Excercises you did when you were Morbidly obese

Congratulations! Great start.

You can do tai chi sitting. It strengthens your muscles without stressing your body.

Swimming. I have many morbidly obese family members. They feel free in the water.

Also, seriously, work on your diet not exercise now. Exercise to keep yourself moving and happy and motivated. But it's the diet that will take the weight off. As you lose more, exercise will become easier and easier.

I did table pushaways first. For the first 40-50 lbs or so.

At that point, I FELT so much better... walking was a chore at that point.

I think walking is great. The key for me is to find something I like that I could keep up with. I started out walking slowly for shorter distances and I've increased the speed/distance with a little running thrown in. If you feel up to it, you can start with some body weight strength exercises. Nerd Fitness has some. Good Luck!

Swimming! It might be a bit awkward and you will probably feel quite self conscious (I do, heck I think most people do at the pool!), but don't let that stop you - once you're in the water it's all good.

Swimming is the best exercise for when you're very overweight because there is no pressure on any of your joints, so there is a lower chance of injury. It was recommended to me as a good exercise by my Doc. and chiropractor. Try going at odd times of the day - evening and lunch time are good - and avoid weekends, there WILL be approximately a million children for every litre of water in the pool.

Be careful with running, it is very hard on the joints and can easily lead to injuries when you're in obesity. That said, walking is great, and any kind of moving is awesome :laugh:

Good luck and feel free to add if you want support and encouragement

P.S. I cannot STAND workout DVDs, I feel gross and just horrible after a few minutes of them even though I run for half an hour, do vigorous work on the exercise bike for 45 mins + and swim for 30 mins + regularly. They just suck IMO! :laugh: I have massive respect for anyone who can actually do them!

you might like zumba? its more fun than walking but not high impact

edited because I can't type....

At my largest I started with just watching my calories in and lost quite a bit fairly easily with only doing the occasional extra walk. I have just discovered the leslie sansome walk at home videos and while I'm sure they will get old at the moment I'm just happy to be moving. Fitness blender is a great source of work out videos and if you hover over them it tells you the length and difficulty so you can choose a simpler one.

But really, it does come down to calories in versus calories out, if you maintain a deficit you will lose weight.

If you can walk, you can SKATE (but wear knee pads and wrist guards). Skating does WONDERS and is less impact than walking, but more aerobic. When I started, I couldn't even skate non-stop the length of one 3-minute song. NOW I can casually skate for three hours straight non-stop (except for sips of water). My endurance is THRU THE ROOF.

Also, don't forget that using one of those machines that looks like a stationary bike for your hands uses ALMOST as much calories per hour as walking. Use ALL your muscles! Just clapping your hands and dancing around is GREAT exercise. Watch the YouTube instructionals and learn to do the "Thriller" dance. ANYTHING to get moving is awesome to burn calories.

All of the above is great advice- there's a saying "weight loss happens in the kitchen" - meaning, you don't *need* to exercise to lose weight; all you need is a calorie deficit which you can achieve through diet alone. There's another saying; "you can't out exercise a bad diet"... which dovetails nicely with the first adage.

In addition to the walking you're currently doing, you can do calisthenics such as crunches, push ups (there are a myriad ways to modify, but the easiest would be either off your counter or off a wall) leg lifts, etc... If you have a pair of dumbbells at home, start using them. Ankle weights while walking might also be a nice challenge...

There's a beginner exercise video by fitness blender on youtube that I did when I was pregnant; I can't remember exactly which one, but they have many to choose from. Type in beginner workouts, and try to your hearts content.

Also, yoga. Yoga can be as mild or intense as you want it to be. Stretching and becoming aware of your body and increasing your flexibility is a great component as you lose weight.

Best of luck!

walking and keeping under my calorie goal WAS enough. I lost 43 pounds in the first 3 months.

then i joined a gym.

Walking, walking and more walking is how I started.
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I don't ever think it is too early to start with weightlifting either - all depends on if you have access to the weights. At my heaviest I couldn't really do squats or deadlifts, so I stuck with other basic lifts until I had lost enough weight and gained enough mobility to work a full routine.

All of this. Seriously, even if you're just doing those wall pushups or heavily modified bodyweight stuff, it's hugely beneficial, because you're maintaining muscle (which really, you have quite a bit of -- it takes a lot to move that kind of weight around!), which keeps your metabolism up, and helps keep you from getting injured.

I do boxing now, and I've seen a few people who probably qualify as "morbidly obese" there. They have to modify a lot of the calisthenic movements (jumping jacks, planks, etc), but they're doing great with it, so the usual recommendations of walking, swimming, etc., while great suggestions, are by no means the only ones, so don't be afraid to look into classes that can become higher intensity.

Watch the YouTube instructionals and learn to do the "Thriller" dance.

Okay, now I want to do that just to say I can do the "Thriller" dance.

The biggest thing is getting your heart rate up and keeping it up for at least an hour a day to burn fat. Starting at a higher weight reasonably you can do less to achieve this. Such as walking 3mph - 4mph, cycling at a steady speed, swimming, etc. Don't push yourself, aim to improve your time over time and keep at it

I agree with this. When I started out, I walked around my neighborhood. I too felt like it wasn't enough, so I began to swim laps in my pool. The one thing to keep in mind is you can always challenge yourself to go a little further or faster. I was afraid of doing anything overly strenuous at first because I had not exercised in so long that I was afraid I would hurt myself. Once I lost about 60 lbs., I began trying different things like mountain biking, hiking, jog/walking (which in my neck of the woods we like to call wogging!) I would use a treadmill primarily and jog for 1 minute at 4.5 mph, then walk 4 minutes at 3.5 mph. I also started increasing the incline when using the treadmill. I tried the elliptical, but that really hurt my toes for some weird reason... probably user error!

Now that I have lost more weight, I now hike several days a week, go to the gym for SPIN classes, weight lifting and treadmill, ride my mountain bike either on street or in the desert hills around my house and I play on a co-ed softball team.

Go at the pace you feel most comfortable... don't be in a rush, the weight is going to come off no matter what because you have changed your habits. Just keep going...

I started out just walking for the first 4 months or so, then I joined the gym. At the gym I would use the ellipse machine, exercise bike and walk on the track. Mostly low/non-impact stuff. I also started weight lifting when I joined the gym. Swimming is good option as well, as it's non-impact.

I started out walking on the treadmill and doing water aerobics. The hardest part was just being in a swimsuit in public :noway:
Increased my walking over time and after I lost about 50 pounds, I joined a gym and hired a trainer.

All of this. Seriously, even if you're just doing those wall pushups or heavily modified bodyweight stuff, it's hugely beneficial, because you're maintaining muscle (which really, you have quite a bit of -- it takes a lot to move that kind of weight around!), which keeps your metabolism up, and helps keep you from getting injured.

I do boxing now, and I've seen a few people who probably qualify as "morbidly obese" there. They have to modify a lot of the calisthenic movements (jumping jacks, planks, etc), but they're doing great with it, so the usual recommendations of walking, swimming, etc., while great suggestions, are by no means the only ones, so don't be afraid to look into classes that can become higher intensity.

Watch the YouTube instructionals and learn to do the "Thriller" dance.

Okay, now I want to do that just to say I can do the "Thriller" dance.

+1 on the boxing. I lost 40 lbs walking and following a 5K training app before I started boxing back in early September 2013. I had to modify a LOT. I'm finally at a point that I don't need to modify nearly as many calisthenic exercises. I'm hoping to be free of modifying anything at all within a few weeks and I've lost another 40 lbs since. I also bought a bike and will be training for a cross-state tour next summer when the weather starts cooperating.