weight lose advice...

As always, check with your doctor to verify and refine all of this for your specific situation.

Without knowing your age (putting you in your late 20s to early 30s if you're older these numbers drop thanks to metabolic rates droppign with age) with a nearly entirely sedentary and assuming your weight estimates are correct (especially given your difficulty finding an appropriate scale to get an accurate one) and a goal of 200 lbs at a height of 6'5", you're looking at a maximum daily load of 2,500 to 2,750 cals. At that rate you should also vary the calorie load every few days, (say 2,500 for two or three days, then 3,000 for a day, then 2,500 for two or three more days, then 3,000 for a day); this keeps your metabolism from regulating to a starvation setting and retaining calories at the lower load.

Here's where you check with your doctor again, reduce your meat intake drastically and increase your vegetable intake, both cooked and raw (and check with your doctor to maintain safe levels of both or to suppliment your diet to maintain proper mineral intake). Veggies are much harder to adequately process, so they actually burn a larger percentage of their calorie value by being processed than meat does. Vegetarian diets (especially vegan diets and double that for "Raw Foodian - Vegan" diets) are good for weight reduction simply because it is extremely difficult to eat enough volume to get into a high calorie count, but they carry the risk of missing out on vital nutrients (plus there is some pain associated with changing to them, especially gastro-intestinal pain and gas), the same goes for a low-meat regiment and have regular dental checkups because grinding up a large volume of plant matter can cause much heavier tooth wear.

Split your meals into three, fairly evenly spaced, moderate meals (in this case about 550-600 calories each) and three smaller "large snacks" (about 150-200 calories each) throughout the day. That includes drinks, water is your good friend since it has no calories, unsweeted tea is also another good friend. Since you have an aversion to leftovers, do not have leftovers. Make meals small enough that eating all of it puts you at your calorie count for that meal.

While you're at it, reduce your soda intake to close to nil, that includes diet soda. A glass of soda is, on average 100 calories for 8 ounces (for reference, the average American drinks 4 to 8 glasses of soda per day, accounting for 20 to 40% of their recommended calorie intake for the day). Many people can reduce their weight by simply halving their soda intake or removing soda completely.

Increase your activity in any way possible; stationary bikes, swimming, elipticals, whatever you can do and minimize your back pain. If you choose to lift weights, you want low weight, high rep "toning exercises" to extend the time you're doing it to increase your metabolism. Do this regularly and often, a low impact daily regiment will do wonders for boosting the metabolism.

Be prepared to lose high amounts of weight when you start, followed by near stasis followed by low weight loss for the duration. Use the same scale every time to monitor your weight loss as scales can vary greatly expecially if you're pusing one towards 400 points (a .01 variance per pound will add or subtract 4 pounds at 400 and larger variances between scales are not uncommon).

Be ready to screw it up completely and then get right back on track, because you will. Everyone else does.

Have your calorie load recalculated regularly. As you lose weight, your weight loss will slow because you require fewer and fewer to maintain your lifestyle, meaning you've cut fewer and fewer from your needed load and have some "play" in cutting more.

Be ready for a long haul. "Safe" weight loss is considered to be .5 to 2 pounds per week. Given that, you won't be at 200lbs until sometime near the end of 2013 or the opening of 2014 on average.

To reduce your weight by 200 pounds, half your current body weight, you are going to have to accept a near total change in your lifestyle. You are going to have to do things you dislike (like cooking regularly), things that aren't fun (like a hard-and-fast workout schedule) and things you wouldn't currently do (like toss out leftovers). You have to lose all the excuses for not doing these things (saving energy by not reheating leftovers? That's a cop out) and simply force yourself to do them until you establish a pattern and do them naturally.

I wish you luck, you have a hard and long task ahead of you. Just remember that every pound you lose adds to your life, not just in years but in what you can go out and do that you couldn't before, and every pound shed is less stress on your bad back. I've had a number of friends with weights lower than yours who will not see their 40th birthday because their hearts gave out around 35.

Edit: I got off my duff and checked, you're 25. Lose the weight NOW, it only gets harder to do from here. In a few years your metabolism will begin to slow. In 10 years, it will have droped dramatically and weight loss of the magnitude you want becomes difficult in the extreme without serious assistance fron a planned and strict program, and a failure to alter your lifestyle to account for the lower metabolic rate will begin to pack on even more weight.

Candlestick has it right. When it comes to weight loss, diet is the most important part of it. Then comes the willpower. How bad do you want to do this?

I was putting on a lot of weight after my wedding. I decided it was time to do something about it and completely overhauled my diet. It REALLY sucked at first. There were a couple times where I had trouble keeping on track. But remember, it WILL get easier as you get into the new and better habits.

If you don't like cooking, you could always use diet shakes. I did that for 3 weeks. For breakfast and lunch I had the diet shakes. (High protien, lots of vitamins) in between you can have a snack or two of fruits, nuts, veggies. At dinner you can have something normal, but healthy.

