I need all the help I can get, please

[DiStef]

I'm just about at the end of my rope as far as my weight goes. I suffered a spinal injury almost five years ago, and prior to that, I led a fairly active life. After the injury, however, I lost almost all of my mobility and gained sixty pounds. Once I finally started getting treatment and assistance, something about my medication didn't agree with my system, because despite an increase in activity with physical therapy, my weight continued to increase.

My thyroid's been tested, my sugar's been tested... they've all come back normal. I was referred to a nutritionist to check my diet, but she said that if anything, I'm under-eating.

So now I'm 230lbs. It's the heaviest I've ever been in my life, and I'm absolutely miserable. My doctors and specialists all keep telling me that I need to lose weight to help with my pain, but no one has answers how I can do that. I'm more active than I've been in the past years, and it still just goes up.

I'm 5'5. I can't carry this on my frame with the condition my back is in. Everything hurts all the time, and I'm just... stuck. I don't know if there's some type of medication I should be taking or some type of specific diet I should do. I just don't know.

If anyone has suggestions or anything for me, I would appreciate it so much.

[Hopeless Dork]

Counting Calories. It works. See a nutrionist, they will test your body composition and tell you how many calories a day your body needs to live and do the things you do normally. Then they will be able to assess a safe calorie target below that amount so that you can start losing lbs. Exercise burns calories, that will help add to the total of calories your building a deficit of each day. 3500 calorie deficit = 1 pound of fat.

Please do this. Counting calories and keeping a journal of what you eat seems like a pain but it will save you the pain in your body. I know first hand. I had terrible back pain and my doctors told me there was no more they could do, that losing weight would be my only hope to alleviating some of the pain.

I didn't want to believe that, but I started dieting and exercising and succeeded in losing over 100 pounds through eating healthy (still having things I like), exercising and counting those calories, each and every day to make sure I was staying on track.

I've since come to know so many people that have had the same success. I don't know if we are allowed to mention websites here but if you google calorie king (mods remove that part if necessary) they have a great resource for looking up calories and even counting them for you on the site etc.

Since losing the weight my back pain is a non-issue. I still hurt from time to time but I am living an entirely different life then I was carrying that much extra weight around on a bad back. Its WORTH it. If you can dedicate one year of your life to sticking to a calorie limit, you will meet your goals and it will be on year well spent. ( of course it may not even take THAT long) Take it day by day, tell yourself you will get through this day and just this day and tell yourself that each and every day.

Theres a million diets on the market, a million pills and surgeries and the only reason ANY of them work in any form is due to your body consuming less calories than it needs (either by making you less hungry, or making it impossible for you to eat the calories) if you put yourself into the frame of mind that you can control the amount of calories you in take YOU can.

[ghanie]

I was referred to a nutritionist to check my diet, but she said that if anything, I'm under-eating.

I'm certainly no expert but there are some people here who are where you're at in that diet and exercise somehow isn't doing anything for them.

Check out the "Soy and Whey Protein Diet Plan" thread. It started in Feb 2008 and it's still going. I read up on it and it looks really healthy. It probably wont be a reduction in calories but it could fill them up with the right kind of calories. Maybe you can show that to your nutritionists and see what they think?

Anyway, I hope you get more responses. Good luck!

[sourpuss]

Have you tried water aerobics? It's really low impact and I think you'd be able to get a good workout and strengthen up while losing weight without all the mobility problems.

[Hopeless Dork]

You can still be getting too many calories a day, eating hardly nothing if you are eating the wrong things. Not discounting the soy whey protein, the tomato diet, the cabbage soup and apple banana split diets either... just that less calories in/more calories burned = weightloss. People that drop 200 pounds with gastric bypass surgery do so because they are not able eat as many calories. People that lose weight on weightwatchers do so because they are not eating as many calories. Eating less, exercising more leads to weightloss = fact.

I know the feeling of thinking that things wont work because they are inconvienient and that if there was a way to just sprinkle some fish oil on my waffles and magically drop 20 pounds I would have went that route too. But the thing is you can enjoy all kinds of foods, just less of them. And yes eating too little at the wrong times and the wrong foods can lead to weight gain.

If you are not eating all day then having a huge meal and going to bed your metabolism will come to a hault, You have to fuel your body often and carefully.

[2boysmama]

I am soooo inclined to tell everyone about the 3 hour diet. Get the book and read it. Even with decreased mobility you can lose weight with this simple plan. Being at a healthy weight [I]is[I] all about making healthy changes that you can stick with, not depriving yourself, only to gain weight all over again later. And as someone else suggested water aerobics are a life saver for those of you who cannot take the impact of regular exercise. Swimming in itself is great exercise for anyone with mobility problems because even floating will literally make you burn calories.