Need some general weightloss guidance from the H&F crew

[xboxist]

(sorry for the long post -- I thank you kindly if you stay long enough to read it, and doubly thank you if you leave some insight for me)

Backstory:

Today I'm 28. I was playing basketball a few years ago when someone rolled into the side of my knee while the leg was locked. Knees don't bend that way. Since then I've had two surgeries, each of which required me afterwards to be non weight-bearing for three months (crutches only, in other words). My leg/knee muscles deteriorated heavily during those periods. I've been in a constant state of rehab after each surgery. Basically had to learn how to walk again. The injury completely killed any activity I've been able to do beyond walking... until recently when it started feeling much better.

When you have an injury like this, you're constantly trying to test its limits; to see how close it is to feeling like your other, good knee. For the longest time bending with weight on the knee has been utterly painful. About a month ago, suddenly, a lot of that pain vanished. Using the stairs went from having me grimace on each step, to being damn tolerable. Seemingly overnight. It's awesome. It's been this way for the past month now, so I don't think it's a fluke and it really did undergo a mega-heal. Whether that's explainable or not, I'm not sure.

Today:

I'm way overweight and it's driving me crazy. Prior to the injury I was 240. Not exactly the model of fitness, but being a guy that's 6'3", it wasn't insanely awful either. Today, i'm sitting at 330. That's going to change. The goal obviously is to lose weight.

I started out by walking 3 miles each night at a brisk pace. I did this for 5 days straight before I realized that I don't think this is the best way to lose weight. Very long-term, sure. But I'm looking for quicker results. The 3 mile walk barely made me break a sweat and my heartbeat never really went up.

I can't run, that still hurts. Too much impact on the knee. I don't have access to a swimming pool around here. There's a 24-hour fitness center within walking distance that I'm looking into. They have one of those eliptical machines. I went in there just to try it out to test my knee on it, and I think I can do it without much pain. It's about the only thing I can think of that will be easy on the knee, and still be enough of a cardio workout to have an impact. Do you guys agree with this? I'm thinking about just going there once a day to get on that machine for 30 minutes. Do you think I should incoporate lifting weights into my goals?

Short term: lose weight
long term: lose weight, maybe tone up if that comes with it. get the weight DOWN. goal is 230.

PS -- I've taken drastic measures to fix my diet. Soda has been gone for a month. Trying to watch my portions. I've dropped 8 lbs. since the May 25.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: xboxist
Do you think I should incorporate lifting weights into my goals?

Yes, definitely.

 

[MegaVovaN]

Yes, get into lifting.

By the way, don't starve yourself, diet correctly.

Here's an article on topic...
http://stronglifts.com/squats-knee-pain/

 

[spamsk8r]

Diet is absolutely key. To get optimal fat loss, you have to dial in your diet. As far as lifting goes, I always recommend squats, but that might cause issues in someone as injured as yourself. I would talk to a sports medicine doctor and find out what they might recommend for you. You might look into Kettlebell work, as they provide a weighted workout along with a high-intensity cardio component (if you're doing high rep swings, snatches, or clean and jerks). If you can do squats at all, even just bodyweight, I would try that out, because strengthening the supporting muscles around the knee make you much more resilient to future injury (but again, IANAD, so please use discretion with regards to this).

Good luck!

 

[xboxist]

I just wanted to follow-up and thank you for the responses!

I'm leaving town in a few days for a week and a half, so I don't want to start any sort of weight-training program before I leave. But that doesn't mean I haven't started on other things! I bought a year membership at the gym across the street. So now if I feel like slacking off, I'll have to face up to the fact that I already paid ~$300 up front for that privilege. I've gone there every day before work for 5 days straight and used their eliptical machine for 20, 22, 25, 25 and 28 minutes. It makes my knee a little swollen and sore, but it doesn't linger very long like it did in the past. Ice and Advil seem to take care of it. The point is that I CAN do that routine without much problem, and that's exciting as fuck to me... pardon my language.

I'm going to do this guys. Being big sucks. There's no excuse to not get my ass out of bed and go across the street to sweat a little. I've started improving my diet and portions. Bought some Kashi cereals (good stuff!) and making sure to pick up fresh fruit every couple of days. I've been soda-free for over a month.

