Weight management and exercise mistakes?

[Von]

A little history - a few years ago my shrink prescribed a medicine for my mental illness that worked wonders (for a while) but had the side-effect of making me ravenously hungry.  I put on 20 pounds in less than a year, up to about 180lbs (I'm 5 ft tall for reference )

When it stopped working, she put me on other stuff that was more weight neutral, and added in Adderall to get my energy levels higher so I could see dragging myself out of bed in the mornings.
That worked for a while!  I dropped those 20 pounds.  But then everything stopped working again.  I'm medication-resistant.

The newest bunch isn't as neutral as she had me believe, I'm back to constantly being on the hunt for sweets and snacks.

Today marks the day I start eating less, and better foods. (Really hard when my partner is aware of my diet and buys fucking snack cakes to eat in front of me   ) I know i need exercise in there too, but my options are limited!  I can't get to a gym, I don't own a bike (too scared of traffic), too scared to run in my neighborhood (yay agoraphobia), so it's down to stuff I can do at home... But everything I try hurts places I'm not working on.  Example: I'm working on getting my belly fat to go away, so I looked up some routines to target that - some variants of crunches - and instead of feeling any burn in my gut, my LEGS were absolutely SCREAMING.  I can't even do sit-ups because I have a bad back, and somehow I always injure my neck trying to get off the floor; it just doesn't happen.  I flop and flop.

What CAN I do?  I'm really upset by this.   My doctor's chart always has me listed as obese, although she politely never mentions it to me.  So now I'm sitting at 5ft, 164 lbs.  Apparently my target is about 125, but I haven't seen that in over a decade.

[Leena]

I mostly walk, but if I don't feel like going outside, or the weather isn't good, I do shadow boxing and also do some jogging in place. There are a lot of exercises you can do inside, these are just what I do.

[Avery]

Von - I am so glad you made this thread. I have been having the same problem, medications that affect my weight and also when I'm depressed I eat terribly. I've (mostly) revamped my diet. I eat really healthy meals but still have problems with snacking. I'm at around 190, plus or minus 5 lbs, but want to go down to about 140 (I'm 5'5").

I'm having a really difficult time keeping myself accountable to the snacking, and also not starting exercising. It's difficult because I can't go to a gym (chest dysphoria and it's too dangerous to exercise with a binder). So I'm also limited to what I can do in my apartment. I downloaded this app with 30 days worth of home exercises with instructions and diagrams and things but I haven't started doing it. Maybe we could keep each other accountable

[Ativan Prescribed]