If you can keep on track, you will notice the weight melting off. There's different types of fat build ups. Short and Long term. Short term burns away very quick, and long term.. well you get the idea. Once you get a bit lighter and the pressure on your back is less then I would start with the seated bike.

I'm 6'3" myself and have a size 14 shoe, so I have a decent idea how annoying it is with the bikes, but depending on the gym you go to they are adjustable.

Also, do you have a partner or someone close who wants to lose weight as well? Doing it with a partner makes things easier as you can cheer each other on.

Lastly, set aside one day/meal as your "cheater" meal. That day you can have the food you love the most. If you try to just eat healthy at all times, eventually you will rebel against yourself and fall back into bad habits.

In the end, do it for yourself, your body will thank you for it.

This is going to sound incredibly mean i know, and i dont know how to say it otherwise. However, honestly you really need to stop making excuses. Losing weight is not fun, its not always cheap, its not always easy, and there is definately something to the idea of "No pain no gain".

Your asking for advice and we are giving it to the best of our limited and novice brains. None of us are professionals in weight loss (I am assuming) and none of us have the magic ticket to how to do it. However it just seems every suggestion is being met with a reason for why you cant do something. To the point it almost sounds more like your looking to be given ideas so you can come up with what constitutes to you a logical reason for why you cant do that, therefore your weight problems are not your fault.

My sister was close to 400 pounds at one point. She went to a doctor to get the gastric thingy, but you have to lose 80 pounds on her own, to qualify. And she did it. She had bad feet and legs, she could barely walk from her car to the store without being out of breath. She joined a gym got a trainer to work with her, and basicly just did it and followed instructions.

For calorie intake, well im sorry but if someone needed 2700 calories a day then no hospital would do the gastric bypass thing, because after that operation you eat maybe 4 bites of food at a time every couple hours.

You say you would eat vegtables but cant get them? It says you live in detroit, exactly why dont the stores there sell vegtables? You get your food someplace that your making.

Leftovers and cooking? Well i am not a big cooker either i do it now with the family, but when i lived on my own it did seem like a waste of time to cook things for just me. However something now there is that mostly wasnt around in the quanity back then are alot of low calorie frozen diners. Smart Ones, Healthy Choice etc. If you hit walmarts, targets and watch sales you can get them for pretty cheap sometimes. They are premeasured and portioned and basicly take about 5 minutes to heat up. No left overs. Buy a bunch and throw them in the freezer.

Though i can understand having limited transportation, it doesnt seem impossible to take a bus or get a ride with a friend or family once a week to a real store so you can buy real food. Buy fruit to get you through the week, buy a weeks worth of meals, plan them out and have them ready to go. Spread the food through out the day in smaller meals, time them to when your going to eat them and eat them even if you dont feel starved or hungry so you DONT get starved and have your body shut down your metabolism.

Also even on low fat milk IMO a gallon every couple days is HUGE milk intake. Yes dairy is good, but get low fat yougurt or something to replace the milk. Drink water, or diet drinks and lemonades or something like that. My family of 4 goes through maybe 2 gallons of milk a week. Your drinking that in like half a week by your estimates. Yopliet(SP?) makes some lite yougurts that are like 80 calories and have really good flavors like boston cream pie, lemon pie, key lime, a chocolate cake one etc. They are much better then the old plain or cherry kinda of things i never liked. But they make great snacks with limited calories and a serving of dairy to replace some of that milk.

Basicly though no matter what you have to be willing to change. Though you can say your weight is the result of injury and lack of mobility its still your lack of response to the situation that put the weight on. And yes perhaps if you get back in shape and can move better and exercise more and get around more then you can bring back into the diet some of the things you really missed. But the trick now is getting to that point. Its slow, but you have to be willing to do it, no excuses. For any exercising you feel you can do you need to lower your caloric intake to compensate.

You said something about a pool for 100 dollars is that a month? My wife joined 24 hour fitness who has a pool and its like 30 bucks a month. Yes it might be farther away, but again detroit doesnt have buses? You dont have any friends or family members that would join with you and give you a ride? Seriously you need to just decide you will find a way to deal with all the things your giving as excuses for why this or that wont work. Those suggestions are the basic premise for every diet and weight loss regime i have ever heard of, so its time to apply yourself and stop saying why you cant, and decide your going to find a way to do it.

QuiJon,
I know what it sounds like. I have to go through this kind of crap with just about everything and it's mainly due a running theme throughout your post. If you think about it, you'll realize where most of my problem comes from.

I am not making up reasons for not doing this or that. I am trying to come up with something that is feasible for me to do within the constraints that that major problem has generated.

I hardly see the point of doing something that won't remain constant, as pointed out if it's not a life style change to a certain degree then the effort will likely be a waste and the way my life is it is far more likely that for example, I can't make it to the pool as I would like to, not cuz of myself, but other problems. As far as a bus... from what I know, the nearest bus stop is nearly 4 miles away... which sorta defeats the point.

Also... I live "near" detroit now. I used to live in detroit. Buses in detroit are easy to get to, but slow, but not so much so a few miles outside of detroit in the metro-detroit area or whatever it's called.

