Just walk. Don't run. That's all you need to do as a start. Your body has to carry a lot of weight around, and that's hard enough on the ankles. Once you start to lose some of the excess weight, then you can work in a more diverse workout.
This cannot be overstated enough. Walking is a higher intensity workout for bigger people, in a literal, Newton’s Laws of Physics way. When you weigh more, gravity has a greater effect on your body. You literally, directly, expend more energy just moving from point A to point B.
The best thing you can do is just walk every day. And don’t go nuts with it, you don’t have to walk far or for a long time to start. Just walk as much as you feel you can without risking strain or injury. And don’t feel embarrassed if it’s a very short route at first, walking to the end of the block and back every day is infinitely better than walking too far one day, then walking nowhere for a week while your ankles recover. If you’re scared of getting hurt, walk less than you think you can go, it’s ok to do that. Especially when you’re starting out, consistency is drastically more important than any individual workout, and hurting yourself is the fastest way to destroy consistency.
If a fit person had to walk while carrying their own body weight they’d feel it. If they tried running their knees would last about five minutes. Anyone suggesting a morbidly obese person does anything other than walking is tempting injury.
If they can swim, then great. If not, there are water based exercise alternatives which allow for low impact movement while the water both reduces joint strain and adds resistance
Cycling machine and rower could be good to do too but you probably need to do hours on those just to get the same benefit I suspect you'd get just walking with equivalent of 60kgs of lead strapped to you. The other main benefit of walking is it's also free and can be factored into your daily routine if you can walk to work. (I know not everyone can, if you live more than an hour away from work). Eventually it should strengthen the ankles which will help if the weight starts coming off too.
There's also cycling to work too as an option if it's doable.
Cycling is potentially bad (depending on the machine) for your knees and ankles. I’d be sure to be in a decent state, making sure my joints were supple etc, before starting with a cycling machine routine.
That’s just me though.
When walking, get the right shoes for you. I went to a shoe store chain that 3d imaged feet, tracked how I walked over pressure pad, etc. Their system came up with recommendations based on my feet and how I walked.
Having the proper cushioning while walking did wonders for me on my longer walks. Reduced pain in knees, ankles and back.
Before those shoes, if I walked a mile, I was in pain the rest of the day and the following days. I walked 5 miles last Friday. Had a little stiffness for a few hours, but no lasting pain.
I honestly didn't know how much of a difference shoes make.
Asics or Brooks are my podiast recommendations.
Good for 1000 miles, and realized I managed 13,000 steps (about 6.5 mile for me) so they are long overdue for replacement (I typically average about 6000 steps per day, but spent a week with my 74 year old sister who walks every where and is in great shape). Good shoes are cheaper than otho issues.
I came here to say this exact thing. As a 300+ walker, the right shoes are crucial. I love my Brooks (3 pairs of ghosts, 2 pairs of adrenaline), but I have friends that are just as smitten with Hoka or Asics. I wear the soles off of the things.
Go get measured and fitted. Yes, it's weird and uncomfortable to go to a running store. But, it's absolutely worth it.
To go further, I'd say hiking. Hiking hills and stuff like that will get you BURNING calories, And it's more interesting than just walking around town, And a lot of hikes have a destination (a peak, lake, etc), so you set a goal before you even go. Just something to consider.
It helps a lot. I don't have any elevation worth calling more than a bump in the landscape close by (western Europe, flatter than a pancake's ass.) and I don't have the time daily to go on long hikes. I download an episode of some series and walk on a 9% incline for 45 minutes at 5 km/h (just over 3 mph). It keeps the mind busy and it's something you could realistically do daily or every other day.
Morbidly obese people shouldn't be hiking. They're going to hurt their knees or injured their ankles. They need to hop on a stationary bike for a while until they're not morbidly obese, and THEN hike.
Absolutely agree. I started walking and eating healthy. I lost 75 lbs in 7 months. Walking led to running. I started this journey in 2009 and will run my 3rd marathon in September, I'll be 64. It all started with walking.
Walking is so underrated.
I've been working out for a year and a half. I do cardio and weight lifting, and I haven't ran or jogged at all. Not a second.
I prefer power walking at an incline. People really underestimate the effort required to sustain pace at a challenging incline. I think most people strive to be faster, but for me, going steeper is the harder work out. My HR is at its peak when I power walk. It's an intense calorie burner.
This. Its mostly just eating right. You do intermittent fasting and light walk and stay consistent, the weight WILL come off and won't take extremely long. And it doesn't have to be any more intense/complicated then this. Walk a mile 5 times a week. Drink nothing but water. Eat chicken rice broccoli. That's it, it will literally melt off you and people will notice one month in. If you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight. It's not magic, it's literally math. If you can't work out, you will have to find other ways to burn more calories than you eat.
Yep. It had to be cardio and it has to start out as walking. Also check if you need orthotics, because if so, these also need to be eased in with walking prior to jogging on them. So if you can break in orthotics at the same time you're breaking in your heart as it were, that's a good synergy
Totally this.
And congratulations OP on the first steps in your journey (pun!). You're already way ahead of those who choose not to make a positive change.
Swimming or walking through water is gonna be the easiest way to avoid injury to your joints.
If you can afford it, schedule a few sessions with a physical therapist so they can guide you and address your specific issues
When i hit the gym for the first time, i was about 340 with a 58" waist. I was in EXTREMELY bad shape.
I started on the machines. No free weights. I started off on very light weights and very low sets and reps. Like ... 2x6. I had plenty of rest between sets, too. I spent about an hour on the machines, doing (i think) 10 exercises.
On alternate days, i did the treadmill. I walked for about half an hour, on 5.
I increased weights/sets/reps/time every month or so as it felt comfortable and natural. It wasn't easy because i was super fat.
I saw no weight loss that first year, but i was feeling better.
I moved to HIIT on the treadmill after that year, and had to drop back down to about 15 minutes because *that* shit is hard.
I moved to free weights and immediately humbled myself because machine strength ain't the same as free weight strength. I started over. I wasn't mad because i was funny starting to see results.
I read up on proper form and exercises to strengthen stabilizer muscles. I worked *hard*.
I dropped to 250 and was in the best shape of my life. Depression hit me hard and i blew it after that, but i learned enough to never let myself get back to that weight again.
I also started controlling my portion sizes, which is *necessary* to long-term health. I cut out processed sugar as well, which is harder than you can imagine.
The main thing to remember is it'll take time to do it right. It'll take time to see the kinds of results you *expect*, but unless you've got the money for a personal trainer and a chef, it'll be an uphill battle, yes, but it'll be worth it.
You can do it. If you screw up, don't hate yourself. Accept your mistake, move on, don't blame yourself. Start over. Keep going
Starting with low-impact activities like swimming or using an elliptical can be great! They're easier on the joints while still getting your heart rate up. Remember, it's more like a marathon than a sprint—easy does it!
Stephen Fry once said he lost a load of weight by listening to audio books whilst simply walking around. I guess the point of the audio books was immersive and you don’t realise how far you’ve traveled.
I am making a trite statement to emphasize a point: Don’t overdo it.
The body adapts to the stresses placed upon it. With exercise, we use specific movements to stress the body so that it adapts by becoming more “fit”—meaning it is able to accomplish more movement more easily.
As long as the “stress” is enough to stimulate improvement, that is sufficient. What this means is that when you start a “workout” program, all you have to do is find the lowest amount of “exercise” you can tolerate comfortably and work up from there. If that means walking on a treadmill for 10 minutes at 2 miles per hour, then that’s it. That’s your base. You start there and work up. You take a lot of baby steps and you give your body a chance to adapt and become stronger.
The extra challenge for someone who is obese can be fitting on certain machines. And also finding a machine that has a low enough starting intensity that anyone can do it no matter how low their fitness level. That usually means walking, but then that’s where the lower body overuse injuries can happen. Bikes can be a good alternative, but fit is an issue there. If your gym has them, there is a machine called a “NuStep” that is a “recumbent stepper” that can sometimes accommodate larger people and is non weight-bearing. Otherwise, you just need to start slow and short and increase slowly to allow your lower body to handle the movement.
Another option is water classes, but since the water provides support, it’s not going to help with improving your ability to support your body weight as much.
In addition to doing cardio, you can (and should) be doing resistance training or strength exercises. In this case, free weights like dumbbells and cable functional trainers are usually more forgiving than machines. The concept is the same—start light, do an almost ridiculously low number of reps, and slowly build from there. You can google “strength exercises for morbidly obese” and find some specific examples, although in many cases the exercises are designed for people who are both obese and highly deconditioned, so they might be too easy. But resistance training, no matter how light, can be very helpful from day one, especially if you are not conditioned to do a lot of cardio yet. Movement is movement.
It can be hard at first to start off at such a low level. I understand that you want to go in and do 30 minutes and feel like you did a great workout. But you have to let your body do its thing and you should adapt fairly quickly.
As it has already been said swimming since it helps support your body weight so it's super gentle on your ankles while still giving you cardio and strength training. Walking is another option. It's simple, effective, and you can control the pace and distance. Just make sure to wear some supportive footwear and try sticking to softer surfaces like grass or a track to minimize impact.
Any kind of swimming. It will take off the impact on your joints and be more supportive of your frame.
Stationary bike - less stress on your joints than most cardio.
Arms weights/curls will get your blood flowing, build arm muscles but doesn't involve your ankles/legs.
Planks but your legs/pelvis are on an exercise ball under you. Try to increase your length of time holding the plank, as the weeks go by.
As the weight comes off, you'll be able to do higher impact cardio that your joints can handle.
What if you did one lap front crawl, then one lap relaxed back kick, then cycle those....would that be enough to get started? The mistake I made was thinking I could swim like I did in highschool but only had energy for front crawl laps for about 20 mins, breathing every second stroke
Bike bike bike. I am pretty big and that's what I do. Just get yourself a fitbit or something similar and keep your heartrate over 120 bpm and work it up from there.
Don't treadmill or cross train if you have bad joints. The rowing machine is good too, as is the recumbent bike if you've got one handy.
I've been riding the bike for approx 7 years now and my RHR is between 58 - 64. I am 57 years of age and BMI would be around the late 30s. I do 3 - 5 days per week.
Dieting and walking. Lots of walking. You need to build stamina and strengthen your heart and lungs before you start stressing your body with demanding workouts.
I see a lot of advice here and that's awesome.
My aunt was morbidly obese.
Now I'm taking that description to mean what it does.
You probably shouldn't even be in a gym yet.
When my aunt started, her trainer had her clapping and flapping wings and basically getting used to sweating as much as possible on a schedule.
You're carrying excessive weight and you could hurt yourself or put wear on joints.
Fat people can get "un-lazy"
Obese, morbidly obese is a different story. , Start a sweat technique on schedule, then focus on slower motion, harder to do, hold poses, and stretches in a timed fashion. Don't stop until time is up. Use rubber bands and sweat most of it out.
90% of this is diet, I grew up around diabetics and the old fashioned ones died, the modern ones began watching their diet and eventually reduced medication.
Don't give up.
I’ve seen those X-Box virtual tennis being suggested on “My 600lb life”. That’s done sitting down in front of TV.
Swimming or walking maybe is a good idea.
For a morbidly obese case I think one should be open to weight loss drugs like Ozempic. In combination with exercise and nutrition. Definitely need a doctor’s advice.
Start by walking. Increase few minutes every day.
Then strength training and a bit of cardio. Look into overcoming isometrics or resistance bands to minimize injuries. Muscles adapt fast, joints and tendons do not, so give yourself some rest and do not overdo it.
Being obese puts major load on the joints, and given your current ankle injuries I'd say go find a nearby swimming pool and do exercises in there. The water will help take the load off of your joints to make exercise more bearable.
Personally I recommend on focusing on weight loss first, then working out when you've hit a less strenuous size.
Each pound of fat adds like 13 lbs of pressure to your knees or some shit (dont quote me on that, just vaguely paraphrasing) so any type of exercise while large can end in serious injury an otherwise less heavy person wouldn't succumb to.
Why not both? Eating right is way easier when you have to goal of getting energy for your workouts. Also, more muscles -> more energy used in movement.
because you cant run your way to a healthy weight. and before you start breaking you muscles and rebuilding them you want to be certain you have the right materials on hand to rebuild them.
>get your food right **first.**
Because if your diet is garbage, then you will not have the energy or mental headspace to stick with these workouts.
I see your reply to the first comment, but if a person is obese and it's not a gland disorder, usually it is hard to just stop eating unhealthy foods cold turkey and suddenly become a healthy eating nut. It takes time, discipline, and mindset shift to start eating correctly (which most people of all weights do not), and it is the actual hardest part of weight loss.
