A short introduction

[Owl1]

I hate writing introductions, but here I go:

I am a 30 year old, overweight, single female with a strange sense of humor. I've got about 50 lbs to lose and I hate exercise. I'm 5 foot 3 inches and weigh 184 lbs. A few years ago I weighed in at 230 lbs or around there somewhere. I lost the weight with starvation plain and simple. I got down to 158 lbs, stopped starving and started gaining. Now I need to do it the healthy safe way so I can keep it off. I fear I have destroyed my metabolism.

 

[Omega]

I suggest that you give serious thought to what it is that you hate about exercise.

Is it that you do not want to do the work? If it is this - then I would suggest that you do it anyway as sometimes we force ourselves to do something that we do not want to do.

Is it that you have tried one or two sporty things and not been particularly co-ordinated or possibly felt self-conscious for other reasons (maybe not being happy with your body caused you to feel self conscious)?

I know that when I was big I thought that I could not do exercise and really didnt want to do it either. I am 5ft3 too - so you can imagine that I was pretty big. I tried numerous failed diets and none of them worked for too long. I would struggle to live on next to no calories and abandon it to put back every pound lost plus some more. I spent over twenty years in that cycle of never getting anywhere close to where I wanted to be.

I finally started this most recent project nearly 29 months ago. I started going out for a walk each day and being good with my food.

I increased the distance walked as soon as I could - and soon I was able to walk quite amazing distances every day. I found that I naturally speeded up too. I certainly was not walking briskly at first - but I was certainly getting fitter and the weight was certainly dropping off me.

As time went by I tightened up my nutrition - and now eat pretty healthily by just about anyone's standards. I also tried lots of different forms of exercise. I amazed myself by finding that I liked aerobics - something that no-one would have dreamt likely at all looking at the old me. I was just bursting with so much energy...

I would suggest that you start walking each day. The exercise should mean that you burn more calories - which in turn should enable you to eat more. Log your food and activity in where you will be able to not only see what calories you eat - but also the nutritional breakdown of your food for honing your diet - and you will also see your calorie balance so that you can ensure that you have a deficit that should give you weightloss.

It is only after doing that for a while that you will be able to be sure that your metabolism is not operating normally. Many people think that is the case - but closer inspection reveals that the deficit is not as large as they imagined.

I would also look with an open mind at all forms of exercise. If you can find something that you enjoy - so much the better and it will help you with both weight loss and maintenance into the future. I can fully understand that not everyone would want to join a gym (although some ladies who would feel uncomfortable elsewhere find that they are ok in a ladies only establishment). I am not a gym member but do go to keep fit classes at my local adult education centre and continue to walk every day in maintenance.