I have been following parts of your weight loss tips Paul, and have found it very helpful. Im 6" 3 and have gone from 13 1/2 stone to 12 3/4 stone in just over two weeks and hope to carry on and level out at around 12ish.  Cheers.

At the moment i'm at the stage the original poster began at, trying to shift the fat to begin with.. i've been trying to focus on eating well and keeping the metabolism(sp) up.. Eat usually 4/5 smaller meals during the day.. plenty of wholemeal bread, fruit juice, tuna, fruit.. usually eat rice, chicken, fish, pasta.. trying to keep it relatively healthy (my diet before was very poor so this is a major step in itself).

I go to the gym about 3 times a week, do about 20 mins warm up on the bike, followed by about 15 minutes on a cross trainer then I do the weights with barbell curls, military presses and a few of the resistance machines targetting the quads and hamstrings.. and now i'm trying to fit in 15-20 mile rides during the day which have plenty of hills etc. I've lost about a stone in 3 weeks but I think thats the first bit falling off quickly, the rest will need a bit more work.

My main problem is core strength, what exercises could i do to build it up? I suffer from back pain because of my height so the doctor suggested building up core strength to help support my lower back etc.

No worries Paul, i'll give the shorter warmup time a go and see how it seems! I'll have a look around and see if I can find any information on things to recover from back injuries etc.. it's not so much an injury, just that I grew too fast and my spine stretched a little.. and its taking its time to catch up.

Got to agree with what a guy said at the start, glucosamine sulphate works wonders.. especially if your joints arent used to the exercise, it can make a big difference.