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#1
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help needed on where to start
Please give advice on how I can start to lose weight. I need some good
advice. I've read some, but would like to hear some good stuff. I have no will to stick to anything. I never exercise. I get out of breath very easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around. I wanted to have weight loss surgery, but I have mental illness and I can't find a doctor that feels I am stable enough. I want to lose this weight. I moved in with my fiance' one year ago and he is really fit. I want to do things with him, but I am stuck to the couch because just getting up to use bathroom sends my heart racing. I'm in need of some help. I have tried to exercise to tapes, but I can't even stand there very long let alone do what they are doing. At 340lbs I am very much in need of a boost. I was thinking if I joined your group here it would be a good start. I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big serving. I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day. I take medication that I have been told lowers my metabolism by 30%. I have gained all this weight since I began taking the medication back in 1996. Any advice would be appreciated. I feel lost to help myself. I feel like it's useless. I had a dream that I would have the surgery and for months I was planning on being thin again. So when the surgeon told me he would not do surgery I got really sad. I was looking forward to an easy way out. That is if there is one. I had given up on losing weight the natural way. Now it seems that is my only way out. I want to be healthy and active again. I am trying to quit smoking too. Tomorrow will be my first day without smoking. That is another story. I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for food. Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy that would be cheap? Please help. I am desperate. Thanks Dianne |
#2
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help needed on where to start
Greetings, Dianne:
Welcome to the group. I get out of breath very easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around. Less than seven months ago, I was in a nearly identical situation. I'm 5'8" and I weighed 365 pounds. I could not walk more than a city block without getting short of breath. I had to sit on my bed to catch my breath whenever I brought a load of laundry up from the basement. Since October, I've lost 90 pounds and am walking more than a mile. I went to an office building today and walked easily up two flights of stairs to my appointment. I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big serving. I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day. Big mistake. Starving most days is not helping your health or your metabolism. You should eat three meals a day; some people recommend five or six small meals daily. You would do well to consult with your primary care provider, then with a nutritionist. She can develop a way of eating that takes into consideration your medical issues, your lifestyle and your budget. I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for food. Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy that would be cheap? I know other people have not found this to be the case, but my current WOE is saving me $80 a month. Once I gave up the daily box of Dove ice cream bars, thrice weekly meals at Burger King, two pastries with my afternoon coffee at Starbucks, various snacks such as cashews and cookies, and cut my portions in half, I had money to burn. You don't say where you live (if in the U.S., what part of the country, or in the UK or another country) so it's hard to give specific advice about what good foods are cheap. I'm also not sure what you consider to be cheap. Perhaps if you list what you eat now and how much you are able to spend, members of the group can suggest good foods that are less expensive than what you are currently buying. Any advice would be appreciated. Many people here, including me, swear by fitday.com. It helps to some people to know how many calories they are consuming, and how much to cut back. If you use fitday.com for a week, then come back and post what you've eaten, people here will be able to help you find inexpensive, healthful food and offer guidance as to how to lose weight. As always, YMMV. Kasey 365/275/??? |
#3
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help needed on where to start
First, welcome here
"Diane Nelson" wrote in message ... I've read some, but would like to hear some good stuff. I have no will to stick to anything. I never exercise. You don't *need* exercise to lose weight, but it does help, especially with maintaining the lost weight. However, exercise will be easier and easier as you lose weight. But, as you have noticed, given your current weight, pretty much everything *is* exercise. So, you don't need to do any kind of physicial feat to call it exercise. Just walking around your block three times a week would be exercise. Since gravity is working against you, why not try to remove gravity? Water is a great help there, I'm not even thinking swimming, but stuff like aquaerobics. I know that swimming pools are not really comfortable at your weight level, but you usually have classes for obese people, so you wouldn't have to face slim people looking at you. Even body therapy (massages for instance, either from a professionnal or your fiance) is an option to begin with - just feeling more comfortable in your body makes it less of a dead weight and more active. As for the will, it's a very relative thing... Do you really think all these slim people are that full of willpower? I stopped smoking a while ago, and people were wondering where I had gotten all that willpower, but the truth is that I didn't have to use any. Actually, if your diet works on sheer willpower, it's bound to fail sooner or later. Willpower alone only goes so far. You have to find a diet that fits you well enough that you can keep it for *life*, and this means it should be easy enough on you that after a while, it will become the natural thing to do for you. So, yes, you will need some *will* to decide what you want for yourself and to actually try to accomplish it. But the "diet" itself shouldn't use much willpower. I get out of breath very easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around. You will have to be very careful with protein intake, this looks like you don't have that much lean mass you can afford to burn with an unbalanced diet. You should also try to find a *good* doctor to help you, because losing this amount of weight is a real stress for your body, you have to be careful about going not too fast and not starving yourself. I wanted to have weight loss surgery, but I have mental illness and I can't find a doctor that feels I am stable enough. I don't know the exact nature of your mental illness, but if you find a doctor who does the surgery despite the illness, he won't be very honest. Mental conditions (especially eating disorders of course) are contraindications to surgery. What kind of surgery were you thinking about? I would be very cautious about these (stomach, intestine surgery), because they don't work miracles as many people seem to think : - the surgery itself can fail, leading to complications or even death - and obese people are more likely to get these than the rest. - the surgery can hurt your health, by preventing you to eat enough (especially proteins, meat is usually not well tolerated). - the lost weight can remain very modest, for some people it's less than 20lbs. The