Get rid of sugar, make sure you're not eating anything with more than a gram or so of sugar per serving and it shouldn't be added sugar.
The stuff is highly addictive and does cause a lot of bad shit to bodies, depression has it's roots in it, diabetes has it's roots in it, belly fat is from it along with any simple carb.
Get rid of salt as well, it leads to cravings for salty snacks and though it isn't all that bad, in large amounts like most people use it, it can be.
But the worst thing is the fricken snacks, eat fruit instead, take a pick of the top twenty and figure out a serving and stick to it.
Once you start to cut back on the crap in your diet, there is a backlash of phantom hunger and the can't live without, but it goes away after a while, even in a month you won't be thinking about and reaching for the crap calories that have next to no nutrition.
And that's the thing, having a lack in the stuff you actually need, you feel hungry, so the salt cravings kick in, the need for sugar kicks in.
Sugar and foods that even have a lot like most fruit give you a boost on energy and that makes the sugar craving work, so replace the sugar crap with fruit.
The amount of sugar in fruit is there, but the other things you get from it counters the sugar, you have more fiber, refined sugar has none, it's loaded with vitamins and mineral stuff you need or you die, sugar has none.
The hard to get rid of belly fat is the natural storage place that your body uses for unused calories, especially sugar, you eat sugar and it gives you a boost, a lot of it goes into storage, and that's the place for that, along with just overall fat, and that only comes from simple carbs and sugar crap, you can eat a solid fat diet and it won't do that, it just leaves if it isn't used and your fat is the same thing, except it is the energy storage and the fat you eat doesn't convert to that, it just has other bad things for you. Just like cholesterol is made bu your body, not eating cholesterol isn't going to change that, you still make and have high cholesterol. Sugar, especially refined, is the exception in that it has no real use in the body and just has a lot of empty calories so what isn't used right away gets converted into fat and goes into storage, the belly fat.
Diet isn't about dieting, it's about eating the right stuff and you won't have the hunger, the need to over eat, cut the crap and you'll see, I did it and it makes a big difference.
Burning calories is the only way to get rid of excess calories and it's true there is no targeted exercise that burns fat from a certain area, exercise can develop muscles, but that's a different process, just getting any kind of exercise is going to first burn the sugar that is in you, which is good if you have diabetes, and once that is taken care of, that same exercise starts in on the fat, lastly it will go after muscle, but it isn't likely to happen unless you simply run out of food or stop eating altogether.
Walking is the first exercise, mile for mile it is the same as if you ran that far, just takes longer but doesn't beat the crap out of you, which is another thing about exercise, if it becomes hard and makes you sore all the time, you'll give up and once you do, and go back to eating crap again, the fat goes on even faster because your body thinks it needs the reserves from the loss of weight it just went through, it takes a long time to change that back, but it took a long time for you to get that way as well. If going out for a walk isn't a good idea, then stop sitting and laying around and just stay on your feet more, even walking back and forth in a room counts and the best if you have them is stairs, just keep on going up and down, but don't burn yourself out on exercise, just keep increasing as you go, if you go out and burn a mile running, it isn't in that short term doing much good if you don't do it all the time, even the weekend runner isn't gaining a lot, but they are gaining some, just being active and moving around does a whole lot more than you'd think, think about it this way, if you just lumped there, you don't burn a thing, but just getting up and moving around is at least something, and if you are moving around, the miles add up.
Cut the sugar, cut the salt, cut the simple carbs, eat healthy food, don't eat processed crapola, none of it is good for you, the processing likely adds too much salt and the people who make it add sugar because it's addictive and will give you cravings for their particular brand of shit food, in fact it makes little difference if that is the bulk of what you eat, it all has added shit that makes you want more, and get rid of the damn sodas, even the diet ones are for shit, the sugar replacement additive is addictive and you just reach for a soda instead of eating something healthy because addiction!! The caffeine gets you going with empty calories, sure, but if you are drinking over one a day then you're not getting the nutritious food into you and besides, face it, you eat crap snacks when you drink it, it is just a vicious circle of crap and nothing good.
Look this stuff up, if you really want to get into it and lose weight, go on the diet they suggest for type two diabetes, to keep it from going full blown diabetes, you have to lose weight, at least ten pounds right away, and you have to eat right, and you'll still have to take the awful tasting med which is reason enough right there to take care of yourself so you don't become diabetic.
I know, I recently had a huge spike in blood glucose for too many months in a row and after 6 of those it was pretty much the you have this so you have to deal with it bad news. But I did the things I needed except lose a lot of weight, and I have beaten it back which hardly ever happens, because people just don't want to change their crap food and lay on the couch lifestyle...
But really, if you want to get rid of a lot of crap, lessen the effects of depression, get rid of fat, just feel better when you wake up and for the rest of the day, give up the crap and go for a walk, you do this and by the end of summer in this hemisphere, you'll be on track to not want your old lifestyle again, sugar won't tasted good, you'll realize how much salt is in everything and you won't want to use as much, you will feel more like getting out and doing things. I'll bet if they did a study on it that it could help with even dysphoria, I'd bet a dollar on that.
If you think this isn't going to happen for you, then think about going diabetic and losing the use of your legs, even losing them, going blind, and having your life really going into a downhill spiral, and it can just that easy, I've always ate good, but not good enough, always get exercise but not enough anymore, I've done a lot of the right things and still I felt like shit and had a harder time dealing with depression and even dysphoria because it feeds on depression. I changed it around to what is just really a normal diet and exercise and I do feel better, don't sit and munch on crapola, I like eating the better foods and it really doesn't cost a lot more, fruits and vegetables that are fresh are cheaper than any other way of getting them, nothing more is done so no added expense, it takes a lot of money and energy to freeze stuff, to process it into mush and add sugar and salt to it, so eating right isn't expensive and you 'll be eating a lot less so money saved right there, but don't take my word for it, go and look at the latest findings on this stuff and also check into why we have so many ailments, feel like crap all day long until we get home so we can lay on the couch and eat sugary salt food.
High protein and complex carbs, whole grains, if it has added sugar put it back on the shelf or loosen your belt again. You can eat a mostly meat diet, but you're going to lack in fiber, which is just as important as anything else, you need it to get rid of what you don't need. You can eat high fat, but if you replace as much as you can with olive oil, you'll get the good cholesterol back up, triglycerides down and the bad cholesterol will go down as well, so not clogged arteries and death defying trips to the emergency room and having bypass surgery all in an afternoon, but if you want to start get healthier and lose weight, first thing you have to do is cut the sugar out of what you eat, if it says added sugar, then it's just sugar, does nothing stuff, same for high fructose sugar, it's even worse, it's like concentrated sugar and is highly addictive, like they use it in so much stuff, read the labels, if you pay attention then losing weight isn't as hard as you make it, and you just get healthier by default.

