What is the best exercise equipment for home for someone weighing 25 stones?

wazza

What is the best exercise equipment for home for someone weighing 25 stones?

Wondering if the treadmill or exercise bike will be best. What do you suggest? Where can i get the recommended equipment from? Most shops/catalogues have weight limits below 25 stones

HeidiHi

I was going to suggest the Wii, but it only goes up to 23 stone.

Walking maybe? Or an exercise step?

Magnolia

Forget paying out for expensive machines which will only end up as very expensive clothes horses. Go for a walk outside - its free!

Just take it easy at first. What we did was to drive round several routes and find one that was half a mile long. Take it steady on your first walk and note the time. Try and get the time down over the next couple of weeks and see how much you can shave off. Once you get used to doing this and feel more comfortable with it then you can increase the distance or maybe do the walk twice to increase it to 1 mile. Log the miles as you go. You will be surprised just how good it can make you feel.

Do the walk 4 times in a week and you will have done 2 miles! In your first month you will have walked 8 miles! As you increase fitness and your weight diminishes you could find yourself having walked more than a marathon in a few short months.

Aim to get mildly out of breath and if you feel like you need to stop then just give yourself a break.

You are aiming to do something for yourself so be proud of whatever you do.

Not being patronising here - been there done that got the T-shirt, DVD etc

One very important thing - make sure you have some good trainers on or you will find your muscles aching like you never knew!

Some good information at this site.

http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/exercise/plans/walking_fitness.htm

Eric_Pisch

depends on your age and joint condition

i know when i was 34 stone walking caused immense pain in my knees

i invested in a decent treadmill with a good shock absorbing deck and some decent running shows which also are hugely shock absorbing and it made a big difference, really protected my knees and hips

spin bikes are also moderately low impact on the joints, rowing machines are pretty good as well


depends what you want to achieve and what your budget is



the best exercise for weight loss is resistance training it accelerates your metabolism for upto 48 hours and builds muscle which increases your BMR, so you burn more calories just sitting about

BitterAndTwisted

Crikey! I would have thought that just walking up and down the stairs a couple of times a day would be enough of a challenge for someone weighing a massive 25 stone.

I wouldn't commit hard-earned cash to any exercise equipment unless it proves a HUGE incentive to use it or it will become a really expensive clothes-horse as already mentioned and let's face it getting that heavy already proves that motivation is very sorely lacking

puddy

i was going to say the same as eric, i am also very overweight, cannot divulge the exact amount or i would have to kill you all, however, walking is v painful.

so, my method is cycling. get yourself a good quality comfort bike, none of these road racer bikes, get a sort of sit up and beg type with big fat tyres and a big fat seat.

if you drive, get yourself a cycle rack, spend 2 or 3 times a week on a very flat, safe, traffic free cycle route to build up confidence and strength. over time you will be able to do more and more and build up to a point where you will be able to cycle out of your house straight on the road (im not at that stage yet, still quite wobbly and unsteady, but can easily do about an hour and a half at about 15miles an hour)

i use cycleroute.com or sustrans to find routes. we often drive round to check the route out first so that we dont get any nasty surprises whilst trying to do it, its great fun and very enjoyable. you feel great after

for your weight (i dont know your age), you're looking at using about 1500 calories for an hour and a half cycling, which you can easily do

Tropez

Have you spoken to your GP?

Really, if you want to lose weight your GP should be your first port of call. They can refer you to people who can help you and motivate you to lose weight.

In some (maybe all, I'm not sure) regions there is something called The Lifestyle Programme. This programme puts you in touch, for 12 months and for free, with an individual who will advise you how best to accomplish your weight loss goals. Furthermore, through associations with community groups and local businesses they can provide free or heavily discounted gym memberships for a set period and access to qualified, personal trainers as well as access and information regarding other weight loss groups, walking clubs etc.

Even if the programme isn't available in your area a gym would be a reasonable starting point. While I can understand the fear of encountering folks who look like they eat a bowl of steroids for breakfast, the smaller gyms, which have limited equipment are usually relatively lacking in such people and are generally frequented by people who just want to lose weight and maintain that weight loss. They will often focus specifically on cardio as opposed to weight training, may offer personal training services and are generally much more cost effective than buying a £200 piece of gym equipment for the home.