surgery itself won't make you slim, it will just make you slightly less obese. - you will need to do a *diet* on top of the surgery. It's perfectly possible to keep gaining weight after such a surgery (it's harder with bypass, but pretty easy with gastric volume reduction) - just eat ice cream all day long in small servings. That's why, at least here (in France), surgery must meet several strict conditions : - BMI 40 - *and* weight related life threatening complication (diabete, heart diseases...) - *and* failed attempt at regular diet that has been tried for at least a year - *and* psychotherapy (both to try to lose weight and to assess you for surgery). Since you will *have* to diet after the surgery, why not try it now? Same with dealing with your psychological troubles? I want to lose this weight. I moved in with my fiance' one year ago and he is really fit. I want to do things with him, but I am stuck to the couch because just getting up to use bathroom sends my heart racing. That's the usual deadloop... You're too heavy to move, so you move less. And moving less causes you to lose lean mass (muscles), which makes it even harder to move. And both the lost muscles (lowered metabolism) and lack of physical activity make you heavier. Somehow, you will have to break it somewhere. But I don't think that's the right place to ask about that right now, because if your heart really feels like this and if this is really from the physical stress (and not anxiety related), you *need* to consult a doctor before you try to do any kind of exercise. I'm in need of some help. I have tried to exercise to tapes, but I can't even stand there very long let alone do what they are doing. Don't! The last thing you should do is trying to do high intensity stuff! At best, you will only discourage yourself, and at worst, you will hurt yourself! Besides, some of these tapes are high intensity (big no-no at your current weight, you would ruin your joints!), most are not designed for obese people (some movements should just not be done with 300+lbs on the joints)... With the way your heart behaves, and your lack of exercise, you either need to have a professionnal looking after you or to do it very slowly. The only exercise I would advice to do on your own (after seeing an heart doctor) is walking - at your own pace and short distances at first. Anyway, with your weight, walking is going to burn more than those slim people are burning doing high intensity stuff - just picture them walking around with a 200lbs backpack! Swimming or *light* aquaerobics would be other options. Just stay away from anything high-impact, high intensity or unmonitored. You don't need these right now, and they will hurt you. I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big serving. I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day. And then, you tell us you have no willpower?! How many slim people do you think try to *starve* themselves? How many actually try to do aerobic tapes wearing a heavy backpack? You really have to *stop* doing that. Don't you see the relationships between the starving in the day and all these night meals? The later are the consequences of the frustration of the first... I bet your ideal goal would be to have this single large serving, and nothing else. But things just do not work that way. The frustration only paves the way for the excesses. What you are doing is a great recipe to develop boulimia, not to lose weight. If you reduce the frustration, you will also reduce the excesses. Besides, a single big serving a day is not very healthy, it's a huge stress on the body (digestion, blood sugar...). Many overweight people have a manicheist way of thinking, they think in binary mode : either you're starving yourself, or you're trying to make your stomach burst. Losing weight is also learning to walk the way of moderation, to discover that there is a middle ground. It's not about trying to starve yourself, it's about eating *enough*. I'm going to go with the usual behavioural advice : - Don't focus on eating healthy stuff right now. You don't need to go into binary thinking and do all the opposite of what you're doing to lose weight, you just need to change some habits. Eating healthy stuff won't make you lose weight (though it will make you healthier - but just losing weight will also do that, one step at a time), eating *less* will. - Stop considering magical solutions. The plain and simple truth is that losing weight is a very simple thing : if you eat less energy than you use, you will lose weight. Now, the trick is to find a way to eat less that does not make you feel like you're starving yourself. - Stop trying to starve yourself during the day. Do several smaller meals instead of one big one. It's better to do six meals a day than a single one anyway. Don't eat if you're not hungry. Stop eating when you don't feel hungry anymore (or when you think you have had enough calories if you really can't feel satiety). - Do real meals : sitting down, using a plate and fork... Try to chew and taste the food, your meal should last at least 15 minutes. Even if you're going to eat ice cream, make it a meal. - If you have some compulsion to eat your whole plate, just serve yourself a small plate. If you want more, get up and go in the kitchen to refill your small plate. - Most meal do not need to be complete. I mean, you don't need to have a start, a main course, cheese, salad, dessert for all your meal. A meal can be a single main course. Just don't try to use that as an excuse to try to starve yourself - It's ok to be a little hungry before a meal, actually, you should not eat if you don't feel that (if you don't know what normal hungry is, just skip breakfast but eat lunch at noon : that's normal hungry). But it's not ok to delay the meal until you are revenous - that's a great way to lose control and over-eat. - Watch how "normal" slim people eat (I mean, real slim people, not the ones who are on perpetual diet). If your fiance is a normal eater (and not a dieter), just watch him. Or invite friends at home, watch people in restaurants... There's a lot to learn from observation. Do they seem to starve themselves? Do they try to eat as much as they can during the meal, like they're going to starve until the next one? Do they always finish whatever is served to them? Do they avoid some kind of food because it's "fattening"? Do they try to eat as much "non-fattening" food in order to avoid being tempted by "fattening" food? - Try to write down everything you it. Make a diary. Write down your feelings. That could be something like : Date&Hour/Where&With Who/Food/Quantity/Feelings (emotions, hunger, satiety...). After a while, read old parts of it, try to spot where things went out of control and why. - Get rid of the problematic food (the one you binge on at night) in your house. And I don't mean you should make an orgy out of it until the stock is gone or that you should force feed your fiance with it or try to give it out to friends! I mean throw it away, into the garbage can. Now, I don't mean you should never eat that kind of food again, I just mean it's not wise to have buckets of it at home - that's what you do, right? If you want to have some of that food, just go buy the smaller package you can find and eat it slowly (meal style, not standing next to the fridge!). Try to make that a pleasant experience, taste the food fully, without feeling guilt about it. If you're not hungry anymore, throw away the leftovers instead of forcing yourself to finish the package - yes, garbage can again. If in a few days, you feel like having some again, you can always repeat the whole