Wanting to lose the weight slowly, but surely...no rush, just some physical hindrances.

December 23, 2009 4:26 AM

What are simple and easy to do at home exercise regimens that will help burn off the weight without putting too much stress on a bad ankle?

After a few surgeries over the past couple of years, and some medications that did not help, I have gained 60 pounds. I do not eat fast food, I am just very inactive due to severe asthma and having sprained my ankle over a handful of times from sports and activities over the years. There are times when I can't even walk on my ankle when I first get up in the morning, so an early jog is definitely out of the question.

I tried the yoga regimen and while it was fun and I saw quick results in increased energy, I found it boring after a while. I have an elliptical machine, but that hurts my knees after 10 minutes. I have also done the walk around the park for 15-30 minutes a day and while a steady pace did not hurt my ankle, I found that it did not give me much result in terms of weight loss.

I would love any assistance or suggestions on exercise routines. I loved yoga and I found it was a great mental regimen, so additional ideas on videos to get would be helpful. Also, any meal modifications would be greatly appreciated as well. I am what they call a "grazer" when it comes to eating. I rarely sit and eat one giant meal, but I will eat every few hours if not snack on stuff the whole time. Like I mentioned before, I do not eat fast food or fried foods, pastas and breads are my fave (it's the Italian in me).

I have had my blood work done and the Doc said everything was fine, no high cholesterol or blood pressure, just have to get back to my weight. And I am in no rush to lose this weight, no quick diet regimens, please. Something healthy, simple, easy, and one that will help me maintain the weight loss.

Thank you in advance!

posted by penguingrl to Health & Fitness (17 answers total)

The sad truth is that if you're looking to lose weight from exercise, only serious, hard-core, sustained aerobic exercise will peel the weight off - and aside from spending an hour or two every day on a cycle, treadmill, or elliptical machine at a high level of resistance, I can't really think of what you could do at home that would fit the bill (especially considering your injuries). If you have a pool you can get to several times a week, some serious lap swimming might work. If you're looking to lose weight from exercise reaaaallly slowly, moderate exercise MIGHT work, but I find that exercise makes me hungry and unless I am really careful I will eat back any calories I burn and then some. So, unfortunately, for most people, your only option to really lose weight is to change your diet and monitor your calorie intake. Light to moderate exercise can help - it raises your metabolic rate a bit, and it makes you feel better mentally (it's better than anti-depressants for me) and therefore more likely to stick to your regime.

Basically, you just need to use more calories than you take in, and aside from making sure you're roughly getting the right balance of macronutrients, WHAT you eat - carbs, proteins, etc - is not important. It only matters how many calories you consume and burn. If you look at the calories burned for various forms of light exercise, you'll find it's really not as much as you might think -and often it would be much easier, for example, to have one less 200 calorie snack per day than it would be to walk briskly for an hour. Websites like FitDay and The Daily Plate have really good online calculators and tools for keeping track of your diet and will tell you how many calories you can consume, taking into account your level of activity, to sustain the weight loss you're after. You're often allowed more calories than you might expect (I'm female, 5'3" and to lose 1/2 pound a week, considering I cycle an hour each day and do 20 minutes of stairs at work 5 days a week, I can have almost 1700 calories per day - that's plenty of tasty food!) - and once you start tracking what you eat, you'll find that you consumed twice that many calories every day without even thinking about it, especially if you are a snacky grazer (that's me, to a T).

I've lost about 25 pounds in the last year without a huge amount of stress, and I've fallen off the wagon A LOT. Keeping track of calories is the only thing that has ever worked (there are lots of recent studies that say the same, maybe someone who isn't furtively askmetafiltering at work will link them?)
posted by Wroksie at 5:48 AM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

2nd what Wroskie wrote. An exercise bike or swimming would probably be easier on your ankle. The exercise bike doesn't put weight on your ankle or knee so might feel better. I'd encourage you to really keep track of the calories of what you eat (and are you eating enough fruits and vegetables). But, ultimately as Wroskie states it does come down to making a calorie deficit (consuming less calories than what is keeping you at your current weight).
posted by fieldtrip at 6:38 AM on December 23, 2009

Here is a link from the CDC with some good information.
posted by fieldtrip at 6:40 AM on December 23, 2009

Yep, you don't exercise to lose weight. You exercise to be strong (not necessarily muscular, just...exercised). If you want to lose weight, you'll have to eat less. I've lost about 70 lbs over 2-3 years by doing nothing more than cutting out snacks and oversize portions. Being a nerd, it helped me to use math to do this.

That said, you probably *should* exercise. The way to avoid boredom is to do something non-boring. Listen to an audiobook or go with a friend. Rotate exercises, so you do yoga for 3 months, swimming for 3 months, Wii Sports for 3 months, etc.
posted by DU at 6:47 AM on December 23, 2009 [2 favorites]

First off you need to find a way to moderate your inner Italian because as spectacularly delicious as carbs are they are not good for you when you are living a sedentary lifestyle. That is not to say they are bad, because I do feel they are part of a healthy diet, but they are going to turn into fat if you dont burn them off, and to do that you need cardio!

