Fatso Run, Fatso Run?

I think many of us who have ventured into the world of weight loss over the years have heard of the “ Domino Effect”. To illustrate what I mean by this is something you do in life, had an effect on something else you are doing or trying to do.  

I have friends, and I have done this too, who are struggling trying to lose weight. Many are like me in the past way overweight, not just pleasingly plump, so to speak. In my case way over 300 pounds.

Everyone preaches that you got to exercise to get the weight off. I have no problem with that statement. But here is the kicker. What is exercise? If you are way overweight, and decide on going on an aggressive exercise program at your present weight some bad things happen, at least they always happened in my life.

You may lose weight at first, in some cases quite rapidly. This fact may even motivate you to even up what you are doing. But eventually what happens is that your stress your already over burdened body and it breaks down somewhere. Most of the time in my life that meant my legs. Torn muscles, or tendons are common. Feet also take a beating if the exercise program includes running or fast walking. The damage you do will not only effect you right away, the damage will linger into your later life. I have had both knees repaired and my back still suffers from my routine of running at least 6 miles every other day that I did.

Eventually because of the pain and injury, you stop the routine or in your mind only suspend it. But slowly the weight that you lost in this effort comes right back on and maybe even more and you go into what I call the “ Oh Well What the Hell Mode”. This is where you tell yourself I don’t need to be skinny, life is short, may as well eat and do what I want. Does this sound familiar?

The problem is the Domino Effect. Body breaks down, so weight comes back on. I know it is discouraging and everyone says you got to exercise to lose weight. And I agree with that……. BUT.

But you must, in my opinion, diet your way down with very moderate exercise first. You have to find the caloric level of eating that will allow for fairly fast weight loss and only do light exercise until you have reduced your body mass down quite a bit. In my case I lost from over 300 pounds down to about 225 before I felt that when I exercised that I was not stressing my body anymore. I could workout without having my heart beating very fast, and my legs and feet were not feeling an excessive amount of pain and what pain I had only lasted for a short time.

I am not a doctor so I can not advise you of what weight you should be before you can do strenuous exercise, so best to get the opinion form a professional. Once your body mass is low enough you will be able to workout without doing long term damage. You can continue to diet and work out but now you will be able to accelerate your weight loss with the exercise and not hurt yourself and slump back into not being able to do physical things, which will defeat your weight loss efforts.

It is a balancing act, cause and effect. Just don’t go to far on eater leg. Not too much exercise without dieting first. And then and only then can you up your activity. Not the other way around.

This has been my experience over the last 50 years or so of weight problems for me. I hope it helps you.