Guys over 25 who have never been a relationship what's stopping you?

I'm only 24, but have never been in a relationship. Aged 17 I had a few casual things with girls my age that I had met at parties, in hindsight a couple of them could well have turned into relationships but at the time I didn't want anything serious and just wanted to play the field a bit, so to speak.

I then fell into some poor lifestyle habits; excessive binge drinking, awful nutrition, and quitting a sport that kept me active four days a week. I was never in great shape at 17, but over the next six years I ballooned in weight from around 190lb to 292lb. Until a one-off drunken hookup with a girl I'm not interested in last year, I hadn't kissed a girl in five years, having been pretty popular with the ladies when I was younger. I think my social skills and personality are good enough, but I've been letting myself down physically for years.

After a few half-hearted attempts to change that, I finally went all in on it back in July, and have since lost 48lbs and am almost halfway to my goal weight. It hasn't yet translated into an improvement in my love life, but I'm hopeful that once I get closer to my goal, it might.

What makes me anxious is my total lack of relationship experience which I feel is going to hold me back. While not a virgin, I'm not very accomplished sexually either. I also have some issues with binge drinking which I've failed to address so far. I wouldn't want to date me at the moment, put it that way.

To be honest the whole thing has really bothered me for years. I'm terrified of never meeting the right person and feel like I've wasted my best years, while my whole circle of friends are all pretty settled with partners of their own. Even my younger sibling has been in a relationship for three years, and me having always been single always feels like a massive elephant in the room with my family. The whole thing just stresses me out really.

It felt good to vent by writing that. Sorry for the rant.

/r/AskMen Thread