What's enough and what's too much?!

[SuperFruitLoop]

I'm obese and trying to lose weight. I go for a brisk paced walk daily for around half an hour. I've just begun doing weights (only small ones, 1kg in each hand) every afternoon, only been doing that for a week. I do four different exercises but 40 in total.
What else should I be doing?

Have you thought about couch to 5k? That’s a great programme.
Also, I find yoga or Pilates really helps me not to be too sore after workouts. Yoga with Adrienne on YouTube is free and great.

I've looked at couch to 5k but honestly I don't think I'm up to it. I'm pretty sweaty and hot doing a brisk walk and having mahoosive (like seriously big) boobs is off putting for running. I guess I'm happy with the walking for now, my legs feel achey and I'm wary of putting them under any more strain than they already are.
I suppose I'm not really sure how much I SHOULD be doing?! I'll look up that yoga course. My core is... Slack to say the least.

Op I don't know how big you are but I started couch to 5k at over 16 stone with 36K boobs!

Keep doing what you are doing. Losing weight is mostly what you eat and as the weight drops off you will be inclined to move more as your body will feel better. Well done at making changes and keep going .

You could increase your walking till you get to 5k or even walk for one hour at brisk pace.

I’ve started doing cardio. I was doing slow yoga so now I’m doing that as well as harder yoga (with weights for example ) and also body attack or body combat (really like this one). Only been 2 weeks so not lost much so far

If you are obese you are probably quite strong as you will have a decent amount of muscle mass to heft around the weight. (Just a term. No criticism). Use that to your advantage. Up the weights. It is a great way to help lose weight although as others have said, it is mainly what you eat that will make the difference. Try upping to 2 -5kg weights depending on the exercise. Look online. You can do this!

Losing weight is hard because our stupid bodies respond to diets by turning on the biological big guns and defending a higher weight with all kinds of mechanisms. So I would say

• losing weight successfully if it is possible is a juggling act of finding a way to eat less while not falling into the traps (of rebound weight gain, slowing metabolism etc).
• getting more active definitely helps but doesn't in itself lead to weight loss.
• weight training is good. Do a free trial of Les Mills BodyPump (but go easy when you start) to see what you should be doing
• do what you enjoy and if you stop enjoying it mix it up and do something new.
• eat less processed foods in smaller portions with gaps between episodes of eating

I would say a bare minimum would be 10k steps a day, plus 30 mins of exercise 3-4x a week.

That may sound like a lot, but bear with me..!

For now you could start with low intensity for all of the above, meaning your 10k steps is the walking you're doing already, plus everyday tootling around, til you reach 10k.
And then add on 3 or 4 bouts of half hour exercise on top of that; the most important thing being that it's something you enjoy. So that half hour exercise could be Yoga with Adrienne or a weights session on your own, but could just as easily be Joe Wicks PE, Wii Fit or Cosmic Yoga with the kids. That should be very easy and sustainable to fit into your lifestyle, and what's important is that it's setting up a pattern of exercise being the "norm."

Therefore, when you get to a point where the walking and yoga and kids aerobics sessions feel easy, you're already in a routine and can just up the intensity. Your walks can become c25k and the kids aerobic sessions can be switched up for tougher HIIT.

The key is finding a routine you'll stick with and that you enjoy, rather than jumping in too fast and being put off.

I think it sounds like you’re doing a good amount already. There’s no point trying to do too much too soon and either getting injured or losing motivation.

If you really tune jn to your body you’ll start to recognise when you’re a bit bored of your routine.

Maybe then you’ll fancy looking up variations of the strength exercise you’re doing, or perhaps walking a bit further.

Government advice is a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise/week or 75 minutes high intensity, so you're probably getting there with the walking already.

Have you thought of cycling? It's low impact, so kinder on the joints. I'd normally suggest swimming too, but that's a bit tricky just now (though there were swimmers in my local river yesterday, just in costumes, no wetsuits, so if you're really keen....)