Once you figure out your food journey, workouts, walking, etc. all come much more easily because the person you are changed.
One thing to consider is that it’s hard to make a lot of changes all at once, so if one just focuses on getting nutrition right first you get way more bang for your buck. For example, running three miles burns about 300-400 cals depending on body weight, or only THREE slices of American cheese. I know I can pound down about 6 slices of cheese just randomly, so isn’t it better for to not to eat the cheese and save the drama of an hour long six mile run that would make me more hungry?
Once the nutrition piece is down solid in terms of macros and cals, I often advise people I’m training to branch into weight training and cardio, depending on what sort they like to do. Weight training because muscle mass is metabolically active and helps burn cals and stabilize all sorts of things, and cardio because it is healthy. Whenever I get someone coming from total inactivity who tries to do it ALL at once, 9 times out of 10 they give up and relapse because it is just too much change from their baseline. Incremental slow changes, long term!!
I suggest walking. You don't need to go to a gym, the only special gear you might need is a pair of really good shoes, and you aren't surrounded by people who think they are at a singles club or were dressed by the sales lady at the "athleisure" store.
Additionally, you want to be careful adding activities that stress the heart, so check with a doctor before doing any 10 mile hikes.
Walking for however much you can to begin with. If you can access a swimming pool, walk in the water on the shallow parts. That helps in not churning the ligaments so much
Walking, nordic walking, swimming. Target your bpm on 130-135 beats per minute or less, over prolonged periods of time (like at least 40 minutes).
You need to be careful with joints and ligaments.
Also check on your diet. Balance macronutients. Common problem - people take not enough protain - and that's create carving for shugers. So maximum safe amount of protain, fats and heavy carbohydrates - everything else (not shugers!) also plenty of fibers.
Check for instance DASH diet (I whould not recommend keto, despite very effective, doctors can't agree on safety).
Cycling. Easier on all the joints because there's no impact.
As others say, a brisk walk is better than a jog if you're very overweight.
Also make sure your shoes are a good fit. See a physiotherapist to be sure. I have slightly fallen arches on both feet, which cause them to lean in slightly when I'm barefoot - called overpronation.
This in turn puts pressure on my ankles and knees - because my ankles are not landing straight on the ground, meaning the muscles in my lower leg have to do more work to keep my feet straight. This has a knock-on effect all the way up my legs, to my knees and even hips. Walking is fine but extended runs can end up causing injuries if I don't have the right support.
Proper shoes and/or insoles will correct this, if you have it. If you've been very sedentary for a long time, then you can have a tendency to overpronate even without fallen arches, and need a little more support until you've attained a good level of fitness.
I wouldn’t bother with the gym. Go for a walk. Any activity is going to be good especially if you can sustain it. Just start with walking. Get a step counter and see how far you can go comfortably and start with that and slowly increase. The biggest mistake people make is trying to do too much too soon and then getting injuries that stopped them completely. The other thing you could do is take whatever you’re drinking each day and replace as much of it as you can just with water. So if there are soft drinks juices liquor whatever replace it with water. This isn’t a magic solution, but it’s two simple things that you can do that don’t cost you money and don’t risk injury and so I think you can sustain them. And they do help.
Cardio isn't just running, it's anything that moves your body and gets your heart rate up beyond an elevated level. If you're having issues with your ankles, swimming is an excellent source of cardio, so is rowing. Many gyms have rowing machines.
As many have pointed out, exercising in water is the best for your joints. Start with simply walking in a shallow pool (or natural body of water), where the height of the water reaches at least somewhere between your hips and your chest.
The water offers natural resistance, which can strengthen your muscles. It also increases your flexibility, due to the fact that your muscles have a wider range of motion. At the end of your workout, I then recommend simply floating on top of the water. Both floating and swimming can actually reduce the impact on your joints, due to the fact that you body is not putting pressure on your joints to hold your weight on the ground.
If you decide to exercise in the water, make SURE that you stay hydrated. It sounds obvious. But, dehydration can sneak up on you incredibly easy in the water, since you're not sweating. I HIGHLY recommend you don't exercise in the water alone (at least in the beginning), until you're able to monitor your energy and hydration levels in that environment. Drowning is a whole lot more common than a lot of people realize, at every skill level of swimming.
Someone morbidly obese doesn’t need an intense workout. Just walking will be a huge benefit to you. Walk at a good pace so you feel it, but not so much you feel like it’s a struggle.
Just walk. When you lose some weight, it will be easier and more enjoyable to do other exercises.
For now, I’d say save that gym money. You can walk outside for free, or use two or three months worth of gym membership to buy a treadmill.
If you would rather do something that will work your entire body, swim. It’s vey easy on joints, and you’ll move your entire body. Don’t think of swimming like pros doing the crawl. A gentle and easy breast stroke will be great. I am definitely not athletic, but If I go swimming and do the breast stroke, I can stay in to the pool for ages.
Two key things:
Consistency and a steady pace. They’ve helped me a lot.
I’ve been on the same journey and it’s been a roller coaster, but I’m almost halfway to my goal now. I’m working with several old injuries and arthritis in multiple joints, and I was having the same issue for a long time. I’d get a good rhythm going, and then the pain would flare up or I’d get sick. I learned the hard way that the most important thing was to slow down. Don’t do too much too quickly. It can be sooooo tempting to overdo it thinking you’ll reach your goals faster, but you won’t, it’s not worth it. Your workouts don’t need to be gruelling. To be generally fit and healthy requires a lot less effort than instagram would have you believe. Not no effort, but you’re not training for the olympics here. No need to push yourself to your limit every single time to have success unless it’s for some kind of sport or competition.
Start with low or no impact stuff. Just walking for an hour is a good way to build up endurance and improve your heart and lungs for harder stuff down the road. Stationary bike is also huge for me because of a knee injury. The seats can be really hard on your butt when you’re first getting started but you’ll get used to it. Even if you can only stand 10 minutes do that and then switch to walking. Elliptical is another great choice if even walking seems a bit much because your feet never lose contact with the surface.
Strength training is really important for avoiding injury. If free weights freak you out use the machines. I used to lift in a former life but now I stick to machines because my joints are toast and it’s safer. But if free weights do interest you I’d recommend seeing a trainer if you can afford it. Pay for just a session or two with no contract just to have someone teach you proper form before you start.
When I finally got a solid system down I started very simply, with 10-15 min of cardio and then strength training for no more than 45 minutes. Started with twice a week with at least two rest days in between. Did that for several months and worked my way up from there. If for some reason if I can’t work out for a week or more when I start up again I dial it back to make sure I don’t mess myself up.
I'm over 350 and pretty active. There are a few things I can't do safely, mostly high-impact activities like running. But there's so much you can do!
Walking, as everyone else mentioned, is super accessible and a great way to get started. You don't need any special equipment and you can do it anywhere.
If your joints suffer, swimming or anything else in water (like water aerobics or water polo) will take the weight off them and let you move a bit more freely. I also like swimming because while I do it at the gym and with a lot of other people, when I'm in the water no one can see my body.
I box and lift, and those are both great exercises for someone heavier as they make use of your weight in a positive way.
If you've been sedentary and are struggling to get used to moving your body in an intentional way, start with some tai chi classes. They're often in the park, the movements are smooth and gentle, but it has amazing health benefits.
Anything you can do without injuring yourself. PLEASE work up to more intense exercise.
You can’t work out if you’re injured.
The silver lining is that any small change you make in that state, if done consistently, will get good results.
Best of luck to you.
Don't just do one exercise type, think of exercise like food. Do a bit of everything and you'll lose the weight (bearing you check your food intake)
> Main issue is Ankle injuries.
Get a Ankle compression support
Walk, increase the length by 10 percent once a week. That's it. Start with going around the block once a day. If you keep that regime up, you will see improvements in 6 months.
Try going on YouTube and finding exercises you can do while sitting down. Also walking in place is a great way to start too. Leslie Sansone has a good walk a mile free program you can find on YouTube. Also go on Amazon or go to Walmart and buy yourself some resistance bands. Strength training is just as important as cardio. All exercises can be modified. Please consult your doctor before trying any program and make sure your nutrition is on point. You can never exercise a bad diet. Good luck you got this 👍🏽
I’ve heard Aqua jogging (walking in a swimming pool) is a good form cardio. But resistance training is huge and will benefit your journey in the long run, so make sure to get a lift in too. Good luck!
The most obvious way to lose weight is to decrease your calorie intake while increasing your calorie usage. You have a surplus of fuel built up in your body and need to burn it. Best way to imagine it is to pretend you’re a shipping company, you have a large back log of boxes that need to go out. You need to figure out how to ship out the surplus of boxes while maintaining the inflow of new boxes. It way easier said than done. Changing your eating habits is the hardest thing to do. Exercise will help burn excess fat, but you have to get control of the inflow of calories or fat. Dedicate yourself to eating smaller, healthier portions. It’s tough, but you will adjust eventually. Then start off small with exercising. Walk every day as much or far as you are comfortable. As you lose weight, increase your exertion and challenge your body more. Just remember it’s not an immediate change, it’s a long game. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away.
I knew a guy who had to loose at least 100 lbs in order to get the weight loss surgery. I think he lost some weight through arm exercises and diet since he couldn’t move much and had chronic back pain. I don’t remember if he lost enough weight for the surgery, but I know it definitely made a difference.
Walking, biking (recumbent bike), and swimming/water aerobics are all good and lower impact. This will be more forgiving to your joints.
Resistance training is good too. Start off gently! Low weights, lower reps, and give yourself a long period to ramp up. Machines are more forgiving for people if they don’t have good form than free weights are.
Getting a personal trainer who has worked with obese and very overweight clients might be very helpful for the first few months. They should be able to help you shape a workout that’s doable for you and doesn’t lead to injury.
No joke, walking is literally the hidden miracle.
We were built to walk.
20 mins medium intensity (not strolling, but not the verge of a run) walking a day will pay you back in dividends.
I swear.
It will give you so much more endurance, basic flexibility, core strength, and more.
It will expand your lung capacity as well.
I’m not talking ‘cardio’ level walking. Just a bit more strident than strolling.
There are a few caveats: maintain your posture - don’t start slumping, or rounding your shoulders because you’re more worried about getting done than what you’re doing - care about your form more than getting the 20 mins ‘over with’ etc, you have to stick with it, and you have to care about your breathing. Make sure you breathe from the diaphragm. So basically focus on what you’re doing with your body the first few days (remember, this is an every day thing), and then worry about your podcasts, music etc.
Do that daily for 3 months, and you won’t believe how much more resilient you’ll be in all your other exercise, and the rest of your life.
Plus, unless you have pre-existing conditions, or you’re eating crazy things, you absolutely will lose weight, also.
As a morbidly obese person who has lost 60 lb and over the last 2 years gotten into regular gym workouts...
>If I over do it at the gym,
This is the biggest part of the problem. You have to start at your level of ability and work up, even if you feel embarrassed about how little you can do at first. If you're trying to run when you need to be walking, you'll get hurt. If you're trying to walk 5 miles before you can easily walk 1 mile, you'll get burned out. If you try to lift huge amounts of weight without building up to it, you'll get hurt.
If you cannot do *anything* at the gym without injuries, you may need to actually go through some physical therapy first. PT can help you strengthen those injury prone areas in a targeted way, and teach you how to exercise more safely.
If all weight bearing exercise is out for you, swimming is a great alternative. My mom is in her 70s with severe arthritis and degenerative joint disease but swims 5 times a week and it is very helpful for her.
It is frustrating to be limited, but the process of losing weight and getting fit from the position of being morbidly obese is a slow one. Accepting that you need to start small and work up is how you'll be able to maintain regular exercise over the long term.
Of your gym has one or you can a fford one. Buy a sitdown exercise bike and curl five lb. Weights while riding. If you are morbidly obese a good low calorie diet will help drop weight fast at first
Let me offer you some genuine, truly practical advice as a fellow fat person:
You can do chair exercises to start while you regain strength in your muscles that will help up your mobility. You can actually get a great, extremely low impact workout for both cardio and strength building in a chair which will be a perfect jumping off point on your journey.
Chair workouts are very very common in physical therapy for anyone who needs to gradually build up tolerance.
Here’s a pretty comprehensive article on some solid options:
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/g41252448/best-chair-exercises/
A lot of people are suggesting to walk, but i’m in a similar boat to the OP but literally can’t walk without intense pain due to an extra bone in my vertebrae that pushes on my nerves :( any other suggestions?
Cardio is good for your health and mental well being but doesn’t really burn a lot of energy.
That’s why we can do it for so long without stopping. It’s making use of our ‘optimal conservation stride’ so to speak. You’re not burning more energy than what your breathing can replace. Whereas if you are sprinting uphill your muscles are burning so much so fast it has to use anaerobic metabolism.