While I'm still only a nipper, I put on a load of weight around the age of thirteen or so. Puberty's resulted in my weight fluctuating a fair bit, but I picked up a couple of habits. Now I'm approaching nineteen, I've lost a lot of the weight, and my outlook on food is totally different to what it was then.

I understand that pretty much everything I'm going to say is repeating what those before me have already said, but the first thing that I'm going to have to say is that this is going to take a long time. You may not take six years to get as far as I have, but it really isn't unlikely. Long-term fat takes much longer to get rid of, and can only really happen if you have the patience and determination to stick at it. If you, like I did initially, try to look for a fast way to lose lots of weight, you likely won't be able to keep it off. You need to look at slight changes that will last for a long time; hopefully the rest of your life.

Secondly, and I cannot stress this enough, multiple small meals. I used to eat very little if anything during the daytime, and then ate a large meal in the evening. This was by far the worst thing I was doing to myself. When your body is used to getting one meal a day, it stores that meal away. As fat. Your body won't instantly store what you're eating as fat if it knows that it's going to get some more fuel in a few hours. As others have said, take some things with you on your day: an apple, some grapes, a light sandwich. Eating something small every few hours really does wonders.

I will not, for one second, pretend I know what food groups are wonderful for what. I've found the subject rather difficult to understand, and can never get myself to learn it. I've tried. Luckily, there are plenty of posters here who've told you what good and bad carbs, fibre, and protein do. All I can really suggest from my own experience is that you look into negative calorie foods. Now, before anybody catches me out on this, they are by no means a magical food that cause you to lose weight, and in no way is it as simple as eating low carb foods. There's so much more to it than that. However, negative calorie foods are generally really very good for you, and are a great 'base point' to start from if you're looking for something to snack on. Apples are my favourite, although celery can also be a great snack. Also, look into small changes to make things you enjoy eating better for you. Replacing mayonnaise in a sandwich with lemon juice is great, for example. It adds the same kinda 'zing', but is far better for you in the long run.

Also, don't cut out food you like entirely. Yes, you're going to have to cut down. A lot. But don't think that means you can never eat things you like again, even if they're really very bad for you. Allow yourself a treat every once in a while, and eat something bad for you. Just keep it small: it doesn't work if you eat a couple of pizzas, obviously. I tend to do this about once a week if it's something small, or once a fortnight if it's something like pizza. However, before you treat yourself, you need to make sure you deserve this treat. Have you been eating well? Excercising? Treating yourself every once in a while is a great way to stay motivated. Just don't let it get out of hand.

I know this one seems obvious, but frequent excercise is crutial. You don't need to run a marathon everyday, but you need to ensure you're doing enough every day to use up what you're eating. Your vital functions do use this energy, but that alone will not have you lose weight unless you starve yourself and make yourself incredibly ill. The local gym is an obvious choice, but a home gym is also viable. We've got a cross-trainer downstairs (known as an elliptical elsewhere, I believe), along with a weight bench and a rower. I prefer a home gym, as I can excercise without anybody else around, and I can choose my own soundtrack. But to effectively use a home gym, you need self-discipline. As I found early on, it's very easy to slack off if you're alone. Stick to it.

If you can't go to the gym for whatever reason, and understandably can't afford your own equipment, do some really simple things around the house. Set yourself a task that involves walking up and down the stairs. A lot. When I needed to do something, I'd often carry lots of things from my room downstairs, clean my room, and then move everything back up. This would often be a good ten or eleven trips both ways, and I live in a three-story house. It really tired me out effectively, and even moreso when I lost enough weight that I could gleefully run up the stairs. Sitting still for long periods of time can have a similar effect to eating one large meal a day. If your body doesn't think it's going to use what you're eating, you'd better believe it's going to be fat.

Something that people often overlook is that weight loss is helped a ton by getting a good night's sleep. It isn't often realised that the body uses the ideal eight hours of sleep to 'do it's stuff'. Admittedly, I'm not exactly knowledgable on the subject, but I definitely realised the difference when I started sleeping well. This generally applies to the length of your sleep, although I hear that having a consistent bed-time can also help. If you're doing a lot in your day, as noted above, you'll likely want to go to bed earlier, and it all ties itself together very naturally.

Finally, this is not a diet, or a 'fix'. This is a change of lifestyle. If you're spending time convincing yourself that you can handle this kind of thing for a couple of years, then you're not looking at it correctly. Unless you're happy to put all that weight back on in a few years, then this change is for life. Simply being able to 'put up with it' cannot do. You need to like this change, even though it will initially seem really quite horrible. I can assure you that if you initially stick at it long enough to feel weight loss, you'll be more likely to carry on. Believe me, there is no better motivator than catching yourself in your underwear in a mirror and thinking 'I've lost weight!'. (Which I still do. This morning.)

