Hi all

I was wondering if anyone had advice for someone trying to do a vigorous weight loss program, but gets hindered by asthma and overheating.

I've had this since I was a child. I believe I was told that my body doesn't process oxygen at a normal rate, therefore I overheat and my asthma makes me short of breath sooner.

I feel as though there is not much I can do to change it, and I doubt there are many exercises that don't get you worked up however if anyone has a tidbit of an idea on how to do my workouts better I'd appreciate it!

Hi eLemon!

I have exercise-induced asthma, and didn't even realize it until a year ago when my MD asked if it was hard to breath or I got hot or chest pains when I worked out. I was having trouble doing more than three minutes of exercise, and thought I was just out of shape (which I was!), and that exercise was supposed to hurt like that! I thought everyone got hot and had trouble breathing and chest pains when they tried to be active. I now take two preventative puffs on my inhaler 15 minutes before I do any sort of workout, even just walking, which is what I started with. If you're not already doing this, you may want to discuss it with your MD, since this helped a ton with my breathing problems and a little with overheating too.

As for overheating, there are only two things that have helped significantly, so maybe they'll help for you too: 1) keeping a cold drink nearby, and drinking throughout the workout. 2) Water aerobics, like walking through the water, sculling or treading, since I'm not a fan of laps. Being surrounded by water during my workout keeps me from overheating, but still gives me a good workout.

My only other advice is trying cardio intervals, which you can google. I like these since they reduce the amount of time on the treadmill or elliptical. Somehow that helps psychologically, like I may be hot, miserable and breathing hard now, but at least it'll be over in 15 minutes, instead of like an hour of regular cardio.

Good luck finding something that works for you!!

Have you tried a bit of caffeine? I don't have asthma, but I get very similar breathing problems from CFIDS/ME. I find that when I am having trouble breathing, a cup of tea usually helps quite a lot, and apparently it's a common trick with asthma too.

Actually, coffee used to be used for asthma, not tea but we have better medications available now.

I have severe asthma and COPD. I too was told to use my inhaler 15 minutes before exercise and I rarely get short of breath anymore while exercising.

For the overheating, there is a vest made from some miracle stuff that actually keeps you cool. My friend's husband is an usher at the ballpark and uses one. It's not the one with the ice packs. You could try goggling that.