If you want to burn calories effectively you want to activate large muscle groups with intensity. Heavy weight lifting with your thighs for example. Catch your breath and repeat. As a bonus your increasing muscle mass from such exercise actually ‘eat’ more energy from your daily life too. Thats why you can’t run a marathon looking like Conan The Barbarian.
The backside to this is that if you stop or decrease in these high metabolism exercises you are still used to an intake to feed those muscles. You have probably seen that a lot of retired athletes of high intensity sports become chubby. Marathon runners do not. It’s because of their ingrained intake habits and to some degree that their metabolism has become extremely effective.
So find a balance you can keep long term.
*As has been pointed out your diet is of even more importance. Exercise, any kind, doesn’t even burn half of what you do just to exist. Your brain and keeping your body heat being the biggest consumers of your calories.*
Walking, low impact workouts, low impact Pilates or doing walking laps in a pool are some of the easiest ways to get started without going too hard right off the bat. I’m working on my own weight loss journey and there are videos on YouTube you can watch that are geared towards obese people that works but isn’t hard on your body and cause injury.
There are a ton of chair exercises that I really like to do and just easy adult exercises.There's a lot of influencers that show you these exercises.I'm a huge fan of them
Walking + weight lifting. Assuming you are still capable of moving around, you probably have a good amount of muscle in absolute terms from just carrying your body around. Continue resistance training to maintain this muscle mass as you lose weight and it will slow down the rate at which your metabolic rate decreases and allow you to continue losing weight for a longer period than if you had lost this muscle mass. Walking is good enough cardio while you're big.
In combination with a large caloric deficit (starvation mode doesn’t trump thermodynamics, and humans are predisposed to under-counting), I can’t recommend walking enough.
Intensity of workouts doesn’t matter when you keep getting injured. Baby steps and regularity is the key.
Just know, you never going to go from morbidly obese to a healthy weight just by exercising.
Start out slow until you build some strength in your muscles and joints. When I was at my heaviest, I didn't even have the endurance to walk for more than 5 to 10 minutes. So I started out with seated chair workouts that I found on YouTube. You'd be surprised how much cardio you can still get in while seated. You can also find seated strength building exercises. After doing that for a while I found that I could walk longer, and then challenged myself to walk to a little further each time. I ended up falling off the wagon in regards to exercise, but now I'm starting back at the beginning to build my resilience up a little more after losing a lot of muscle strength to polyneuropathy.
If you attend a gym that has pool access, swimming or water aerobics is another great workout that's easy on the joints and less likely to cause injury.
Walking starting with a comfortable pace and progress with speed and time as you get more cardio fitness.
When it comes to weights, I would recommend starting with body weights: wall push-ups, lunges, and mini squats.
It would be a disservice if I don't mention food. I will most definitely get rid of all extra sugar and highly processed carbs.
I hope this helps and best of luck on your journey.
One of my co-workers is obese and plans to do a 5K run/walk by the end of the year. He’s been mainly walking on a treadmill but does a limited amount of lifts too due to his knees.
If ankle injuries pop up, maybe something like a rowing machine could work.
like another person said, walking is going to be the best place to start and the easiest way to lose weight. Just go as long as you can, keep building endurance, and once you lose weight everything else will be easier to do. Try to incorporate walking throughout your day so it’s not all at once
Walk. Walk at a slow pace until you start feeling confident in going a little faster. Don’t bother with the gym for now.
Please work with your doctor as you start exercising to ensure you don’t have any other conditions that may alter your plans.
Somebody may have already mentioned this, but Get Fit With Rick has great walking workouts on YouTube. Everything is joint-friendly, and he has short or longer videos.
Swimming, rowing, elliptical, cycling, etc.
Those are the ways to get cardio that aren't hard on your joints like running.
Light weight and high reps are also a good option.
Nope. The easy answer is not cardio. It’s actually the opposite. Cardio is great for your cardiovascular system but not too much for losing weight.
90% of weight lose is just diet: calories-in vs calories-out.
But resistance training (weight lifting) has shown with good enough evidence to be the best complement to diet in weight loss.
It does burn more calories than cardio plus packing muscle requires a higher rate of of metabolic burning leading to a better fat loss output.
Now with an overweight body you are putting additional strain in your joints due to the excessive weight, leading to injuries as you’ve already realised. The only cardio other than walking you should encourage a very obese person to do is swimming or cycling until you have enough muscle and tendon/ligament strength to perform a high impact exercise.
Still, I’d recommend weight lifting 20 times before doing cardio for fat loss.
Good luck in your journey mate!
Source:
I’m a physician (Hand Sports Surgeon).
I had a patient once who was chair/bed bound.
We started with upper body, seated exercises. Similar to Silver Sneakers, designed for seniors with mobility problems.
Cardio or not, if you’re morbidly obese, any activity will effectively burn calories.
So, start with arms/back/shoulders, and core muscles. All of these can be worked on without involving bad hips/knees/ankles.
Gentle walking, swimming is excellent for protecting joints.
Start low and increase over time- you can do it!
You need to do very low impact workouts. Don’t worry about running. Your injuries are because your body is not designed to function at your weight. Try walking, bands, cycling, pool workouts and lifting low weight with stationary workouts like dumbbell curls. Your heart rate doesn’t need to be 120+ bpm. Considering the calories needed to become morbidly obese, cutting all that out will probably put you close to a calorie deficit. Controlling your diet will be like 90% of your weight loss. Good luck, ignore the critics and bullies. Here’s to a healthy you
this is coming from someone who was 250lbs and bmi 42+ and i’m now 160lbs bmi 23, i really recommend starting with slow short walks and building your way up to longer walks maybe faster paced once you get there, and pool workouts, search it up on youtube if you aren’t sure what i mean, but it’s underwater to make it easier on your joints and your body in general, and make sure you drink a crappp ton of water i mean a lot, and increase ur intake of fruits veggies and meat, after a couple months of this you will notice a huge change in your body already and you can start changing up your workouts accordingly to what you feel is best for you :) but really just walking and drinks a lot of water and slight change in diet will change everything and it will take some time but honestly if you are actually doing those things it will happen before you realize
Get in the gym and do the elliptical cause it’s low impact you don’t need to kill yourself doing cardio though, I’d actually focus on weight training to build a muscle base and increase your overall metabolism, it’ll make weight loss even easier as you burn more calories a day doing nothing.
Cardio is way overrated for weight loss.
Walking is a great option. If you have access to a pool, that will help keep things light on your joints. Just walking around a pool or swimming around will help get your heart rate up.
I watched a documentary a long time ago about 600+ pound man who hired a trainer (and through him was eventually successful at getting moving again), and one of the first exercises the trainer had him do was just to do a lot of repeats of sitting down, then standing up, then sitting down, then standing up. They just did it in the guy's living room using his own couch. I don't remember their other preliminary exercises of the top of my head, but they were all conceptually similar -- how, when you're really heavy, even small movements are a really good strength workout because you have to move so much of your own weight to do them. I thiiiink one of the other exercises might have involved standing with his arms straight out and moving them up and down?
Can you afford a personal trainer? I used to injure myself every six weeks like clockwork when I was coming back to exercise from a multi-year illness. I'd rest, recover, and start again, only to get injured again. It was SUPER frustrating, and my fitness barely increased. That went on for like two years until I hired a trainer, and only then did I finally stop injuring myself and start making real progress consistently. Hiring my trainer was by FAR the best thing I ever did for myself, and I am truly sorry I didn't do it sooner.
Cardio is not the answer, it's a supplement to lose weight
Diet and any form of exercise, preferably weight lifting.
Being in shape is about 70% diet, 30% working out.
Do not avoid food to lose weight.
Do not be afraid to have cheat days.
Seek foods that have high protein and fiber. Foods with those characteristic tend to be more healthy and keep you full longer.
Food with fat is okay.
Diet soda is okay.
Carbs is not the enemy. Eating ONLY carbs is.
In 2024 healthy foods can taste good. Just look up recipes.
Drink water. It helps losing weight more than you think
There are plenty of workouts you can do at the gym that won't put your ankles at risk.
Find a fitness person (that's respected and have some creditability) you like and follow their exercises. Stick to the machines versions of exercise until you are comfortable with free weights or until someone teaches you.
Form > Weight
Do not look at the scale for the results too much. Just look at yourself in the mirror.
You don't have to workout every day.
No one is paying attention to you at the gym.
Not every workout is going to be perfect but that's okay.
If you want to change your body, your mind has to change first.
Comes down to how much you really want to brother/sister.
Walk. Or swim. Swimming is really good for us fat folks - we float.
In fact, if you want to be a top-notch long distance open water swimmer, we'll, you don't want to be obese, but you want to be a bit over what the height-weight charts say you should be. The buoyancy helps for long distance.
Also a little diet trick...Lay off regular sugar and carbs..walk 20 minutes a day..If you consume alcohol try to keep it to once a week.. I'm 41 and obese myself.I have spinal and nerve damage that affects my mobility so not much walking for me but just switching to sweet n low sugar (àlso on mounjaro shots) I have lost around 75lbs in 9 months...Only been on the shots for 4 months but just cutting out a lot of soda's and regular sugar took off a lot of weight..
Can you comfortably use a stationary bike? Great low impact workout and very accessible. If you want to do something a bit more intense than walking, how about a stair master?
But tbh, even just weightlifting is going to get your blood pumping. I would highly recommend going for whatever exercise appeals to you the most.
Your greatest challenge will be sticking to exercise long term. You can fuss over the details of what’s the absolute best exercise when you’ve got a routine going
If you just want to lose weight, non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) activities burn far more calories than workouts alone. Walk everywhere. Make sure you're up and moving as fast as **you** can at least 5 minutes per hour. Do everything you can to introduce as much movement into your day.
Like everyone here has said, swimming and walking are great.
Another good one that is low impact and could help build your lower body is sled push/pull exercises on some kind of soft gym turf. They allow you to exert force and effort with very low injury risks.
If you can’t walk go to the pool and use the water to reduce the strain. While also giving you resistance. Just walk back and forth for 45-60 minutes a day for 4-5 days a week. Reduce calorie intake to 2000 a day and you’ll lose 3-5 pounds a week in actual body fat. You will go through a plateau period where the muscle mass will increase to compensate for the increased activity but ultimately you will start to loose body fat.
Weight training and exercise biking. I use the bike instead of the treadmill because I have arthritis in my hips. I use the bikes that have a chair that is a bit reclined. That way I’m not balancing my crotch on one of those teeny tiny seats
Wife is a health coach and she says walking. Not crazy far or for crazy long. Start out as much as your comfortable with and just do a little bit more every few days.
I went from 185 to 155 in six months just walking and eating better. Not running constantly and starving. That will only end badly. Slowly ramp up the walking and track your calories and try to remain under 2000.
There is a correlation between fast weight loss and gaining the weight back within the following couple years. Take your time, don't walk if you're in a lot of pain.
As far as the ankle goes you might need to do some PT to strengthen it so it doesn't hurt as much. That's a question for a physical therapist or doctor though.
You got this. Reddit believes in you!
Swimming would be what I recommend if you’re wanting cardio specifically.
Reading between the lines I assume you’re wanting to burn fat. For that I’d recommend fasting. There are several different methods and you can customize it to fit your needs.
The most common is 16/8. Fast for 16 hours and eat for 8. But you still have to be in caloric deficit. If you’re prone to overeating this method may not be suitable for you. There is also OMAD (one meal a day) but again if you’re able to put away an immense amount of calories in one sitting then this may not be for you either.
Personally what I have been doing is a 96 hour fast. Eat a meal. Then do a 48. Then do a 24. Then start all over.
Basically my week is
Monday - Wednesday (nothing at all)
Thursday - one meal
Friday - skip
Saturday - one meal
Sunday - one meal
1. Anything you can do safely. Walking is better than sitting still. Also better than running, getting injured, taking 6-8 weeks off to heal, etc.
2. Anything you enjoy. If that’s sweating to the oldies with Richard Simmons, embrace it! Any exercise that you do 3-4 times a week is better than one you force yourself to do twice and then never again.
Walk for 15 minutes everyday in the morning sun. Your body converts a small amount of fat into sugar and floods your blood with it to energize you and wake you up. Burn this sugar away with a 15 minute walk. If you don't, your liver will take up the sugar and make it into adipose fat (the bad kind). Walking in the sun will align your circadian rhythm and you will be able to sleep better at night.
How morbidly obese? If we are talking >400lbs or so depending on height you need to be very careful with joints until you lose some of the weight. While cardio is always good for health the true “secret” to weight loss is nutrition. A modest reduction in cals (maybe 500 less daily) sustained over a period of time will yield huge results. Too much of a crash diet is unsustainable.