I apologise if anything in my post seems rude or accusive. I haven't read the entire thread, as some of the posts are simply huge. As a result of which, I may have mentioned some things that are either already underway, or simply not possible for whatever reason. As a guy who's lost enough weight to be truly very happy and proud, I wish you the best of luck, and more importantly:

Enjoy it!

I understand your limitations, and I'll take that into consideration. Leaping into strenuous exercise may not be a good thing, given your weight and your injury. (I'll echo the "swimming" sentiment, as it's low-impact) I would suspect that despite not being initially related, your weight now is a contributing factor to your injury's continued presence.

Try to modify your diet before jumping into so much physical activity.

I know, you don't like to cook, but if you want to lose the weight, you will need to do things you don't like. Obviously, what you have been doing hasn't been working, so if you're that serious about losing weight, you'll need to make a change.

You don't live in an area where fresh foods are readily available, could you possibly have groceries delivered to you? We have Grocery Gateway here, so I did a quick google search, and one that seems to cater to your area is: http://www.groceries-express.com/

It will likely be a bit more expensive, but if you want the fresh produce, and cannot make it to a physical store, perhaps it's an option? Don't use it for all of your groceries, but maybe just the produce.

Go to recipezaar.com it's a great site that has a ton of really good user-rated recipes. It will help to vary your single chicken recipe :)

Good luck!

Thank you, Champion.

Durakken,

There are a couple things that you're doing wrong, and changing them will result in weight loss and vastly improved health.

My background: my mother is a retired nurse, I have done volunteer work in hospitals, many of my relatives are in health care (as nurses, doctors and nutritionists) so I've gotten a lot of free professional information, my brother was a body builder and is a fitness nut, my wife used to weigh 350 pounds, at my worst I weighed 270 pounds (6'1").

I've been broke and without health insurance. All that said, here's knowledge I have that you can use:

Carbs and processed sugars

You need to eliminate them from your diet. Don't say, "Oh, I'll start my diet tomorrow/next Monday/the first of the month." Take the carbs in your house -- the bread, the pizza, the pasta, the cereal, the soda -- and throw it away today. Right now. Get up, put it all in the trash and take it outside where you can't get it. Or if they are still in unopened packages, donate it to a homeless shelter.

Carbs and sugars cause inflammation on the cellular level. You will not believe (and right now you cannot even conceive) how much better you'll feel once you've detoxed from them.

Smaller meals

Consuming most of your calories in one sitting is a terrible thing to do. It stresses your body. Also, by not eating regularly throughout the day, you've conditioned your body to go into "starvation mode." What happens is that your body goes into energy-saver mode, expending as few calories as possible. When you do eat, your body greedily holds on to every calorie you put into it. These are stored as fat.

Eating regularly retrains your body to expect food, so it no longer tries to save each tiny calorie it can. This has nothing to do with willpower, but is merely a biological fact. Never, ever "reward" yourself for "being good" with an ice cream sundae or any other sort of treat. To save your life you need to change your lifestyle.

Portion Control

You need to eat fewer calories, period. Even at 6'4" you do not need 2300 calories a day as a moderately active adult. If you want to weigh 200 pounds, you need to cut your calories.

Fruits & vegetables & proteins

If you replace your pasta with fruits and vegetables, it will seem like you are consuming more than you currently are. That's because fruits and vegetables have lower caloric density than processed foods like pasta. Also, the extra fiber will help stabilize your body in numerous ways.

Salads are important. Leafy greens and broccoli will work magic on your body. Go easy on the dressing. Less is better. Low fat is better still. By "less" I mean a single tea spoon's worth per salad. Twelve ounces of salad with 4 ounces of protein will seem like a huge amount of food. Yet the caloric intake will be nearly a wash once your body digests it. You'll feel full while at the same time losing weight.

Shop also for carrots, apples, strawberries, bananas, blueberries, tomatoes, red/green peppers, raspberries, celery, spinach, watermelon... whatever you like, so long as it is a fruit a or vegetable rather than a processed food. Apples, blueberries and watermelon are better for you than strawberries (because of the amount of sugar in them) but even strawberries are better than any pasta or bread.

Proteins should be consumed in moderation, but you do need them. Too much leads to kidney problems and issues like gout. Some protein sources are better than others. I would recommend the grain called quinoa (pronounced "KEEN-wah"). It has relatively high protein, because it is not a true cereal, and is easily the single best grain you can eat. (I recommend that anyone eat this, not just those who are overweight.) I've seen it in every health food store I've been to, but it's also available at chains like Trader Joe's (my favorite version), Kroger's and Shaws.

Quinoa is also ridiculously easy to cook: 1 cup of quinoa, 2 cups of water, bring it to a boil, then turn the stove to Low as soon as it boils and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Zoom, done, and you have enough for three or four meals. Lightly sautee some onions and red peppers in Extra Virgin Olive Oil for a couple minutes, mix it all together. Easy-peasy.

Overeaters Anonymous

Find a couple Overeaters Anonymous meetings in your area and go to them. Some meetings are better than others, obviously. The ones in the New England are the most progressive, but almost any of them will -- at the very least -- put you in touch with people who are going through (or have gone through) the exact same thing you are.

