Hello ladies!

I really need your advice. Since starting SparkPeople (6/23/09), I have lost 6.8 lbs. For me, this is AMAZING progress. However, I am concerned about implementing exercise. You see, from Sept-Dec I was sort of watching what I was eating and went from 275 - 246. I was doing the JM 30 DS as well as walking daily.

Then, something reversed in my body. No matter what I did, or how I modified my diet, I was gaining. I put on 30 lbs in 3 weeks! It has taken me since January to reverse my body back into losing mode. Now that I have a solid, clean diet, I know the next step is exercise. And this is where I need help.

I know what to do. I know that resistance training is key to fat burning and muscle tone. HOWEVER, I have had experiences before where exercise totally halts my weightloss. And I don't mean muscle gain for a week. I mean all out, pile on the pounds!

And this is why I am scared. It has taken me 7 months of careful dieting and the addition of supplements to get me losing again. What if exercise doesn't agree again and I gain? I know that being a hypo/pcos girl, my body doesn't react like a normal one. Others would hardly bat an eye about adding exercise. But for me, its almost a weightloss risk!

Any advice? What are your thoughts/experiences? Am I silly to be so scared? Thanks!

heather! i am soooo happy for you! yay for 6.8 gone! sooo i know you have struggled a lot and i admire your tenacity and perserverance. i wish i had an an ounce of it! all i can say is u have to try. i dont know if you will gain or not. quite frankly, none of us know, not you, not 3fc prob not your doctor. but you know that exercise is good for you and u will need it to get all the way to your goal. so i say do whatever exercise your doc has told you to do along with everything you are doing now and give it a month and see what happens. i think youve just got to step out on faith. and i know that may be hard with all you have been through but you are a tough cookie! and if you lose great! and if you gain then back to the drawing board but u can say you tried! love ya and im always here for ya

brie

looking at it blunty; to loose weight you need to consume less calories then you burn. You can loose without exercise, you just eat less calories then you are burning during a normal day. Exercise helps us loose weight by adding muscle tone, cutting fat, and burning calories. however, without it - your body will still loose weight. But exercise is important to your health. I would stick to just cardio to help burn fat and keep your heart healthy. Maybe don't add any stregnth which adds muscle/weight?

I dont know how PCOS works, but i would say that you prob need to exercise at some point so why not now I would start off quite light, so you dont retain a lot of water or gain a whole heap of muscle so you shouldnt gain. I would also keep a super close eye on what you are eating because i know quite a few people who do well and then exercise, get hungrier, add a couple of snacks in there and wonder why their weight loss isnt affected.

You probably just want to start off with cardio and go from there, but check with your doc! My sister has PCOS and she just started meds a few months ago. Her doctor has her doing cardio 3 x a week with no weights right now, but those will come later.

Heather, if you are losing and not exercising yet, keep at it. I lost 40 lbs without doing any exercises, just strictly eating right. I won a chance to be a participant in a fit challenge and have 2 months for free at the gym the first week I gained 5 lbs and have been there for 3 weeks straight now. I was bouncing between 186-188 for 6 weeks before the gym and now I have been bouncing from 190-192 for 3 weeks since I started. I HATE it. Of course, I have been seeing some new muscles pop through. People keep telling me that I gained the 5 lbs bc it is muscle. Yeah, I don't think so. I didn't gain 5 lbs of muscle in one week. lol So I can see where you have apprehension of adding in activity.

So I think you should just do what you are comfortable with. If you are losing without working out, why not wait a little longer before adding it back in?