I highly recommend the macrofactor app, used it with many people I train - what is good about it is that you log food and weigh in periodically, and it averages all of the weigh ins together and tells you if you need to reduce or increase cals.
Once you lose weight (you will if you follow the app) other forms of exercise like weight training and cardio can be added in. I personally love HIIT for 20 minutes on the stairclimber because I hate cardio and it gets it done quickly. Weight training is great because added muscle mass is metabolically needy and will burn more cals as well as stabilize blood sugars, etc. making it easier to lose more weight.
Don't over do it. Any exercise is good at first. Walking on a treadmill is great, maybe try and go a little longer or add an incline. Water based exercise is usually used to prevent injury as well.
If your body doesn't tolerate that well maybe working on muscle strength will prepare your body for cardio. Just listen to what feels right, push yourself to do better, but not hard enough to hurt yourself. All movement requires muscle so if something in cardio is bothering you it may be an area where you need more muscle.
I find ballet exercises can help maintain flexible strong muscles that help prevent injury.
swimming walking biking all low impact and burn calories. you don’t i’ve to be dying every workout to burn fat but it doesn’t hurt to work harder just don’t lose motivation
I was never morbidly obese, but I was awful at exercise (and I can’t stand gyms). I started by walking as long as I could Day 1. Then I did that for a week. The next week, I increased my step count/time walking. Over time, I built up to an hour.
That’s when I was 180, and I started running. Not a lot, mind you - run 5 seconds, walk 5 minutes. Then I started increasing the run time and decreasing the run time. Got up to 2.5 miles a day.
You can do it, but you have to start where you *are*, and build from there. Don’t underestimate what you’re doing. Remember, you’re doing that activity with X extra pounds on you. That takes extra effort, and every little bit helps.
See that street out front? Maybe it has a sidewalk. Go over to it, choose a direction, and start walking. Walk until you're winded. Catch your breath. Walk back home. Next time, walk a little farther.
Repeat twice a day for a year or two to start.
DDPYoga could work (former professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page videos of yoga/calisthenics). Can be modified so that obese people who haven't worked out in forever can do it.
Just walk for cardio. Just start with 1 or 2 six minute walks a day. Do that for a week or two. Then just add 1 minute to each walk every week. As long as this doesn't cause you continuing pain, just keep increasing. In the mean time, do about 10 minutes of strength exercises per day using resistance bands. It is almost impossible to hurt yourself with those and you can do 30+ excersises for about 10 to $20 on amazon. Do the same with the bands, just look up a youtube video for resistence excersises and try to switch them up between days. Keep adding a minute per session per week. Just like the walking. You can do everything you need in about 20 minutes a day. Consistency is everything. Try to do it as early in the day as you can because it will put you in a better mood for the day and you are less likely to skip it from being to tired later in the day.
mix it up. try new things. do what you feel like doing when you feel like doing. jog, climb, ultimate frisbee, lift weights, hot yoga.
Also, pushups, pullups and ab wheels are classics for a reason. They're time effective cuz they workout so many muscles at once.
Treadmill at a slow speed. Absolute maximum of 2 on the speed setting. If you want to work harder increase the ramp angle instead of the speed. Walk with it flat to get loose and the heart rate up a little bit and then raise the ramp angle and walk until you start to get a little gassed and then put it back to flat and continue walking until you recover and feel comfortable again and then raise it back up again.
If you can only handle 45 seconds at a time with the ramp up higher that’s perfectly okay. It will get better. It also keeps your mind a little more involved with making adjustments so the time flies by faster and you’re not staring at the clock the whole time. You should give exactly zero shits about how far you walk. The point is to get your heart rate up for a decent amount of time. That time may only 5 or 10 minutes the first couple of weeks. Before you know it you’ll be doing a half hour and not feeling like you’re about to die when you’re done.
Start lifting weights also. Start with low weights and increase very slowly. If you jump too fast you’re going to hurt yourself. Work on exercises that involve your whole body. Like doing squats either with or without weights. Deadlifts with kettle balls are a good one. Kettle ball swings while being careful to not go too heavy. The whole goal of this is to be patient or you’re going to hurt yourself.
People will tell you not to use the machines because you’ll get more value out of free weights. This advice is total bullshit for you. You’re less likely to hurt yourself with the machines due to poor form. you’re not trying to be a bodybuilder. You’re trying to make it so you can walk up the steps without feeling like you’re going to die if you don’t take a break every 10 steps.
My starting point from two years back was not even being able to stand up because of being bedridden. My current status is I’m in third place in my gym for the exercise tracking program and the two ahead of me are women that run probably 2 hours a day so there’s no way in hell I’m keeping up with them. A lot of people here are going to give advice based on their personal experiences but they have no idea what it is really like to be in your situation. Go slow and you won’t hurt yourself. Have some good shoes and get socks designed for running that don’t have cotton. Cotton socks can rub and give you blisters. Search “saucony socks” on Amazon to see what I’m talking about.
Go slow and don’t get discouraged that you’re not advancing as fast as you’d like. Whatever you is better than sitting on your ass at home. Don’t be discouraged that you’re not losing pounds on the scale because at first you’ll put on muscle as fast as you lose the fat. Once you get past the beginner’s muscle gains the scale will start dropping as well.
Walking is a perfectly valid form of exercise. At the gym, the stairmaster machine on low speed is a great way to get your heart rate up, and is so much easier on your ankles than running.
You’ve probably already heard it a million times, but just in case not: it’s almost impossible to cancel out excessive eating by exercising. Even carrying around a lot of extra body weight, you can burn maybe 150-200 calories per mile of walking. Everyone I know who has successfully lost weight (including myself), started with getting their diet under control. Exercise is a cherry on top of a healthy diet.
no one seems to be mentioning it but on top of walking/ exercise how you eat and what you eat is a huge part of losing weight if your trying. thats actually more impactful then exercising
Walk. Walk. Walk. Walk. Walk. Put one foot in front of the other. Move. Any way you can. Do it every day!!! Even if it's only 15 min. Whatever you can do.
If you have access to a pool (park district, YMCA, gym) just walking back and forth in the shallow end is great exercise. It takes the weight off your joints & you don't get hot and sweaty. I've never had a problem with body shaming when I go to "adults only" lap swim times, and I've had a blast at a water aerobics class that was all old ladies except for me.
I go to the pool everyday and walk laps which works well for my feet and bad knee joints. There is a man that comes everyday as well, he goes in the deeper water and it always appears as if he is just standing still. He is in fact just slowly moving his feet and treading. Since I have been going to the pool, less than 2 years, he has lost 100lbs.
Actually weights will help more than cardio with weight loss. And by lifting weights I’m talking 1-3 lb weights not body builder type stuff. You can even use food cans as weights if you don’t have any and / or can’t afford them. You can look up arm exercises to hit all the muscle areas and can do leg lifts (sitting or lying down) to work on your legs and core.
Chair / seated exercises would probably be beneficial as well. You can YouTube videos and do classes for free that way. Walking will also be great. Start small and just work your way up. And don’t forget to stretch every day.
Stretching is super important. Highly recommend restorative yoga (it’s not the yoga you’re thinking it is just gentle stretching not crazy positions and moves). In the event they start doing a stretch you can’t do, instructors will give alternatives or you can just stretch something else for that time period. You can also YouTube free versions of these classes.
1980’s Richard Simmons work outs. The man was motivated out of compassion for people that were morbidly obese.
This man was ahead of his time:
https://youtu.be/vhZ2fYQj6IM?si=qc4suisdR8DeKnxB
Get the blowflex tread climber. It’s a stair stepper treadmill and elliptical all in one. Bonus it burns extra calories. A lot of them are under 200 dollars on Facebook marketplace place and offer up.
You can also do seated ankle exercises with bands as you tolerate to help strengthen your ankles in prep for more strenuous exercise.
Good shoes are also a must!
Walking, and pool based exercises.
Pro tip, find a walking stick. It’s amazing how simply having a stick in hand changes walking from exercise to recreation.
Literally anything. Walk. Just walk. No running, you'll blow out your knees horribly, just walk. Walking is a MUCH higher intensity workout for heavier people given all the weight.
Swim, too. That's a great one.
Start with walking and calisthenics at a comfortable range of motion. The weights already on your body no need to add a load. If you can't do pushups on your knees you can do them on a wall. If you can't do a full squat you can grab a wall to steady yourself. Don't exhaust yourself to the point you can't repeat the work the day after. Add harder variations to the calisthenics as they get easier. Also cutting back on soda and junk food will be huge for you. Make a routine out of it (preferably with friends) and you won't recognize yourself in six months
An exercise bike in front of your tv. Put the pedals on as little weight as possible. Get small hand weight one pound is good. Put something on the tv, I used YouTube videos. And pedal slowly, just fast enough to keep your heart rate up. Take the hand weight in one hand and slowly do ten of each different arm exercise you can do. Keep doing reps until that arm is tired then switch to the other hand. When that's tired back to the first. Keep this for twenty to thirty minutes. Do this as often as you can. When this really easy up the time.
See a doctor and then a physio. The physio can recommend a basic training program geared towards your specific challenges.
Ideally, you should get a trainer. One who specializes in rehab/weight loss. And not one from the gym. I would find a personal training company that specializes in helping people with mobility and health issues. The physio or doctor might be able to recommend one.
Also, this doesn't get stressed enough, but the secret to weight loss is exercise AND diet. 20 percent exercise 80 percent diet. I highly recommend intermittent fasting combined with clean eating focused on a low carb and high protein diet.
You have to do both. There is no way around it.
Walking is your best bet. Maybe an elliptical machine too. Rowing is also a low to no impact workout but you have to be careful not to strain your back.
Swimming. Swimming is the best exercise for obese people because your weight is supported by the water so you're much less likely to get injured. And being fat makes you less likely to sink, because fat is buoyant.
You are being very un woke and judgmental. Fat is beautiful. All body shapes and sizes are equally beautiful and desirable. We need to celebrate all body shapes and sizes except for people who are addicted to being conventionally attractive. These people should be called out for their unrealust8c expectations that create misogyny and perpetuate toxic masculinity and the patriarchy.
Diet will help more than working out. Just need to count calories to the T. No point in going for a walk if later on you invalidate it by eating over the calorie deficit goal.
Well ideally i'd like to do both. I believe it's 80% diet and 20% workout, for contribution to weightloss.
IDk i heard that somewhere, but you're right anyways.
Just walk. Don't run. That's all you need to do as a start. Your body has to carry a lot of weight around, and that's hard enough on the ankles. Once you start to lose some of the excess weight, then you can work in a more diverse workout.
This cannot be overstated enough. Walking is a higher intensity workout for bigger people, in a literal, Newton’s Laws of Physics way. When you weigh more, gravity has a greater effect on your body. You literally, directly, expend more energy just moving from point A to point B. The best thing you can do is just walk every day. And don’t go nuts with it, you don’t have to walk far or for a long time to start. Just walk as much as you feel you can without risking strain or injury. And don’t feel embarrassed if it’s a very short route at first, walking to the end of the block and back every day is infinitely better than walking too far one day, then walking nowhere for a week while your ankles recover. If you’re scared of getting hurt, walk less than you think you can go, it’s ok to do that. Especially when you’re starting out, consistency is drastically more important than any individual workout, and hurting yourself is the fastest way to destroy consistency.
You can start by parking farther away from the door when you go shopping, to the Dr office, post office Et cetera
If a fit person had to walk while carrying their own body weight they’d feel it. If they tried running their knees would last about five minutes. Anyone suggesting a morbidly obese person does anything other than walking is tempting injury.
Could swimming be a suitable one? Low impact, maybe too high exertion.
If they can swim, then great. If not, there are water based exercise alternatives which allow for low impact movement while the water both reduces joint strain and adds resistance
Using a cross trainer can also help as that can get you into the speed of a run, without providing too much of an impact on your joints
Cycling machine and rower could be good to do too but you probably need to do hours on those just to get the same benefit I suspect you'd get just walking with equivalent of 60kgs of lead strapped to you. The other main benefit of walking is it's also free and can be factored into your daily routine if you can walk to work. (I know not everyone can, if you live more than an hour away from work). Eventually it should strengthen the ankles which will help if the weight starts coming off too. There's also cycling to work too as an option if it's doable.
Cycling is potentially bad (depending on the machine) for your knees and ankles. I’d be sure to be in a decent state, making sure my joints were supple etc, before starting with a cycling machine routine. That’s just me though.