Also, they're free. Generally people donate a buck or two for the space (usually a church basement), but it's not required. No profits to be had means that people are only in it for the health.

Exercise

Exercise is important. You talk about your vertebrae rubbing together. If that's what is actually going on, then you need to see a doctor immediately. You are risking permanent paralysis and an even larger expense down the road.

Health Care Expenses

I understand what it's like to not have health insurance. I went 20 years without it, 14 while suffering from severe arthritis. If you call around, you can get free help from various sources. Many doctors have been understanding of my position and have cut the cost of their office visits (a couple even gave me free ones) and loaded me down with free samples when I needed medication. Believe me, a lot of doctors get it.

At the very least you need X-rays to show what's going on in your spine. You also need a full panel of blood work and a complete physical. Yes, these cost money, but you need to prioritize your life. You're paying to play a video game -- eliminate costs like this one for 6 months and you'll have plenty of money to get checked out. Cut out your internet, turn off your cable -- do what you have to. The library will entertain you plenty, trust me. Six months or a year from now, when your health is back on track, turn it all back on again.

I went 11 years without fixing the top of my convertible because I had to prioritize my expenses. After a while it wasn't that big a deal.

Medicine

There are some medications that I absolutely need to take because of my arthritis. Otherwise I couldn't function. While a couple are relatively cheap, most of them are incredibly expensive. Turns out that pharmaceutical companies have programs to get you medicine for little or no cost. Generally your doctor will sign you up for these programs, so you don't have to deal with the paperwork.

That said, all medicines have side effects. I was on a cholesterol medication that sent me into Acute Renal Failure and my kidneys started shutting down. Needless to say, that's potentially fatal. Fortunately, simply by not taking that med and exercising more, I was able to reverse it. Try to take as few medications as possible. Zero if you can get away with it.

Basic meal plan

This is the kind of thing and the way you should be eating:

Breakfast:

6 ounces of fruit
+ 6 ounces of low fat yogurt

*or*

6 ounces of fruit
+ 1 oz. hard cheese

*or*
6 ounces of fruit
+ 1 egg

Lunch:

12 ounces of salad
+ 1 tea spoon dressing *or* 2 tea spoon oil and vinegar
+ 4 ounces of vegetables
+ 4 ounces of protein (grilled chicken, grilled steak, grilled salmon -- nothing breaded or battered)

Afternoon snack:

4 ounces of carrots *or* broccoli *or* peppers
+ 2 ounces of low fat, low carb dip

Dinner:

4 ounces of starch (preferably quinoa, but also brown rice, potato or corn -- in that order of importance)
+ 4 ounces of protein
+ 4 ounces of vegetable (peppers, onions, snap peas)
+ 6 ounces of fruit

Easiest thing to do is stir-fry this. Even non-cooks can do stir-fry, because it only takes a few minutes.

Evening snack:

4 ounces of carrots *or* broccoli *or* peppers
+ 2 ounces of low fat, low carb dip

Drink water throughout the day.

Following this basic recipe, my wife lost 95 pounds in 9 months, with very little exercise. (She had both knees replaced, which you DO NOT want to have done, believe me.)

I have to say Durakken that I sympathize with your issue but the bottom line is, what ARE you willing to change in order to make your weightloss happen? I've read most of this thread and even the things you've thrown out as possibilities, you've dismissed within a post or two.

Everyone here has given you suggestions. Pick a couple and see what works for you. Period. I'm overweight. It's been getting worse for a couple years. I have gout and severe knee pain. I realized that I was using those things as reasons not to do something about my weight, when I REALLY should have been using them as reasons TO do something about it. The knee problems and gout are symptoms of my weight gain, NOT the other way around.

In the end you should have more control over your life than you think you do. I don't know all your issues but I can tell you my wife is 34 and was diagnosed with MS about 2 years ago. It hit her extremely hard and extremely fast and she was ready to give up. But between my son and me we refuse to let her do that. Personally I'm more of a self motivator than someone who needs people around me to push me. My wife isn't, she needs the encouragement. If that's what you need then you need to look to friends, family, possibly even a support group. But if you are just going to poopoo their ideas and help then there's not much anyone can do.

I will tell you like I tell my son all the time - You have to live your life for you, not anyone else. In the end you have to answer for your actions and no one else's. I(we in this instance) cannot do this for you, so you have to motivate yourself and want to do this in order for it to happen. It isn't going to be easy, but look around you, very little is in this world. Suck it up and pump yourself up.

I wish you good luck. I myself just joined a gym last night with my son. I don't want to be the out of shape dad anymore. I want to be there when my son has kids. I want to play with those kids, not sit on the couch and watch them play.

Durakken,

I read the first page and skimmed the second. I think I've heard enough.

Your problem is you. You're just too damned stubborn. Every suggestion you're providing a reason why that won't work for you. You need to find a way to make them work. You have horribly unhealthy habits that have to change for you to even begin losing weight.

