Q: Hey Mike, I started working out in February on your dumbell program, and I stopped in July (too much work for me to do). From February to July I went from 230 to 185 pounds (I'm 17). I haven't gained or lost any weight since probably July, but I'm still overweight. I've noticed a big difference in the way I look but with shirt off there is still a fair amount of fat. I'm about 5'10". How come, even eating unhealthy (cafeteria food, chips, you name it), I haven't regained weight? Have I permanently made my metabolism rise? What weight should I aim for? What's the best way to lose it? I have been using 15lb weights, and found them light enough to do almost all the max. reps. Considering I haven't done much lately, I thought I should start out with them for now, but pick up a 20lb set soon and start using them. There aren't any doorways that I can put a pullup bar in, so I've not been sure what to do in place of that, and another quick thing: What exactly is a Dumbell Deadlift? It looks the exact same as a squad. Thanks ahead of time, Matt.

A: Hey, Matt, first off huge CONGRATS on your weight loss in the first half of the year!! And good job on making sure you don't regain it back even as you stopped exercising!

There are probably several reasons why you haven't regained that weight back... First, yes, weight training not only helps you lose fat in the first place but also helps you keep it off. It does so by increasing your muscle mass and metabolism both of which mean that you'll be burning more calories just going about your everyday life. This is why I always always always recommend that people don't ignore weight training when trying to lose weight. Now, this doesn't mean that you are forever safe from regaining unwanted fat -- eventually if you don't exercise and continue to eat junk food your metabolism will get depressed and you'll be vulnerable to new fat gains. But as you discovered the benefits of weight training can last quite a bit of time even after you stopped exercising.

Second reason is you are probably now a lot more conscious of what and how much you eat, compared to before. You've lost 45 pounds and you noticed the improvement and you probably want to keep it this way. So I would guess that even when you eat junk you don't stuff yourself as much as you may have before your weight loss.

Finally, at your age your body should naturally resist excessive weight and fat gain if only you help it at least a little bit. You may have 'straightened out' your body by being so healthy for the first half of this year that it has returned to its natural fat-resisting state.

Of course, as I said already, none of this means that you are safe for life from being overweight. Hopefully soon you'll be able to find time in your schedule to start exercising again and eat less junk food.

Now for your other questions... At 5 foot 10 inchest and 185 pounds you are still a little bit overweight, so it's not surprising that your appearence isn't yet quite where you want it to be. The question is are you still growing in height or not? If you've grown in height at all in the past year you may not necessarily want to lose weight but simply let your continuing growth take care of the extra weight. While 185 pounds is overweight for your present height, if you grow to be, say, 6 foot 1, the 185 pounds will be perfectly healthy! So if you are still growing I would not so much advise that you try to lose weight but simply that you return to exercising and eat healthy and let your growth take care of extra weight. Besides, excessive weight loss at your age may actually stunt growth.

On the other hand if you are fairly sure that you've stopped growing in height, then yes, you could afford to lose a few more pounds. At 5 foot 10, the upper limit for healthy weight is considered to be 175 pounds, so you may want to aim for that. But since you are not badly overweight now don't look to lose weight as fast as you've been losing it in the first half of the year. More importantly, focus on exercise and eating healthy and let your weight slowly decrease to 175 or so over a few months.

As far as your dumbbells, yes, coming off a long break you can stick with your 15s but you should outgrow them quickly, especially for large muscle groups like legs and back. I would recommend eventually accumulating several sets of dumbbels -- light ones (like your 15s or 20s) may be enough for things like bicep curls and shoulder raises, medium ones (perhaps 35s or 40s) may be good for shoulder and chest presses and dumbbell lunges, and heavy ones (perhaps 60s) for things like deadlifts, squats, and rows. You shouldn't jump to the weight I mentioned right away but this should give you the perspective on where you'll be after a year or two training. The main takeaway is that yes, you will get stronger and different exercises will require different weights to appropriately stress your muscles.

If you don't have any place to put a pull-up bar you can simply substitute in the dumbbell row exercise (you can find it on my Exercises page). But again, for this exercise to be effective you will need to use dumbbells quite a bit heavier than 15 pounds -- pullups are nice in that way since your body itself provides the weight.

Finally, to do the dumbbell deadlift, first look at barbell deadlift on my exercises page (the link I gave above). Now instead of holding the barbell in front of you as in the video, you'll simply be holding dumbbells (one in each arm) by your sides. As always, when doing squats and deadlifts make absolutely sure your back should be perfectly straight and not rounded or hunched over and your shoulders should be pulled back.

Hope that helps and again congrats and I hope you'll start exercising again soon!