40yr old overweight nursing starting school, looking for some workout adivce

ddunnrn · Jul 15, 2011

I was about 300# in nursing school, and although I was a little less agile than my more normal-sized peers, I had no problems keeping up. I have also been overweight most of my life, even for my height (6'6"). I recommend walking, walking, walking! It is not very stressful, and you don't need any special prep or equipment.

The other issue is diet. I know in my own situation that I thought I was eating a better diet when I was trying to reduce, but I really was deluding myself. You can't have sugary soft drinks with empty calories AT ALL, if you expect to eat a balanced diet and lose weight. Ditto with sugary and starchy snacks. It basically boils down to the math: caalories burned has to be greater than calories consumed if you want to lose, and 1# of fat is 3500 calories, which means only 500 calories extra a day will put on a pound a week, and conversely you have to restrict 3500 cal. to lose a pound.

I have lost weight in different times, but mostly when I was trying to follow a healthy lifestyle, rather than just focus on what was wrong with me. Nursing school is going to be stressful, so you have to be aware that you don't overeat to calm or comfort yourself.

Good luck, and don't let others prevent you from reaching your goals if they discriminate against you for your weight. Nurses are just as overweight (if not more) than the general public.

Dave Dunn, RN

FlyingScot, RN · Jul 15, 2011

Portion control and a TRX.

MusicEMT · Jul 16, 2011

Eating right is a huge portion (no pun intended) of loosing weight/getting in shape.

Protein, Protein, Protein and more protein.. Protein is the golden child of exercising.

eat more protein.. chicken, steak, fish, nuts... etc..

eat your veggies

a good diet plan that alot of crossfit (the workout plan i do) gyms endorse is called the paleo diet.

its not an easy diet, but it doesnt suck too bad eaither..

http://altmed.creighton.edu/Paleodiet/Foodlist.html

my gf did this diet for a month and lost about 20 pounds. (i didnt do it because i need to gain weight lol)

now on to exercising:

start off slow by walking say a mile.. then after you feel comfortable walking a mile then walk for a few min then jog for a few min.. do this walk/jog switch for a mile.. then when you feel comfortable with that jog the whole way through.. then switch to jogging/running switching off every few min. and so on and so on once you can run the whole mile work on running longer distances. constantly challenge your self

if you want strength training i recomend going to crossfit.com and doing their daily workout routine

some of them you can do on your own. (like todays) some of them require a few pieces of equipment (mainly barbells and kettlebells)

it is a VERY VERY INTENSE workout though so please consult your physician before doing it.

if there is anything else just PM or post here and ill be happy to help!

llg, PhD, RN · Jul 16, 2011

Sparkpeople.com is a website you might want to check out. It's a big site -- and can be a little overwhelming at first -- but it includes LOTS of good quality information as well as discussion groups, resident professional experts, etc. that will help you develop a healthy lifestyle. You can pick and choose from among the features of the site: you don't need to use it all. Just pick what helps you. And it is free. No money required.

While you will find people following all sorts of diet & exercise plans on Sparkpeople, the site officially recommends and emphasizes an approach consistent with mainstream, scientifically-based evidence that leads to a gradual but LASTING improvement in your health, weight, and fitness levels. Fad diets and/or short-term fitness programs tend to be just that -- passing fads and short-term approaches that stop helping you when you stop using them. Sparkpeople promotes the establishment of healthy habits that you will be able to maintain for the rest of your life to not only get in shape, but stay in shape.

Drotondi1518 · Jul 19, 2011

My friend, I use to weigh 300lbs. I have weighed 180-190 for the last 6 years. Follow the diet below to a T.