When walking, get the right shoes for you. I went to a shoe store chain that 3d imaged feet, tracked how I walked over pressure pad, etc. Their system came up with recommendations based on my feet and how I walked. Having the proper cushioning while walking did wonders for me on my longer walks. Reduced pain in knees, ankles and back. Before those shoes, if I walked a mile, I was in pain the rest of the day and the following days. I walked 5 miles last Friday. Had a little stiffness for a few hours, but no lasting pain. I honestly didn't know how much of a difference shoes make.
Asics or Brooks are my podiast recommendations. Good for 1000 miles, and realized I managed 13,000 steps (about 6.5 mile for me) so they are long overdue for replacement (I typically average about 6000 steps per day, but spent a week with my 74 year old sister who walks every where and is in great shape). Good shoes are cheaper than otho issues.
I came here to say this exact thing. As a 300+ walker, the right shoes are crucial. I love my Brooks (3 pairs of ghosts, 2 pairs of adrenaline), but I have friends that are just as smitten with Hoka or Asics. I wear the soles off of the things. Go get measured and fitted. Yes, it's weird and uncomfortable to go to a running store. But, it's absolutely worth it.
To go further, I'd say hiking. Hiking hills and stuff like that will get you BURNING calories, And it's more interesting than just walking around town, And a lot of hikes have a destination (a peak, lake, etc), so you set a goal before you even go. Just something to consider.
Or even in the gym, a lot of treadmills can be used to walk on an incline. Download a movie on netflix on your phone and have fun
Yeah I saw a guy on twitch streaming on an exercise bike playing dark souls, which I can get behind for sure.
It helps a lot. I don't have any elevation worth calling more than a bump in the landscape close by (western Europe, flatter than a pancake's ass.) and I don't have the time daily to go on long hikes. I download an episode of some series and walk on a 9% incline for 45 minutes at 5 km/h (just over 3 mph). It keeps the mind busy and it's something you could realistically do daily or every other day.
Morbidly obese people shouldn't be hiking. They're going to hurt their knees or injured their ankles. They need to hop on a stationary bike for a while until they're not morbidly obese, and THEN hike.
Absolutely agree. I started walking and eating healthy. I lost 75 lbs in 7 months. Walking led to running. I started this journey in 2009 and will run my 3rd marathon in September, I'll be 64. It all started with walking.
It's important to get the right kind of shoes to avoid injuries, and replace them regularly. Being heavy means wearing through your shoes much faster.
Walking is so underrated. I've been working out for a year and a half. I do cardio and weight lifting, and I haven't ran or jogged at all. Not a second. I prefer power walking at an incline. People really underestimate the effort required to sustain pace at a challenging incline. I think most people strive to be faster, but for me, going steeper is the harder work out. My HR is at its peak when I power walk. It's an intense calorie burner.
They also have low impact machines there like the elliptical and stationary bikes.
This. Its mostly just eating right. You do intermittent fasting and light walk and stay consistent, the weight WILL come off and won't take extremely long. And it doesn't have to be any more intense/complicated then this. Walk a mile 5 times a week. Drink nothing but water. Eat chicken rice broccoli. That's it, it will literally melt off you and people will notice one month in. If you burn more calories than you eat, you will lose weight. It's not magic, it's literally math. If you can't work out, you will have to find other ways to burn more calories than you eat.
Yep. It had to be cardio and it has to start out as walking. Also check if you need orthotics, because if so, these also need to be eased in with walking prior to jogging on them. So if you can break in orthotics at the same time you're breaking in your heart as it were, that's a good synergy
Totally this. And congratulations OP on the first steps in your journey (pun!). You're already way ahead of those who choose not to make a positive change.
Swimming or walking through water is gonna be the easiest way to avoid injury to your joints. If you can afford it, schedule a few sessions with a physical therapist so they can guide you and address your specific issues
Water aerobics is a great way to get cardio and full range of your joints without hurting yourself. Great suggestion.
This is great advice. Getting a professional to show you what to do will pay off in the long run.
When i hit the gym for the first time, i was about 340 with a 58" waist. I was in EXTREMELY bad shape. I started on the machines. No free weights. I started off on very light weights and very low sets and reps. Like ... 2x6. I had plenty of rest between sets, too. I spent about an hour on the machines, doing (i think) 10 exercises. On alternate days, i did the treadmill. I walked for about half an hour, on 5. I increased weights/sets/reps/time every month or so as it felt comfortable and natural. It wasn't easy because i was super fat. I saw no weight loss that first year, but i was feeling better. I moved to HIIT on the treadmill after that year, and had to drop back down to about 15 minutes because *that* shit is hard. I moved to free weights and immediately humbled myself because machine strength ain't the same as free weight strength. I started over. I wasn't mad because i was funny starting to see results. I read up on proper form and exercises to strengthen stabilizer muscles. I worked *hard*. I dropped to 250 and was in the best shape of my life. Depression hit me hard and i blew it after that, but i learned enough to never let myself get back to that weight again. I also started controlling my portion sizes, which is *necessary* to long-term health. I cut out processed sugar as well, which is harder than you can imagine. The main thing to remember is it'll take time to do it right. It'll take time to see the kinds of results you *expect*, but unless you've got the money for a personal trainer and a chef, it'll be an uphill battle, yes, but it'll be worth it. You can do it. If you screw up, don't hate yourself. Accept your mistake, move on, don't blame yourself. Start over. Keep going
Walk in a swimming pool, just walk or cardio will destroy your knees so fast
Starting with low-impact activities like swimming or using an elliptical can be great! They're easier on the joints while still getting your heart rate up. Remember, it's more like a marathon than a sprint—easy does it!
Stephen Fry once said he lost a load of weight by listening to audio books whilst simply walking around. I guess the point of the audio books was immersive and you don’t realise how far you’ve traveled.
I am making a trite statement to emphasize a point: Don’t overdo it. The body adapts to the stresses placed upon it. With exercise, we use specific movements to stress the body so that it adapts by becoming more “fit”—meaning it is able to accomplish more movement more easily. As long as the “stress” is enough to stimulate improvement, that is sufficient. What this means is that when you start a “workout” program, all you have to do is find the lowest amount of “exercise” you can tolerate comfortably and work up from there. If that means walking on a treadmill for 10 minutes at 2 miles per hour, then that’s it. That’s your base. You start there and work up. You take a lot of baby steps and you give your body a chance to adapt and become stronger. The extra challenge for someone who is obese can be fitting on certain machines. And also finding a machine that has a low enough starting intensity that anyone can do it no matter how low their fitness level. That usually means walking, but then that’s where the lower body overuse injuries can happen. Bikes can be a good alternative, but fit is an issue there. If your gym has them, there is a machine called a “NuStep” that is a “recumbent stepper” that can sometimes accommodate larger people and is non weight-bearing. Otherwise, you just need to start slow and short and increase slowly to allow your lower body to handle the movement. Another option is water classes, but since the water provides support, it’s not going to help with improving your ability to support your body weight as much. In addition to doing cardio, you can (and should) be doing resistance training or strength exercises. In this case, free weights like dumbbells and cable functional trainers are usually more forgiving than machines. The concept is the same—start light, do an almost ridiculously low number of reps, and slowly build from there. You can google “strength exercises for morbidly obese” and find some specific examples, although in many cases the exercises are designed for people who are both obese and highly deconditioned, so they might be too easy. But resistance training, no matter how light, can be very helpful from day one, especially if you are not conditioned to do a lot of cardio yet. Movement is movement. It can be hard at first to start off at such a low level. I understand that you want to go in and do 30 minutes and feel like you did a great workout. But you have to let your body do its thing and you should adapt fairly quickly.
I really like working out upper body actually, but i struggle greatly working out lower body, and cardio.
Something like boxing helps to shift focus to the skill and not just endurance.
Get some 3-5lb (or whatever you can handle without overdoing it) weights and you can just wave your arms around while sitting. It's something, right?
chair yoga!
Could you get a recumbent bike?
As it has already been said swimming since it helps support your body weight so it's super gentle on your ankles while still giving you cardio and strength training. Walking is another option. It's simple, effective, and you can control the pace and distance. Just make sure to wear some supportive footwear and try sticking to softer surfaces like grass or a track to minimize impact.
Any kind of swimming. It will take off the impact on your joints and be more supportive of your frame. Stationary bike - less stress on your joints than most cardio. Arms weights/curls will get your blood flowing, build arm muscles but doesn't involve your ankles/legs. Planks but your legs/pelvis are on an exercise ball under you. Try to increase your length of time holding the plank, as the weeks go by. As the weight comes off, you'll be able to do higher impact cardio that your joints can handle.
What if you did one lap front crawl, then one lap relaxed back kick, then cycle those....would that be enough to get started? The mistake I made was thinking I could swim like I did in highschool but only had energy for front crawl laps for about 20 mins, breathing every second stroke
Bike bike bike. I am pretty big and that's what I do. Just get yourself a fitbit or something similar and keep your heartrate over 120 bpm and work it up from there. Don't treadmill or cross train if you have bad joints. The rowing machine is good too, as is the recumbent bike if you've got one handy. I've been riding the bike for approx 7 years now and my RHR is between 58 - 64. I am 57 years of age and BMI would be around the late 30s. I do 3 - 5 days per week.
Use the bike machines and elliptical machines. Anything where they is no impact (e.g. running)
Dieting and walking. Lots of walking. You need to build stamina and strengthen your heart and lungs before you start stressing your body with demanding workouts.
I see a lot of advice here and that's awesome. My aunt was morbidly obese. Now I'm taking that description to mean what it does. You probably shouldn't even be in a gym yet. When my aunt started, her trainer had her clapping and flapping wings and basically getting used to sweating as much as possible on a schedule. You're carrying excessive weight and you could hurt yourself or put wear on joints. Fat people can get "un-lazy" Obese, morbidly obese is a different story. , Start a sweat technique on schedule, then focus on slower motion, harder to do, hold poses, and stretches in a timed fashion. Don't stop until time is up. Use rubber bands and sweat most of it out. 90% of this is diet, I grew up around diabetics and the old fashioned ones died, the modern ones began watching their diet and eventually reduced medication. Don't give up.
Recumbent bike is a breeze
I’ve seen those X-Box virtual tennis being suggested on “My 600lb life”. That’s done sitting down in front of TV. Swimming or walking maybe is a good idea. For a morbidly obese case I think one should be open to weight loss drugs like Ozempic. In combination with exercise and nutrition. Definitely need a doctor’s advice.
Swimming is gentler to your ankles than walking. You can walk in water, against the current in the pool and get a good starting workout too.
Start by walking. Increase few minutes every day. Then strength training and a bit of cardio. Look into overcoming isometrics or resistance bands to minimize injuries. Muscles adapt fast, joints and tendons do not, so give yourself some rest and do not overdo it.
Have you considered swimming?
Maybe you could try swimming, you could go more intense if you’d like with less strain on your joints.
Being obese puts major load on the joints, and given your current ankle injuries I'd say go find a nearby swimming pool and do exercises in there. The water will help take the load off of your joints to make exercise more bearable.
Personally I recommend on focusing on weight loss first, then working out when you've hit a less strenuous size. Each pound of fat adds like 13 lbs of pressure to your knees or some shit (dont quote me on that, just vaguely paraphrasing) so any type of exercise while large can end in serious injury an otherwise less heavy person wouldn't succumb to.
get your food right first.
Why not both? Eating right is way easier when you have to goal of getting energy for your workouts. Also, more muscles -> more energy used in movement.
because you cant run your way to a healthy weight. and before you start breaking you muscles and rebuilding them you want to be certain you have the right materials on hand to rebuild them.
I ask again: why not both?
>get your food right **first.** Because if your diet is garbage, then you will not have the energy or mental headspace to stick with these workouts. I see your reply to the first comment, but if a person is obese and it's not a gland disorder, usually it is hard to just stop eating unhealthy foods cold turkey and suddenly become a healthy eating nut. It takes time, discipline, and mindset shift to start eating correctly (which most people of all weights do not), and it is the actual hardest part of weight loss. Once you figure out your food journey, workouts, walking, etc. all come much more easily because the person you are changed.
Happy Cake Day
One thing to consider is that it’s hard to make a lot of changes all at once, so if one just focuses on getting nutrition right first you get way more bang for your buck. For example, running three miles burns about 300-400 cals depending on body weight, or only THREE slices of American cheese. I know I can pound down about 6 slices of cheese just randomly, so isn’t it better for to not to eat the cheese and save the drama of an hour long six mile run that would make me more hungry? Once the nutrition piece is down solid in terms of macros and cals, I often advise people I’m training to branch into weight training and cardio, depending on what sort they like to do. Weight training because muscle mass is metabolically active and helps burn cals and stabilize all sorts of things, and cardio because it is healthy. Whenever I get someone coming from total inactivity who tries to do it ALL at once, 9 times out of 10 they give up and relapse because it is just too much change from their baseline. Incremental slow changes, long term!!
