Best way into exercise when very overweight

[MotherOfSuburbia]

For various reasons, but mostly due to emotional eating, I am vastly overweight and have about 6 stone to lose. I'm working on the diet side of things with some success but would also like to work on fitness as I feel very unhealthy at the moment.
I tried c25k a couple of years ago but started to worry it was damaging my knees as I'm so heavy. I can't get out to the gym or swimming (apart from when swimming with kids) so could do with something little and often at home to ease me into exercising regularly. Any tried and tested suggestions for the very unfit? Thanks!

Just start by moving around more, sitting less.

Give yourself a target e.g. move round for ten minutes every hour, or stand up and move around for a few minutes every 20 minutes or move round for 5 minutes twelve times a day.

Then set an alarm on your phone/watch PC and do it.

When you’re reliably doing that, keep track of the number of steps you do a day. If you do e.g. 4,000 a day, set yourself a target of doing 5,000 a day every day for the next week. Work your way up to at least 10, 000 steps a day.

Once you do/If you already do 10, 000, then work you way up to 12,000 or 15, 000.

Can you do walking? Start off with just small distances and build up gradually. Get decent trainers though! Also step up and down your stairs, just the bottom one or two.

I'm in much the same position as you, I need to lose about 7 stone so started slimming world (again!) today.

I'm 45 and went to the GP with ankle pain, she said it's the start of osteoarthritis and to lose weight, which is the kick up the backside I needed.

Good luck OP

Definitely agree with starting with walking. I've got about the same as you to lose but a few years ago I lost a lot of weight and my main exercise was walking. I found I really enjoyed it too.

Thanks all! Just need to keep up the motivation...

Try setting two targets

One: only eat three meals a day, no snacks. Drink water when you’re hungry.

Two: start walking for about an hour a day. Maybe get a step counter - yes it’s not an exact science but it will help. Set a target of 10,000 steps, try challenging yourself. Eg if you work in an office, find the furthest toilet. Walk at lunch times.

Things with C25K are quite tough when your fitness is low - you need a base level of fitness really. So you could do something like walk for 10 mins, run for 30 seconds, walk for 1 min, run for 30 seconds. Then build all the way up to run/walk for increasing intervals. But best to speak to a personal trainer to be honest.

Do you have Sky? I’ve been doing ‘fit in 5’ for a few weeks now. It’s on demand.

Lots of videos on YouTube. There was one I did that was just walking - you end up walking a mile over the course of the video.

Walk, walk, walk. And if you're finding it too easy, walk faster and / or walk up hills.

And do 30 squats every morning when you get out of bed. Or work up to it if you can't do 30 to begin with.

Walking for cardio - even just 20 minutes at a steady pace is a great start and build up gradually. Yoga to tone -try yoga with Adrienne on YouTube- the beginners 20 minute one is perfect to start with. Remember to drink lots of water too.

Definitely walking! I lost five stone and that’s the only exercise I did.

I do a lot more now, but at the time walking was sufficient