A
female
age
36-40,
anonymous
writes:What are good weight loss exercises for over weight people? I physically can't do regular push ups so I'm trying to find new things I can do that will still work. I'm currently on weight watchers, but I feel I need more motivation... Any help would be great. :)
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reader, anonymous, writes (3 February 2012): I think you've gotten plenty of great advice here OP.
The only things I want to add from my own experience is this:
Firstly a lot of people find tracking every little detail to be very beneficial and efficient. Weight, BMI and setting numerical goals works for a lot of people and you may be one of those people so it may be worth giving that a try. I have to say I'm not one of those people though, I enjoy my life far too much to sit there weighing myself, weighing my food and being strict with my diet. It takes too much will power and too much work and other than people like Trance who make it their life's obsession most people who do it that way can't keep it up for long and eventually regain the weight.
I'm more of a lifestyle kind of person. I got weighed for the first time in 2 years the other day by my doctor and I wasn't surprized to be of a perfect BMI for my height and low blood pressure conducive with high level athletic performance and I don't really do much. 3 1/2 hours of intensive exercise a week is all I do and I'm as toned as you can get and quite built. My diet is not strict at all either I eat what I want, healthily, my workouts are just quite intense, I burn 1200 calories in each one but my lifestyle revolves around using my body constantly. I walk everywhere, I don't drive and if it's too long a distance to walk, I cycle. I walk up stairs instead of taking the elevator. When I do walk places I walk at a fast pace, that means even a trip to the store is good exercise and I can tell you every tiny bit all adds up. You may go to the store once that day, but that may be 20 minutes of good cardio. You may then walk to a friends house that day too, that makes 40 minutes, add up all the places you walk in a week and that can be a hell of a lot of exercise without putting any thought or setting aside any time to do so.
The trick is to incorporate exercise into your lifestyle OP and in such a way that you can do it for the rest of your life. That way you don't even have to look at the scales your body will just tone itself up on its own and you won't be one of these people that is consumed by the idea of having to reach goals. I said above I only work out 3 1/2 hours a week, well that's not including the fact I walk everywhere and I take my dogs for walks and runs every day too. So off the top of my head of my head I probably do more than 10 hours of exercise a week.
It is a good idea to spend a month approximating calorific values of food. Just so you get a rough idea of what you're consuming. Choose a banana over a bar of chocolate, drink a glass of milk instead of a soda, just little variations to how you eat but in a way that you still enjoy eating and you don't feel like your restricting yourself too much. Cook your food from fresh ingredients and grill, steam and roast things instead of drowning in oil.
A freshly made meal is not only better for you than pre-packaged stuff it tastes better because you can experiment and make things to your taste.
I do eat fast food once or twice a week and I drink lots of alcohol on the weekends but my exercise balances that out.
A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (2 February 2012): this is what is keeping me on track and super motivated, so it may work for you too:
1. weigh yourself every single morning, as soon as you wake up and write it down in a note book.
2. measure all the significant parts of your body and record the numbers in a chart (so your neck, bust, upper arm, narrowest point of waist, belly, widest point of hips, widest point of thigh, wrist, calf and ankle)
when you do this, you can see exactly your progress, centimetre by centimetre (or inches, whatever) and it makes you aware of your body and accountable for what you are doing, if you measurements are slowly going down over the week, excellent. if they are going up, you are doing it wrong.
3. use an online calculator to work out exactly how many calories your body needs (sometimes they have ones that also show how many you can eat to lose weight). once you have your number, STICK TO IT. don't eat a single calorie more. You shouldn't go lower than 1200, experts recommend. as long as you are filling up on low cal foods like green vegetables, you won't be hungry. Also remember all drinks except for water contain calories, its easy not to think of a drink as a meal, but it all counts towards your daily limit.
4. write down every single thing you eat, and how many calories it is. this includes sauces, spreads, toppings, absolutely everything. as time goes on, you should get good at 'budgeting' your calories so that you can add in more treats or more variety, so long as you are under your daily limit.
The reason why I have listed non-exercise things because as important as fitness is, you don't start seeing results until you are on a proper calorie controlled eating plan. If you are eating less than your body burns, you will lose weight even if you do literally nothing all day. The fitness is to build up muscle and improve your health, and to improve the appearance and tone of your skin, more than it is to lose fat. Still important, but there is a reason why they say the only way to lose weight is through diet AND exercise. there is no point in wasting 2 hours in the gym sweating it out if you are still over eating.
Swimming and walking will probably be the best thing for you to do, low impact, low stress on the joints, but still effective. Press ups only burn at a stretch about 10 calories/per 21 press ups so they aren't going to fast track your weight loss anyway, (and you have to burn 3500 calories before you lose just a single pound) Good luck. You have already taken steps in the right direction, so keep reading up and collecting advice and combine it all till you find something that works for you.