process. The food doesn't disappear when you stop having it in the fridge, you don't need to stock on it, that's the job of the store. Besides, walking to that store is giving you some exercise - Food is not fattening. Really. You can eat French fries, cakes, chocolate, ice cream and all, and still lose weight. And you can eat healthy food and stay fat. I promise, I'm still eating French fries from time to time, cakes a couple of times a week, chocolate daily, and I'm losing weight. What is fattening is to eat *too much* food. If I ate five cakes a way, I would gain weight - that's what I have done for years. If I eat a couple of cakes a week, I lose weight. No miracle there, as I said above, it's all about *moderation*, not about seeing things in black and white. I guess (I hope!) you're seeing psychiatrist because of your mental condition. If so, tell him about your desire to lose weight and ask for support, that's his job. If he doesn't feel up to it, or if he thinks that should be handled by someone else, ask for the name of a intelligent psychiatrist specialized in eating disorders. Because you do have an eating disorder, nightly binge eating is one. I think you might get a lot more help from a psychiatrist (or any kind of psychotherapist specialized in eating disorders) than from a dietician (they usually ignore completely the psychological issues, and many try to change all your habits at once, this just doesn't work well). I take medication that I have been told lowers my metabolism by 30%. I have gained all this weight since I began taking the medication back in 1996. What kind of medication if I may ask? Some medication, especially for mental illnesses, do a lot more than lowering your metabolism. Some can really mess up the food intake regulation mechanism (hunger, satiety), which is a lot worse. This is not helping, but you can't blame everything on it. Lack of exercise and starving yourself during the day has lowered your metabolism by a lot more than 30%! Besides, the natural way to adjust to a lowered metabolism is just to eat less (unless your metabolism is really low, like bellow 1200 calories), that's what a bunch of self-regulated slim people do by instinct. The lowered metabolism will hinder weight loss, but it's not a race anyway, and even with a modest weight loss exercising will become an option again (and this can really boost your metabolism). It also made gaining weight easier. Any advice would be appreciated. I feel lost to help myself. I feel like it's useless. I think that's the real problem. I hope I'm not sounding harsh, I really do not intend to, but here is what you are saying : - I gained weight because of a medication - I have no will, I can't lose weight by myself - I was denied the miracle solution that would have worked. That solution was surgery. I would have given my body in the care of the surgeon, and he would have made it go slim for me. - I can't help myself, I need someone to make me go slim. The only person who can decide that you will lose weight is yourself. Not even your fiance can decide that for you. And for that, you will need some will. You will even need some level of egocentricity - I guess that like a many obese people, you do care a lot for others. That's a great quality, but this should also extend to yourself. To lose weight, you will also need to accept yourself, it's not a battle against yourself and your body, it's a battle *along* with them. This means you will have to partly accept your current body, and not just that ideal slim body off in the distance. If you can manage that, you will be able to enjoy every single pound lost - because you will like your body in all its intermediate states, instead of only looking at the final picture, and you will also accept more easily the setbacks and plateau we all experience. You managed to gain all that weight on your own, with only a little help from the medication. Why should you not be able to walk the path in reverse? Only one person in the world can decide how much food you eat at a given meal, and that's yourself. And to be able to tell when enough is enough, you do have to listen to yourself. No dietician can tell you when you're not hungry anymore... I had a dream that I would have the surgery and for months I was planning on being thin again. So when the surgeon told me he would not do surgery I got really sad. I was looking forward to an easy way out. That is if there is one. There is an easy way out, actually, it's so easy that many people do not try it or even think about it. Eat Less, Move Your Body More. It's free, you don't need a dietician for that, no guru doctor... Surgery comes with its own problems, it's not a miracle solution. I feel something really wrong with the act of mutilating your body in order to achieve weight loss. I know that for some people, it's a last chance solution, but surgery is the thing that feels sad for me. I had given up on losing weight the natural way. Now it seems that is my only way out. What do you call the natural way? What did you try? Trying to starve yourself during the day and bingeing the whole night is not the natural way. Just look at real (non-dieting) slim people. Or have a look at (the few remaining) slim kids. That's what maintaining (or losing) weight the natural way should be. Usually, dieting people do all the opposite... I want to be healthy and active again. I am trying to quit smoking too. Tomorrow will be my first day without smoking. That is another story. One thing at a time Trying to lose weight *and* to stop smoking at the same time is a lot of things at once. According to most doctors, the tobacco is hurting you more than the extra fat. Without the cigarette, you heart should be doing a lot better, so walking might actually become an option again. I also noticed that my tastes for different foods shifted when I stopped smoking. Eating fat and sweet things is pretty typical among smokers. Smoking destroys your sense of smell, so you don't get much in the way of aromas from food. As a result, many smokers seek food with pleasant textures (soft tender stuff) and strong tastes (salt, sugar). This means stuff like French fries, ice cream... They also stay away from vegies, because they find them tasteless (they trully are if your sense of smell is lacking). The sense of smell is the thing I recovered the fastest when I stopped smoking, along with my breath. I hadn't eaten vegies or fruits for years, but now I actually enjoy them. Not because they're healthy, but because they actually taste good! If you stop smoking, you will also have to accept that you *might* gain some weight. It's not guaranteed, some people do not gain a single pound when they stop. Actually, it's more of a risk for slim people than for very fat ones - tobacco is useful to stay underweight, so quitting it hurts underweight people more. Even if you gain some weight, it should not be more than a few pounds. At least, from a strictly biological point of view. Psychology can make you compensate the lack of cigarette with food, but that's where your psy can be a great help. I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for food. Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy that would be cheap? Yes, there is a cheap way. Buy whatever you usually buy, but in lesser quantities Yes, even if you throw away some food as I wrote above. If instead of eating a bucket of ice cream a night, you eat one a week, that's a lot of saved money! Again, you don't need any kind of special food to lose weight. You don't need special pills, many don't work or are harmfull (especially for the heart). You don't need overpriced diet food - it just doesn't work (studies have shown people just eat more of them). You don't even need veggies - they're for being healthy, not for losing weight. The only thing you might need is to cook a little, though that's not an obligation either. But cooking can also be less expensive than buying pre-made food. You don't need money to exercise, at your current weight, walking in the best exercise you can do. And you only need a pair of good shoes for that. Swimming is also a very good exercise, and swimming pools are not that expensive. Since I started losing weight, I actually cut my food budget by at least 30%. |
