Newbie

[Kiara10]

I'm new here, trying to lose weight, as I am 3st overweight. I have some difficulty exercising due to hip pain,

[lucigret]

Hello and welcome to our friendly forum Kiara,

Don't worry about not being able to exercise much, just do what you can. Loosing weight has much more to do with what we eat, than the exercise we can do. We have many members that have disabilities and can't exercise, but have been successful in loosing weight

To help you navigate the forum, we've put all the information you'll need in a newbie pack and here's the link

healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

Please take the time to read it carefully, so that you're able to enjoy everything that we have on offer.

We ask that you also read this important information about internet privacy and security, especially as you have left your post unlocked.

healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

We would like to make sure that you are aware that your name and contents of your post are searchable on Google, Facebook and Twitter if you leave your post unlocked or reply to unlocked posts.

Please could you tell us how you found us?

Wishing you all the best

[Kiara10 in reply to lucigret]

Through the NHS site. 12 week weight loss

[Pineapple27]

Hi Kiara10 and welcome

In terms of your pain - the great news is that it's entirely possible to lose weight without doing any exercise whatsoever! There are many of us on this Forum who have additional barriers to losing our weight - whether it's age, the side-effects of medication, thyroid problems, disability, pain, illness.... it just means that we will have to put in that little more effort to counting calories and keeping an eye on portion sizes as we are likely to need less calories because of our inability to burn additional calories through huge amount of exercise....

I have a disability that I was born with (shortening of all four limbs as a result of the drug Thalidomide my mum took when pregnant with me). As a result my mobility is minimal - and was further reduced following a serious head on car crash in 2002 when I broke my ankle. I went on to have ny ankle joint fused and am still in constant pain with it.

I started my weight loss journey at 14 stone - 5 and a half years ago. I am just 4ft 9" tall and so was classed clinically obese.


I was 49 years old and had been trying to lose weight all of my life since the age of 9. My disability makes exercise difficult (I am very sedentary and use a wheelchair outside of the house).

The one thing that I realised very early on in my journey was that I was just eating FAR TOO MUCH! I was a short, middle aged, sedentary female and I was eating the same as 5ft 9" active man (my now husband!). No wonder I was piling on the weight!

I started my journey at the end of February 2012, and managed to lose 4.5 stone in 2 and a half years through calorie counting and logging/weighing all of my food.

Then re-gained some, lost some again and have now managed to more or less maintain for the past 6 months at around 10 stone. Still considered "over weight".

Ideally I would love to drop another stone to 9 stone and maintain there.

My weight loss journey has been long, but I am still learning new tips and tricks to help me along the way and what's more, still enjoying the challenge! I would say that my behaviour around food has changed massively - I have learned to respect food, to "break" it's control over me, and to be able to modify how I behave with food. Just because food is within stight doesn't mean I have to eat it! I don't see eating the way I do as meaning that I am missing out any more - in fact I am now able to enjoy my life and have regained the ability to do things that I struggled to do or even found impossible to do!

Here are a few of my past posts which I hope you will find helpful and inspiring. I won't try and tell you that my journey was easy - and you'll see that there were many blips along the way, but 5 years down the line, I feel about 20 years younger than I did when I was lugging around 4 stone more.

Please do pop back to the forums and share your journey with us - we are here for you, day and night and happy to share your success or support you when you need it.

healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

healthunlocked.com/nhsweigh...

[PandQs Maintainer 3st 7lbs]

Hi Kiara, I have had steroid injections to relieve hip pain, but still find that any length of time standing or walking and it will become inflamed. On the other hand, swimming and gentle cycling don’t appear to be a problem as my hips are working but not under any strain from my weight. That said, I don’t actually enjoy exercise, and only do it when I can get someone to go with me and chat along the way to make it interesting :)) I’m mainly relying on rethinking my approach to what is a healthy diet for me - NOT low fat, but lower carbs, and measured portions on a smaller plate. Also trying to only buy stuff from the supermarket that my grandmother would recognise (from the Food Rules book). Seems to be working slowly but surely.