Hello all,
Question. I am a heavy girl. 34 yrs old 5'4" and wiegh 240lbs. I do not exercise, as I should. This weekend my daughter's soccer coach thought it would be great fun to take the team of girls on a 3mile hike up hill. All up hill!! It took us over an hour to get up and I thought I was going to die!!! There were no level spots all up hill steep. I made it. The girls made it. But all said they would never do it again. Anyway. My question is this. My body felt fine, as fine as could be expected. But I could not breath. I was out of breath most the way up and some down. Should I get this checked out or is this normal for a heavy girl like me?
Please let me know
Becky
From California

It is normal for anyone to be out of breath even if they are thin.... IF... they do not get regular cardiovascular exercize. For anyone who does not regularly get the blood flowing by say jogging, bike riding, or treadmill... then they are most likely to experience shortness of breath.

A strenuous uphill hike like that will put a lot of people out of breath. You should be more concerned if climbimg a short flight of stairs or taking a brisk walk gets you out of breath. Being overweight usually means you need to work on your cardio health anyway. If you are much over what the doctors deem to be your ideal body weight, then you might concider working on that by excersizing regularly. The more you exercize and the closer you are to your ideal body weight, the easier it will be for you to take hikes and things of that nature.