The best exercise I have done to stay active while dealing with ankle issues has been cycling, it is very low impact (so it shouldn't be too hard on your knees unless you start out on crazy hills right away), and it will actually strengthen your ankle as a bonus. It is also fun.

Just remember to take a long term view and set reasonable goals for yourself. Also stay away from the carbs unless you are earning them.

Good luck!
posted by BobbyDigital at 7:07 AM on December 23, 2009

15-30 minutes around the park didn't do it because it's nowhere near enough. It was probably 150 calories, which is only two chocolate-chip cookies. As mentioned by others above, you've gotta cut the calories.

That said...cycling is probably what you're going to need to do. I've hairlined ankles (four wheeler accidents), I've sprained an ankle so bad it tore the tendon sheath and the bruise looked like I was wearing a sock of blood; in neither case could I swim worth a damn with the injury, because I couldn't kick. Cycling was my savior both times.

(it is, actually, possible to lose weight through exercise - I dropped about three pounds a week for a month or two, but I was running 3-4 miles, swimming 3000 yards, and cycling 30-40 miles almost every day...not a routine you just fall into.)
posted by notsnot at 7:12 AM on December 23, 2009

Echoing the calorie reduction comments.... As for exercise, aside from swimming, the best form of low/no impact exercise would be an elliptical machine. They can be spendy but you can really burn the calories using one. Good luck.
posted by gb77 at 7:28 AM on December 23, 2009

Not to be argumentative, BobbyDigital… but calories is calories is calories! If you eat 3500 more calories than you burn, those calories will turn into a pound of fat. It doesn’t matter one whit whether those 3500 calories consist of leftover lasagne between two slices of thick crusty bread with mayonnaise (which is awesome, by the way) or five huge plates full of lean grilled fish and steamed spinach.

It is important that you roughly get the macronutrient balance right for your general health – I think it’s generally accepted that well over 50% of your calories should come from carbs, the rest from protein and fats (I can’t remember the exact balance) – but it wouldn’t really affect your weight loss if you ate nothing but bread and butter for every meal, as long as you kept within your calorie limit. You might eventually die of rickets, but you would keep losing weight until that point. If you live for carbs, and a daily bowl of pasta with a side of garlic bread will keep you happy and keep you on track, then go for it – as long as you adjust the rest of your daily food intake to keep within your calorie limit.

Sorry to go on a bit… but I think that the idea that there are certain kinds of food to concentrate on or reduce or eliminate from your diet is what causes lots and lots of people to fail when they try to lose weight. It really boils down to simple math – calories in versus calories out – and anything else is just wasting time and confusing the issue.

*Yes, you can lose weight rapidly by cutting carbs completely, but that is due to a chemical reaction that basically causes your body to eat itself. Not very nice at all, not healthy, and not sustainable. Reducing carbs, as opposed to cutting them out completely doesn’t have any effect at all on weight loss, other than making you a bit grouchy if you really miss your turkey sandwiches on rye.
posted by Wroksie at 7:36 AM on December 23, 2009 [1 favorite]

According to this calculator at runnersworld.com, a 180 pound person would have to run about 26 miles in a week to lose 3500 calories (one pound of fat) without eating any of those calories back. While for someone in good shape, 26 miles in a week might not be a big deal, for someone sendentary or out of shape, it could take months to build up to that level. Many people - like the OP - would never be able to, because of injuries, asthma, or other issues. They're looking at HOURS of moderate exercise (like walking) every day to burn the same amount of calories in a week - and if you're doing 500 calories of exercise per day, you are going to be HUNGRY. Keeping your calories at the level needed to lose the weight will be a challenge.

OR you could just cut out 500 calories per day. For me, that meant no chips with my sandwich at lunch, fruit instead of a bowl of cereal after work, and a big spoonful of mashed potatoes at dinner instead of half a plate. That's 3500 calories in a week right there. Exercise is great, and I would go crazy without it, but it's not going to bring my weight down.
posted by Wroksie at 8:29 AM on December 23, 2009

I have a lot of friends who had / have all sorts of chronic pain issues practice yoga and its done wonders for them... They feel great and lost a TON of weight.
posted by tucsongal at 8:53 AM on December 23, 2009

Calorie reduction - yes, agreed. If you're a grazer, then you really can't beat a food journal as a nutrition tool. I can easily eat 500 calories just nibbling. If I don't keep my food journal, then those calories get forgotten. If you eat 500 extra calories every day, you'll gain 50 pounds a year. (500 calories x 365 days)/ 3500 calories per pound = 50.857 pounds per year.

Even little bits of food count. You've gained 60 pounds over a few years. Let's use 3 years for the calculation. That means you had less than 200 extra calories per day. That's not much food - an extra cookie, pepperoni pizza instead of plain, full fat salad dressing instead of light vinaigrette. Any one of those is 200 calories. You aren't going to find and eliminate those calories without a food journal.

