Fibromyalgia and weight loss

I have severe fibromyalgia and am mostly bedbound. I am starting by dieting without much exercise, because I believe the weight loss will help me be able to exercise more, but meantime I'm creeping up the exercise very slowly. Stretching. Three or four situps at a time, repeated multiple times a day, but no more than that at once. Three to five minutes of dancing, or walking fast, at a time, to get my heart working a little. When that doesn't make me short of breath anymore, try five to seven minutes. That type of slow build.

I have fibromyalgia, too. I plan to try walking a little at a time until I can build it up. My rheumatologist recommends weight training with very light weights, and water aerobics. I am scared to try these, yet, but as I progress I will keep you posted. I plan to focus on weight first. Lyrica and some of the other meds caused me to gain a ton of weight. I didn't hurt as bad when I was much thinner, but I do now. I am hoping that if I drop 10 or 15 pounds that the pain won't be so bad. The only thing I can say is you know your body. You need to push it a bit, but don't over do it. The pain is not worth it. Please keep me posted with what you try and I will do the same.

I have both fibro and arthritis and have had for many years. I find that you have to fight or it will take over. The saying "use it or lose it" really speaks to both these conditions.

I decided a long time ago that I would not let this get the better of me as I have always led a rather physical life. As I got older I have had to make concessions to it. I take anti imflammatories and pain killers and have had to have cortisone shots in some joints and physical therapy. I am going to do what I need to do to keep active.

I have found that I can always push myself to walk and having a dog or two really helps. I use light weights and I feel that strength is life. If you allow weakeness to take over it will suck your life away.

The elliptical machine has been the least painful to use of all I have tried. Maybe I can't do as much as some people, but I try nonetheless.

Keep at it. Do what you can. Maybe you will have a "next day" where you are exhausted and in pain, but you can come back even stronger the next.

Never give up.

I had severe fibromyalgia for 12 yrs, could barely walk or move without excruciating pain for hours afterward. I decided to do a lot of research in medical journals (I have 3 uncles who are Dr's) discovered a lot of the pain has to do with toxicity in your body. Dr's do not tell you a lot I believe because they want you to take the medications (basically making you a statistic).

I learned to eat clean (get rid of as many processed foods, foods containing any kind of chemical or preservative, especially MSG and all it's forms 9you can do a search and you will be surprised it is in most of our food) drink plenty of water. I eliminated this stuff a little at a time, since it's very hard to change all at once. Especially since finding this type of food was difficult. I resorted to making a lot of my own foods from web sites which promote clean eating. Slowly the pain has diminished but in a huge way!

As for exercise you have to listen to what your body is saying. The best way is to start doing what type of exercising intrigues you. Start with 1 to 5 min and rest, feeling what your muscles feel like. Then build off that. Doing yoga stretches helped my hips to stop hurting, also the chiropractor I go to told me my hip muscles were so tight they just couldn't help my body move without pain. I am now very flexible, yet I do still have pain in my hips if I have to stand still for long periods of time. Work in progress I suppose.

Things I have learned along the way are; it's not the type of exercise but the length of time doing it, the effort put forth and what you do after ward. Don't try to run a mile at a great speed type of thing. Do what you can when you can.

After any exercise, stretch your muscles. Invest in a good heating pad (chiropractors usually have really good ones you can buy from them) An hour of two after doing your exercise use this on whatever body part feels stressed. Take 2 advil about 40 BEFORE you work out also helps.

Get plenty of rest each night (I know easier said then done) the most important things are to be mindful of your form while exercising, do things slowly dont worry about quantity but quality. Eventually your body will respond.

I have been living in this manner for the last 4 years and my pain level went from 10 to a 1 most days. I can now do insanity dvd's 3 times a week , ride my bike, swim, hike and mostly pain free. It was a gradual thing and you do have to work at it a little each day. I figured I was in pain anyway so I might as well be doing something to be in pain for.

I am no longer taking meds and only see a chiropractor who specializes in Neurological disorders ( I was in a car accident which caused my spine to curve the wrong way and triggered the fibromyalgia).

I hope this helps, good luck

I have mild fibro. It's not ever made me bedridden, but I get awful migraines and tension headaches, as well as generally bad back pain (that I can't even get hubby to massage me for, cuz it hurts too much).

Among some of the other exercises that I've built up to over time (and for me it did get easier as I went and my body got used to some of what I was doing), I started out on the elliptical. I found it to be easier on the knees than walking or jogging, but still gives you bang for the buck. I also swim - I do the breast stroke - it incorporates your whole body, but it's also one of the slower strokes. You can concentrate on form instead of trying to race to the end of the pool. It also doesn't involve as much next twisting to the side.

No matter how much cardio I do though, my rheumy always has the same question - any stretching workouts? She recommends yoga or pilates.

I do NOT recommend vinyasa style yoga (like in p90x) if you are starting out or if most of your fibro pain is centered in your shoulders, neck or back. It requires an extensive amount of planks and push-ups and is particularly hard on those areas. But I got a cheap pilates DVD off of Amazon that has varying lengths and levels of difficulty. So you can rock it on easy 12 minutes for a while and then later, if you're comfortable, you can increase length, etc.

And, yes, definitely keep an eye on your diet. I find I swell from sodium a lot more than other people I know. Also - nightshade plants are supposedly bad and many people have cited fibro problems with aspertame.

I don't have food triggers - more than anything I have stress and hormonal triggers. If I'm particularly stressed out (and usually not sleeping well) - flare. Also TOM is hell on earth. I've never really had cramps which was awesome until I got fibro and now I get flares instead. Joy. So try to get lots of rest, keep an eye on your posture and get a good reliable heating pad.