How do you do this with chronic pain?

You can lose weight on a calorie deficit without having to exercise. But if you want to exercise, I encourage you to! My method is to exercise in the morning, doing what I can, when I can...and not feeling guilty on days I can't due to overwhelming fatigue or a flare (MS/RA). Have you heard of the spoon theory? If not, give it a "google"!

I have rather mild arthritis that keeps me feeling down, but I've found a good way to keep the body moving when it needs it the most is through yoga - slow, thoughtful movement that helps you understand where you body is that day, and being accepting of it. Yoga can be done anywhere, at any time, and should aid in easing pain to help you get back to whatever other exercise you really like to do. And, yes, I agree with the others, lower the calories when you are moving less. But, perhaps focus on anti-inflammatory foods might help, too, like a more Mediterranean meal plan.

speakr5 wrote: »

Thanks everyone! You've all been so helpful and inspiring. x

Hi! I have was in a car accident about 5 years ago and my heel was shattered,I also have degenerative nerve damage in my back, so I can't do alot of exercises others can do. With that said, I have lost 69.5 lbs, it's been hard and a bit painful at times but here's some of what I've done. When my pain is high, I do chair exercises (lots on U tube) and I just add in hand weights. One of my favs is chair Zumba

I have a bulged disk in my back and was told by a specialist that surgery wouldn't help and that I would just have to live with it. That was 10 years ago so I've been living with the pain for quite a long time now. There were weeks where I couldn't even stand let alone walk. Had to crawl to the bathroom, it was horrible. That would happen monthly so combine that with a lifetime of disordered eating habits and feeling sorry for myself. I ate to pass the time and for comfort. I was miserable and felt stuck in my never ending loop of self hatred, and depression. Didn't care enough about myself to do anything other than eat myself into a food coma every single day.

It wasn't until years later that I finally felt desperate enough to make any effort. I found mfp at 268lbs and in extreme pain 90% of the time. It was really tough but I just stuck with walking and weighing/logging my foods.

During the past 2.5 years that I've been here I've lost 140lbs and am now at a healthy weight for the first time in my life. The pain got MUCH better over time and now I am pain free 90% of the time with only a few days here and there where it bothers me. I do have to be very careful though, one wrong move and I can really hurt myself.

Once I got under 200lbs I started jogging in place rather than walking. And I slowly progressed the amount of time each week until I made it up to 30 minutes twice per day. That's where I am now and I'm in maintenance. I fully conquered my disordered eating habits and made a real lifestyle change that is permanent. There is no going back, ever.

My quality of life improved tenfold by losing the weight! I'm sure taking all that pressure off my back from the excess weight helped immensely, and also the daily exercise.

I am very grateful that I stuck with the process and feel like I am finally living my life happy and healthy

And for those of you with knee issues, the foot website I listed above is the sister site to the one I use because I am recovering from a shattered kneecap. Learning to bend my knee again and strengthen my muscles so I can move again. http://www.knee-pain-explained.com/

I have been in pain to some degree every day of my life since I was about 17 years old. When I was 17 I lifted something I should not have and herniated a disc in my lower back (L4/L5). I got through it then but had pain to some degree for the next 15 years off and on. Then I lifted something else I should not have and managed to cause it to bulge enough that part of the disc had to be removed surgically and I had some permanent sciatic nerve damage to go along with it. After that I gave up, the pain was so horrible I never wanted to experience it again. So I went to work (desk job) every day, went home and sat in a recliner the rest of the evening, and spent all my spare time in those recliners. I did quit smoking as well, so you can imagine the result of that. I ate myself into morbid obesity. In January of 2015 I weighed 305 pounds and was living with pain every day, not to mention had been just diagnosed with high blood pressure and put on medicine for it. Something had to change.

I also folded my right knee sideways about a dozen years back, and have had various broken bones. At the first of January 2015 not only was the high blood pressure getting bad, but the pain in my knees would wake me up in the middle of the night. They just couldn't take the weight and the poor health any more. My doctors tell me I have arthritis, and that I'll probably always have it in my knees and my back. The back though is the main thing, it hurts just about every day to some degree until at least I get up, do some stretches (yay yoga!) and get to exercising. Even with all of that I still have chronic pain and I take Tylenol and Advil to get through most days. I'd say my pain level probably never drops below a 2 on a 10 scale, and some mornings it's as high as 5 or 6 getting out of bed (spinal stenosis has set in).

What I can tell the OP is this. It gets better if you lose the weight. Do what you have to do, it is worth the effort. I even managed to re-herniate the old disc and 2 additional ones walking my first year using MFP (I did it twice in 2 months). I was down for almost two weeks both times (as in I slept on the floor and crawled to the bathroom, and my wife served me dinner on the floor while I popped opiates like candy). I did not give up though. I healed, learned new yoga techniques, and learned how to exercise my muscles without doing more harm. Every day I live with the fact that I may push myself too hard and I may go down again, but if I do, I'll get through it and I'll try again. I also take Osteo Biflex every day which definitely has helped over time with the knee pain. Yoga helps the back, and continuing to build muscle around my damaged joints and bones/cartilage continues to reduce my pain. As other posters have mentioned you don't even have to exercise at first, simply practice CICO using MFP and lose enough weight so that you can exercise more comfortably. You got this. Put your mind to it and off you go.