On to exercise. Lots of people get hung up on having to work out for an hour or so. Not necessary and probably not a great idea if you're carrying an extra 60 pounds. Instead, try building up to be ready for exercise.

Week 1 - 1 brisk 10 minute walk each day.
Week 2 - 2 brisk 10 minute walks each day. (If you need to break that into 4 5 minutes walks, FINE. Calories don't care.)
Week 3 - 20 minutes walking, 10 minutes muscle building (squats, dips, bicep curls.)
Week 4 - 30 minutes walking, 15 minutes muscle building (compound moves)

By week 5 you'll be burning a fair decent amount of calories and have safely built up to more activity. If you progress slowly, you've got a better chance of strengthening your ankle and avoiding injury. Also if you've watched your calories, you'll be a few pounds lighter which will really help that ankle.
posted by 26.2 at 9:02 AM on December 23, 2009 [4 favorites]

While you're working your way up to strengthening your knees and ankles, maybe also look at wheelchair fitness or chair aerobics routines?
posted by bentley at 9:12 AM on December 23, 2009

The thing that exercise does, for me at least, is that it helps my concentration and curbs my craving so I end up able to eat better.
posted by umbú at 11:53 AM on December 23, 2009

The sad truth is that if you're looking to lose weight from exercise

Hmmm.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and read a little too much between the lines regarding your statement that you don't eat fast food or fried foods. Carbs got off very light in the post-1975 nutrition era. A big bowl of pasta with bread on the side is arguably worse for you than many fast food dishes which at least have some protein.

I agree with the sentiment of the quoted post but I thought I would mention that the sad truth per empirical research is that exercise can make you healthier, but it wont really do anything at all for weight loss.

Caloric restriction (eat smaller portions) and a superior mix of foods (simply put: better quality food -- lose the sugar, lose the bread, lose the pasta, lose the diet soda, lose the non-nonfat milk, lose the fructose in soda and fruit juice, lose the rice, lose the cheese, lose the processed low-fiber foods, and so on -- eat some veggies and lean meats cooked sensibly, not lunchmeats) are all that has been shown to work, to the extent anything does.

You need to do more intense exercise than walking if you want to be healthy. For the ankle you should seek physical therapy if you need to overcome this. A weak ankle is prone to repeat injury and you may have stabilization and prioreception issues. There is nothing magical about ankle exercises that a PT will give you, you can find them online. The correct answer to weak and prone to injury ankles is to strengthen them without injury, not to weaken them further by babying them.

If you are a women as your name implies, be aware that non-impact exercise does not convey the benefits to bone density preservation that even the most basic impact exercise appears to (such as something as simple as doing low-height box jumps). The jury is still out on the research in this area but avoidance of both impact exercise AND weight bearing exercise by women is very likely harming them. Do some weights.

(Cure the calories in, calories out people to disagree on the quality foods bit..)
posted by rr at 3:11 PM on December 23, 2009

This is a tough one as none of us know your limits with your foot, only you do and you are the one who has to accommodate to it. Essentially you'll have to find something that is non-weight bearing until your ankle heals enough to bear the brunt of more dynamic exercises. As far as the exercises being boring, I don't think anybody can help you with that. You'll have to find something you enjoy or just grin and bear it. Physical exertion is often not exciting but it shouldn't be for lack stimulus because you should be able to find something that is constantly pushing you. Whether that be a specific exercise that you really like to do and find exhilarating you something you make exciting by increasing temp, reps, intensity, etc. If you are still having trouble YouTube is a great place to look for all different kinds of exercises. Or try ExRx.net.

Wroksie, not to nitpick but anytime you plan on losing weight you are putting your body into a catabolic state. In other words your body is eating itself.
And all specific reduced calorie diets are non-sustainable. if extended along a time line far enough they always need to be modulated up, or down.
...And (just kidding) ;)
posted by P.o.B. at 6:09 PM on December 23, 2009

Quick tip about the elliptical: Sometimes the incline factor is too low that causes the knees to hurt, happened to me during a year of exercise. Increase the incline puts lesser strain on the knees.

Also, re: cutting calories: keep motivating yourself on a daily basis by reading literature on calorie intake or healthy choice of foods, it helps in maintaining a sense of personla responsibility for the self and helps get used to a diet change.
posted by iNfo.Pump at 9:22 PM on December 23, 2009

The big change in lifestyle I forgot to mention was "The Zone" by Dr. Barry Sears. I had changed to making recipes and food from the zone books and i lost weight without ever going to the gym during that period. You better love your veggies though. His intake is 40% carbs, 30% proteins, 30% fats. It's totally worth it and the science behind it seems valid and makes sense. It's related to the insulin levels in our bodies.
posted by iNfo.Pump at 9:27 PM on December 23, 2009