#4
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help needed on where to start
You've already received some excellent info so I'll just say "Welcome to
the group". I hope to see you posting often and let us know of your progress. Beverly "Diane Nelson" wrote in message ... Please give advice on how I can start to lose weight. I need some good advice. I've read some, but would like to hear some good stuff. I have no will to stick to anything. I never exercise. I get out of breath very easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around. I wanted to have weight loss surgery, but I have mental illness and I can't find a doctor that feels I am stable enough. I want to lose this weight. I moved in with my fiance' one year ago and he is really fit. I want to do things with him, but I am stuck to the couch because just getting up to use bathroom sends my heart racing. I'm in need of some help. I have tried to exercise to tapes, but I can't even stand there very long let alone do what they are doing. At 340lbs I am very much in need of a boost. I was thinking if I joined your group here it would be a good start. I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big serving. I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day. I take medication that I have been told lowers my metabolism by 30%. I have gained all this weight since I began taking the medication back in 1996. Any advice would be appreciated. I feel lost to help myself. I feel like it's useless. I had a dream that I would have the surgery and for months I was planning on being thin again. So when the surgeon told me he would not do surgery I got really sad. I was looking forward to an easy way out. That is if there is one. I had given up on losing weight the natural way. Now it seems that is my only way out. I want to be healthy and active again. I am trying to quit smoking too. Tomorrow will be my first day without smoking. That is another story. I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for food. Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy that would be cheap? Please help. I am desperate. Thanks Dianne |
#5
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help needed on where to start
Well, you have to start by getting off the couch
and walking across the room at least five times a day until your heart stops racing. I mean, how do you get to work in the morning? You also need to get to a doctor and get your heart checked out. Make sure he takes blood and tests for hyperthyroid condition-- too high a rate. I don't know if it makes your heart race, but it does affect the heart. Keep a food diary and start learning to eat right. I disagree with Lictor, the only way you can burn the calories you have to take in for good nutrition, is to exercise. It is also the only way to prevent adult onset diabetes and it prevents and treats a number of other health problems. No drugs can prevent these conditions, and treating them can cost $6000 a year according to some pricing I did. So exercising and eating right are the cheapest way to be healthy. "Diane Nelson" wrote in message ... Please give advice on how I can start to lose weight. I need some good advice. I've read some, but would like to hear some good stuff. I have no will to stick to anything. I never exercise. I get out of breath very easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around. I wanted to have weight loss surgery, but I have mental illness and I can't find a doctor that feels I am stable enough. I want to lose this weight. I moved in with my fiance' one year ago and he is really fit. I want to do things with him, but I am stuck to the couch because just getting up to use bathroom sends my heart racing. I'm in need of some help. I have tried to exercise to tapes, but I can't even stand there very long let alone do what they are doing. At 340lbs I am very much in need of a boost. I was thinking if I joined your group here it would be a good start. I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big serving. I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day. I take medication that I have been told lowers my metabolism by 30%. I have gained all this weight since I began taking the medication back in 1996. Any advice would be appreciated. I feel lost to help myself. I feel like it's useless. I had a dream that I would have the surgery and for months I was planning on being thin again. So when the surgeon told me he would not do surgery I got really sad. I was looking forward to an easy way out. That is if there is one. I had given up on losing weight the natural way. Now it seems that is my only way out. I want to be healthy and active again. I am trying to quit smoking too. Tomorrow will be my first day without smoking. That is another story. I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for food. Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy that would be cheap? Please help. I am desperate. Thanks Dianne |
#6
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help needed on where to start
"Patricia Heil" wrote in message
... You also need to get to a doctor and get your heart checked out. Make sure he takes blood and tests for hyperthyroid condition-- too high a rate. I don't know if it makes your heart race, but it does affect the heart. Totally agreed there. You also want to have the big three checked (glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides). Potassium level (can cause fast heartbeats) might be interresting to know as well as stuff like iron and calcium. Creatinine dosage, along with uric acid and urea, to see how the kidneys have handled the load so far. And a few others your doctor will probably think about Blood tests are rather inexpensive (at least, they are here, got three full sheets of dosages, that's around 15 tests, for under $50), and they can help spot a lot of problems long before they become a serious issue. I disagree with Lictor, the only way you can burn the calories you have to take in for good nutrition, is to exercise. If you don't eat the calories in the first place, you don't have to burn them And she shouldn't have to starve herself in order to lose weight. I bet her nightly meals weight a *lot* of calories. Her metabolism is probably not as low as she thinks it is. I don't think she would have to go under the 1200 calories mark to actually lose weight, and it's possible to get decent quality nutrition above that mark (with eventually a good multivitamin). Her stores for everything storeable are probably as high as possible from all she ate, so I doubt that she's facing some major malnutrition problem in the next months. I didn't say exercise was bad. It's a good way to stabilize the weight (because of upped metabolism), and it's also a good way to keep a decent portion size while dieting (again, mainly metabolism). Unless you spend hours doing high intensity stuff, the amount of calories that will get burnt is pretty low anyway. In her current condition, long duration high intensity stuff is not