And I hope that doesn't come across too harshly - I feel okay saying this to you because I'm the same way. For comparison, I was about 180 lbs and comfortable in 2002. Now I'm about 238 and trying to get back to that point. I go to the gym about three-four times a week and work out for 45 mins to an hour each time, haven't had a regular soda in about 9 years, have cut out almost all fast food, all of my meals come from the grill - usually salmon, chicken or turkey, and...

... It still isn't enough! I'm barely seeing results and I feel like I've made sudden and drastic changes, which is difficult for me because I'm not just a creature of habit, I'm a RAGE-FUELED MONSTROSITY of habit verging on OCD behavior that was never diagnosed (but my wife, who teaches elementary resource sees frightening similarities in my habits with those of her kids).

I still have a ton of stuff to change. I've changed more than I'm comfortable with but I still have an insane way to go to drop 50 lbs. You're looking to lose half of your body mass - You have further to go than I do, you're going to have to make even more drastic changes.

Stop thinking, "Well, this is why I can't do that" everytime you have a notion or get a suggestion for losing weight. Instead think, "Okay, how can I make that happen?" The only way you're going to lose weight is if you change your entire outlook. Unfortunately, the gaming sedentary lifestyle isn't the most conducive to sudden upheavals in your way of life. It's going to have to be gradual, but you're going to have to change at least one thing a day at this rate, some of which you're not necessarily willing to change. You may find that you absolutely have to join a gym to get access to their pools (which sounds like the best option for you from what I've read). To do that, you may find that with your finances you have to do something you're not prepared for, like stop buying DVDs or games or even go without City of Heroes for a while or all of the above. If you really want to change your health, you're going to have to also change your entire life. Good luck.

Well, most of what I can say on the subject has already been said ten times. A few I want to add/repeat:

Soda: Cutting it out is a great start. Most people I've known who dropped soda from their diets lost weight almost immediately. I pulled out soda and Southern-style tea and lost about forty pounds over a year. As an added bonus, it left me with less tolerance for sickeningly sweet things, most of which are pretty bad for you.

The exercise really sucks at first...: After being sedentary for years, the first time I worked out, I could barely go for ten minutes before I had to rest, and then my muscles were sore for days. That alone almost put me off of working out.

... but it gets better really fast: When your muscles aren't accommodated to being used for anything but 10 minutes of walking per day, they adjust fast when you start using them. I had to shallowly ramp up, but within a month, I was regularly doing 20-30 minute workouts on a daily basis. Most anecdotes I've heard have the same happen. Just don't get accustomed to such sharp improvements, since it seems like most people plateau a bit once they're back in decent shape. The difference between biking for 40 minutes vs. 30 minutes isn't nearly as big as the difference between biking for 10 minutes vs. not at all.

Edit: Ooh yeah, the one I forgot.
Entertainment!: Listen to music while you work out. Or even better, if you get a silent exercise bike like I have, park it in front of a TV. It's amazing how much more endurance you can have when you're not spending every minute you're working out going, "I'm so friggin' bored." I was doing 20 minute workouts for a while, then I tried wearing my headphones while I did it, only to discover that I'd gone to 40 minutes without really realizing it. And being able to watch TV while I work out really helps lessen some of the annoyance I feel when it comes 'round time to do it. TV can be good for you!

Just to add some thoughts here as someone with some back issues.


You really want to do a no impact type of exercise swimming, bike, or elliptical orbiter if you can afford it are great. But there are other home options like seated aerobics', rowing, isometric's and yoga.

http://exercise.lovetoknow.com/No_Impact_Exercise

Your problem is in your back and lower body but your upper body movement can generate aerobic exercise I would start there. EVERY little change helps.

You stated you have dumbbells well you can get a great workout from those. Any muscle you add will in turn help you burn more calories so that will help with weightless. Here is a guide for different exercises. http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com...exercises.html
Form is very important much more so then the amount of weight you lift. If your dumbbells are light do allot of reps you will feel the fatigue and still get benefit trust me.

Regarding diet you stated your eating habits and why. One meal a day will put your body into fat storage mode and make it harder for you to loose weight. I get that you find that easiest so I would say just try to add in a few healthy snacks at least to boost your metabolism a yogurt, milk, nuts, fruit something like that a few times in the day. Again small changes can make a difference. Regarding what others where saying about carbs it's best to base carb intake on their glycemic index value. This is the effect they have on your insulin levels the lower the index number the better. It's a very good practice for diabetic's and those with heart disease. http://www.glycemicindex.com Also drink lots and lots and lots of water, one of the best things you can do to help you loose weight is to increase your water consumption.


You mentioned a problem with getting certain foods I am not sure about Detroit but here many of the larger supermarkets will allow you to shop online and for a small fee ($10) they deliver it to you.