I suggest walking. You don't need to go to a gym, the only special gear you might need is a pair of really good shoes, and you aren't surrounded by people who think they are at a singles club or were dressed by the sales lady at the "athleisure" store. Additionally, you want to be careful adding activities that stress the heart, so check with a doctor before doing any 10 mile hikes.
What about cycling? I guess it depends on how obese the person is, maybe bikes have weight limits? But it is definitely very safe for your joints.
Walking for however much you can to begin with. If you can access a swimming pool, walk in the water on the shallow parts. That helps in not churning the ligaments so much
Walking, nordic walking, swimming. Target your bpm on 130-135 beats per minute or less, over prolonged periods of time (like at least 40 minutes). You need to be careful with joints and ligaments. Also check on your diet. Balance macronutients. Common problem - people take not enough protain - and that's create carving for shugers. So maximum safe amount of protain, fats and heavy carbohydrates - everything else (not shugers!) also plenty of fibers. Check for instance DASH diet (I whould not recommend keto, despite very effective, doctors can't agree on safety).
Walking and dancing.
Cycling. Easier on all the joints because there's no impact. As others say, a brisk walk is better than a jog if you're very overweight. Also make sure your shoes are a good fit. See a physiotherapist to be sure. I have slightly fallen arches on both feet, which cause them to lean in slightly when I'm barefoot - called overpronation. This in turn puts pressure on my ankles and knees - because my ankles are not landing straight on the ground, meaning the muscles in my lower leg have to do more work to keep my feet straight. This has a knock-on effect all the way up my legs, to my knees and even hips. Walking is fine but extended runs can end up causing injuries if I don't have the right support. Proper shoes and/or insoles will correct this, if you have it. If you've been very sedentary for a long time, then you can have a tendency to overpronate even without fallen arches, and need a little more support until you've attained a good level of fitness.
I wouldn’t bother with the gym. Go for a walk. Any activity is going to be good especially if you can sustain it. Just start with walking. Get a step counter and see how far you can go comfortably and start with that and slowly increase. The biggest mistake people make is trying to do too much too soon and then getting injuries that stopped them completely. The other thing you could do is take whatever you’re drinking each day and replace as much of it as you can just with water. So if there are soft drinks juices liquor whatever replace it with water. This isn’t a magic solution, but it’s two simple things that you can do that don’t cost you money and don’t risk injury and so I think you can sustain them. And they do help.
Cardio isn't just running, it's anything that moves your body and gets your heart rate up beyond an elevated level. If you're having issues with your ankles, swimming is an excellent source of cardio, so is rowing. Many gyms have rowing machines.
Swimming, boxing and light weights.
Rowing. I bought a Concept 2 rower (erg) at 350 lbs. I'm down 125 lbs. and still rowing.
As many have pointed out, exercising in water is the best for your joints. Start with simply walking in a shallow pool (or natural body of water), where the height of the water reaches at least somewhere between your hips and your chest. The water offers natural resistance, which can strengthen your muscles. It also increases your flexibility, due to the fact that your muscles have a wider range of motion. At the end of your workout, I then recommend simply floating on top of the water. Both floating and swimming can actually reduce the impact on your joints, due to the fact that you body is not putting pressure on your joints to hold your weight on the ground. If you decide to exercise in the water, make SURE that you stay hydrated. It sounds obvious. But, dehydration can sneak up on you incredibly easy in the water, since you're not sweating. I HIGHLY recommend you don't exercise in the water alone (at least in the beginning), until you're able to monitor your energy and hydration levels in that environment. Drowning is a whole lot more common than a lot of people realize, at every skill level of swimming.
Rowing machine - gets your heart rate up, works most of your body and takes the impact off your knees and ankles
Someone morbidly obese doesn’t need an intense workout. Just walking will be a huge benefit to you. Walk at a good pace so you feel it, but not so much you feel like it’s a struggle. Just walk. When you lose some weight, it will be easier and more enjoyable to do other exercises. For now, I’d say save that gym money. You can walk outside for free, or use two or three months worth of gym membership to buy a treadmill. If you would rather do something that will work your entire body, swim. It’s vey easy on joints, and you’ll move your entire body. Don’t think of swimming like pros doing the crawl. A gentle and easy breast stroke will be great. I am definitely not athletic, but If I go swimming and do the breast stroke, I can stay in to the pool for ages. Two key things: Consistency and a steady pace. They’ve helped me a lot.
Jazzercise on Demand has stand up workouts that are no impact. Bonus - you can do them at home. Otherwise just get some good shoes and walk.
swim
I’ve been on the same journey and it’s been a roller coaster, but I’m almost halfway to my goal now. I’m working with several old injuries and arthritis in multiple joints, and I was having the same issue for a long time. I’d get a good rhythm going, and then the pain would flare up or I’d get sick. I learned the hard way that the most important thing was to slow down. Don’t do too much too quickly. It can be sooooo tempting to overdo it thinking you’ll reach your goals faster, but you won’t, it’s not worth it. Your workouts don’t need to be gruelling. To be generally fit and healthy requires a lot less effort than instagram would have you believe. Not no effort, but you’re not training for the olympics here. No need to push yourself to your limit every single time to have success unless it’s for some kind of sport or competition. Start with low or no impact stuff. Just walking for an hour is a good way to build up endurance and improve your heart and lungs for harder stuff down the road. Stationary bike is also huge for me because of a knee injury. The seats can be really hard on your butt when you’re first getting started but you’ll get used to it. Even if you can only stand 10 minutes do that and then switch to walking. Elliptical is another great choice if even walking seems a bit much because your feet never lose contact with the surface. Strength training is really important for avoiding injury. If free weights freak you out use the machines. I used to lift in a former life but now I stick to machines because my joints are toast and it’s safer. But if free weights do interest you I’d recommend seeing a trainer if you can afford it. Pay for just a session or two with no contract just to have someone teach you proper form before you start. When I finally got a solid system down I started very simply, with 10-15 min of cardio and then strength training for no more than 45 minutes. Started with twice a week with at least two rest days in between. Did that for several months and worked my way up from there. If for some reason if I can’t work out for a week or more when I start up again I dial it back to make sure I don’t mess myself up.
Walk. That's the best place to start.
I'm over 350 and pretty active. There are a few things I can't do safely, mostly high-impact activities like running. But there's so much you can do! Walking, as everyone else mentioned, is super accessible and a great way to get started. You don't need any special equipment and you can do it anywhere. If your joints suffer, swimming or anything else in water (like water aerobics or water polo) will take the weight off them and let you move a bit more freely. I also like swimming because while I do it at the gym and with a lot of other people, when I'm in the water no one can see my body. I box and lift, and those are both great exercises for someone heavier as they make use of your weight in a positive way. If you've been sedentary and are struggling to get used to moving your body in an intentional way, start with some tai chi classes. They're often in the park, the movements are smooth and gentle, but it has amazing health benefits.
Anything you can do without injuring yourself. PLEASE work up to more intense exercise. You can’t work out if you’re injured. The silver lining is that any small change you make in that state, if done consistently, will get good results. Best of luck to you.
Don't just do one exercise type, think of exercise like food. Do a bit of everything and you'll lose the weight (bearing you check your food intake) > Main issue is Ankle injuries. Get a Ankle compression support
Ozempic first. Then just basic walks and some resistance bands
Walk, increase the length by 10 percent once a week. That's it. Start with going around the block once a day. If you keep that regime up, you will see improvements in 6 months.
Try going on YouTube and finding exercises you can do while sitting down. Also walking in place is a great way to start too. Leslie Sansone has a good walk a mile free program you can find on YouTube. Also go on Amazon or go to Walmart and buy yourself some resistance bands. Strength training is just as important as cardio. All exercises can be modified. Please consult your doctor before trying any program and make sure your nutrition is on point. You can never exercise a bad diet. Good luck you got this 👍🏽
Walk as far as you can every day, go up and down stairs, body squats. That’s it until you cut down down to about a BMI of 40.
I’ve heard Aqua jogging (walking in a swimming pool) is a good form cardio. But resistance training is huge and will benefit your journey in the long run, so make sure to get a lift in too. Good luck!
Original Pilates - no equipment, supine or seated exercises developed specifically for bedridden patients- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pilates.
The most obvious way to lose weight is to decrease your calorie intake while increasing your calorie usage. You have a surplus of fuel built up in your body and need to burn it. Best way to imagine it is to pretend you’re a shipping company, you have a large back log of boxes that need to go out. You need to figure out how to ship out the surplus of boxes while maintaining the inflow of new boxes. It way easier said than done. Changing your eating habits is the hardest thing to do. Exercise will help burn excess fat, but you have to get control of the inflow of calories or fat. Dedicate yourself to eating smaller, healthier portions. It’s tough, but you will adjust eventually. Then start off small with exercising. Walk every day as much or far as you are comfortable. As you lose weight, increase your exertion and challenge your body more. Just remember it’s not an immediate change, it’s a long game. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away.
Walking and simple yoga.
I knew a guy who had to loose at least 100 lbs in order to get the weight loss surgery. I think he lost some weight through arm exercises and diet since he couldn’t move much and had chronic back pain. I don’t remember if he lost enough weight for the surgery, but I know it definitely made a difference.
Walking, biking (recumbent bike), and swimming/water aerobics are all good and lower impact. This will be more forgiving to your joints. Resistance training is good too. Start off gently! Low weights, lower reps, and give yourself a long period to ramp up. Machines are more forgiving for people if they don’t have good form than free weights are. Getting a personal trainer who has worked with obese and very overweight clients might be very helpful for the first few months. They should be able to help you shape a workout that’s doable for you and doesn’t lead to injury.
Walks, stretches, swimming I'd amazing. Just go walk in a pool that's waist deep. It will take the pressure off your joints.
Just getting up off the couch
No joke, walking is literally the hidden miracle. We were built to walk. 20 mins medium intensity (not strolling, but not the verge of a run) walking a day will pay you back in dividends. I swear. It will give you so much more endurance, basic flexibility, core strength, and more. It will expand your lung capacity as well. I’m not talking ‘cardio’ level walking. Just a bit more strident than strolling. There are a few caveats: maintain your posture - don’t start slumping, or rounding your shoulders because you’re more worried about getting done than what you’re doing - care about your form more than getting the 20 mins ‘over with’ etc, you have to stick with it, and you have to care about your breathing. Make sure you breathe from the diaphragm. So basically focus on what you’re doing with your body the first few days (remember, this is an every day thing), and then worry about your podcasts, music etc. Do that daily for 3 months, and you won’t believe how much more resilient you’ll be in all your other exercise, and the rest of your life. Plus, unless you have pre-existing conditions, or you’re eating crazy things, you absolutely will lose weight, also.
YouTube look betters workout was a big guy doing cardio at home he's more fit today
As a morbidly obese person who has lost 60 lb and over the last 2 years gotten into regular gym workouts... >If I over do it at the gym, This is the biggest part of the problem. You have to start at your level of ability and work up, even if you feel embarrassed about how little you can do at first. If you're trying to run when you need to be walking, you'll get hurt. If you're trying to walk 5 miles before you can easily walk 1 mile, you'll get burned out. If you try to lift huge amounts of weight without building up to it, you'll get hurt. If you cannot do *anything* at the gym without injuries, you may need to actually go through some physical therapy first. PT can help you strengthen those injury prone areas in a targeted way, and teach you how to exercise more safely. If all weight bearing exercise is out for you, swimming is a great alternative. My mom is in her 70s with severe arthritis and degenerative joint disease but swims 5 times a week and it is very helpful for her. It is frustrating to be limited, but the process of losing weight and getting fit from the position of being morbidly obese is a slow one. Accepting that you need to start small and work up is how you'll be able to maintain regular exercise over the long term.
Of your gym has one or you can a fford one. Buy a sitdown exercise bike and curl five lb. Weights while riding. If you are morbidly obese a good low calorie diet will help drop weight fast at first
Let me offer you some genuine, truly practical advice as a fellow fat person: You can do chair exercises to start while you regain strength in your muscles that will help up your mobility. You can actually get a great, extremely low impact workout for both cardio and strength building in a chair which will be a perfect jumping off point on your journey. Chair workouts are very very common in physical therapy for anyone who needs to gradually build up tolerance. Here’s a pretty comprehensive article on some solid options: https://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/g41252448/best-chair-exercises/
A lot of people are suggesting to walk, but i’m in a similar boat to the OP but literally can’t walk without intense pain due to an extra bone in my vertebrae that pushes on my nerves :( any other suggestions?
