OP, I'm also going thru a similar experience. I was 215 lbs at 20, and I'm only about 5'6". Now I'm approximately 150 lbs. Up until I got to the 160 lb mark, I was strictly doing 30 minutes of cardio(interval training mostly) a day. Since 160, I've mixed in weight training(though I haven't been as dedicated as I should be up until 2 weeks ago). Right now my body looks kind of odd, my arms and legs do not really have much fat on them at all, but my chest and stomach still have some fat on them. Here's what I do: I usually wake up around 7 or 8 so I go to the gym in the morning and do about 40 minutes of cardio, 100 pushups, and 100 situps. (I plan to increase the situps and pushups to 200 each slowly). Then at night, when my friends, who have a good knowledge of weight training get out of work, we lift. Triceps/chest Monday, Biceps/shoulders Tuesday, back/legs the last. Thursdays a break from lifting, and I begin the cycle again Friday. When it comes to lifting I do moderate weight, with 4 sets of 10. I tried doing low weight high reps but it never felt like I was working. As for dieting, I usually have 3 or 4 meals a day, having bread only once or twice, and a lot of protein(Chicken, peas, beans) and vegetables. Everything in small portions. In between meals I'm usually munching on some grapes or a small container of yogurt. No sugar, no soda. I drink about 1 or 2 alcoholic beverages a week now(usually gin and tonic). Even after you get into shape, you're diet should not change much. Avoid fast food always, have ice cream or cake once a week, but you always have to control your portions. If you've been anywhere abroad you'll notice how people eat a lot less each meal than Americans, that's why countries in Europe don't have severe obesity problems. Consistency is key also, I've ended up falling off working out since I started quite a few times. If I was consistent, I would have lost all the weight in about 6-8 months, but its taken me about 1.5 years. My one question for the forum is, is it ok for me to start drinking protein shakes even if I'm trying to burn fat? I know it is necessary to have a high protein intake, but I'm afraid starting on protein shakes will lower the calorie defecit and will lower my pace of weight loss.