Walking even 8 min is doing something however not worth it if it causes neurological symptoms. Do you know if this is caused by the disc hitting the cord, or is it bulging or inflammation? If you should get med insurance I would see a neurologist if you haven't already, and probably an orthopedic dr. If any exercise you do causes weakness, numbness or balance issues I wouldn't do it without consulting a doctor. As Ironik pointed out there are some healthcare option though I don't know your situation. BlueCross and clue shield have several adult low cost programs Adult basic and adult chip, there are state run insurance etc, it might be worth looking into. Eve if you had an MRI done all those years ago you probably should have another to see what's going on with your spine.

I see many people telling you your making excuses. Having a sever back injury is not an excuse, I speak based on living in daily pain from a herniated disk for a few years. Luckily for me my cortisone injection worked and I dropped allot of weight. For every 20ish lb you drop there is allot of spine stress reduced and it can help alleviate back pain and that comes from one of the neurosurgeons I worked with. You do not want to exercise at the cost of spinal injury, end of story. You need to work a way around that and do it without injuring yourself further. It makes it harder for you sorry.

My suggestion is simple: Eat 2 apples a day. Buy a big bag of apples. If you can't get them near you, have them delivered.

I think that should be simple enough to do, assuming you like apples. By doing that, you should break your habit of eating once a day, get your body out of starvation mode, and give you some good nutrients and fiber so that you won't be as hungry when you go for the big meal and hopefully it less.

As for exercise, look into getting something like this:


It's just a set of pedels that you can place anywhere and grind. Even when you are grinding on COH! They can be bought fairly cheap (under $30) and since it is yours, you could cut the straps and rig it with some rope or other material to fit your feet.

I know we have had arguments and I have poked fun at you, but I do respect what you are trying to do here. You can be stubborn and argumentative. Use those skills against yourself. Argue WHY you should diet and excercise instead of why not. I know you can argue both sides of any debate. You can do it if you set your mind to.

My gym (24 Hour Fitness) has TVs to watch while you're on the cardio equipment (which ranges from stair machines (I could only do this for 5 minutes before I had to go to something else; Those things are difficult), treadmills (not recommended for you), eliptical machines (not sure how this will react with your back), some weird rowing machine thing (may be good for you) and two kinds of bikes (should be okay). So you can watch TV while you work out!

Unfortunately, I don't watch much TV so that isn't appealing to me, though I will be going and at least watching the first half of the Saints/Vikings NFL kick-off tomorrow night. My usual regiment is to take an iPod (and mine only carries a charge for 20 mins or so, unfortunately) and a book to read while on the bike or treadmill. I've also thought that I may be able to pull off playing the PSP or this little retro gaming device I have while on the bike - I don't think I'm coordinated enough to play while on the treadmill. So you can always try that if/when you get to that point. I have to get my mind off of the repetitive exercise or I'll go insane.

I'll just toss in a few tips I've discovered in my own weight struggle:

First, get to Wal-Mart or someplace similar, and find a microwave popcorn popper. The one I've got works great, and dry popcorn is a great snack due to the amount you get for few calories. Drink water as you eat it, and it fills you up.

Second, hit the spice rack at the store. Grab any spice mixes that look interesting to you. You can add these to something to change the flavor a bit, to keep it from getting dull.

Third, check the calories on things before you buy them, and look for lower calorie alternatives. An example of this would be Egg Beaters. They're about 1/3 the calories of an actual egg, and work great for scrambled eggs and such. Smoked turkey sausage instead of regular sausage, and so on is the way to go. Not all lower calorie items will taste good, but don't be afraid to give something a try at least once.

Fourth, don't drink your calories. Drink water or unsweetened tea, and save the calories for things you actually get to eat. Also, many artificial sweeteners are bad for you in some way, so don't over use them.

Five: Frozen veggies are your friend. They're not very expensive if you look around, and they're easy to fix. Depending on what kind you get, you can have a pound of frozen veggies that has only 125-150 calories to it. Microwave or steam them, and season them up a bit.

Six: This is going to sound odd, but you're going to have to eat when you're not hungry. You need to get your body readjusted to eating more than once a day. I had that problem, and in the end I had to decide when I was going to eat, and then make myself eat a little something when that time came around. Then, I had to eat less at the big meal, and tried to keep in mind WHAT I was eating.

Seven: Get a calorie guide. I'd suggest the Calorie King guide, if you can find it at a bookstore. Start looking up the calorie counts on things, and adding them up.

I'm still fighting with my weight. I'm at a point where diet no longer seems to be reducing my weight, and I have to take a serious look at more exercise to get any further. I hate exercise for the sake of exercise, it feels pointless. But if I want to lose more, I'll have to deal with it. Everyone has to.

Here is the way to lose weight, and it's the only way to lose weight.

You have to actually want to lose weight and you aren't at that point yet. Go back and read your own posts. You will see a lot of
"I can't do that because"
"This is the way I do this and I like doing it this way"
"This isn't an important factor because"

You should be posting. "Since I can't walk I'll start riding a recumbent bike." "Since I can't walk I'll start lifting weights." "I like eating one huge meal a day but that is too many calories so I'm GOING to switch to 3 smaller meals."