I was at one point 19 stone, which on a 5' 11" person such as myself is massively overweight. I wasted money on home gym equipment which was used for a while, and then infrequently when I felt "bad" about myself. One day, on the off chance, I popped into a small, local community gym and was surprised to find that there were people in there larger than I was. Immediately, I felt more comfortable and took out a membership. Nowadays, I'm not "ripped" by any stretch, but I have a manageable weight and some upper body tone. They had a small weight section and a multigym but on the whole it was a treadmill, crosstrainers, rowing machines etc. to build up cardio development and muscle strength in the legs - an important point for me as I have an injury to one of my legs and keeping muscle development there ensures it won't get worse.

I ended up dropping, in less than a year, from a 44" waist to a 32" waist and without any nasty skin flaps left over, largely thanks to the trainer monitoring my weight loss during my programme.

The only downside was having to buy new clothes all the time!

I still use that gym. Three one hour sessions per week, plus a small amount of weight training infrequently at home using some basic, cheap weights. I also got into the habit of wearing wrist, and later ankle weights of around 1kg each, whilst training and whilst walking the dogs (another 1-2 hours exercise per day).

If you're set though on working out from home then rather than spend money on gym equipment, you should try and keep things fun. If you have room in your drive way or garden, set up a basketball hoop and get yourself a basketball. Or maybe play squash against the side of the house, or practice keeping a tennis ball up with a racket etc. All these things are much easier and cheaper than gym equipment and also, rather than setting weight loss goals (which you won't see straight away and can be demoralising) set goals for them instead - like set a record of how many continuous hoops you can get and try and beat it etc.

puddy

Tropez wrote: »

Have you spoken to your GP?

Really, if you want to lose weight your GP should be your first port of call. They can refer you to people who can help you and motivate you to lose weight.

I cant tell you how inappropriate GP weight loss services are for people who are emotional eaters (which to reach 25 stone, OP obviously is). We all know the portion sizes we SHOULD be eating, we know about 5 a day, we know about good and bad fats, we know about GI etc etc etc. People that have been overweight to that degree for many years will have done every diet in the book, it is not knowlege that prevents them losing weight and Im afraid GP services, lifestyle nurses and clinics focus on knowledge, leaflets and information, something we already have.

Bloomin_Freezing2

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Crikey! I would have thought that just walking up and down the stairs a couple of times a day would be enough of a challenge for someone weighing a massive 25 stone.

I wouldn't commit hard-earned cash to any exercise equipment unless it proves a HUGE incentive to use it or it will become a really expensive clothes-horse as already mentioned and let's face it getting that heavy already proves that motivation is very sorely lacking

Well isn't that a smack in the face!

Ignore it OP.

Tropez

puddy wrote: »

I cant tell you how inappropriate GP weight loss services are for people who are emotional eaters (which to reach 25 stone, OP obviously is). We all know the portion sizes we SHOULD be eating, we know about 5 a day, we know about good and bad fats, we know about GI etc etc etc. People that have been overweight to that degree for many years will have done every diet in the book, it is not knowlege that prevents them losing weight and Im afraid GP services, lifestyle nurses and clinics focus on knowledge, leaflets and information, something we already have.

I can't say I agree, although it depends largely on the availability of services in your area and the quality of them overall.

You don't need to be an emotional eater to become largely overweight. I reached 19 stone, and probably would have reached more, not because there was anything wrong with my diet (which there wasn't) nor because I was an "emotional eater" but because my activity levels simply weren't high enough.

However, if you are eating as an emotional response, then a GP can also refer somebody to a counsellor specialising in such issues in order to help a person combat the causes of that response and help people manage it better. Losing 3lbs on a treadmill one week, only to have a negative event cause you to eat to excess negates the weight loss which in turn is likely to lead to more comfort eating as a coping mechanism for undoing the work.

puddy

Tropez wrote: »

I can't say I agree, although it depends largely on the availability of services in your area and the quality of them overall.

You don't need to be an emotional eater to become largely overweight. I reached 19 stone, and probably would have reached more, not because there was anything wrong with my diet (which there wasn't) nor because I was an "emotional eater" but because my activity levels simply weren't high enough.

true, I have assumed this

However, if you are eating as an emotional response, then a GP can also refer somebody to a counsellor specialising in such issues in order to help a person combat the causes of that response and help people manage it better. Losing 3lbs on a treadmill one week, only to have a negative event cause you to eat to excess negates the weight loss which in turn is likely to lead to more comfort eating as a coping mechanism for undoing the work.

absolutely, but of many GP surgeries I have used and known of in terms of families I have worked with, its hard enough to get bog standard MH counselling services, let alone for over eating. In fact I was told specifically by one GP that there was nothing different to me and the next person in the waiting room, I just needed to eat less...... oh really???

Obviously areas will differ but unfortunately that is my experience so far (and of others I know in different areas)