really an option. So, loss of weight will have to happen by eating less. Once some weight is lost, doing medium duration low intensity exercise (like walking) will become a real option again. Again, there are perfectly slim people who sit on their butts all day long. They just don't eat much. She's already trying to lose weight *and* to stop smoking. That's already quite a chunk to deal with. Doing both will actually improve her health a lot. Eating healthy stuff and heavy exercising can wait for a later time IMHO. It is also the only way to prevent adult onset diabetes and it prevents and treats a number of other health problems. And smoking is the highest co-factor in diabete complications and in heart problems issue (along with cancer and a lot of other things). In both these cases, quitting the ASAP cigarette is the first thing to do. She's already doing that, and it will make exercising (and eating healthy stuff) a lot easier. Losing weight is also a good way to prevent both diabete and heart conditions. Body fat has a direct link with insulin resistance. That is, if you have some in the first place. Some obese will just never get diabete, just like around 20% of the type 2 are slim. That's why Diane needs to see a doctor and have a complete blood checkup. Exercise does help with diabete, but I would still rate it under weight loss. Eating healthy does help with health (cancer, heart...), but I would rate this the lowest. If I were to sort out priorities, I would go : 1- Stop smoking. 2- Lose some weight, no matter what she eats 3- Exercise 4- Eat healthy 1 is an absolute priority. It compounds with most obesity related problems and it comes with health problems on its own. It will give immediate relief to her heart. It will also make things like exercising easier. 2-4 all give progressive benefits, but 1 gives instant benefits. The first day you quit smoking, you already start to get real benefits (lowered heart rate, higher oxygen content in the blood, higher stamina, better sense of smell). 2 has a huge impact on health. Also, it is gratifying, lost weight is visible. It comes with benefits beyond health. Besides, that's what Diane wants to do the most 3-4 could be reversed in order, they're pretty much equivalent in impact. 3 helps with weight loss, especially long term, but you don't *need* it. 4 doesn't help with weight loss IMHO 4 helps with overall health. Unless Diane does a blood checkup and has a condition that needs immediate care (these are rare, even cholesterol kills slowly), this one can be integrated in her diet little by little. That's a lot of things to do at once. Diane seems to be someone unsure of herself and of her "willpower". Trying to do too much at once spells failure. Trying only to do a couple well and getting positive feedback (and losing weight and quitting smoking both give quasi-instant feedback) seems more doable to me. Once enough self confidence is built, both exercise and an healthy diet can fit in a piece at a time. |
#7
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help needed on where to start
On Tue, 20 Apr 2004 11:08:27 +0200, "Lictor"
wrote: You don't *need* exercise to lose weight, but it does help, especially with maintaining the lost weight. How refreshing to hear someone say this! I could list a dozen or more reasons why exercise is important and wonderful, but for people to imply that you can't lose weight without it, especially if you are very heavy, runs quite contrary to my experience. This is especially true for people who overeat significantly - the effect that exercise can have in the face of hundreds of excess calories is bound to be minimal. janice (who walks several miles a day for other reasons than weight loss) |
#8
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help needed on where to start
On 4/20/2004 8:15 AM, Beverly wrote:
You've already received some excellent info so I'll just say "Welcome to the group". I hope to see you posting often and let us know of your progress. Beverly I second what Beverly said. Welcome! -- jmk in NC |
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help needed on where to start
The first step has been made, you have admitted that you need to lose
weight. No quick solution is going to help, small changes first then increase. Go to your doctor find out if there is any medical issues that would make a weight loss program unadvisable. Start by making yourself small acheivable goals. The first would be to find out how much you eat and drink normally. Keep a journal for a week. The next goal would be to maybe add a morning snack if you can't face breakfast, something healthy some carbs some protein. May be a piece of fruit and a yogurt, start with something light and build up. Another goal could be to increase drinking water and cutting back on sodas coffee etc. As to exercise, maybe a chair aerobic video, something you can do sitting down until you can manage more. Maybe just a gentle walk, start with 5 min and then add 2 minutes a week. The main message is start slowly and build up. Good luck and keep us inform Michelle Ozzie in Switzerland WW WI 69.8 / 59.8 / 61kg 134 lbsed On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 18:01:49 -0500, "Diane Nelson" wrote: Please give advice on how I can start to lose weight. I need some good advice. I've read some, but would like to hear some good stuff. I have no will to stick to anything. I never exercise. I get out of breath very easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around. I wanted to have weight loss surgery, but I have mental illness and I can't find a doctor that feels I am stable enough. I want to lose this weight. I moved in with my fiance' one year ago and he is really fit. I want to do things with him, but I am stuck to the couch because just getting up to use bathroom sends my heart racing. I'm in need of some help. I have tried to exercise to tapes, but I can't even stand there very long let alone do what they are doing. At 340lbs I am very much in need of a boost. I was thinking if I joined your group here it would be a good start. I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big serving. I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day. I take medication that I have been told lowers my metabolism by 30%. I have gained all this weight since I began taking the medication back in 1996. Any advice would be appreciated. I feel lost to help myself. I feel like it's useless. I had a dream that I would have the surgery and for months I was planning on being thin again. So when the surgeon told me he would not do surgery I got really sad. I was looking forward to an easy way out. That is if there is one. I had given up on losing weight the natural way. Now it seems that is my only way out. I want to be healthy and active again. I am trying to quit smoking too. Tomorrow will be my first day without smoking. That is another story. I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for food. Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy that would be cheap? Please help. I am desperate. Thanks Dianne |
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help needed on where to start
Thanks so much people for your advice. This is some great stuff. I'm glad I