As long as you keep making excuses why you aren't changing your behavior then that behavior will not change for anything more than a couple weeks, maybe a month at best. It's just like the alcoholic saying "I don't want to be an alcoholic any more but I'm not willing to give up my cold beer on a hot day. And I tried quitting cold turkey but I got the shakes and I'm not going through that again."

Right now you want to lose weight but you don't WANT to lose weight. Until you WANT it there is no advice that anybody can give you that will help.

But since there will be enablers in here "He's had a rough day so he needs that drink to calm down after work. He will only have that one drink." who will get upset with me for simply confronting you with the truth I'll also tell you the best way to lose weight.

Trust me on this. There is absolutely no better way to lose weight in the entire world than weight training. The simple fact is that the part of your body that burns calories is the muscles. Less muscle mass means less calories burned. More muscle mass means more calories burned. Once upon a time I used to go to the gym every day and go through a one hour workout. I wasn't completely ripped. I didn't have huge muscles. I didn't have a six pack. In other words I wasn't a complete exercise fanatic, I just worked out hard and was well toned with good muscle definition. During this period I was eating over 3000 calories per day and maintaining a weight of right around 170 pounds.

Now when doing weight training the goal isn't to do a huge amount of reps with low weight. That isn't weight training, it's an alternative form of cardio. True weight training means you should at most be able to do 10 reps with the weight you are using and that the next two days those muscles should be sore. It is the tearing down of the muscles that burns up the calories when the body works to rebuild them. And the tearing down of the muscles results in the body rebuilding them bigger than they were.

There are tons of exercises you can do without putting any strain on your lower back so that's not an excuse. And you need to get yourself a partner. You do not make it your goal to not slack off. People find it far too easy to make excuses for themselves. Instead you make it your goal to not let your partner slack off and they have to do the same for you.

As I said though, you can only change your behavior when you are ready to change and to not make excuses. You can and will find a partner if you just try. It's like trying to find a team in game. The people who say they can't do it aren't really trying. They are just standing around in Atlas and occasionally broadcasting "Level 45 healer looking for AE team."

Ok, so here's my suggestion. When I got engaged, I ended up buying my wedding dress over a year before we actually got married. During that time, I gained enough weight to where I couldn't zip my dress over my...er...ampleness. I don't like to exercise and I don't eat many vegetables (me and the hubby are all about one pot meals). This is what I did and I was able to lose almost 20 pounds over the course of three months:

The only soda I drank was Diet.
I made sure to drink more water and lowfat milk
If I went out to fast food (I allowed myself to do this once every two weeks), I made sure to order chicken and nothing that was breaded/fried.
I cut out all condiments but regular mustard (not that hard for me, I hate mayo)
Any food I would normally use a pat of butter in, I would spray a bit of butter Pam in it.
Any food I would normally put heavy cream or any high fat cream in, I started using 2% milk.
Instead of regular potato chips for munchies, I got dried banana chips or those terra vegetable chips.
All white bread I changed to wheat.
I have an insane sweet tooth. I allowed myself one sweet a week that had a lower amount of sugar in it. With sweet snacks, I bought things meant for diabetic people (which taste awesome, by the way).

Again, I exercised none. I know that's not healthy, but I figured I'd mention that since you have those problems preventing you from staying on your feet.

As for exercise suggestions, as odd as it sounds, maybe you should look into exercises for pregnant women. Those are usually low impact. Yoga or pilates may be good too, plus it may help your back.

ok, one thing on the recumbent bikes. my reason for suggesting them is that they sit back, not straight up, my hope was that it would help your back issue since you would not be sitting upright while exercising. the foot pedal thing i sympathize with, but you know, my feet are a size 14 wide and i can fit in the recumbent exercise bike at my gym(which really is just the local ymca, they really do tend to be fairly well stocked) so how uncomfortable are the pads really? you cant eb hurting your foot or gettign blisters, but on the same token, you may have to compromise. as for boring, hell yeah, if it were me then i'd just continue to do heavy weight lifting and karate, but working within your limitations, a lot of the more fun exercise(heavy weights, heavy bag, speed bag, various martial arts) are out of the picture, so we gotta go with what we have. if you have a portable music player that has a shuffle function, thats the best of how i get through any cardio i do. one last question, you mentioned living space issues with weight lifting..i dont need any personal info, but would you be able to get a simple weight bench in your dwelling? if it is at all feasable, then most weight benches are not hugely expensive usually come with some extra weight, because you are going to find the 20 lb dumbbells of limited use, you really should look into that. yeah there is some outly of cash here, not a huge amount, mind you, but getting you to where you want to go is going to be a task, so you pretty much have to commit here.

right now your biggest issues are transportation, space and back injury, right? (regarding exercise, im useless on diet so i am bowing out of that end) that is what we have to work around, and those are the avenues i see, the pool, the possibility of the bench, and the recumbent bike. see if any local stores have a recumbent exercise bike set up for you to try, to see if that alleviates the back issue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chase_Arcanum (that's probably where Rian first saw them)

yep

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.