[EchelonHunt]

Cravings

I have binge eating disorder and as a result, I get urges to crave/snack. What I was doing wrong was I was skipping breakfast, having lunch, going 8 hrs without food until dinner then I end up bingeing. I deliberately avoided snacking because I thought snacking would lead to weight gain. Snacks aren't bad. If you deprive yourself of your fav foods, you'll end up wanting it more. It's better to have a small serve that can be allowed for in your diet than resisting and blowing your diet by having a whole ton.

A day usually goes like this:

Breakfast
Morning Snack
Lunch
Afternoon Snack
Dinner
Evening Snack

The space between each meal has to be 3-4 hours. I did this, most of the times I miss out on Breakfast due to not getting up early enough to count it in my day and I noticed a huge reduction in my cravings/snackings... they are practically non-existent now.

Not sure if this will help for you all but see how you go, if you don't do this already? If you do already snack in-between meals, just switch them for healthier alternatives like fruits or nuts.

You can't target spot certain areas of your body. If you eat healthy and exercise, weight will be lost everywhere.

Exercise

I don't like going to the gym either. I do like walking/riding bicycle outside but haven't had the motivation to do so lately.

As for exercise, I can recommend a YouTube channel - POPSUGAR Fitness, they have a wide variety of videos, cardio, dance workout, boxing, full body workout, etc, ranging from 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 minutes. You can pick whichever one you like, do as many or as little as you like. I find if I do one video and they do exercises that I cannot physically do yet, I just dance, do boxing, run in place or do previous moves they did earlier in video to make up for it.

Start small, do 5 minutes until you've build up an endurance to it, then 10, 20 and 30. Give yourself rest days so your muscles can recover.

It's important to find a form of exercise that you enjoy because then you will be able to stick to it rather than forcing yourself to do an exercise purely out of obligation. That's why I stick to things like walking, swimming, riding a bike because I enjoy doing those things. Diet is the main thing to adjust if you want to lose weight. Exercise helps with endorphins (god, I know I need it for my depression), keeps the body strong so less likely to get injuries or muscle strain (I found when I was fitter, I got less injuries/muscle strains compared to the tons I got when I was severely unfit), helps your heart muscle become more efficient and better able to pump blood throughout your body. There are a lot of good perks to exercise so you can't go wrong with combining a healthy diet with some form of exercise into your life.

[Ativan Prescribed]

It does take time to change a diet over to a better one, same as like just cutting the snacks, changing them to fruits and nuts is a sensible thing to do.
But just like exercise, you can't change it all over in a few days, it took me a good month before I could notice my eating habits were changing on their own.
Yah, the small portions and spread out over the day works, I just can't do that myself so much, but a handful of berries will do most of the time.
I really can't eat much salty and especially sugary food anymore, the salty is just too much of that and the sugary stuff scares me from the type 2.
Main thing is to just do something and then keep on adding more changes as you get used to the changes already made.
I haven't lost a lot of weight and I'd like to lose more but it isn't a big deal, but my waistline is getting smaller without weight change.

[Von]

Gosh, thanks for all the input!
What I've done so far is incorporate better things into my diet, and allow for healthy snacks.
Today for breakfast was a piece of toast with a wedge of cheese on it, and some green tea.
Nearing that snack time, I'm gonna grab a banana.
And water. People always said I need to hydrate more, so I'm doing that too.

Work out wise, I haven't settled on anything yet, but I have plans to go on a long walking route with my boyfriend once the weather starts turning warmer again.

[bluefly]

Walking and practicing yoga is really good for your body and for your mind as well.