can come in here and read it a few times this week. Thanks so much. As far as some answers. I have had a good physical and even blood work on my heart. The doctor feels I can do some walking by started really slow. He has advised me to exercise everyday. Even if that means going downstairs and washing clothes. I am schizophrenic. I take risperdal and serequel. I have been stable on medication for four years. I see a psychiatrist every few months. I don't eat too much sweets or junk food. I never have left over food in fridge. I eat once a day because I am too lazy to cook more often. I usually make meat and potatoes kind of meals. Very home cooking kind of meals. Sometimes when there is left overs my fiance and I will make another meal even later in the night. So we eat once around 6 7 8 pm and then again maybe at 11 pm. Then we stay up until about 1 am. I work from home for the government. So I just walk into my office and sit a few hours a day and work. My fiance has been getting everything I need throughout the day like coffee or whatever I need. My fiance has been very flusterated with me because he does things for me while I sit on the couch and do anything. I don't want to leave the couch because it makes me out of breath or it aches to get around. Basically he is fed up with taking care of me everyday. Lately I have started doing my own stuff so I am getting more active. I guess that is a start. I never used to leave the house and my fiance did all the errands. Lately I have been trying to do some shopping with him. It's extremely hard to walk through entire store, but lately I have been doing it. I decided a couple weeks ago to get the mail at the end of a 75 foot driveway. I still haven't done that yet. I haven't done it because I don't like to be seen this huge and they are working on the hwy out there. Lots of men in front of my driveway working. I live in the united states up North. I have been to fit day, but I put in my eating for one day and then I have not done it for months. I like the features. I have no real schedule to sleep. I work all different hours never the same. I work a weird shift to maximize how many hours I get. I don't have much to spend on groceries each month. My fiance and I togther spend about $120.00 tops on our groceries. We never eat out. I have school loans in excess of 50,000 dollars and lots of other expenses. After bills we usually only have about 120 to live off for the rest of the month. Just want you to know why my food budget is so low. We get a couple boxes of food from the food shelves each month to balance out what we need. The food shelf has both fattening and healthy foods. If I ever eat junk food it is a special trip to store for fiance. I have never bought junk food with my groceries ever. I was raised that way. My parents would always make a special trip for that junk. When I was young it was usually some kind of junk food on a friday night or something. Now it is maybe twice a month. I'll have to start that diary and post it here for a few days along with at fitday. Then you can see where I am going wrong. I am going to do as you advised and eat some thing for breakfast and lunch. Make three meals. I will start that tomorrow. I love fruit but haven't been able to afford it lately. Sometimes the food shelves give canned fruit and that goes over well with me. Yeah I am in debt to the max. I didn't know I was going to become mentally ill and it came on out of the blue. So I had many financial obligations that built over a few years that I received disability and didn't work. I didn't want to do bankruptcy. I believe in paying your debts off. So because I lost my source of income for several years I got into great debt. In September I have one bill that will be paid and will allow me to have $200 more a month for food. So it's charity from food shelves and my budget of money for food until then. Tomorrow night I will post what I ate that day and do that for awhile. Would like your comments at that time. Thanks so much for the welcome here. I feel very happy to be a part of your community. Will get back to you all tomorrow evening. Thanks so much for all your advice. Dianne "Lictor" wrote in message ... First, welcome here "Diane Nelson" wrote in message ... I've read some, but would like to hear some good stuff. I have no will to stick to anything. I never exercise. You don't *need* exercise to lose weight, but it does help, especially with maintaining the lost weight. However, exercise will be easier and easier as you lose weight. But, as you have noticed, given your current weight, pretty much everything *is* exercise. So, you don't need to do any kind of physicial feat to call it exercise. Just walking around your block three times a week would be exercise. Since gravity is working against you, why not try to remove gravity? Water is a great help there, I'm not even thinking swimming, but stuff like aquaerobics. I know that swimming pools are not really comfortable at your weight level, but you usually have classes for obese people, so you wouldn't have to face slim people looking at you. Even body therapy (massages for instance, either from a professionnal or your fiance) is an option to begin with - just feeling more comfortable in your body makes it less of a dead weight and more active. As for the will, it's a very relative thing... Do you really think all these slim people are that full of willpower? I stopped smoking a while ago, and people were wondering where I had gotten all that willpower, but the truth is that I didn't have to use any. Actually, if your diet works on sheer willpower, it's bound to fail sooner or later. Willpower alone only goes so far. You have to find a diet that fits you well enough that you can keep it for *life*, and this means it should be easy enough on you that after a while, it will become the natural thing to do for you. So, yes, you will need some *will* to decide what you want for yourself and to actually try to accomplish it. But the "diet" itself shouldn't use much willpower. I get out of breath very easily. I weigh 340lbs. I'm 5'6" and I can barely get around. You will have to be very careful with protein intake, this looks like you don't have that much lean mass you can afford to burn with an unbalanced diet. You should also try to find a *good* doctor to help you, because losing this amount of weight is a real stress for your body, you have to be careful about going not too fast and not starving yourself. I wanted to have weight loss surgery, but I have mental illness and I can't find a doctor that feels I am stable enough. I don't know the exact nature of your mental illness, but if you find a doctor who does the surgery despite the illness, he won't be very honest. Mental conditions (especially eating disorders of course) are contraindications to surgery. What kind of surgery were you thinking about? I would be very cautious about these (stomach, intestine surgery), because they don't work miracles as many people seem to think : - the surgery itself can fail, leading to complications or even death - and obese people are more likely to get these than the rest. - the surgery can hurt your health, by preventing you to eat enough (especially proteins, meat is usually not well tolerated). - the lost weight can remain very modest, for some people it's less than 20lbs. The surgery itself won't make you slim, it will just make you slightly less obese. - you will need to do a *diet* on top of the surgery. It's perfectly possible to keep gaining weight after such a surgery (it's harder with bypass, but pretty easy with gastric volume reduction) - just eat ice cream all day long in small servings. That's why, at least here (in France), surgery must meet several strict conditions : - BMI 40 - *and* weight related life threatening complication (diabete, heart diseases...) - *and* failed attempt at regular diet that has been tried for at least a year - *and* psychotherapy (both to try to lose weight and to assess you for surgery). Since you will *have* to diet after the