I'm going to take some "before" pics tonight, even though I've already lost 5 lbs. just going to the gym for the 5 days in a row. I still have to formulate some long-term goals. I don't know what weight is reasonable for me to attain. 225 sounds nice, but that's 100 lbs. away. To be honest, I don't even care about the specific weight number. I just want to feel better, and that's already happening after less than a week of consistent exercise.

 

[conorvansmack]

Congrats on the 5 lbs. you've lost so far! If the gym has a pool, swimming is a great cardio exercise that will also involve some resistance, which will help with the fat loss.

Talk to your doctors or physical therapists about your activity too. They may have some suggestions that will help your knee and keep up the healing process while you're making this lifestyle change. If nothing else, they could recommend some things that wouldn't hinder the healing process.

 

[gramboh]

Start strength training now, you will build muscle (and burn fat) at the same time, while also toning your body. In my opinion, you should be concerned with overall health/fitness level including strength, muscle endurance and cardio endurance (as well as other metrics like balance, power, speed etc) rather than worrying about a weight #. You could diet down to 150lbs if you really wanted, but it wouldn't look good nor be healthy.

The nice thing about strength training is that if you are on a program (like Stronglifts.com 5x5 or Rippetoe's Starting Strength, or others) you are constantly increasing the amount of weight lifting on each exercise, so you are motivated to go to the gym and beat your previous best. You don't have the issue of a haphazzard routine where you don't care if you miss a day because it's random anyway.

Good luck.

 

[brikis98]

good to hear you are doing something about it - injuries really suck, but as they heal, they can serve as motivation to get back to the way you were (and beyond). i'm not a doctor, and probably no one on here is either, so the most important thing would be for you to consult one - ask him what you can do without causing further damage to your knee. find out what kinds of cardio are acceptable, what weight lifting you can do, and so on. having said that, here is my own, non-professional, opinion.

the first priority with weight loss, by far, is diet. see the sticky at the top of this forum for some good info. join a website like fitday.com, use it to calculate how many calories you burn in a day and to track what you eat. make sure you're eating less calories than you burn, otherwise, regardless of how much you exercise, you won't lose weight. just be careful not to overdo it. Start with a slight calorie deficit - say, 300-500 calories - and see if you can keep that up for a few weeks. If you can, you can try to increase the deficit a bit. this way, your body will have a chance to get used to it and you're less likely to quit or binge eat.

stick with cardio that is low impact. swimming is the king in this respect but you said there is no pool near you. elliptical machines are very low impact and as long as it doesn't bother your knee too much, use them. biking is also zero impact, although i'm not sure if your knee can handle that sort of pedaling motion. rowing machines are another excellent option to consider, assuming you can slide forward on the seat without hurting your knee. finally, one random suggestion to consider is "hot" or "power" yoga. it's yoga that you do in an extremely hot room that involves all sorts of difficult stretches and positions. it can probably be adapted to you so your knee is not put under unnecessary stress and the heat of the room and difficulty of the exercises is absolutely guaranteed to make the fat melt away. plus, the classes are often filled with hot girls in tight spandex doing interesting poses, so, it can be quite motivating

finally, adding resistance (weight) training would be extremely beneficial. when you maintain a calorie deficit and lose weight, you often lose muscle as well. this is not healthy and should be kept to a minimum and the best way to do that is to add strength training to your workout. being a beginner, you'll actually be able to lose fat and add muscle to your frame at the same time. and the more muscle you have on your frame, the more calories you naturally burn, so your weight loss progresses faster and the results are easier to maintain.

some of the highly recommended routines are Rippetoe starting strength, stronglifts 5x5, crossfit, and bill starr 5x5. the problem for you, however, is that these routines are all focused around the squat and contain other exercises (deadlifts, power cleans) that could be problematic for your knee. that is to say, none of the exercises are *bad* for your knees - in fact, properly performed squats (full depth) make the knee healthier and stronger - but if you have a preexisting condition, you may want to steer clear. check with your doctor and do as many of the exercises as you can.