How to get the seriously overweight started?

[Pia]

That's a great approach if the person is disciplined and motivated, but chances are if they are already overweight, they are not very disciplined and not very motivated. I lost 50 pounds mainly by changing my diet, plus a little bit of cardio every day. After that, it was much easier to do 30-mile bike rides, hundreds of pushups, etc. because I had the energy to pursue those things and had slowly built up the habits of eating right and exercising on a regular basis.

For me, the baby steps approach worked really well. I'd agree that starting out with strength training and longer cardio sessions would be great, but that's the approach most people take, and most people quit because it's too hard to keep up that big of a change in their life.

I didn't recommend any sort of holistic approach, I just commented on how to extract results from individual exercises with minimal time and effort spent. There is no better motivator than seeing results. As long as you have enough motivation to do something, you might as well do the most effective thing. This is especially true for people who do *not* like and enjoy exercising, and are only in it for the end result. Proper strength training gives great results with as little time spent as an hour a week. For efficiency's sake it should be the first thing rather than the last thing incorporated into an exercise regime. Not to mention it also serves as aerobic exercise of sorts; your heartrate certainly goes up while lifting.

 

[BeeBoop]

Speed 3 on the treadmill for 10 mins, hit some light weights, and back to the treadmill again. I did that a total of three times in one workout session for the entire first week back at the gym.

 

[datalink7]

Hadn't checked this thread in a bit.

We just started doing stuff this week. Got her committed to the Couch to 5k program. It is just three days a week to start out. Also got her to quit soda. Still need to get her on a better diet overall (and quit smoking) but it is a start. At least she's making some positive changes. Hopefully she'll stay committed.

 

[power_hour]

Having dealt with this personally, I found the emotional component is important. Sometimes there is a psychological reason for the extra weight. Try to keep things positive but don't dwell on this. The important thing is she is happy with the changes. Find constructive ways that make her feel good about the exercise. Maybe she had her eye on a certain dress or perhaps a social function. It helps if she has full buy in and that usually comes from her desires.

 

[QueBert]

A change in diet might be a lot harder for her than starting to exercise. I know it's not the best way to do it and ymmv if you try even. But I went from 240 to 170 in less than a year and all I did was exercise, cut out non diet soda and eat less food. I didn't really change my diet much, I'd throw in some Oatmeal and such here and there. But primarily I just ate less calories. I was still chomping on burgers and mac & cheese. For me smaller portions were the key, I don't think I could ever eat much healthy food it just doesn't taste good to me.

 

[hans007]

200 is not SERIOUSLY overweight.

Go look on youtube and find some of those vids of the special fat clinic in Indiana. Those folks would die without advanced care from fat experts. (Not saying its good or bad, just telling it like it is.)

200 for a woman at 5'6 is unless she's built like Maurice Jones drew or something