regularly and getting used to moving your body once more.

Building a routine and folding it into my everyday life — rather than aiming for flawless — is what did the most for me. My own schedule is 6 days a week of working out, plus an hour of cardio daily: either treadmill walking at incline 15 and roughly 2.5-3.0 speed, or 60 minutes on the stair master at about speed 5-6. That by itself boosted my endurance and built discipline quickly. An Apple Watch was another huge help. Closing those activity rings and logging my steps daily genuinely makes fitness feel like a game. Seeing streaks and daily numbers climb turns it addictive in a healthy way. Daily step targets kept me going even when training felt like the last thing I wanted to do. With strength training, don't sweat being advanced yet. Stick to basic movements, controlled reps, and let your form develop gradually. Almost everyone at the gym is wrapped up in their own workout, not judging you. Nobody expects you to know it all right away. Repetition and consistency are what produce progress. And really, the fact that you already train strength twice a week and are trying to learn says you're further along than you give yourself credit for. Keep at it — those small habits stack up much faster than you'd expect. My split is chest one day, back one day. Legs get two days: quads on one, hamstrings on the other, since your legs hold so many muscle fibers that a single session can't hit them all. Shoulders take one day, arms take one day. I follow Hamy rambod's fst 7 — you choose four exercises, do seven sets, and flex the muscle you're working between rest periods. It really reaches deep into the muscle fascia. I try to lift as heavy as I can, and once my muscles start to fatigue, I raise the reps while lowering the weight, because you can still build strength with a lighter weight and more reps — people assume you can't, but you can. Stay consistent, you've got this. I also had a personal trainer for about 2 to 3 months, just long enough to learn the basics, and after that I moved on to bodybuilding.com plus YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, watching training videos.