Excercise advice please.

[PTA]

Hi,

Can someone help with some practical advice please?

I am overweight, not sure by how much as I don't own scales but a lot. I'm obese, probably morbidly so. I've always been heavy but for the last three or four years my (over)weight has remained static, I haven't got bigger but I haven't (magically) lost any either.

I eat quite healthily but have a major problem with portion control and never really feeling full or satisfied.

I want to exercise more and will hopefully have some free time after the holidays however I don't know what to do.

I broke my ankle very badly nearly three years ago and still have plates and pins in so don't want to risk damaging my ankle but I detest swimming. I don't swim well enough or fast enough to get my heart rate up and I find it boring just ploughing up and down the pool, apologies to the swimmers on here.

Does anyone have any suggestions for an exercise regime that will produce results without risking injury? My favourite classes used to be kick-boxing but I'd be mad to try that again, wouldn't I?

Any advice would be great, sorry this turned into such an essay.

I'd avoid anything high impact to protect your ankle if I were you, so if you're a gym goer use the cross trainer, rowers or static bikes for your cardio. Make sure you get some resistance work in there too - and none of this flinging around 2kg dumbbells. Your weights need to feel heavy enough that you get to the end of your set and could only push out a couple more.

I'm a big fan of classes like Body Pump - there's no impact and it's a whole-body workout using weights. You set your own weights so it can be as challenging or as easy as you want it to be. Maybe that's worth a try for you?

Did you see a physio for your ankle? It might be worth seeing one now to find out what they think you can do to strengthen it in order to be able to up the impact of your workouts.

The problem, however, will be that you can out-eat any exercise programme. You won't see weight-loss results until you address your diet. It sucks, but it really is the issue here. DH had friends who weighed in excess of 18 stone doing Ironman triathlons and not losing a pound during training due to their diets. You need to find a way of dieting that will work for you. For me it's logging on MyFitnessPal but lots of people swear by low carb and the new big thing is the 5:2 diet. There are lots of threads on the weightloss board here that are maybe worth a read to see if you can get on with the regimes.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply HTFU.

I thought the advice would be to avoid high impact. I'll self-refer to the physio again and see what they recommend.

I don't have a gym membership at the moment but I'll look into Body Pump. I lack motivation to do it on my own and I used to quite like classes.

I can out-eat exercise easily as you quite rightly pointed out. I was hoping to exercise first and use that to encourage me to look at my diet. I feel less like eating if I'm exercising but I've not been exercising so I've been eating and so it goes on!

PTA, to start with brisk walking may well be intense enough to raise your heart rate enough, although that would depend on whether your ankle is ok with walking.
What about cardio machines at the gym?

to lose weight, diet is the key

but it would help to build up muscle. i would look at weights, maybe even a class that is based around weights eg circuits. then for cardio, whatever your ankle will allow - spin class?

Brisk walking should be ok provided I wear decent trainers, not the ones I wear day to day.

I've called the physios but there is a four week wait for an appointment, provided there isn't a sudden increase in trips and falls.

Thanks for the advice, just need to put it into practice now.

diet & exercise are both key..a combination of both works best.
I'd prioritise cardio over weights for losing fat,although weight training has many benefits for health & body compostion.

Using a heart rate monitor can also be very helpfull

GP might also give useful advice