Is using a Legsersiser a workout?

Here is my opinion (the experts may chime in): Congratulations on your six-pound loss! I think using a leg pedal is a great idea if you are too immobile to walk much at this point. As you lose weight things will get easier and easier. I think your exercise goals (walking 1-2 miles) are reasonable ones.

Yes. And a table-top arm one too! Great place to start.

-- water walking, water exercise if you have access to a pool/classes.

-- some awesome gentle seated variety of exercise videos (check out Sherry Zak)
-- do walk as you can. Check baseline? 50 consecutive steps? 100? Do right after meal times. Add 5 or 10 steps or so every few days

-- a tip in "diabetes prevention" magazine at doctors office had a tip - 10 mins brisk walk after eating meal helps to minimize the hikes & spikes in blood glucose from the meal.

-- Idea - after you use a legercizer or arm exerciser (a form of cardio exercise), then do a few minutes strength training with maybe hand weights/canned food or bands, towel or a ball. All sorts of ideas on the net or in chair exercise programs.
-- this was from another tip from someplace that combining cardio and then strength together in one workout session is more effective with blood glucose than either cardio or strength workouts separately. Regular movement beneficial afterburn help for the body can endure 12 - 24 hours, including a lift to the spirit

Can you get physiotherapy? A physiotherapist might help you working towards things you can do and build a training/movement programme for you.

It is up to you whether you can have chocolate/ candies in the house and have small portion per day or whether it is better for you not to have any in the house at all.

I don't know what a legseriser is - but I would suggest, as well as using it, you try to increase your daily exercise/ movement.

It's great you have a goal of walking 1- 2 miles - but in the meantime walk 50 m, or 20 m or whatever you can manage- and do it twice a day then 3 times a day or increase it by 10 m a week or something like that.
Ie to get to your goal, start with what you can do now and gradually, progressively,increase it.

legsersicer sounds like a great thing for circulation which IS a thing while heavy and with diabetes.

So it is not useless because circulation is important

If you are not doing any of the pedaling yourself you will get more benefit from incrementally doing the things you CAN do today

You have one new job now: self improvement. How much time per day can you devote to that? 8 hours? 4 hours? 2?

As the Australian sensible first line medical practitioner suggests above, do what you can. 5 meters, 10 meters. 50 meters. Stick an alarm. And do it again in an hour. And again. And again. Increasing distance and/or time as you improve

People regularly pull amazing improvements in hospitals and it does not sound to me based on your description that you have a known physical impediment to graduating from your now to first a shuffle and then to a regular walk in the house and then around the block and then even further

In combination with losing the weight as you are doing you will start to feel stronger too.

A walking stick for balance and support or walker if needed right now might be of more use, imho, than a machine for blood circulation absent inability to get up every hour and move for 1 to 3 minutes.

So I am going to be negative on the machine but not in, I hope, a mean way.

I actually have full confidence that if you set up to religiously get up and move every hour, then every half hour, even for a few minutes, you will simply amaze yourself.

And yes that will interrupt or modify other stuff that you're used to doing

Reshuffling of priorities is something you will gradually have to do

As to eating chocolate or not ...

Losing and maintaining weight is something you do on your own and people around you can only really give you ideas, examples, and if they take the time maybe their reasons for why they do things.

Some ideas are good to incorporate now or later. Some ideas don't work for particular individuals.

But seeing the ideas should be a good thing as it may allow you to achieve the holy grail: continuous incremental improvement and continuing compliance.

It is a multi-year thing. And that's good as it gives you time to discover things. Including your own power.

Grab what you need to safely get up and incrementally do more. And make it your job to do so till you reach your stated walk targets and proceed to exceed them.

As to others take what you think will work for you today and consider whether that you see others do may or may not work for you moving forward.

But avoid, I think, locking yourself out of considering options

Take care

ETA I see you already have and enjoy the machine. This is great to hear. Hopefully you will use it as a springboard to walking more.

While many people do not consider waking to be exercise I, personally, totally disagree that it cannot be a low to moderate activity exercise.

While not everyone in their 300s can walk... many can. And the more you do it the easier it gets! Watch the knees. And where you step!!!!

ByeByeToDiabetes wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

legsersicer sounds like a great thing for circulation which IS a thing while heavy and with diabetes.
So it is not useless because circulation is important

ETA I see you already have and enjoy the machine. This is great to hear. Hopefully you will use it as a springboard to walking more.

While many people do not consider waking to be exercise I, personally, totally disagree that it cannot be a low to moderate activity exercise.