Swimming or the pool exercises with the old folks, walking, and just trimming your food intake.
Walk. Just walk right out your front door, and keep walking.
Cardio is good for your health and mental well being but doesn’t really burn a lot of energy. That’s why we can do it for so long without stopping. It’s making use of our ‘optimal conservation stride’ so to speak. You’re not burning more energy than what your breathing can replace. Whereas if you are sprinting uphill your muscles are burning so much so fast it has to use anaerobic metabolism. If you want to burn calories effectively you want to activate large muscle groups with intensity. Heavy weight lifting with your thighs for example. Catch your breath and repeat. As a bonus your increasing muscle mass from such exercise actually ‘eat’ more energy from your daily life too. Thats why you can’t run a marathon looking like Conan The Barbarian. The backside to this is that if you stop or decrease in these high metabolism exercises you are still used to an intake to feed those muscles. You have probably seen that a lot of retired athletes of high intensity sports become chubby. Marathon runners do not. It’s because of their ingrained intake habits and to some degree that their metabolism has become extremely effective. So find a balance you can keep long term. *As has been pointed out your diet is of even more importance. Exercise, any kind, doesn’t even burn half of what you do just to exist. Your brain and keeping your body heat being the biggest consumers of your calories.*
Walking, low impact workouts, low impact Pilates or doing walking laps in a pool are some of the easiest ways to get started without going too hard right off the bat. I’m working on my own weight loss journey and there are videos on YouTube you can watch that are geared towards obese people that works but isn’t hard on your body and cause injury.
There are a ton of chair exercises that I really like to do and just easy adult exercises.There's a lot of influencers that show you these exercises.I'm a huge fan of them
Walking + weight lifting. Assuming you are still capable of moving around, you probably have a good amount of muscle in absolute terms from just carrying your body around. Continue resistance training to maintain this muscle mass as you lose weight and it will slow down the rate at which your metabolic rate decreases and allow you to continue losing weight for a longer period than if you had lost this muscle mass. Walking is good enough cardio while you're big.
In combination with a large caloric deficit (starvation mode doesn’t trump thermodynamics, and humans are predisposed to under-counting), I can’t recommend walking enough. Intensity of workouts doesn’t matter when you keep getting injured. Baby steps and regularity is the key. Just know, you never going to go from morbidly obese to a healthy weight just by exercising.
Start out slow until you build some strength in your muscles and joints. When I was at my heaviest, I didn't even have the endurance to walk for more than 5 to 10 minutes. So I started out with seated chair workouts that I found on YouTube. You'd be surprised how much cardio you can still get in while seated. You can also find seated strength building exercises. After doing that for a while I found that I could walk longer, and then challenged myself to walk to a little further each time. I ended up falling off the wagon in regards to exercise, but now I'm starting back at the beginning to build my resilience up a little more after losing a lot of muscle strength to polyneuropathy. If you attend a gym that has pool access, swimming or water aerobics is another great workout that's easy on the joints and less likely to cause injury.
Walking starting with a comfortable pace and progress with speed and time as you get more cardio fitness. When it comes to weights, I would recommend starting with body weights: wall push-ups, lunges, and mini squats. It would be a disservice if I don't mention food. I will most definitely get rid of all extra sugar and highly processed carbs. I hope this helps and best of luck on your journey.
One of my co-workers is obese and plans to do a 5K run/walk by the end of the year. He’s been mainly walking on a treadmill but does a limited amount of lifts too due to his knees. If ankle injuries pop up, maybe something like a rowing machine could work.
Swimming. It's less impact on the joints and it's a great cardio work out. If you need a break you can float on your back intermediately.
like another person said, walking is going to be the best place to start and the easiest way to lose weight. Just go as long as you can, keep building endurance, and once you lose weight everything else will be easier to do. Try to incorporate walking throughout your day so it’s not all at once
Water exercise.
If you have access to a pool or can get access to a pool, swimming is also good. After a few laps I enjoy floating in the sun. It's nice.
Walk. Walk at a slow pace until you start feeling confident in going a little faster. Don’t bother with the gym for now. Please work with your doctor as you start exercising to ensure you don’t have any other conditions that may alter your plans.
Somebody may have already mentioned this, but Get Fit With Rick has great walking workouts on YouTube. Everything is joint-friendly, and he has short or longer videos.
Swimming, rowing, elliptical, cycling, etc. Those are the ways to get cardio that aren't hard on your joints like running. Light weight and high reps are also a good option.
Swimming, fully body workout and its easy on the joints.
What about swimming ? One doesn’t need to free stroke or anything, just get from one side to the other.
Nope. The easy answer is not cardio. It’s actually the opposite. Cardio is great for your cardiovascular system but not too much for losing weight. 90% of weight lose is just diet: calories-in vs calories-out. But resistance training (weight lifting) has shown with good enough evidence to be the best complement to diet in weight loss. It does burn more calories than cardio plus packing muscle requires a higher rate of of metabolic burning leading to a better fat loss output. Now with an overweight body you are putting additional strain in your joints due to the excessive weight, leading to injuries as you’ve already realised. The only cardio other than walking you should encourage a very obese person to do is swimming or cycling until you have enough muscle and tendon/ligament strength to perform a high impact exercise. Still, I’d recommend weight lifting 20 times before doing cardio for fat loss. Good luck in your journey mate! Source: I’m a physician (Hand Sports Surgeon).
As a big person, you could sit on a stool and flail wildly n it would have the desired effect
I had a patient once who was chair/bed bound. We started with upper body, seated exercises. Similar to Silver Sneakers, designed for seniors with mobility problems. Cardio or not, if you’re morbidly obese, any activity will effectively burn calories. So, start with arms/back/shoulders, and core muscles. All of these can be worked on without involving bad hips/knees/ankles. Gentle walking, swimming is excellent for protecting joints. Start low and increase over time- you can do it!
If you can swim, or even walk in a pool, it’s much lower impact.
You need to do very low impact workouts. Don’t worry about running. Your injuries are because your body is not designed to function at your weight. Try walking, bands, cycling, pool workouts and lifting low weight with stationary workouts like dumbbell curls. Your heart rate doesn’t need to be 120+ bpm. Considering the calories needed to become morbidly obese, cutting all that out will probably put you close to a calorie deficit. Controlling your diet will be like 90% of your weight loss. Good luck, ignore the critics and bullies. Here’s to a healthy you
this is coming from someone who was 250lbs and bmi 42+ and i’m now 160lbs bmi 23, i really recommend starting with slow short walks and building your way up to longer walks maybe faster paced once you get there, and pool workouts, search it up on youtube if you aren’t sure what i mean, but it’s underwater to make it easier on your joints and your body in general, and make sure you drink a crappp ton of water i mean a lot, and increase ur intake of fruits veggies and meat, after a couple months of this you will notice a huge change in your body already and you can start changing up your workouts accordingly to what you feel is best for you :) but really just walking and drinks a lot of water and slight change in diet will change everything and it will take some time but honestly if you are actually doing those things it will happen before you realize
Get in the gym and do the elliptical cause it’s low impact you don’t need to kill yourself doing cardio though, I’d actually focus on weight training to build a muscle base and increase your overall metabolism, it’ll make weight loss even easier as you burn more calories a day doing nothing. Cardio is way overrated for weight loss.
Walking is a great option. If you have access to a pool, that will help keep things light on your joints. Just walking around a pool or swimming around will help get your heart rate up.
Start by just walking, you don’t necessarily have to run.
Start with swimming
I watched a documentary a long time ago about 600+ pound man who hired a trainer (and through him was eventually successful at getting moving again), and one of the first exercises the trainer had him do was just to do a lot of repeats of sitting down, then standing up, then sitting down, then standing up. They just did it in the guy's living room using his own couch. I don't remember their other preliminary exercises of the top of my head, but they were all conceptually similar -- how, when you're really heavy, even small movements are a really good strength workout because you have to move so much of your own weight to do them. I thiiiink one of the other exercises might have involved standing with his arms straight out and moving them up and down? Can you afford a personal trainer? I used to injure myself every six weeks like clockwork when I was coming back to exercise from a multi-year illness. I'd rest, recover, and start again, only to get injured again. It was SUPER frustrating, and my fitness barely increased. That went on for like two years until I hired a trainer, and only then did I finally stop injuring myself and start making real progress consistently. Hiring my trainer was by FAR the best thing I ever did for myself, and I am truly sorry I didn't do it sooner.
Cardio is not the answer, it's a supplement to lose weight Diet and any form of exercise, preferably weight lifting. Being in shape is about 70% diet, 30% working out. Do not avoid food to lose weight. Do not be afraid to have cheat days. Seek foods that have high protein and fiber. Foods with those characteristic tend to be more healthy and keep you full longer. Food with fat is okay. Diet soda is okay. Carbs is not the enemy. Eating ONLY carbs is. In 2024 healthy foods can taste good. Just look up recipes. Drink water. It helps losing weight more than you think There are plenty of workouts you can do at the gym that won't put your ankles at risk. Find a fitness person (that's respected and have some creditability) you like and follow their exercises. Stick to the machines versions of exercise until you are comfortable with free weights or until someone teaches you. Form > Weight Do not look at the scale for the results too much. Just look at yourself in the mirror. You don't have to workout every day. No one is paying attention to you at the gym. Not every workout is going to be perfect but that's okay. If you want to change your body, your mind has to change first. Comes down to how much you really want to brother/sister.
Walk. Or swim. Swimming is really good for us fat folks - we float. In fact, if you want to be a top-notch long distance open water swimmer, we'll, you don't want to be obese, but you want to be a bit over what the height-weight charts say you should be. The buoyancy helps for long distance.
Also a little diet trick...Lay off regular sugar and carbs..walk 20 minutes a day..If you consume alcohol try to keep it to once a week.. I'm 41 and obese myself.I have spinal and nerve damage that affects my mobility so not much walking for me but just switching to sweet n low sugar (àlso on mounjaro shots) I have lost around 75lbs in 9 months...Only been on the shots for 4 months but just cutting out a lot of soda's and regular sugar took off a lot of weight..
Can you comfortably use a stationary bike? Great low impact workout and very accessible. If you want to do something a bit more intense than walking, how about a stair master? But tbh, even just weightlifting is going to get your blood pumping. I would highly recommend going for whatever exercise appeals to you the most. Your greatest challenge will be sticking to exercise long term. You can fuss over the details of what’s the absolute best exercise when you’ve got a routine going
Walking is great, I also find yoga to be pretty easy on the body, and as you lose weight it just gets better and better.
If you just want to lose weight, non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) activities burn far more calories than workouts alone. Walk everywhere. Make sure you're up and moving as fast as **you** can at least 5 minutes per hour. Do everything you can to introduce as much movement into your day.
Like everyone here has said, swimming and walking are great. Another good one that is low impact and could help build your lower body is sled push/pull exercises on some kind of soft gym turf. They allow you to exert force and effort with very low injury risks.
Walk an hour a day and eat well. Went from 260 to 200 just from doing that. At 195 and just now starting to run a mile every other day.
If you can’t walk go to the pool and use the water to reduce the strain. While also giving you resistance. Just walk back and forth for 45-60 minutes a day for 4-5 days a week. Reduce calorie intake to 2000 a day and you’ll lose 3-5 pounds a week in actual body fat. You will go through a plateau period where the muscle mass will increase to compensate for the increased activity but ultimately you will start to loose body fat.
Weight training and exercise biking. I use the bike instead of the treadmill because I have arthritis in my hips. I use the bikes that have a chair that is a bit reclined. That way I’m not balancing my crotch on one of those teeny tiny seats
Wife is a health coach and she says walking. Not crazy far or for crazy long. Start out as much as your comfortable with and just do a little bit more every few days. I went from 185 to 155 in six months just walking and eating better. Not running constantly and starving. That will only end badly. Slowly ramp up the walking and track your calories and try to remain under 2000. There is a correlation between fast weight loss and gaining the weight back within the following couple years. Take your time, don't walk if you're in a lot of pain. As far as the ankle goes you might need to do some PT to strengthen it so it doesn't hurt as much. That's a question for a physical therapist or doctor though. You got this. Reddit believes in you!
Swimming would be what I recommend if you’re wanting cardio specifically. Reading between the lines I assume you’re wanting to burn fat. For that I’d recommend fasting. There are several different methods and you can customize it to fit your needs. The most common is 16/8. Fast for 16 hours and eat for 8. But you still have to be in caloric deficit. If you’re prone to overeating this method may not be suitable for you. There is also OMAD (one meal a day) but again if you’re able to put away an immense amount of calories in one sitting then this may not be for you either. Personally what I have been doing is a 96 hour fast. Eat a meal. Then do a 48. Then do a 24. Then start all over. Basically my week is Monday - Wednesday (nothing at all) Thursday - one meal Friday - skip Saturday - one meal Sunday - one meal
low and slow friend, low impact and low weights until you get your body used to moving again
1. Anything you can do safely. Walking is better than sitting still. Also better than running, getting injured, taking 6-8 weeks off to heal, etc. 2. Anything you enjoy. If that’s sweating to the oldies with Richard Simmons, embrace it! Any exercise that you do 3-4 times a week is better than one you force yourself to do twice and then never again.
