I need some help... I'm reaching out...

P

pickles_123

New member
Hello,

I'm a 25 year old guy. I was in a car accident that broke my spine. I am now a paraplegic. I am paralyzed from waist down.

My accident was two years ago. I have been dealing with a lot. More than I can explain. A few weeks ago, I passed by a mirror and took a good hard look at myself. I don't recognize myself!

I've gained so much weight from my inactivity. I am so ignorant when it comes to weight loss and eating healthy. I'm really on my own here. Especially after my accident... The best way to explain it, listen to the song "nobody knows you when you're down and out".

So please, help me. I don't know how to lose weight. I am 210 pounds and I am 5'7. BMI calculator cites that this is obese. Yikes.

Regarding my injury -- I am paralyzed from the waist down. I have good upper-body control. Much like Joe from Family Guy.

Basically, all this weight is making my life harder. It's harder to push my chair and do other things. I have a huge stomach and man-boobs!

I am going back to work full-time in October. I need to lose this weight before then! I'm really self conscious. As if the chair wasn't enough, the weight is another issue.

Thank you, if you've read this far. What do I do? can you give me tips, things to do? I will do ANYTHING. I just need someone to give me a direction... some guidelines... a path...
 
Reaching Out!

Hi Pickles,

Glad to see your post because the first step towards success is asking for help, so glad you did.

Probably the best way to start is to take a look at your lifestyle as it stands today, what are you eating? What kind of activity are you getting in? If you're able to start there, you're going to start feeling better not only physically, but mentally as well.

Take a look at your diet, what do you need to change? If there are 5 things, pick one and stick with that for a week, see how it goes and then move on to the next one, etc.

Second, I'd start doing some upper body strength training. Depending on your level of strength, a great starting point is investing in some Resistance bands. Theyre not that expensive, and you can do a multitude of different excersises with them.

You can secure them to a door handle, pole, hook or even the arm of a wheelchair. These are pulled towards or away from you to work muscles. bicep/tricpe extensions, shoulder rotations, back, neck and shoulder pull downs, are all possible with resistance bands.

For variety or if you can't get ahold of bands, use dumbbells.

1. seated curls for biceps.
2. one armed tricep extensions for triceps.
3. Presses for you chest by lying down w/the weights placed to either side of you.
4. Seated dumbell presses for shoulders.

Just make sure to stretch as best you can, as youre more likely to get injured, and go slow.

That's a basic starting plan. Hope that helps. You can do it!
 
This may sound silly, but I'd also suggest that whatever you decide to do, make sure you are communicating it with your doctor. I'm no doctor, but since you say your accident was two years ago and you seem to imply that you put this weight on rather quickly, I'd make sure you're not going to do more damage by jumping into an exercise routine without someone looking over your shoulder.

And remember that diet...not dieting...is going to play the biggest role in your weight loss.
 
I don't feel like I have the qualifications to advise about exercise, but I will give some advice about food: How much you eat is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PART of losing weight.

So taking a good hard look at what you eat is going to be crucial to losing weight. Making sure that you're not eating a bunch of junk food, eating lots of fruit and veg, lots of whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats is important.

I would suggest registering for a free account at or and start logging your food. That will show you very quickly how many calories you're getting and how your nutrition is breaking out.

Once you see how many calories you're eating, then start cutting that back by about 30% ... again making sure that you eat HEALTHY calories, not junk and processed food.

Also, read the sticky posts in the forums. They're sticky posts for a reason - becaus they're full of good information! :)
 
Weight loss or gain is just a matter of calories in versus calories out. Since you are sitting all day and not able to exercise as much you will have to cut back substantially on the calories. I agree with the idea of building up your arms to get as much exercise as possible. I also agree with HHackney about talking to your doctor. Most of us here are not experts on the particular problems a paraplegic might face.
 
In addition to what has been suggested above and to make this as step-by-step as possible, here is what I would recommend:

1. Go to and figure out how many calories your body needs per day.

2. Since you may not be able to get involved in too much exercise, decide with your doctor how much you can do. Depending on whatever you can do, Kara has some multiplication factors that you would multiply the answer in step #1 as the "ceiling" of how many calories per day you should eat.

3. Keep track of your calories as suggested above by Kara.

4. Eat far less food (and measure it in calories) than is required in step #2.

You will lose weight by doing this. Weigh yourself at least once per week. No need for more frequent than that because there is so much variation from day to day.

Let me know if you have questions

Frank

Frank
 
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