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male
reader, IHateWomanBeaters +, writes (2 February 2012):
 There si something that I have done with people that could be a good motivator for you, if you are into that kind of stuff.
Aside from eating healthy and exercise, you should also consider consequences for not doing your exercises.
I am sure this may sound kind of odd, but if it appeals to you, the consequences should involve spanking in a pre-discussed and agreed amount for certain infractions with certain implements.
Again, you consent, agree, like the idea, so on so forth and then you do it.
You need motivation? that is motivation
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female
reader, PerhapsNot +, writes (2 February 2012):
 I can't do push ups either! So what I can suggest is what I did: use some light weights instead, or do some wall pushups. To keep you motivated, print or save a picture of a woman as a body aspiration. Whenever you feel lazy, look at that picture, look t yourself and then get going!
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male
reader, lakers_lover09 +, writes (2 February 2012):
Losing weight always depend on eating healthier, drinking more water, and exercise. But I do know people who lost weight just by watching what they eat. but exercise is healthy so never skip it. My suggestion..run with some goods exercise music. Find a group of friends and make a pact to get for together like bike riding or hiking it even power walking for an hour. The hardest part about losing weight is committment, so find someone to help you and lose with you. You can do it. I have seen many others who have lol good luck.
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female
reader, chigirl  +, writes (2 February 2012):
 Don't look to things you can't do, look to things you CAN do. So you can't do push-ups, so what? You can do tons of other things to work out your arms, such as lifting weights (use water bottles or juice cartons as weights, anything goes). Walk every day. Walk a bit longer each week. Then start walking faster and faster and work your way up to jogging. The only real way to lose weight is by running/walking/jogging and lowering your intake of food. Lifting weights will NOT make you lose weight, it'll build your muscles. Which is good in itself, don't get me wrong, and you should build muscle to stay healthy. But to lose weight you need to focus on walking and jogging and eating less.
I know this might be provoking, but eating less really IS what you must do to lose weight. Every person who knows someone with an eating disorder, or has one themselves, know that. Anorectic people who want to lose weight don't work out, they just stop eating. I'm saying this to point out the fact that if you want to lose weight you shouldn't be focusing on "working out" and building muscles through lifting weights or doing push-ups.
Make sure you stay healthy though. Cutting down on food is dangerous if you don't balance your diet. Make sure you get your vital nutrients. I would suggest you try to put up a monthly dinner plan that will cover your basics on vegetables, vitamins and proteins etc. and then simply minimize the portions.
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female
reader, anonymous, writes (2 February 2012): My answer isnt about exercises sorry. I can tel you though if you dont eat wheat in any form, you will lose weight definitely. Try it. Its difficult and alien but it works.
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female
reader, anonymous, writes (2 February 2012): Find an exercise buddy, if you can...you can hold each other accountable.
Walk every, single, day and bring along a headset and listen to your favorite music.
Swim, swim, swim...you work out your entire body.
Don't go on a diet. They will not work long term, and the only one gaining is the company that sells their diet plan.
Don't deprive yourself of anything you like to eat, instead, make a concious decision to cut down the portion sizes...nothing larger than what would fit in the palm of your hand...just a few bites of dessert, snacks under 100 calories...it's as simple as that and you WILL see the weight come off.
Stay away from as much processed foods as you possibly can, and cook as much as you can yourself.
Vow to stay away from any fast food restaurant...if you regularly go, this will be hard at first, but if you hang tough, within a month, you will not crave it anymore.
EAT! Make sure you eat small snacks/meals throughout the day.
Don't look at a scale for one month, not even a peek! It will make you crazy, with the normal up and downs and that alone can defeat you.
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female
reader, Ima FreAk!  +, writes (2 February 2012):
 Hiyaaa,
Don't worry love, I can't even do one push up that's how bad my upper body strength is.
The thing is, losing weight is easy but it's keeping it off that is hard. You should think of weight lost as a lifestyle change, not just a tempo quick fix. In order to lose weight you must do it over a long period of time and change you're bad habits.
To motivate yourself you could think of being healthy, you'll be stronger and reduce health risk like blocked arteries and what not.
To lose weight you gotta have a realistic goal, set yourself targets and rise them each time, a morning jog for 15 minutes maybe good. Some cardios like join dance classes, or exercise classes. These can get you to lose weight, find a couple of new friends or maybe even a boyfriend! So joining exercise classes is a big thumbs up!
If you don't wanna join classes then you can do exercises at home such as weight lifting. Not too much weights about 3kg altogether so about 1.5kg a weight and just do regular weight lifting. This will increase your metabolism so you can actually burn fat while doing nothing if you have really good metabolism. Hence how really skinny people who eat a lot don't put on weight coz of good metabolism!!
