How have you been able to lose weight with limited mobility..how?

teninten

For those who have limited or no mobility...unable to exercise..how have you been able to lose the weight?.

musicfan68

Low calorie diet

You don't have to exercise to lose weight. All you have to do is eat in a reasonable calorie deficit. I am on crutches due to my disability and I am pretty sedentary, but I have managed to keep a lot of weight off just by monitoring my calories.

history_grrrl

Low calorie diet

I’m focusing mainly on calories. I need a walker when outside and can’t do isometric exercises, anything high-impact on my feet, or lifting over 10 pounds for various medical reasons. I was eating back my exercise calories (low-tech stationary bike, stretching, etc.) until I realized I wasn’t really losing weight. Now I’m not eating back those calories and the scale is moving, suggesting MFP is so overestimating the calorie expenditure of my exercise that the exercise is having minimal impact on my weight. Of course it’s good to be moving and stretching, but I’m not treating exercise as a major factor in weight loss now.

ninerbuff

I had a client who was a quadraplegic and wheel chair bound. She lost 100lbs. But she really focused on her meals and the light exercises we could do in her chair. She is still at the same weight.
If you can walk, you're NOT immobile. There are ALWAYS ways to workout even if you're limited in movement.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

tomcustombuilder

You just need to take in fewer calories regardless of activity or non activity. Non activity and calories will be very low unfortunately.

teninten

Thank you guys soooo much...I woke up with pain but I'm trying..it could be worse..sometimes bad days seem overpowering...thank you for your words...believe it or not..I needed to hear them.

history_grrrl

Low calorie diet

OP, not sure of the nature of your limitations, but there’s a YouTube channel, SeniorShape with Lauren, that includes a variety of chair exercises. Maybe you could manage some of those just to be doing a bit of movement along with the attention to calories. Best wishes!

MacLowCarbing

Focusing on low carb

I have mobility issues, I used to be in a wheelchair due to lung issues/heart arrythmia (not from my weight; it was the period in the wheel chair that actually caused my weight gain from depression & stress eating). Once they figured out what was wrong with me and I got treatments I was able to get out of the chair, but I have a bad back and shoulder from an injury in a car accident, and hip arthritis -- so walking is still hard.

For me, the more I cut carbs, the more I lost/better my health was, regardless of how much exercise I could do. Sometimes I can do light exercise, sometimes when issues flare up I can be sedentary for a few days. Depends on things like the weather and if I over-exert myself or whatever.

I went on a controlled carb diet and I lost some weight sporadically, but struggled with hunger & cravings. Then I gave up and yo-yoed a bit, I am a carb addict/binge eater.

Eventually went on a lower carb diet and lost more weight, but my dr. weaned me off insulin and put me on the American Diabetes Association diet, which increased my daily carbs, and that tripped me up. I wasn't losing & I struggled again with hunger & cravings, which makes binging irresistible.

I kept cutting carbs till I found my own sweet spot on a high fat/high protein, extremely low carb diet (20 g or less). Adding the high fat helped it all drop in place. Now, whether I exercise or not, I lose weight and my blood works have been improving. Almost entirely weaned off meds, too, and am fast on the way to reversing my diabetes.

Other benefits are no more hunger pangs, no more cravings or temptations to binge, no more measuring and counting up calories and macros-- I just count the carbs, eat when I'm hungry, and stop when I'm full.

If I can exercise I do things like resistant bands, exercises I learned in physical therapy like leg lifts and such, and slow walking, or am active gardening, but that's just gravy. It helps, I want to get my body moving whenever it allows me. Really though it is the low carbs that help.