While not everyone in their 300s can walk... many can. And the more you do it the easier it gets! Watch the knees. And where you step!!!!

I cannot believe a stranger took the time to answer in such lengths. You heard me and I read what you wrote. I agree with almost everything you wrote. The legsersiser is a start and I will use it in the evenings when we watch TV as well as during the day when I work at home on my desk.

I bought a fitness watch, one of the cheaper ones and it's set to remind me to move every 90 min. It's an annoying little thing :-)

I take the diagnosis of diabetes very seriously and will do what I can to get myself in shape to walk outside (after allergy season). I will start a new chair yoga session tomorrow, which is fun.

I don't have an answer why I let myself go and I know it's not going to be easy at my age to turn back the clock a bit. There are other health issues, but nothing that I can't handle. Eating too much was my crutch for everything to the point that I almost needed a crutch to move. Why do obese people do that to themself? I don't know but it's never too late. So I will fight and I will not try to compete with 30, 40 or 50-year-olds but will do what I can. I want to dance again (silly).

My husband is supporting me, which is wonderful. So I am (we are) all in :-) Thanks again.

Of course it won't be easy every second: It isn't easy for anyone of any age to profoundly change habits. But with determination and commitment on your side, I'm betting you can surprise yourself with how much progress you make in the next weeks and months, let alone years.

Too much in our culture paints aging as a complete synonym for disability. That isn't inherently true. Yes, certain physical issues become more statistically common with age. But if we let those cultural and personal low expectations influence us too much, we actually accelerate our own rate of decline. You are working on improving eating habits, nutrition, and movement. Those are things we can control; and when we do so, we create our own story rather than buying into those cultural myths.

I didn't become routinely active until my late 40s, after a mostly sedentary life, when cancer treatment (among other bumps in my personal road) had left me very physically depleted. I increased activity gradually, starting with just manageably challenging things, and progress was gradual, too. Still, some time in the first half of my 50s, I was competing as an athlete, even earning some age-group medals. As someone who'd been one of those "chosen last in gym class" kids, this was a huge surprise . . . to me, and to people who knew me.

I was not at as high a weight as you are now, but was class 1 obese. I stayed overweight for another dozen years while active, but slowly got much fitter and even a little smaller (muscle is more compact than fat, as well as being more useful), but I stayed obese. (Yes, obese people can achieve reasonable fitness.) I was your current age, 59, when I committed to weight loss, after decades of overweight/obesity. That worked, too, when I committed to it. I reached a healthy weight and have stayed there for around 8 years since, now 68.

I'm not a special unicorn. You, too, can accomplish a lot, with a realistic (but manageably challenging) plan . . . the kind of plan it sounds like you have. Expect a lot of yourself long term, because that's realistic IMO.

There have been women here who started in a place similar to where you are now. I think this first one isn't active around here as much anymore, but she started at 59, just over 300 pounds, unable to walk up her own steep driveway without resting, and borderline diabetic:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10672121/4-year-milestone

This 2nd woman is still around sometimes. She started a little younger (56) and mid-200s but still obese. From relatively inactive, she gradually became very fit, active, and added muscle mass to be smaller (and more fit) at goal weight than she'd been when young at similar weight. She's really good at writing how this really can work:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10763291/my-turn-to-overshare-my-adventure/p1

There are many success stories here about people who were heavier than you are now, various combinations of aging, diabetic, inactive and mobility limited (even permanent wheelchair users), you name it. These are real people posting their own stories and photos, not presentations by skeezy marketers. Some are still active here, and you can ask them questions.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300359/most-helpful-posts-success-stories-must-reads#latest

Repeating myself: You're working on a good plan. You're committed. If you believe in yourself more than you believe the myths about aging and bodyweight, and stick with that good plan long term, you'll amaze yourself with what you achieve. When you do, come back and tell others about it.

Best wishes!

Have you thought about doing some self discovery through reading about overeaters and their why’s? There’s some brilliant books, old and new, on the market and at the library you might enjoy.

It’s fantastic you’re adding physical challenges everyday, I can hear your determination! Your age really has nothing to do with your capabilities, so please don’t let that stereotype hold you back. I hope you consider working on the internal thoughts that got you here so you’re empowered to never go back. The more tools we have the better. If not, that’s okay too.

I’m excited for you and the new possibilities that will unfold for you everyday. Make it a labor of love and you’ve got this.

I just bought a peddler yesterday for work. I also have a recumbent bike at home. I weigh 255 and my belly gets in the way, too. Best of luck to you! I hope you update this so we can see your progress!

@ByeByeToDiabetes - it's been 2.5 months - how's it going?