Super Morbidly Obese and need help to get started exercising

[FluffyInFL]

Hi all -

I have finally reached the point in my life where I am sick of all the extra
weight I am carrying around - sick of the additional problems it causes
me (I have horrible psoriasis, no doubt exacerbated by my weight, as well
as knee and back problems). I'm just sick of it.

After many stops and starts I am *finally* going back to an LC lifestyle.

My next question is exercise. What to do? Right now about all I do is to
walk about 1/3 mile to my son's bus stop each way and it KILLS me
to do it. It's not so bad in the cooler weather but I live in Florida so you
can imagine how often we get that.

We have a weight machine, but I'm too big to use it.

I weigh 420+ lbs. I say + because my scale only goes up to 420 and it
errors out when I step on it (how embarrassing is that?).

My first weight loss goal is 419lbs :lol: so that I'll at least be able to track
real numbers in my weight loss journey.

I would love to take up bike riding, but I can't afford $700 for a bike that
supports up to a 500lb person so I'll have to find other ways to lose the
weight until I can safely ride a 'normal' bicycle.

I am mostly sedentary except for my bus stop walks due to back, hip
and knee pain and floor exercises are a joke!

Any advice is desperately requested and most definitely appreciated! I would
love to see my scale read below 400 by spring if such a thing is possible.

Thanks much!

Cynthia

[MisterE]

OK. Same boat - different paddles.
I find that the Richard Simmons DVD/tape of SIT TIGHT (exercises done sitting) is my best exercise as I have very limited use of my legs.
From experience I will say EMPHATICALLY that walking is your best exercise. I once, in my wiser days, lost 100+ pounds in under 4 months just by walking. I started at once around the track (1/4 mile?) at a super slow speed. And by the end of the 4th month was easily doing 5 miles in under an hour (kind of a slow jog).
I got stupid. I stopped walking. Stopped eating sanely and the rest is history up to this point.
Only you can do it...whatever the "it" in your future is! You go, Girl!

[jschwab]

Do you have access to a pool? Pool running (in the deep water) is a great way to train for walking/running with no impact. It's specific training so it helps directly with the muscles you need to develop better walking endurance.

You can buy a floaty belt at www.aquajogger.com. They also sell an extended size belt which gets pretty big - I had to buy one when I first started pool running. The nicest part of pool running is that because you are floating, it's very freeing for the body, too.

I wish you all the best of luck with this - getting started is the hardest part.

Janine

[Texa]

You could maybe get one of these. http://www.amazon.com/Isokinetics-Inc-Magnetic-Pedal-Exerciser/dp/B000KZ0UGY/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1260845134&sr=8-19
I have one and I use it for my arms. I can really feel the muscles in my arms working!!!

[dollylowc]

i am also a firm believer in walking, if you are free during the day, try walking to that same bus stop every 2 hours, increasing to every hour when you are able to, you will be surprised how quickly you will notice a difference
good luck on your journey to 419, i'll be looking out for you on the road to it
dolly

[Judynyc]

I totally agree with the others who suggest walking....even if you just walk 10-15 minutes a day for starters.....its more than you're doing now, right? ;)

If you've got a dog to take with you, even better!! My dogs are my walking partners. :D

Another thing that may help you is to get a pedometer to see just how many steps you take during an entire day....work to get up to 10,000 steps. :idea: They aren't very expensive and it can become a good challenge for you to see how well you are increasing your movement daily.

Good for you for starting!! :cheer:

[Seejay]

Even a rocking chair will help, or rocking on a balance ball. I've been heavy and had that feeling.

Seriously, 15 minutes doing step in place or rocking on a ball will use your leg muscles, your core, your back. Doing this at that weight IS a legitimate aerobic workout. And I think it might be refreshing and not kill you. If you add hand weights that involves even more muscles moving even more weight.

I have done things like this as a baseline:

2 minutes rocking on the ball, forward and back.
2 minutes on the ball, bicep curls with 3 pounders, 2 sets of 10.
2 minutes rocking on the ball, side to side.
2 minutes on the ball, shoulder raises, 2 sets of 10.
2 minutes on the ball, forward and back again.

After that you can see how you feel the next day or two and see if it's too hard or too easy.

[kathleen24]

I second the water-walking suggestion, and suggest throwing a Bean into the pot as well. The `deluxe' model is rated to `over 400 lbs'. I found it very comfortable when I was at a weight where I rarely felt at ease. I placed in in a convex position on the floor, laid across it on my tummy, and felt my vertebrae go `ahhhhhh' as they stretched out. PJ used one for awhile until her cats used it for claw-sharpening practice, and really liked it.

You'll feel better when you start moving regularly, but it *is* possible to take off weight successfully without a regular exercise program when you're LC'ing. Not necessarily recommended--just saying don't let this be a deal-breaker, okay?

The `10%' figure seems to have some merit to it--that we can all seem to take off the first 10% pretty easily. One value of exercise is that with the right sort, we maintain muscle, which burns fat. Suggest that you check out PJ (rightnow)'s journal/blog, as she writes quite a bit about the challenges/merits of exercising at larger sizes.

Wishing you the best of luck. You really can change your life, it really can get better. Your son will be so happy for you. Best to you.