Morning (when ever that is)

1 bowl of Cereal with low fat **** (No Kiddie cereals)

With 1 Bannana

hour and a half later - 1 apple

Lunch time-1 peice of meat size of a deck of cards with 1 cup of vegtables (Carrots/Greenbeans/Broc..ect.) 1 red bliss potato (smaller then a tennis ball)

Mid afternoon snack- Small hand full of peanuts (DONT GO CRAZY/ SMALL HAND FULL)

Dinner time same as lunch. (of course mix it up with different types of meats and veggies)

Now here is the trick that will make you shed weight alot.. DO NOT EAT past 7pm and Drink 1 gallon of water (Try to) a day. A personal trainer developed this meal plan and it has kept me at my current weight for years. It will get boring. I suggest adding a little butter and salt/pepper to vegetables to make them taste better. Now, Stop eatting all junk food and grab a bottle of water and start your war against your weight. May the force be with you. I did it..you can.

Drotondi1518 · Jul 19, 2011

Oh and get active. Anything that can get your heart rate going...

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · Jul 25, 2011

Well, thanks for listening, I have to go do a 1mile walk now, trying to do that 1-2 times a day everyday, get my fat butt out from infront of the pc when the weather permits.
See you in school soon
[email protected]

That will help. I lost about 65 pounds my last semester of nursing school. I had tried the gym memberships and everything before and I no longer had the funds so that was out. Weight watchers and other expensive programs were out.

I did it by doing the things they tell you to do. Eat good food (veggies fruits lean meats) and not so much of it. No pop or sugary drinks - WATER. And a lot of it. No fast food, and no eating late at night (after 8pm). My shopping habits changed considerably. Bread, cereal, milk, cheese, and salty snacks were out and whole fruits and veggies were in. I basically added a ton more raw foods to my diet and got rid of fast food. Could care less if its organic. No more mochas at coffee shops - water and tea instead. Prepare lunch at home and bring it to school.

For exercise, it was mostly walking. I would walk out my door and walk at a brisk pace for 30 minutes, then turn around and walk back. As I got in better shape, I walked farther and farther away from home. This started in the dead of winter - I got back from thanksgiving dinner and trudged through snow for an hour that night. I used the school's treadmills during open gym.

I lifted some weights in my basement and did yoga. But my main exercise was walking and my main lifestyle change was my diet. I basically cut my calories and exercised as much as I could.

I also got a ton of support from my classmates when the weight began falling off. I've lost 70 so far and have about 40 to go! Its actually harder for me to lose weight now after leaving school because of the great habits I was into.

Good luck! You can do it.

puravidaLV · Aug 10, 2011

weight watchers...not online, but go to the meetings. Wife lost 40lbs, friend lost 120lbs, and a person at her meeting lost nearly 150lb+.

Its basically teaching portion control which every American needs

metricalpound · Aug 10, 2011

There's only one way to lose weight - you need to burn more calories than you intake.

Now everyone's different and each person is going to tell you a million and one ways in which they lost weight or how they think a person loses weight.

From my own personal experience, the way I lost some weight, is that I found a goal that I wanted to attain that had nothing to do with weight lost but more about my physical ability. I'm working on running http://toughmudder.com/ and I've lost weight just by training for it.

Yeah, I've changed some of my eating habits but I didn't go overboard or anything. I never NEVER look at a scale - I judge by how my clothes fit me. Also it feels good to see how my body could barely do something like run a mile and now I can run 5k with no problem.

You will lose weight if you challenge yourself physically, change some of your eating habits and stay away from things that discourage you (i.e. for me it's looking at a scale).

Nursing2102 · Aug 10, 2011

Start out slow. Boredum can be the silent killer when it comes to trying to lose weight because most people EAT when they are bored.

Try to stay focused and if you are worried about injury by exercise. Just start out slow. Go power walking in the evening or early morning. Drink water- no soda or high calorie drinks. Control your portions.

Don't worry about building muscle just yet, just try and lose weight first before you start weight training right away. Cardio cardio cardio!

Good luck to you.

Trenia · Aug 12, 2011

Invest in an iPod or other type of mp3 player if you don't already have it. If you're bored while walking you can download a podcast the night before of something you enjoy. The time will go by much faster.