Rebel26

Hi folks... I used fitday way back in 2001 under a different username, and actually managed to lose a lot of weight through counting calories & exercising like a mad-woman. (went from over 180 to almost 140)

Unfortunately the exercising part caused a knee injury that 10 years later is still painful on a daily basis and prevents me from doing much activity at all let alone aerobics or anything like that. Well, as you might imagine, the weight has piled on and then some. At my Dr.'s appt. last week I weighed in at 210... which means if I want to be at anything approaching a healthy weight I've got at least 60 lbs to lose.

You know, if spending time in mental anguish over one's weight actually burned calories, I'd have lost it all by now, but as you all know it's not nearly that easy. I've come to terms with the fact that I eat too much for my limited activity level, so I've really got to solve the problem from the food angle, and so I've been tracking my calorie input and trying to focus on preparing my own foods vs. eating out.

It's not going especially well. I can't seem to keep my calories below 2,000. I just get too hungry. And on the weekends I don't keep track at all. But for now I think I'm going to keep plugging along at least recording my food intake during the week and trying to get a feel for - if I eat this combination of foods I'll be at roughly 2,000 and if I eat that combination of foods I'll be well over that amount and still be hungry.

So that's where I am. I'm hoping that this forum will help keep me motivated and help me get on track. Wish me luck!

01gt4.6

welcome back Rebel and welcome to the forum side. What's keeping you around 2000 calories? Are you eating out of boredom, hunger, what?

I'd imagine that after 10 years you should be able to at least walk or is your knee THAT bad? What kind of food are you eating? Are you eating high fiber items that keep you feeling full??

vabeachgirlNYC

Welcome to the forums! And welcome back to FitDay!

Are you drinking enough water throughout the day? Maybe a different macro combo would help with the hunger?

Injuries suck but there are exercises you can do while avoiding irritating your knee. I was on crutches for 2&1/2 months this summer and going crazy worrying about gaining weight and losing muscle.

I modified as many workouts as I could and worked up to one leg recumbent biking, elliptical, squats and even blading on one skate using my crutches for support. There are also many upper body and core exercises that can be done without putting any pressure on your knee.

Check out the motivational thread in the Women's Forum, great way to be accountable without being overwhelmed. It's a great group with the support that can help keep you on track!

Rebel26

Thanks for the welcome. In short, yeah, my knee is that bad. I *can* walk but literally getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom is at least mildly painful. *Sitting* is mildly painful. So I basically do a cost/benefit analysis for every activity - how much pleasure/utility am I going to get out of this activity vs. how much pain am I going to be in during it & for the rest of the day. Although I've recently started wearing a knee brace again and it does help me get through my day-to-day activities with a greatly reduced amount of pain.

And I do like to keep up with my upper body strength ... I have free weights that I use while watching TV... but recently sprained my wrist and am off weights now too. GAH!!!!

So calories it is. Honestly my biggest two biggest issues are portion sizes & sweetened beverages, with the overarching issue of emotional eating. Even if I've planned out healthy foods for the entire day - if something stressful happens I'll say f#@$ - it and go eat something. Not very productive I know I know!

I've tried to give up soda several times but haven't managed to stick to it completely. I used to drink 32oz of Dr. Pepper every single day. I've gotten a lot better, now I'll drink a 20oz soda a couple times a week. I'm doing better now that I'm recording my calories. I just hate seeing like 300-400 calories just GONE because I had a soda. So hopefully that will help. I've basically replaced my soda drinking with tea (with sugar), so it's still sweet but it's like 2 packets of sugar vs. 16 packets. Baby steps.

almeeker

Rebel, sorry to hear about the bum knee, I have a pair of those myself. One thing I can tell you for sure is that my knees are a ton better now that I weigh a lot less. They still hurt, but it's not crippling pain anymore. My right knee has been taken apart and reassembled twice, the left is slightly better and is still in it's original state, gnarly but functional. Have you discussed using anti-inflammatory meds with your doctor? Mine has me on a daily dose of 1 Alieve and 1 low dose aspirin. I take both at night right before bed. I've been on and off Alieve (or in the family of Alieve) meds for a long time, but when I added in the low dose aspirin, that made all the difference.

The other thing you might try for the soda is a flavored water, you might as well replace the soda with something you need anyway right? Just today I tried Propel Zero, peach and it's very yummy. Normally I don't really care for flavored water, but this stuff is almost addictive. I used to drink close to a 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke every day, but now I use Diet Coke as a reward for getting in all my required water. But I'm thinking about switching from Diet Coke to Propel, yummmm....