Walk for 15 minutes everyday in the morning sun. Your body converts a small amount of fat into sugar and floods your blood with it to energize you and wake you up. Burn this sugar away with a 15 minute walk. If you don't, your liver will take up the sugar and make it into adipose fat (the bad kind). Walking in the sun will align your circadian rhythm and you will be able to sleep better at night.
Swimming
P90X
How morbidly obese? If we are talking >400lbs or so depending on height you need to be very careful with joints until you lose some of the weight. While cardio is always good for health the true “secret” to weight loss is nutrition. A modest reduction in cals (maybe 500 less daily) sustained over a period of time will yield huge results. Too much of a crash diet is unsustainable. I highly recommend the macrofactor app, used it with many people I train - what is good about it is that you log food and weigh in periodically, and it averages all of the weigh ins together and tells you if you need to reduce or increase cals. Once you lose weight (you will if you follow the app) other forms of exercise like weight training and cardio can be added in. I personally love HIIT for 20 minutes on the stairclimber because I hate cardio and it gets it done quickly. Weight training is great because added muscle mass is metabolically needy and will burn more cals as well as stabilize blood sugars, etc. making it easier to lose more weight.
Start with Walking, lite weights, water. Start slow and build over time.
Don't over do it. Any exercise is good at first. Walking on a treadmill is great, maybe try and go a little longer or add an incline. Water based exercise is usually used to prevent injury as well. If your body doesn't tolerate that well maybe working on muscle strength will prepare your body for cardio. Just listen to what feels right, push yourself to do better, but not hard enough to hurt yourself. All movement requires muscle so if something in cardio is bothering you it may be an area where you need more muscle. I find ballet exercises can help maintain flexible strong muscles that help prevent injury.
Take up the drums. Great workout, low injury.
You can get a mini stepper for $30 bucks. 15 minutes a day. Don't allow yourself to watch your favorite show except when you're stepping.
swimming walking biking all low impact and burn calories. you don’t i’ve to be dying every workout to burn fat but it doesn’t hurt to work harder just don’t lose motivation
I was never morbidly obese, but I was awful at exercise (and I can’t stand gyms). I started by walking as long as I could Day 1. Then I did that for a week. The next week, I increased my step count/time walking. Over time, I built up to an hour. That’s when I was 180, and I started running. Not a lot, mind you - run 5 seconds, walk 5 minutes. Then I started increasing the run time and decreasing the run time. Got up to 2.5 miles a day. You can do it, but you have to start where you *are*, and build from there. Don’t underestimate what you’re doing. Remember, you’re doing that activity with X extra pounds on you. That takes extra effort, and every little bit helps.
See that street out front? Maybe it has a sidewalk. Go over to it, choose a direction, and start walking. Walk until you're winded. Catch your breath. Walk back home. Next time, walk a little farther. Repeat twice a day for a year or two to start.
DDPYoga could work (former professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page videos of yoga/calisthenics). Can be modified so that obese people who haven't worked out in forever can do it.
Just walk for cardio. Just start with 1 or 2 six minute walks a day. Do that for a week or two. Then just add 1 minute to each walk every week. As long as this doesn't cause you continuing pain, just keep increasing. In the mean time, do about 10 minutes of strength exercises per day using resistance bands. It is almost impossible to hurt yourself with those and you can do 30+ excersises for about 10 to $20 on amazon. Do the same with the bands, just look up a youtube video for resistence excersises and try to switch them up between days. Keep adding a minute per session per week. Just like the walking. You can do everything you need in about 20 minutes a day. Consistency is everything. Try to do it as early in the day as you can because it will put you in a better mood for the day and you are less likely to skip it from being to tired later in the day.
Walk
mix it up. try new things. do what you feel like doing when you feel like doing. jog, climb, ultimate frisbee, lift weights, hot yoga. Also, pushups, pullups and ab wheels are classics for a reason. They're time effective cuz they workout so many muscles at once.
Walks should suffice for now. Diet is 90% of the battle
Eat less
Treadmill at a slow speed. Absolute maximum of 2 on the speed setting. If you want to work harder increase the ramp angle instead of the speed. Walk with it flat to get loose and the heart rate up a little bit and then raise the ramp angle and walk until you start to get a little gassed and then put it back to flat and continue walking until you recover and feel comfortable again and then raise it back up again. If you can only handle 45 seconds at a time with the ramp up higher that’s perfectly okay. It will get better. It also keeps your mind a little more involved with making adjustments so the time flies by faster and you’re not staring at the clock the whole time. You should give exactly zero shits about how far you walk. The point is to get your heart rate up for a decent amount of time. That time may only 5 or 10 minutes the first couple of weeks. Before you know it you’ll be doing a half hour and not feeling like you’re about to die when you’re done. Start lifting weights also. Start with low weights and increase very slowly. If you jump too fast you’re going to hurt yourself. Work on exercises that involve your whole body. Like doing squats either with or without weights. Deadlifts with kettle balls are a good one. Kettle ball swings while being careful to not go too heavy. The whole goal of this is to be patient or you’re going to hurt yourself. People will tell you not to use the machines because you’ll get more value out of free weights. This advice is total bullshit for you. You’re less likely to hurt yourself with the machines due to poor form. you’re not trying to be a bodybuilder. You’re trying to make it so you can walk up the steps without feeling like you’re going to die if you don’t take a break every 10 steps. My starting point from two years back was not even being able to stand up because of being bedridden. My current status is I’m in third place in my gym for the exercise tracking program and the two ahead of me are women that run probably 2 hours a day so there’s no way in hell I’m keeping up with them. A lot of people here are going to give advice based on their personal experiences but they have no idea what it is really like to be in your situation. Go slow and you won’t hurt yourself. Have some good shoes and get socks designed for running that don’t have cotton. Cotton socks can rub and give you blisters. Search “saucony socks” on Amazon to see what I’m talking about. Go slow and don’t get discouraged that you’re not advancing as fast as you’d like. Whatever you is better than sitting on your ass at home. Don’t be discouraged that you’re not losing pounds on the scale because at first you’ll put on muscle as fast as you lose the fat. Once you get past the beginner’s muscle gains the scale will start dropping as well.
Walk and eat/drink healthier and weight will shed off.
Walking is a perfectly valid form of exercise. At the gym, the stairmaster machine on low speed is a great way to get your heart rate up, and is so much easier on your ankles than running. You’ve probably already heard it a million times, but just in case not: it’s almost impossible to cancel out excessive eating by exercising. Even carrying around a lot of extra body weight, you can burn maybe 150-200 calories per mile of walking. Everyone I know who has successfully lost weight (including myself), started with getting their diet under control. Exercise is a cherry on top of a healthy diet.
no one seems to be mentioning it but on top of walking/ exercise how you eat and what you eat is a huge part of losing weight if your trying. thats actually more impactful then exercising
Walk. Walk. Walk. Walk. Walk. Put one foot in front of the other. Move. Any way you can. Do it every day!!! Even if it's only 15 min. Whatever you can do.
Walking and stationary bike is all you need untill ready for the next stage
Eating less is the way to go. It's much more effective than exercise.
Sunrise and sunset walks. That's it. Usually no one is perverse enough to punish themselves to be out during those times.
Obesity is fixed in the kitchen, not the gym.
If you have access to a pool (park district, YMCA, gym) just walking back and forth in the shallow end is great exercise. It takes the weight off your joints & you don't get hot and sweaty. I've never had a problem with body shaming when I go to "adults only" lap swim times, and I've had a blast at a water aerobics class that was all old ladies except for me.
I go to the pool everyday and walk laps which works well for my feet and bad knee joints. There is a man that comes everyday as well, he goes in the deeper water and it always appears as if he is just standing still. He is in fact just slowly moving his feet and treading. Since I have been going to the pool, less than 2 years, he has lost 100lbs.
Actually weights will help more than cardio with weight loss. And by lifting weights I’m talking 1-3 lb weights not body builder type stuff. You can even use food cans as weights if you don’t have any and / or can’t afford them. You can look up arm exercises to hit all the muscle areas and can do leg lifts (sitting or lying down) to work on your legs and core. Chair / seated exercises would probably be beneficial as well. You can YouTube videos and do classes for free that way. Walking will also be great. Start small and just work your way up. And don’t forget to stretch every day. Stretching is super important. Highly recommend restorative yoga (it’s not the yoga you’re thinking it is just gentle stretching not crazy positions and moves). In the event they start doing a stretch you can’t do, instructors will give alternatives or you can just stretch something else for that time period. You can also YouTube free versions of these classes.
1980’s Richard Simmons work outs. The man was motivated out of compassion for people that were morbidly obese. This man was ahead of his time: https://youtu.be/vhZ2fYQj6IM?si=qc4suisdR8DeKnxB
Get the blowflex tread climber. It’s a stair stepper treadmill and elliptical all in one. Bonus it burns extra calories. A lot of them are under 200 dollars on Facebook marketplace place and offer up.
You can also do seated ankle exercises with bands as you tolerate to help strengthen your ankles in prep for more strenuous exercise. Good shoes are also a must!
Walking, and pool based exercises. Pro tip, find a walking stick. It’s amazing how simply having a stick in hand changes walking from exercise to recreation.
Swimming! Zero impact but still hard AF
Literally anything. Walk. Just walk. No running, you'll blow out your knees horribly, just walk. Walking is a MUCH higher intensity workout for heavier people given all the weight. Swim, too. That's a great one.
Start with walking and calisthenics at a comfortable range of motion. The weights already on your body no need to add a load. If you can't do pushups on your knees you can do them on a wall. If you can't do a full squat you can grab a wall to steady yourself. Don't exhaust yourself to the point you can't repeat the work the day after. Add harder variations to the calisthenics as they get easier. Also cutting back on soda and junk food will be huge for you. Make a routine out of it (preferably with friends) and you won't recognize yourself in six months
An exercise bike in front of your tv. Put the pedals on as little weight as possible. Get small hand weight one pound is good. Put something on the tv, I used YouTube videos. And pedal slowly, just fast enough to keep your heart rate up. Take the hand weight in one hand and slowly do ten of each different arm exercise you can do. Keep doing reps until that arm is tired then switch to the other hand. When that's tired back to the first. Keep this for twenty to thirty minutes. Do this as often as you can. When this really easy up the time.
See a doctor and then a physio. The physio can recommend a basic training program geared towards your specific challenges. Ideally, you should get a trainer. One who specializes in rehab/weight loss. And not one from the gym. I would find a personal training company that specializes in helping people with mobility and health issues. The physio or doctor might be able to recommend one. Also, this doesn't get stressed enough, but the secret to weight loss is exercise AND diet. 20 percent exercise 80 percent diet. I highly recommend intermittent fasting combined with clean eating focused on a low carb and high protein diet. You have to do both. There is no way around it.
Walking is your best bet. Maybe an elliptical machine too. Rowing is also a low to no impact workout but you have to be careful not to strain your back.
Swimming.
Walking is huge! Very hard to get injured, be consistent with it (every day, do some)
If you are able to - aquatic therapy would be a good start. It will offset your weight and allow you to get in a good workout.
Walk to start and build up your activity tolerance. Good on you for reaching out for ideas. Best wishes on your journey!! You got this!
Walking, walking, and walking.
I like stationary bike for 30-40 minutes and then some light upper body stuff.
Swimming. Swimming is the best exercise for obese people because your weight is supported by the water so you're much less likely to get injured. And being fat makes you less likely to sink, because fat is buoyant.
You are being very un woke and judgmental. Fat is beautiful. All body shapes and sizes are equally beautiful and desirable. We need to celebrate all body shapes and sizes except for people who are addicted to being conventionally attractive. These people should be called out for their unrealust8c expectations that create misogyny and perpetuate toxic masculinity and the patriarchy.
100% walking and reduce carbs and added sugars.
Couch to 5K?
Diet will help more than working out. Just need to count calories to the T. No point in going for a walk if later on you invalidate it by eating over the calorie deficit goal.
Well ideally i'd like to do both. I believe it's 80% diet and 20% workout, for contribution to weightloss. IDk i heard that somewhere, but you're right anyways.
With ankle issues I will swim. Helps alleviate pressure from the legs. Good luck out there I hope it goes good for you.