surgery, why not try it now? Same with dealing with your psychological troubles? I want to lose this weight. I moved in with my fiance' one year ago and he is really fit. I want to do things with him, but I am stuck to the couch because just getting up to use bathroom sends my heart racing. That's the usual deadloop... You're too heavy to move, so you move less. And moving less causes you to lose lean mass (muscles), which makes it even harder to move. And both the lost muscles (lowered metabolism) and lack of physical activity make you heavier. Somehow, you will have to break it somewhere. But I don't think that's the right place to ask about that right now, because if your heart really feels like this and if this is really from the physical stress (and not anxiety related), you *need* to consult a doctor before you try to do any kind of exercise. I'm in need of some help. I have tried to exercise to tapes, but I can't even stand there very long let alone do what they are doing. Don't! The last thing you should do is trying to do high intensity stuff! At best, you will only discourage yourself, and at worst, you will hurt yourself! Besides, some of these tapes are high intensity (big no-no at your current weight, you would ruin your joints!), most are not designed for obese people (some movements should just not be done with 300+lbs on the joints)... With the way your heart behaves, and your lack of exercise, you either need to have a professionnal looking after you or to do it very slowly. The only exercise I would advice to do on your own (after seeing an heart doctor) is walking - at your own pace and short distances at first. Anyway, with your weight, walking is going to burn more than those slim people are burning doing high intensity stuff - just picture them walking around with a 200lbs backpack! Swimming or *light* aquaerobics would be other options. Just stay away from anything high-impact, high intensity or unmonitored. You don't need these right now, and they will hurt you. I usually only eat once a day around 7 0r 8 at night. I have a big serving. I starve most days until I eat my one meal a day. And then, you tell us you have no willpower?! How many slim people do you think try to *starve* themselves? How many actually try to do aerobic tapes wearing a heavy backpack? You really have to *stop* doing that. Don't you see the relationships between the starving in the day and all these night meals? The later are the consequences of the frustration of the first... I bet your ideal goal would be to have this single large serving, and nothing else. But things just do not work that way. The frustration only paves the way for the excesses. What you are doing is a great recipe to develop boulimia, not to lose weight. If you reduce the frustration, you will also reduce the excesses. Besides, a single big serving a day is not very healthy, it's a huge stress on the body (digestion, blood sugar...). Many overweight people have a manicheist way of thinking, they think in binary mode : either you're starving yourself, or you're trying to make your stomach burst. Losing weight is also learning to walk the way of moderation, to discover that there is a middle ground. It's not about trying to starve yourself, it's about eating *enough*. I'm going to go with the usual behavioural advice : - Don't focus on eating healthy stuff right now. You don't need to go into binary thinking and do all the opposite of what you're doing to lose weight, you just need to change some habits. Eating healthy stuff won't make you lose weight (though it will make you healthier - but just losing weight will also do that, one step at a time), eating *less* will. - Stop considering magical solutions. The plain and simple truth is that losing weight is a very simple thing : if you eat less energy than you use, you will lose weight. Now, the trick is to find a way to eat less that does not make you feel like you're starving yourself. - Stop trying to starve yourself during the day. Do several smaller meals instead of one big one. It's better to do six meals a day than a single one anyway. Don't eat if you're not hungry. Stop eating when you don't feel hungry anymore (or when you think you have had enough calories if you really can't feel satiety). - Do real meals : sitting down, using a plate and fork... Try to chew and taste the food, your meal should last at least 15 minutes. Even if you're going to eat ice cream, make it a meal. - If you have some compulsion to eat your whole plate, just serve yourself a small plate. If you want more, get up and go in the kitchen to refill your small plate. - Most meal do not need to be complete. I mean, you don't need to have a start, a main course, cheese, salad, dessert for all your meal. A meal can be a single main course. Just don't try to use that as an excuse to try to starve yourself - It's ok to be a little hungry before a meal, actually, you should not eat if you don't feel that (if you don't know what normal hungry is, just skip breakfast but eat lunch at noon : that's normal hungry). But it's not ok to delay the meal until you are revenous - that's a great way to lose control and over-eat. - Watch how "normal" slim people eat (I mean, real slim people, not the ones who are on perpetual diet). If your fiance is a normal eater (and not a dieter), just watch him. Or invite friends at home, watch people in restaurants... There's a lot to learn from observation. Do they seem to starve themselves? Do they try to eat as much as they can during the meal, like they're going to starve until the next one? Do they always finish whatever is served to them? Do they avoid some kind of food because it's "fattening"? Do they try to eat as much "non-fattening" food in order to avoid being tempted by "fattening" food? - Try to write down everything you it. Make a diary. Write down your feelings. That could be something like : Date&Hour/Where&With Who/Food/Quantity/Feelings (emotions, hunger, satiety...). After a while, read old parts of it, try to spot where things went out of control and why. - Get rid of the problematic food (the one you binge on at night) in your house. And I don't mean you should make an orgy out of it until the stock is gone or that you should force feed your fiance with it or try to give it out to friends! I mean throw it away, into the garbage can. Now, I don't mean you should never eat that kind of food again, I just mean it's not wise to have buckets of it at home - that's what you do, right? If you want to have some of that food, just go buy the smaller package you can find and eat it slowly (meal style, not standing next to the fridge!). Try to make that a pleasant experience, taste the food fully, without feeling guilt about it. If you're not hungry anymore, throw away the leftovers instead of forcing yourself to finish the package - yes, garbage can again. If in a few days, you feel like having some again, you can always repeat the whole process. The food doesn't disappear when you stop having it in the fridge, you don't need to stock on it, that's the job of the store. Besides, walking to that store is giving you some exercise - Food is not fattening. Really. You can eat French fries, cakes, chocolate, ice cream and all, and still lose weight. And you can eat healthy food and stay fat. I promise, I'm still eating French fries from time to time, cakes a couple of times a week, chocolate daily, and I'm losing weight. What is fattening is to eat *too much* food. If I ate five cakes a way, I would gain weight - that's what I have done for years. If I eat a couple of cakes a week, I lose weight. No miracle there, as I said above, it's all