Whats thebest exercise for people who aren't in shape

Wow, I have been doing the LS waling videos with a group at work and love them. We have been doing this for a year or 2. It is great exercise and by doing it with LS you get variety and pushed beyond just walking at a slow pace. good to see someone else is doing her vidoes. There are so many and at so many different levels of difficulty.

Walking is a great place to start. You can build from there, get a walking buddy or buddies. The more people the more likely you are to keep it up.

Also don't wait to long to add strength training. Toning muscle helps to burn more calories even while you are sitting doing nothing. Muscle burns more calories than fat.

Good luck!

I agree with walking! I started using the elliptical at the gym in my apartment complex because I hate walking in the cold, and started in the winter. The treadmills were always in use, so the elliptical worked wonders for me. I started slow and it gave me a full body workout.

Walking. All you need is a good pair of shoes. Then leave your house and walk. You don't need a gym, pool or any other equipment. You'll start out slow at first and you might only make it 10-15 minutes, but over time and keeping it up you'll be up to an hour at 4.0mph in no time...trust me!

But, you should also do strength moves too. I don't mean go to the gym and use machines. I mean things like crunches, push-ups, leg lifts, non-weighted squats. A great video to get your started is the 30 day shred from Jillian Michaels. It's hard at first, but if you do it every day for 30 days you'll be thrilled with your progress and endurance. If you don't do everything the first day, DON'T GIVE UP! It will get easier. You'll need 3-5 pound handweights but you can get those at a sporting goods store for under $10.

Good Luck!

turn on some oldies music and do the twist....you will get nice and sweaty and have fun getting some cardio while also working on your abs!

YES^^ Dancing is fun and great exercise.

absolutely walking. As much as you have time for at least an hour a day. That with MFP managing your diet is more than enough for starters.

Walking! (As almost everyone else has suggested). This is how I have started from being very unfit. Start gently and build up length of walk. At first I was struggling to walk for 15 minutes without my legs killing me, but today (3 weeks later) I've just finished a 30 minute walk with ease.

Another option to consider if it is reasonable for you is bicycling. It depends on where you are starting at of course, but a 265 lb person riding 30 minutes on a bike can burn 360 calories and cover some distance. That is almost double what you would get out of a leisurely walk. A few key things about a bike though.

1) Are there safe places to ride where you live?
2) Are there a lot of hills that will make it easy to skip rides?
3) Can you get a good "comfort" bike to ride?

I bought a Mongoose Sahara "comfort" bike about 5 years ago and love riding it. Many "mountain" bikes are actually a touch uncomfortable to ride at first and some of them have flat out crappy seats. If you are just riding for enjoyment and want a nice bike to ride, make sure to buy one this is listed as a "comfort" bike. Higher handle bars, wider seat (and softer) and not really designed for high speeds. Still looks like a mountain bike but rides a lot nicer.

This is also a very good suggestion. I have the Trek Navigator bike with a wider seat put on it for long bike rides. It's not a fast setup, but it's comfortable and gets me moving.

Hybrid bikes are great too.

The lesson here is start easy. A little slow exercise is far better than sitting on the couch. Track what you do so you can see improvement and especially don't try so much that you get discouraged. Your body WILL get stronger but at its own pace.

You can't look at an exercise as "what's the best type" for cardio exercises. If you don't want a gym membership, go and purchase a heart rate monitor. Ask your doctor and/or google "heart rate calculator" to find your ideal heart rate range and go walk fast. Aim to walk for 30 minutes, with 2-5 minute warm and a 2-5 minute cool down. I was 290 when I started, so I understand about the extra weight and being winded. But you'll find your ideal heart rate range to lose weight and stay at that range. You'll find out if you are going too easy or too hard.

Now, if the question was posed as, which is the easiest cardio exercise to get me more motivated outside or inside a gym, I would say for outside would be walking in various terrain such as hills using a heart rate monitor. In a gym would be the ellpytical (sp?) machine. My first thought on that machine was that I could never make it past 5 minutes, but if you tell yourself you will only do 5 minutes today or this week, then 10 minutes next week, and just keep going until you get 30 minutes. I've done an hour on that machine whereas I use to not be able to do about 5 minutes. It's also better for my joints than walking/running.

All cardio is good cardio. All works your muscles a different way and I recommend doing them all otherwise your body will get use to that type of movement only and will stop or slow down the weight loss.

It all ends up with how motivated you are honestly. If you don't want to exercise, you will try to find a way to be winded and get out of it.