Fighting severe morbid obesity

1. Exercise is important, but diet is about 5 times important at this stage. I'd love to see more specifically what you've been eating.
2. Stay accountable, get people on MFP as friends to help scrutinize your food/exercise routines.
3. There is an app for Android and iPhone called Pact, if you make fitness goals you get money for yourself, if you fail even a little you lose money big time.
4. I highly recommend less cardio until you lose more weight especially running long distances. It can ruin your knees like you wouldn't believe! Weight loss is important, but if you want to be a runner, you should wait just a bit!
5. If you can manage, I highly recommend lap swimming as cardio, really easy on your joints, and it can help improve your lung capacity and get your body used to increased cardio without overheating too hard.
6. You probably have like a massive amount of lean mass under your fat, this is some peoples dreams, this is a really positive thing and I think it's worth trying to maintain if you are planning to build muscle in a serious way post weight loss. Best practice dictates you should attempt to workout the muscles you'd like to keep most, however, the more important factor is getting 1g of protein per day for every kg of LEAN bodyweight. I'd need to know your body fat % to do more calculations, but it's important to eat that amount of protein over the course of the day. The absolute maximum metabolic absorption rate for protein is 10g/hour, so you need to spread it out across waking hours in 4 even 4 hour intervals. But this is just if you want to maintain more (not all) lean mass.

emarendt1128 wrote: »

At the beginning of my journey, thus far, it was September of last year (2014), I weighed in for a wellness program for my new job - tipping the scales at 447 lbs. I was super crushed. I have been "fat" for my entire life. I was always the bigger girl in school. My senior year in high school I think I was about 350 in high school. Now, I am 24 and I definitely decided I wanted to change for the best. 447 was just too much and it was getting to the point where I couldn't find clothes to fit anymore, I struggled with simply going up the stairs to my apartment, I felt so ashamed I didn't even want to get out of the car to go into the store (or ANY PLACE) and would rather just send my boyfriend in to get whatever we needed.
Not only was I struggling with my physical appearance but I was having terrible hormonal issues, it felt like I was going into menopause WAY too many years early before I am actually supposed to be experiencing hot flashes, night sweats, horrible mood swings, and lack of any drive. It was awful.
I started getting a little bit more active with my new job and I think the steadiness of my full time job hours... Mon-Friday 8-5 helped a little. I lost about 10 lbs and started this new year of 2015 at 437. I knew it was time to kick it into gear. I completely changed my eating habits on a day to day basis. NO more McDonald's or any fast food, no more buying candy bars, no more cheetos from the vending machine, no more soda/diet soda. I increased my vegetable and fruit intake. Less carbs. I drank a lot more water. I utilized MyFitnessPal to set my calorie goal and stay UNDER it. I also went out there and got a y-membership with a couple of my friends. (I had to do that since I live in Wisconsin and that was not ideal outside conditions!). I started seeing the weight drop right away.
As of today, I have gone down a couple sizes in my scrubs and I can finally fit back into the clothes I have! I am currently weighing in at 382 lbs. That is 65 lbs lost!!! I am so excited and completely happy but I am always reminded that I have made a dent into a very large road ahead of me. My super absolute goal would to get down to 200 but I know that you need to make small steps along the way to keep it reasonable. I find it easy to go take a walk but sometimes I just have this uncontrollable urge to just eat anything that's bad for me. So I do struggle with that. Did I totally want to order a large extra cheesy pepperoni stuffed crust pizza tonight and eat ALL of it for supper? YES. Did I eat oatmeal with a banana/cinnamon/almond milk instead? Yes I did. As far as my internal health, I had a lab check up in February for the wellness program at work and everything was in the range it is supposed to be at! And my hormonal issues have pretty much disappeared. It is a great feeling. I know I am doing good but every day is a challenge.
My dream is to become a runner but as of right now I can barely run around a football field track without getting winded badly. So I just walk. I walk walk walk walk. I don't necessarily count mileage but I try to do at least 30 minutes a day during the week. I am no longer taking the elevator up to 2nd floor at my work and I choose the stairs instead. Going up the stairs is killing me less and less... It is a really good feeling but sometimes I get so scared that I am going to slip and just not have the energy to keep making this change.... I get very frightened... I know this post has gotten a little long but I feel like I really need to talk about it...
I get discouraged easily... but I keep going...
Any tips for me? I guess just anything will help...
I signed up for a Zumba class next week that will run until the end of May ( I previously did a little zumba a couple of years ago and i loved it)
So im hoping that will help. My weight dropped fast at first but now I am probably dropping 10 lbs a month.