about *moderation*, not about seeing things in black and white. I guess (I hope!) you're seeing psychiatrist because of your mental condition. If so, tell him about your desire to lose weight and ask for support, that's his job. If he doesn't feel up to it, or if he thinks that should be handled by someone else, ask for the name of a intelligent psychiatrist specialized in eating disorders. Because you do have an eating disorder, nightly binge eating is one. I think you might get a lot more help from a psychiatrist (or any kind of psychotherapist specialized in eating disorders) than from a dietician (they usually ignore completely the psychological issues, and many try to change all your habits at once, this just doesn't work well). I take medication that I have been told lowers my metabolism by 30%. I have gained all this weight since I began taking the medication back in 1996. What kind of medication if I may ask? Some medication, especially for mental illnesses, do a lot more than lowering your metabolism. Some can really mess up the food intake regulation mechanism (hunger, satiety), which is a lot worse. This is not helping, but you can't blame everything on it. Lack of exercise and starving yourself during the day has lowered your metabolism by a lot more than 30%! Besides, the natural way to adjust to a lowered metabolism is just to eat less (unless your metabolism is really low, like bellow 1200 calories), that's what a bunch of self-regulated slim people do by instinct. The lowered metabolism will hinder weight loss, but it's not a race anyway, and even with a modest weight loss exercising will become an option again (and this can really boost your metabolism). It also made gaining weight easier. Any advice would be appreciated. I feel lost to help myself. I feel like it's useless. I think that's the real problem. I hope I'm not sounding harsh, I really do not intend to, but here is what you are saying : - I gained weight because of a medication - I have no will, I can't lose weight by myself - I was denied the miracle solution that would have worked. That solution was surgery. I would have given my body in the care of the surgeon, and he would have made it go slim for me. - I can't help myself, I need someone to make me go slim. The only person who can decide that you will lose weight is yourself. Not even your fiance can decide that for you. And for that, you will need some will. You will even need some level of egocentricity - I guess that like a many obese people, you do care a lot for others. That's a great quality, but this should also extend to yourself. To lose weight, you will also need to accept yourself, it's not a battle against yourself and your body, it's a battle *along* with them. This means you will have to partly accept your current body, and not just that ideal slim body off in the distance. If you can manage that, you will be able to enjoy every single pound lost - because you will like your body in all its intermediate states, instead of only looking at the final picture, and you will also accept more easily the setbacks and plateau we all experience. You managed to gain all that weight on your own, with only a little help from the medication. Why should you not be able to walk the path in reverse? Only one person in the world can decide how much food you eat at a given meal, and that's yourself. And to be able to tell when enough is enough, you do have to listen to yourself. No dietician can tell you when you're not hungry anymore... I had a dream that I would have the surgery and for months I was planning on being thin again. So when the surgeon told me he would not do surgery I got really sad. I was looking forward to an easy way out. That is if there is one. There is an easy way out, actually, it's so easy that many people do not try it or even think about it. Eat Less, Move Your Body More. It's free, you don't need a dietician for that, no guru doctor... Surgery comes with its own problems, it's not a miracle solution. I feel something really wrong with the act of mutilating your body in order to achieve weight loss. I know that for some people, it's a last chance solution, but surgery is the thing that feels sad for me. I had given up on losing weight the natural way. Now it seems that is my only way out. What do you call the natural way? What did you try? Trying to starve yourself during the day and bingeing the whole night is not the natural way. Just look at real (non-dieting) slim people. Or have a look at (the few remaining) slim kids. That's what maintaining (or losing) weight the natural way should be. Usually, dieting people do all the opposite... I want to be healthy and active again. I am trying to quit smoking too. Tomorrow will be my first day without smoking. That is another story. One thing at a time Trying to lose weight *and* to stop smoking at the same time is a lot of things at once. According to most doctors, the tobacco is hurting you more than the extra fat. Without the cigarette, you heart should be doing a lot better, so walking might actually become an option again. I also noticed that my tastes for different foods shifted when I stopped smoking. Eating fat and sweet things is pretty typical among smokers. Smoking destroys your sense of smell, so you don't get much in the way of aromas from food. As a result, many smokers seek food with pleasant textures (soft tender stuff) and strong tastes (salt, sugar). This means stuff like French fries, ice cream... They also stay away from vegies, because they find them tasteless (they trully are if your sense of smell is lacking). The sense of smell is the thing I recovered the fastest when I stopped smoking, along with my breath. I hadn't eaten vegies or fruits for years, but now I actually enjoy them. Not because they're healthy, but because they actually taste good! If you stop smoking, you will also have to accept that you *might* gain some weight. It's not guaranteed, some people do not gain a single pound when they stop. Actually, it's more of a risk for slim people than for very fat ones - tobacco is useful to stay underweight, so quitting it hurts underweight people more. Even if you gain some weight, it should not be more than a few pounds. At least, from a strictly biological point of view. Psychology can make you compensate the lack of cigarette with food, but that's where your psy can be a great help. I don't have much money to buy good food. I have a very low budget for food. Is there a cheap way to eat good? If so what kind of things could I buy that would be cheap? Yes, there is a cheap way. Buy whatever you usually buy, but in lesser quantities Yes, even if you throw away some food as I wrote above. If instead of eating a bucket of ice cream a night, you eat one a week, that's a lot of saved money! Again, you don't need any kind of special food to lose weight. You don't need special pills, many don't work or are harmfull (especially for the heart). You don't need overpriced diet food - it just doesn't work (studies have shown people just eat more of them). You don't even need veggies - they're for being healthy, not for losing weight. The only thing you might need is to cook a little, though that's not an obligation either. But cooking can also be less expensive than buying pre-made food. You don't need money to exercise, at your current weight, walking in the best exercise you can do. And you only need a pair of good shoes for that. Swimming is also a very good exercise, and swimming pools are not that expensive. Since I started losing weight, I actually cut my food budget by at least 30%. |
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