You can buy yourself Just Dance on the Wii coz that works to or take dogs out for a walk or even use less public transport and start walking instead of taking the car or buses.
Also eat a lot more brown stuff which is wholemeal, wholewheat there is awesome recipes online that you can make yourself which can really help.
Hope my advice helps!
Good luck!
Lots of love,
Ima FreAk!
x
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female
reader, k_c100 +, writes (2 February 2012):
 If you are very overweight and struggle to do resistance based exercise (i.e. weight, push ups etc) then you need to focus on cardio until you have lost enough weight to incorporate resistance into your work outs.
As AuntyEm said, walking is fantastic exercise and it is free. And walking builds a platform for further exercise - whether this becomes hiking uphill, or running, it gradually builds your fitness so you can move on past a casual walk to more intense exercise.
Swimming is brilliant for an all over work out, almost every muscle in the body is used when you swim and it builds your lung capacity too meaning you can build your endurance. As another (slightly) overweight female I know how hard it can be to get your swimsuit out and show your body in front of other people - but dont let this stop you. They will respect you for being there and doing something about your weight, so dont feel embarrased - feel proud that you are making changes. No-one is there to look at you, they are there to swim not look at other people's bodies. Try and swim at a time when the pool is designated to fitness swimming (we call it lane swimming here in the UK) so there are no casual swimmers there and no kids - it is just there for you and other people serious about swimming/getting fit.
Perhaps think about buying a kettlebell or hand held weights and using those at home. There are plenty of websites and magazines that have loads of circuits and exercises you can do at home - try this to start http://www.womenshealthmag.com/#axzz1lDpEGFUX
http://www.womensfitness.co.uk/
Most importantly - dont give up and keep trying! If you have a bad day dont let it turn into a bad week, make sure you are good the next day to make up for any treats you had the day before. Weight loss is hard and it takes time, so just be patient, stick with it and keep thinking of new ways to exercise. Whether that be picking a hill that you want to climb and training to achieve that, or maybe joining a class at a gym, or increasing the lengths you do at the pool by 1 every week....set targets and think of new things to do once you have achieved those targets.
I hope this helps and good luck!
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male
reader, bruce lee  +, writes (2 February 2012):
 It's a well-known fact that walking is one of the best exercises. There is no chance of doing an injury and it burns up calories. Find some hills to walk up. That will add to the intensity of the exercise.
And do some stretches. Stretching psychologically tricks your mind and body into thinking you are ready for exercise. Also drink plenty of black coffee (without the sugar and milk) instead of anything sweet. What you drink is equally as important as what you eat.
Kostya Tszyu (Boxer) put out a good fitness DVD and book. You can order it in at a bookstore. Good luck.
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male
reader, TrancedRhythmEar  +, writes (2 February 2012):
 I'll tell you right now... focus on nutrition. That is more than half the battle. 5 meals no day.. strictly. Water and green tea for beverages, absolutely nothing sugared. Think of sugar as a white death. Plain oats, eggs, spinach, balsamic vinegar, brown rice, apples, bananas... focus more on veggies as they have less sugar and more vitamins to help weight loss and torch fat. Reciprocate your hardcore dieting into the gym... youll be more motivated. To be honest, I cant stand people who walk on treadmills or gab. Work hard or get your ass out. Push it day in and day out, change your lifestyle, sacrifice social times... do whatever is necessary to get on track with your weight loss goals.
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female
reader, AuntyEm +, writes (2 February 2012):
 Brisk walking is an excellent way to get a good cardio work out if you are a overweight. It gets the blood pumping, reduces cholesterol and burns fat. You can start off with short 10 minute walks 3 times a week and build up to as many walks as you like. If you have an ipod you can listen to your fav tunes or meditation music as you walk. Your body will also release natural endorphines which will de stress you and make you sleep better. Get a decent pair of sneakers and a some track pants and give it a go.
Swimming is also another good exercise to tone up. Even if you cannot swim, just walking through the water, the resistance will push your body that little bit further. Again build up and do several lengths of the pool (the shallow end) and you will start to burn more calories.
If you want to do some toning arm exercises, use two cans of beans, one in each hand and do some arm curls. 3x reps of 15 curls to begin with and building up to as many as you can do over a few weeks will tone up your arms.
Press ups can be done just standing back about 2 ft from a wall, leaning in and placing your palms at shoulder height on the wall and pushing against it. You get the same effect but you dont have to be face down on the floor so its better for your heart and won't put as much strain on your body.
The best thing is that these exercises are cheap or completely free. You don't have to go to a gym and you can save your money for all those new clothes you are going to buy when you are much slimmer.
Keep going darling and just look foward to a whole new you xxxx
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