T3700

Hi,

This is my first post. My name is Renee, I am 38 years old and I need help to lose weight. I work full time and I'm a mother of two kids (4 -5). I have very little time to exercise. I try to walk on my treadmill and work out with DVD's and on weekend ride my bike. I have hurt my knee so I can't do much because of it. I would like to know what kind of diet I need to lose weight healthy and not feel weak. I need to know also what kind of exercise I need to do so it want hurt my knee. Every time I try to exercise my knee starts hurting. I have a home gym treadmill, bike, and DVD's.

I weigh 250 and I am 5 2. The Doctor tells me my ideal weight is 115 to 130.

I would really be thankful for any help

Renee

michaelnel

Eat less. Move more.

DannoXYZ 

Be careful about the knees, if they have any prolonged injuries, that'll put you in bed or in a wheelchair for quite a while and you won't be able to exercise at all. First, get fitted to your bike by a pro shop, you're most likely sitting too low and too far back, causing knee-pain just in front-of and below the kneecap.

Then pick easy gears, feel like you're spinning your legs off like a hamster on a those spinning-wheels they have. You should never feel like you're pushing hard on teh pedals and your lungs and heart should be racing even more than your feet. This is a more cardiovascular workout and will help you generate more power to burn off more calories/hr.

Get indoor-trainer for the bike. This will let you ride at home on the weekdays. With a variable-resistance unit, you can actually burn off 2-3x as many calories/hr on the bike versus walking on the treadmill. Again, be careful of the knees, use easy gears and spin.

Track your meals daily. Try a site like https://www.fitday.com . I've lost 65# this last year with another 30 to go and only by being meticulous with my diet and logging my training can that ever be possible.

As for diet, you have to be honest and rigorous with yourself and really examine what it is that you're eating. The FitDay site is perfect for tracking that. Log everything, even the two Saltine crackers that come with your soup for lunch. That site will then let you analyze your meals and track calories. Try to keep total fats to 20-25%, personally I usually don't worry about protein/carb mix too much (I eat from 3000-5000cal/day, mainly complex-carbs, proteins/fats are ingested incidentally). Get lots of fibre, veggies and fruits. And balance your total calories to be about 500-calories daily less than what you burn off in exercise and normal metabolism every day. You're probably burning off 1800-2400 calories a day, try to target a total of 1500 calories in your meals.

If you're feeling constantly weak, lethargic with gooey muscles, it's most likely due to too little carbs relative to the total. Cut back on some fats and increase the carbs and you'll have a lot more energy. You want to focus on long-term steady results with a change in lifestyle, rather than lose-weight-fast eat-whatever-you-want fad-diets. Here's a pretty good thread that sums it all up: Patentcad's Miracle Diet- LOSE 46 lbs in 8 WEEKS!.

Good luck!

kim kohen

Hey Renee, good for you. Although this is a bike forum, I'll throw in my 2 cents worth of where I think you should start. For mine, if you have bad knees to start with, I'd be swimming. I swim 1.5 km a day and cycle weekends and a couple of nights a week. Sometimes I ride to the pool, swim and ride home.

As much as I like cycling, the swimming will give you a very gentle, low-stress way of doing some solid exercise. I've had a knee reconstruction, a fracture dislocation of the shoulder and a recent spinal fusion and every time I have surgery the doctors tell me to swim. If you're not a great swimmer you can always walk laps - low impact, easy on the knees and great exercise.

Anyway, cycle, swim, walk but I don't think you should be in pain when you're doing it - that would just make you want to stop. Good luck, we're with you.

cheers

/k

croshaven

Join Weight Watchers. I did and lost 25 lbs in 9 months. According to Consumer Reports, they are the most effective at long term weight loss. You might lose more in the short term with some other program, but if you gain it back and then some, why bother?
Their program is based on sound science, their prices are reasonable, and they don't follow fads.
I rode 3,000+ miles in 2005 and didn't lose any weight. I joined weight watchers in 2005 and lost weight.
I've come to the conclusion that my body is extraordinarily efficient at converting food into calories into fat. No matter how much I ride and/or do serious weight traing, I can always manage to eat more than I burn in calories unless I'm equally serious about eating right.

vbclown

+1 for fitday, I went ahead and bought the software version (versus the free web version) and have found it to be a great tool for the start of my return to fitness. Keeping an accurate food log is a very effective way to help you change your eating habbits.

georgiaboy

Lots of good and practical suggestions already given. Just in addition losing weight and or keeping fit is a lifestyle decision. Doing it the healthy is of the most importance. Approach this matter on a daily basis. Dont try to "conquer the world." But stick to a sensible plan so that over sometime you will reap the benefits. Don't get so wrapped up in quickly reaching your goal but concentrate on execution of the plan. If someone has chosen the right road eventually they will reach their destination.

