I can't keep up with any workouts... help!

The biggest step is the one off the sofa! You've come a long way already, well done on your dedication.

There's no problem at all with splitting your exercise over two sessions if needed.

Why not use your outdoor walks where you dictate the pace as an opportunity to build stamina. Go much, much slower than you usually would (and certainly not Leslie pace!), but just add a minute or two to the duration each time.

You'll get there, and much sooner than you think, and you'll be looking back weeks from now amazed at how much fitness you now have, I promise!

Just keep building up to walking further, then faster, then jogging, etc. The very first time I got on a treadmill I, literally, went for 30 seconds. Then I found a comfortable walking pace and did that for as long as I could stand (I think I was around 1-1.5mph). I slowly worked up to increasing that to a faster waking pace. And one day, attempted a 4mph jog. Again, I think I made it about 30 seconds.

But I just kept doing those 30 second jogs, then I'd push myself to a minute, then longer, and longer. Making myself keep going if my body wasn't what was telling me I needed to stop. (compared to my brain saying I should stop) And I really just kept that mentality through advancing to faster paces and longer and longer runs. Nowadays, I'm still not a full long distance runner or anything, but I can run a solid 60 min without walking breaks at 5.7-6mph. Are there a usually a bunch moment in that time that brain is trying to convince me that I should move to a walk for a bit (just five more minutes, once you hit 3 miles, you've gone 45 minutes, you deserve a break, etc) but unless my body physically needs to (pain) I keep going. And more often than not, that little desire to want to slow goes away and the running continues.

So don't get discouraged, keep at what you're doing, and just slowly build yourself up to where you want to be. It felt totally impossible at first, but now it just feels like my body knows what it's doing, and likes it.

I started MFP in July, with a goal of losing 11 lbs in 5 weeks. Boy, was I in for a surprise!! It's taken me till this morning (end of August) to lose 5! BUT - here is the good thing: at the beginning of July, I was thinking like I did back in the old days-I want it now, I have to lose it as fast as I can, no matter what. I was coming in under 1200 and proud-for about 2 weeks, when I discovered that my metabolism slowed to a crawl because I was not feeding it properly.....MFP has taught me to slow down my ""goals" - to learn more about my own body, what it needs, and how to exercise and feed it in such a way that in the end, I will attain those goals in a healthy way. Which meant resetting my goals to lose 1/2 a week instead of the 2 / wk I wanted to lose so badly. It has been hard for me to accept that there are no quick fixes.....I guess what I am sharing is that you are doing very, very well. I know how hard it is to want to repair a lifetime of poor food choices and no exercise like *poof*. One thing I was thinking about: don't forget to give your body rest if it needs it-one of my personal sabatoges in the past was when I was trying too hard, and got burned out and resentful.

Yesterday, I got on the treadmill to walk for about 30 minutes - usually I walk about 3.5/hour. I decided to run, and after what seemed an eternity, I was horribly out of breath, gasping and sweating, I looked down at the timer, and had made 3 whole minutes. haha......another MFP lesson in patience for me.....:ohwell:

best wishes

Some years ago I was in terrible shape. I had been struggling with an illness for several years, and was often binge eating on top of that. I wasn't obese, but definitely overweight. I started on a walking/jogging program that was meant to gradually build you up to be able to run a certain distance after a certain amount of weeks. I got to about week 4 of the program, and I just couldn't get past that. It wasn't because I wasn't pushing myself hard enough. When I exercised I always got to the point where I felt like I was burning up, I got terrible headaches and I almost blacked out. Pushing myself harder was not an option. Most people would have been able to follow that program, but I was just not ready for it and it wasn't the right type of exercise for me. But then I started swimming and that was so much better. It didn't have the high impact on my untrained muscles and joints and the water kept me cool so I didn't "overheat" like I did when I was walking/jogging. If you're stuck and you've really made an effort, trying something else could be a good idea.

When I was still quite out of shape, but improving, I got a dog and of course I had to take it for walks every day. That's when things really started to get better and the kilos started to come off. Not because I was exercising hard, following training programs and counting calories, but because I just spent a lot of time outdoors walking and playing! I'm not saying that everyone should get a dog or throw away their training dvds, but my point is that sometimes it can be a good start just to go outside and do something - whatever it is, as long as you're not sitting on your butt - not trying to keep up with a program or keeping up with anybody else!

Of course, if you want to get in good shape, you have to start pushing yourself at some point, and I understand that that is what you've been doing. But as everyone is saying, it takes time and it's not a competition. If you don't enjoy yourself, you push yourself too hard and you feel like a failure all the time, you're not likely to keep it up for as long as i takes. 4 weeks is not a very long time, especially if you were really out of shape. Losing weight and getting in shape takes commitment and hard work, but as long as you know you are really making an effort, don't get discouraged by people who seems to do a lot more than you. I can't go for a 500 calorie run either, and I probably never will, but I can walk off a couple of hundred and I am losing weight - and so can you Have you considered getting a HRM? Then you can adjust your training intensity to your heart rate and you can get a better estimate of how many calories you are really burning.

Have you had a general medical check? A couple of years ago I was completely drained of energy. I had some blood work done and it turned out I had an iron deficiency (but don't take iron unless you know you have a deficiency!). Are you sure that you don't lack any vitamins or minerals?