trying to work out

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irinabeiers
irinabeiers Posts: 4
in Fitness and Exercise
I have just started dieting, I weigh 433 pounds, and it is very difficult for me to exersise. My feet and knees hurt when I walk. In the summer I was swimming and found that the pool (at my apartment) was easy to swim in because I felt lite and nothing hurt. I am wondering if anyone out there started out the way I did and what did you do to start working out. Thank you.

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  • yiffanarff
    yiffanarff Posts: 123 Member
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    Good for you for committing to a healthier lifestyle! If you still have access to a pool, swimming is great exercise that is easy on the joints. Other than that, really anything you can start doing is a good start! Since you suffer pain from walking, I imagine that you are fairly sedentary, so starting small may give you some good results. For example, you could start by just standing up and sitting down several times in a row, or going on very short walks.

    Your diet is going to be huge factor in your success. So try and eat well and add a little more activity to your lifestyle every day. The good thing is that once you get started, it will get easier! There are a lot of members on here who have lost 100, 200, and 300 pounds! If you haven't yet- try and track some of those people down for your friend list, and I'm sure they'll have some great ideas for you!

    Just remember to be patient with yourself and keep at it! It's a tough journey, but it's worth it!
  • karamgoff
    karamgoff Posts: 5 Member
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    how exciting! I wish you the best of luck in this journey!

    listen, focus on the healthy eating changes first.... the pounds will melt off! dont push yourself, do what you can at first. you'll notice soon that you can do more and when you do some walking you wont hurt as badly.

    best wishes to you! reach out for support any way you can, it'll make a difference!
  • irinabeiers
    irinabeiers Posts: 4
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    Thank you both for your advice. As for the pool, it is not heated and to cold to swim in during the winter. I am trying to take short walks with my husband so if start to hurt he will be able to support me. I am working on the healthy eating changes. The hardest part is sweets and I tend to eat when I am bored. I am working hard on it I know I can accomplish this goal.
  • castell5
    castell5 Posts: 234 Member
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    Weight loss can be achieved with limited activity. First, you need to take some strain off your legs and knees. Do you best by watching calories and making correct healthy choices on the foods you eat for the calories you take in.
    This mostly means, don't eat "empty" calories. No sugar drinks, soda, etc.
    Learn to like water again. A Brita pitcher can be a very good thing to have.
    As you lose the weight, you will find it is easier on your joints to exercise. Walking is good start when you can't use the pool. or if you have a stationary bicycle, that can be good too.
    Try your best to exercise in some fashion at least 1/2 hour a day and don't get any crazy idea that you need to only eat 1200 calories as MFP seems to put everyone on.
    Speak to your doctor on what your caloric intake should be to start and stay away from FAD diets!
    There is no trick, or magic to lose weight, I don't care what any of the stuff on TV says, or magazine claim.
    The only trick is Diet, Exercise, Willpower.
    Watch "The Biggest Loser" it is very motivational and shows you real people using real techniques to REALLY lose weight and they all get much healthier for it!

    Good luck, be strong, be dedicated and you'll become stronger and more dedicated! Not to mention, totally enhance and improve your lifestyle and health!
  • smantha32
    smantha32 Posts: 6,990 Member
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    This mostly means, don't eat "empty" calories. No sugar drinks, soda, etc.

    I have a friend who lost nearly 100 pounds by switching out sodas for water. She didn't exercise until she was down enough to not hurt.
    That's a good place to start? Good luck to you. You can do this. :flowerforyou:
  • StaceySuperfly
    StaceySuperfly Posts: 101 Member
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    Go to youtube and type in exercise for arthritis or seniors. They have a lot of stuff you can do sitting in a chair! Go at your own pace, if you can only do a couple minutes to start that is just fine! Also, if you have a YMCA they usually have pools and water aerobics for arthritis. Nothing better than just walking in the water, no impact on the joints and it is a good workout. I have bursitis in both hips, and one of them is actually frozen and I just had 3 discs fused together in my low spine so I understand your frustration. Best wishes to you on your journey, stick with MFP, this is the most supportive site I have used!
  • MariaHammer750
    MariaHammer750 Posts: 86 Member
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    I am quite heavy myself and I have knee, hip and back issues. When I first started, I could only do a few minutes of exercise a day. I have a recumbent stationary bike with a high back seat that works well for me as it supports my back. When I first started on it, it was a huge effort to do 7 minutes. I have steadily added more time each week. It sometimes causes my knee to hurt a lot and when that happens I alternate with another form of exercise, the wii. I stand for the majority of the time I exercise on it, but do sit a few minutes here and there to give my knee and back a rest. I do bowling, tennis, boxing, tennis, and step aerobics on it. You may think that sitting down you wouldn't burn a lot of calories, but as a heavy person, I don't have to work as hard to burn calories as a smaller person does. As long as you are moving and doing something, even housework, it will help you lose weight and as the pounds come off it will get a little easier. Occasionally I walk for exercise but when I walk, I go someplace where there are benches and I can stop when I need to, rest a few min, then do a little more. I also eat roughly 1600 calories a day, which is quite a bit under what I am aloted according to MFP. I could eat more and still lose weight, but I chose to eat fewer calories so I can lose weight at a faster rate because I have some serious health issues going on which may require surgery soon, so I am in a hurry to get this weight off. But just so you know, like another person said on here, you don't have to starve yourself to lose weight. Good luck to you and feel free to add me if you need/want a pal to support you.
  • Fredrigo
    Fredrigo Posts: 134 Member
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    I've weighed close to 500 and started MFP at 412. It really is a matter of consistency. For those of us on the upper end of the scale I encourage weighing yourself daily if possible and tracking your progress visually. Being able to see a gradual decline is very reinforcing even if my weight is up one morning I can at least see that it's still better than a month ago let alone 3 months ago.

    That graphing feature is what I love the most about the MFP iPhone app.
  • Kgholli
    Kgholli Posts: 27
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    HI I started out at 468 lbs or just over 210 kg, I didn't exercise for the first 6 weeks as I wanted to concentrate on my diet. I found this to be daunting to begin with.

    So I started out by eliminating all of the junk, that I ate and looked at portion sizes, eating out of boredom is easily done, so if I felt hungry , and knew that I didn't really need to eat, I chewed some sugar free gum.

    I switched to diet soda, a lot of people will tell you not to drink it, but it’s not the diet soda that makes you fat, it’s the poor food choices that usually goes with it. The other thing is you need to do is drink lots of water at least 8 glasses a day. This is important to help flush your system and keep kidneys functioning properly. Work out what u like and dislike read labels on everything, stick to what MFP calories are, and don’t eat severely under that number. If you find yourself truly hungry, and you have consumed all of your calories for the day eat some lean protein, as this will help you to feel full. I try to have more protein than carbs with every meal. I am not saying no or low carbs, I just make sure that it’s less than my protein macro. I changed my macro setting to 30% carbs, 30% fat and 40% protein.

    As for exercise I started on an exercise bike, just doing 5 mins each day for the first week. I then increased the amount by 1 minute each day until, I could do 30 minutes. I work out 5 days a week due to my work schedule. If I miss a day I hate it I have truly learned to love exercise. I lift weight 3 days a week, cardio and strength training all 5 days.
    Just take each day step by step, rejoice at the positives that you’ll have and don’t dwell on the negatives. YOU CAN DO THIS

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