Jarery

What Danno said, its free, it works.

I still use fitday even after i hit my target weight

Javan

One good rule of thumb that I follow. Diligantly, record your daily food intake and calculate how many calories, grams of protein, fat, fiber, carbs, sodium you are bring in. Then figure out how many calories you are burning each day w/out exercise. To lose weight slowly and safely, you should try and take in 15% less calories per day. So, lets say your body burns 3000 calories per day with no exercise. You should only eat 2550 calories. Do this for a little while, then start to add in some exercise. As you lose weight, your daily required calories will also decrease, as will your required food intake. Another rule of thumb is a daily deficit of 500 calories is 1 lb lost per week. A deficit of 750 is 1.5 lbs per week.

I have been using this approach and have lost about 6 lbs since Jan 2nd. Checkout this website. It has given me a wealth of information!!!

www.caloriesperhour.com

SoonerBent

WW's program is really a simple way to keep track of calories, fat and fiber intake. My wife and I lost 30 and 40 pounds respectively and have kept it off for three years now. WW also makes you tend to eat stuff thats good for you. You get to eat either a little bit of junk or a lot of stuff like fresh fruits and veggies.

SS

rthomse

I third the motion for weight watchers.I've lost 79.2 since July 05 ,results not typical

LilSprocket

yeah, and turn OFF the tv, OFF OFF.

Seriously...

NO junk food. If it comes in a box or cellophane bag (ya know like cookies or chips do) it's crap.
NOTHING FRIED ZERO NO SODA, NO BOOZE. if you don't like diet drinks, drink water.

Try pool aerobics at your local YMCA or the like. Don't be embarrassed, wear a big tshirt. Your knees will improve when the weight comes off. If you have a bike, ride it, even if it's just a little bit, likely more than you already do. Moving burns calories, if you move more today than you did yesterday, you will burn more calories. . Do these things, and you WILL lose weight ASAP then you will be more comfortable to do something more challenging to expedite further weight loss.... You will feel SO much better. You deserve to feel better. Do it for your health

SimiCyclist

Another vote for Weight Watchers. 100 pounds over 2 years, and I've kept it off for year so far. WW is also great for active cyclists because they provide a method for calculating your exercise efforts into the total equation for eating, so you won't end up eating too little or too much.

LilSprocket

Woo-Hoo! That's SO AWESOME!!!! Bet you feel like a million bucks!

YES WW IS GREAT. They teach healthy habits. It's the only "DIET" that works long term and is reality based and they advocate being active... BUT be careful with eating exclusively prepackaged meals. They are often very high in sodium.

Walkafire

Weight Watchers!

I made a New Year's Resolution on 1-1-05 by October of 2005 I reached my goal!
I am now a Lifetime Member which = FREE!
I have kept the weight off, tis not easy at times, but WW works!
I have lost over 100lbs!

When I started on Jan 1 2005... I lost about 30 lbs by March 2005
I quit Drinking and lost about 20 more.
I started riding on June 22, 2005... that helped me lose another 50 lbs!

I have set a goal to commute for 1 year, I figure that will help keep my weight down.

The people at WW are great. It does work, but you have to work it!

TomM

A question for you Weight Watcher people: What would happen if Weight Watchers disappeared? Would you be able to maintain your weight?

SimiCyclist

Yeah, I don't think there would be any issues under that scenario. What I've learned and how I've changed my lifestyle pretty much has taken over, which is really the aim of Weight Watchers. Other than monthly visits, which really amounts to nothing more than a discussion group, there's nothing that I rely upon. There's no special foods or pre-packaged anything. Its just a process of changing one's lifestyle.

LilSprocket

WOO-HOO! You Rock!!!

SoonerBent

Once you understand the principals you don't really need WW as such. Neither my wife or I ever attended the meetings or anything like that. We just learned the program and stuck with it. Actually the wife did attend one meeting in the beginning to get the book and the little slide rule thingy to calculate points with.

SS

CTAC

My wife was 38 and we had two little children and she got overweight after the second pregnancy and two years of breastfeeding. Of course she had zero time for herself as you have. She had returned back to her normal weight and she did nothing special about that. The rules were pretty simple - (a) no snacks. If she was hungry, she would make a proper meal (b) no food after 7 pm (that was hard). She would also limit her portion sizes, but not much. It took her about a year, but she has no 'bouncing' problem.

Walkafire

Absolutely!


Weight Watchers is not going away. Tis one of the oldest programs out there, and still one of the strongest. Founded in the 1960's and is now in over 30 countries in the world. Weight Watchers is the best overall diet plan, according to new Consumer Reports ratings.

Cripes...ok ok ok .... I will get off my Soap Box now LOL