Hello chicks I'm new to the site and found this forum which I think is great. I am starting over again with this weight loss thing. I used to work out when I was about 70lbs lighter and it was easier but, I find it's not as easy now a days. Right now I am at 323 and I'm 5'6". I joined the gym at my job so I can workout after work it's conveinent and saves gas, which is nice. I used to do a lot of walking on the treadmill which I enjoy. The problem is my knee hurts often if I set the speed over 2 It causes a lot of pain and I assume it's because the weight I'm carrying and I haven't worked out in awhile. After that long explanaition my question is- Is a 20 minute treadmill work out on a 2 speed with a 3 incline a good workout? Will this help me in losing weight? I've done this the last 2 times I worked out and also did 10 minutes on the exercise bike. But then I got a little sidetracked so I'm restarting workouts on thursday. Any information would be helpful. Thanks.

Anytime your moving, it'll help in your weightloss journey Your just starting out and as you get used to the speed and incline(and hopefully your knees loosen up a bit if your only experiencing pain due to excerise) it'll become easier and you'll gradually be able to increase your speed/incline, in addiction to your time.

My mom has issues with her legs and knees after a fall and a trainer recommended she use the elliptical rather then the treadmill so that might help too...

Best of luck

Any excercise is good for you!

I have similar problems, at 360 and have always been pretty overweight. My knees and feet start to hurt with almost no effort. I found that intervals seemed to really speed up my weight loss. Walking on the treadmil at about 2, but cranking the incline way up to 12, within a couple minutes im exhauseted. So then bring the incline way back down, even slow down a little bit, and catch your breath. Then crank it up again. These little bursts of 'give it all ya got' high intensity worked wonders for me.

I only had about half an hour during my lunch break to work out, and would do something like this, my knees handled it well, and I was able to drop a bunch of extra weight. Good luck to you!

Thanks for the answers. TPA that sounds like a good idea. I''m gonna try cranking it up tomorrow

LadyOdd - there's also no need to overstress yourself in the early stages. Do what you can and gradually increase your exercise or speed or whatever. Do not do something painful now; you will find that your strength and stamina will increase over time and that some of the pain will disappear as you lose weight and you can increase distance/speed/et cetera as you get more fit. I think that getting into the habit of exercise is the most important thing early on. Good luck!

Since you're treadmill savvy... is there one you guys have used to fully support your weight well? My boyfriend and I are in the market, and I don't want to spend 3 grand on one, but if we have to, we can figure that part out. If there's something better that doesn't take the beating, that would be best! Any ideas? Which do you all use?

Hi Kerri - I have a treadmill at home that is an Exerpeutic. It is rated to 400 lbs. I have a really small home and wanted a supercompact one, but it was rated only to like 250 lbs. It was less than $400. Incline options are both minimal and manually adjusted, and it only goes up to 4 miles per hour, but when I started I was walking at 2 miles per hour and adjusting up to 2.5. Now my basic pace is 2.8 mph, with several-minute bursts at 3 mph. I think it will be some time before I outgrow or outpace it. The one I have is the TF100. There is also one they make that is more compact and less expensive, and rated to 350 lbs. I do not know how tall your boyfriend is, but there were critical reviews about it because it had a shorter footprint and didn't well accommodate long strides. You are pretty tall yourself, so you might want to pay attention to that.

Mine is a bit bigger than I would like, but otherwise is exactly what I wanted and needed and was totally affordable.

If you search on amazon for a 'walking treadmill' you will find both options and perhaps some others. As long as your goal isn't running on a treadmill, they should accommodate moderate fitness walking.

mnemosyne thanks for the kind response! I looked up your treadmill on Amazon. I like what I see so far, the exerpeutic. It has a desk, too cool! I know a lot of people are trying to change their work spaces to be more cardio-friendly by using a treadmill or exercise ball instead of a chair. I like it. This seems pretty sturdy, and I don't plan on being 350 forever! My boyfriend is 6', so sounds like this could make him happy as well. It stays pretty quiet for you, too, not too noisy?

I will definitely pay attention to the footprint on the treadmills I look at. I need to go check out a few in the stores and see what I like. Then maybe I can get a great deal like this one online, if I know what I'm shopping for.

Hi Ladyodd,

When I started out, it was an accomplishment to do 10 mins a day on my treadmill with no incline! I can't even believe I was bragging to my doctor about it but I was! It was a huge accomplishment for me. Slowly but surely I was able to build up my stamina to increase time and/or speed. But I agree with the other posters, don't do anything that physically hurts! (Exercise "pain" feels different from "hurt pain", if you know what I mean.) When I had hurt my calf muscle, I did my exercise bike just so I could get activity in every day. I was still able to burn calories and it didn't hurt, plus it took all the pressure off my calf on the treadmill. This might be helpful for your knee too.

Any exercise you can do will be helpful to you. Good luck on your journey, we can do this!!

Thanks everybody for the encouragement. Unfortunately I haven't been able to start my workout yet My work schedule has gotten very crazy. I have been trying to diet. I am setting a goal for myself to make sure I get to the gym every other day starting the 26th. It's a ways away but that will be when my work schedule settles down and gets on track. I'll be doing some light at home workouts, sit ups push ups that sort of thing until then.

I have one recently replaced hip, and arthritis in my other hip and knee as well... so I struggle with the exercise component of losing weight. Right now I'm focusing on eating properly and am hoping that I can lose enough weight to make walking or hiking a possibility. I've heard that for every pound lost, you take four pounds of stress off your hips and knees when walking... so I'm hoping I can work around the arthritis with weight loss. We'll see how it goes...