[Wyvrn]

How long have you been doing LC? I'd hold off on the exercise (or at least keep it to easy walking, if such a thing is possible at your weight) until you are fully adapted to the diet. Once you've adapted, small, infrequent doses of high-intensity training will give you the best metabolic bang for your time.

[BAP121]

I just got a DVD called leslie sansone walk at home, I started with the easiest one and it is good for me because I have MS and don't walk good and have poor balance, so I can hold on to something while doing a lot of it. Hope this helps.

[chessnut]

If its killing you to walk a 1/3 of a mile, then please don't listen to the advice to walk more - although you probably wouldn't anyway. :lol: If you think that exercise helps with weight loss, well it doesn't. Exercise does provide some health benefits - but at your weight you should be very careful not to overdo it (or do it at all). The only thing you might consider is a little activity at the pool.

The good news is that by doing Atkins you should be able to lose a good amount of fat/weight without being hungry. Make sure to eat a good amount of protein and plenty of fat. Once the weight starts coming off, you will feel more energetic. When that 1/3 of a mile seems easy, then consider walking further. This could take a few months.

Reread Atkins to make sure you understand it completely and feel free to ask plenty of questions here.

[SaphhireX]

I have Leslie Sansone's videos. I used to use them every day. I stopped unfortunately, but I'm going back to them. What helped for me (I was over 300lbs, still am *cries*) was to time it. The first week was to make it to 5 minutes of the warm up, then through the entire warm up. Then the warmup and 3 minutes of the workout slowly adding minutes each week. I also did this work out in front of a chair so that I could sit down immediately. I have back problems and some days it just wasn't possible to do my 'goal' but I did do as much as I could stand even if it was just a minute.

Please don't give up and the pool idea is great! I wish I had one available!

[bobiam]

This will be my first post (after my intro)!

I have found that a nice dog walk every morning is good for both the dog's disposition and mine.

I don't walk all that far (just over a mile) and not that fast (maybe 35 minutes) most of the time, although sometimes I stretch it to just over 2 miles in an hour or so.

I got a new cell phone on black Friday weekend that has a pedometer on it, and normally it claims the just over a mile walk is 3200-3600 steps. One day i will count them myself and see how accurate it is.

I have been down this road a few times, and I can say that trying to change my diet without at least some exercise is futile for me. I am not sure if it is the exercise itself, or just getting up and moving around that helps, but it makes a big difference to me.

I have had good success in losing weight on LC in the past as long as I stuck to walking. Once I got lazy and stopped walking, I had a hard time sticking to the LC diet.

[shandarose]

I'm always a big one on music. If you have one, use your iPod while walking. And get a bit of up-beat music (whichever kind you like) ... you may not realize how far you've walked! (Just don't walk too far so that it's hard to get back home!!!!)

I joined Planet Fitness last week and have just used the treadmill so far, walking about 2 miles on it each day that I'm there. I downloaded a bunch of Playing for Change songs--they took old songs and have transformed them using street musicians -- awesome to walk to!! Just the right beat for stepping, a lot of reggae, soul, foreign, etc.

I have been walking 40 min on the treadmill, for the most part, which basically gets through the end of my playlist. If you put on music, try walking to one or two songs. Then build up to three or four songs and see how that feels.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

[anabolina]

I agree about the music shandarose. It really makes any time spent exercising go by really quickly. I really liked the first Twilight soundtrack. It's not music I ever listen to, in fact, I still doen't know any of the bands on it even though I like the music well enough. The point it that the music is really upbeat and motivating. Anytime Supermassive Black Hole comes on, I walk faster.

Good luck with your exercising Fluffy, just remember nothing happens overnight. My sister is also morbidly obese and used to hate doing anything with me since I try to add as many steps into my day as possible by parking further away and stuff and she wou always complain about walking anywhere for any reason. The she began slowly building up her exercise mostly through walking and getting a personal trainer and when we all went to the state fair in October, she not only kept up with me but, I ended up the tired one who wanted to sit down.

[katmeyster]

The first time I did Atkins I did not exercise much at all -- at first. But as the weight came off, I just somehow wanted to move more because of the added energy. It was more of a natural progression and not a burden. I found that I wanted to go outside and work in the garden, or go for a nice long walk, or get up and dance a little bit.

For me, psychologically, I hate the idea that I HAVE to exercise. But if it is something I want and love to do, then I will do it. For example, I want to see new things and new places so hiking is fun (and also exercise). I love moving to latin or soulful rhythms so dancing is fun (and also exercise). And I love producing and eating fresh tomatoes, squash, and eggplant from my garden so the weeding is satisfying (and some exercise). And I especially like to get my aggression out on some bushes that like to take over the property (and that is a great workout for my muscles).

But ask me to go to a gym or something planned, I just get this overwhelming sense of dread (I still think I weigh 300 pounds and everyone is looking at me).

But that's just me -- and maybe I'll get over it and actually want to exercise for the sake of exercise (or maybe not).

[wowimheavy]

I would seriously spend a little money and buy a scale that goes up a little higher. I think it will help because you will be able to see ANY progress and will provide motivation.. That is what I had to do, or else it would have driven me nuts.

Best of luck to you. We all have a long road, you aren't in this alone and we are only a PM away if you need to talk.