Exercise equivalancy between C25K Week 1 and regular walking

It's good that you did 3 weeks of walking before C25K. How long were your regular walks for and how many times per week?

Depending on your cardiovascular fitness, you might require more rest which is normal when undertaking something that's new and straining to the body. I started walking before starting C25K, and I didn't start it until I was comfortable walking for 60 min at a brisk pace. Brisk for me is 3mph. Over time, it became a lot harder for me to get my heart rate up when walking. I walk outside and we don't have hills here. At that point, I felt like it was time to start C25K. The first week was awful and I felt like was going to die, but after each workout was over, I felt fine the rest of the day and the next. I continued my walking on off days.

ETA: If you're feeling sluggish and tired all the time, it might have something do with your food intake. I've experiment with the low calorie and high calorie spectrum, so I know what works for me. Below a certain amount and I feel dead. If you're trudging around like a zombie on your off days, it wouldn't hurt to bump up your calories and experiment to find what works best for you.

I think maybe you'll start to feel a little better next week.

I think you'll also find it all easier when you've lost some weight.

I read, somewhere, that the calculations on how much you need to eat to lose or maintain or whatever are out of whack for the very obese. So, I think it's probably OK if you're not eating everything back. Just be sure to get plenty of the right nutrients in your diet.

My husband is a big guy - almost as big as you - and he's hoping to start C25K. I'm inspired to see you do it.

I had a similar issue when I started C25K. Holy moley does it wear you out! I gave myself a day of rest in-between the first two days of C25K then started up lightly again on my off days after that (Monday C25K, Tuesday no exercise, Wednesday C25K, Thursday no exercise, Friday C25K, Saturday make my self exercise). I also do a very slow jog during the 'run'. Once I can job for a longer period of time, I'll work on increasing my speed. Right now I'm happy being able to slow jog the 90 second intervals! I couldn't even do them all the first day!

I'll admit I had to start small, 10 min of additional exercise on my off days... but it's been 2 1/2 weeks and now I can do the 30 Day Shred on my off days, and sometimes on my C25K days too (one exercise in the morning, one at night).

Also, due to headaches, I had to take ibprofin a few days in a row... which also helped a lot!

Good luck! I hope you find something that helps!

Honestly,

When I first started losing weight I focused on DIET alone because I realized your body has to be prepared to move and has to be completely clean so it has the proper energy to keep going. I ate a lot of junk.. 1200 calories worth of pizza and 1200 calories worth of fruits/veggies/lean protein are processed very differently in your body.
I spent a month basically doing a self detox and making sure my body was CLEAN as all hell. I also did a lot of research into the different foods and how they are processed into your body and what your body actually needs/uses when you do different types of exercise.
Also 3/4 mile seems like a very small distance (this is relative of course) on my days off from working out I walk at least a total of 7.50 miles throughout the day usually split evenly between 2.5 miles in the morning, 2.5 midday and 2.5 in the evening. I like to think keeping my body in motion even on the days off will help my metabolism in the long run.
Also keep in the mind that you should vary your workouts as much as possible to keep your body getting stronger.

Hope this helps!