You Are NOT Too Heavy To Exercise!

If you’ve been overweight for many years, you may think that you can never get in shape - and that thought may have left you feeling discouraged. Maybe you’ve started and stopped exercising and started and stopped diets more times that you care to remember. So the question you may often ask yourself, and one that many of us have asked ourselves: 

“Am I too heavy to exercise?”

And our answer is always:

“Absolutely NOT!”

 A friend of ours recently met a lady on vacation that was desperate to lose weight. She was watching her kids play in the pool and shared how she has been on so many diets that have failed. She had started an exercise program around 100 times over the years and had quit EVERY time.

He could see in her eyes that she had almost completely given up. It made him want to cry for her! But, at the same time, he wanted to scream, “NO! Don’t ever give up! It is never too late!” And, he was RIGHT!

A Simple Way to get Started Exercising

A simple way to start exercising is to start where you are. If you’ve not exercised for a long time, and you’re carrying a lot of weight – fine – that’s where YOU are. No problem! So let’s get started.

As you know, before you start any exercise program, get the okay from your doctor. And once you have your doctor’s clearance, start small. Here are a few tips that can help you get started AND stick with it:

• Exercise for 5 minutes a day (that’s right – 5 minutes), and then 1-2 minutes more every 3 days.
• Begin a resistance program, but instead of heavy weights, use soup cans or books (no need to spend money).
• Get into a routine! Do a little exercise every day. Consistency is the key to the beginning of a new lifestyle. Everyday is NOT forever. Once you feel like you can consider yourself a beginning exerciser, follow the guidelines mentioned in the starter tracks.
• Establish a time and a place. Clear out an area that you can use. If your “best time” of the day is in the morning, that’s a great time to work out. Get into a routine and go with it.
• Finally, don’t try to accomplish all your goals in the 1^st week or even the 1^st month. Concentrate on those small steps and maintaining faithfulness.

The list above can seem overwhelming, so if it is, simply begin your 5 minutes in a chair, by marching in place, or by moving your arms up over your head. Grab the soup cans and start your resistance exercises sitting down. But start! And never, ever give up.

Feel free to comment or private message us. What is your motivation? A refocused motivation can help someone that has given up every time in the past be persistent and succeed! Never, ever, ever give up! 

HOW do I lose weight?!

What can I do?

There are approximately 3500 calories in 1 pound of stored body fat. So, you will need to create a negative caloric expenditure through diet, exercise, or a combination. In other words, you need to burn more calories than you consume. Let’s get very specific.

How to lose one pound per week

So, if you want to lose 1 pound per week, your calorie deficit will need to be 3500 fewer calories that week or 500 calories per day. You can do that with total diet restriction of 500 calories or 250 fewer calories and 250 calories of exercise.

The combination calorie reduction AND exercise is best for sustained weight loss for two reasons:

1. That amount of calorie restriction is hard to maintain.
2. You will not be building the lean muscle mass needed to help keep the weight off.

How to lose two pounds per week

To lose 2 pounds per week, you need to consume 7,000 fewer calories in a week or 1,000 fewer calories per day. Again, this is best accomplished through a combination of a 500 calorie deficit with 500 calories burned in exercise per day.

Another method is taking 15-20% of your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and reducing your calories by that amount. You can increase this percentage based on your weight loss goals. ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) recommends women never get below 1200 calories per day.

Does muscle weigh more than fat?

This question is asked ALL the time. So let’s be totally obvious: one pound of muscle weighs the same as one pound of fat. However, if you put one pound of muscle next to one pound of fat, the fat will take up twice as much space as the muscle!

Muscle is less dense than fat; that’s why you will look leaner if you are 140 pounds and have 20% total body fat versus being 140 pounds with 40% total body fat.

That is an important reason NOT to focus solely on the scales when you begin an exercise program with strength training. A reduction in body fat with an increase in lean muscle mass will show with inches lost and clothes fitting a little looser. That is exciting!