Hi all. I'm back after nearly a year of having given up on weight loss..a little history:

I started out at 256lbs a few years ago. I got down to 190lbs with just calorie counting, 1,200-1,400 a day. I plateaued hard at 190 and stayed there for nearly a year, despite trying many things to break it - 30-day-shred (I didn't lose a single pound or inch), upping calories, lowering calories, cutting carbs, staving myself, drinking nothing but water, walking daily - I just COULD NOT break that 190 or lose any more inches. I really don't know what happened. It was extremely discouraging, and eventually said forget it and started not caring again. I'm back up to 203-210, the scale varying daily between those numbers. I am 25 years old, 5"4'.

I've been getting too depressed again lately with my weight, and so I dug out my treadmill I had bought to try and break out of that 190lb range. I've been trying for a few days now and well I just feel like I'm dying! And I don't think I'm even doing anything that hard! It doesn't get this bad even after doing the 30-day-shred workouts. I just feel like if I slow down even more, it's not even worth it?

I start at 1mph for about 5 minutes, up to 1.8 for about 3 minutes, then 2.1 for 30 seconds, 1.8mph for 1 minutes, 2.1 for 30 seconds, 1mph for 5 minutes. By the end of that, I'm struggling to breath, the core of my chest is extremely painful and after about 2 minutes off the treadmill I'm shaking pretty bad and nauseous. Weak and shaky for a good 15 minutes after. Lightheaded even longer.

The "workout" I'm doing is modified from the lolo treadmill app - set to BEGINNER with my weight and height entered - the app actually wants to be in the 2.3-3.0mph range and that isn't possible for me. In fact, almost all "beginner" workouts are in that range, and not as slow as I have to go. It's pretty discouraging... did anyone else start out like this??

I intended to workout for an hour and was absolutely done at those 15 minutes - I could not go for a minute longer If anyone else had to start out this slow, or even slower, I'd love to hear what you did, and how long it took to work up to "normal" speeds.

I do not actually know what my heart rate got to and am actually very concerned and probably not going to step back on until I order a monitor because it felt dangerous. Like I said, I didn't even feel this way after the 30-day-shred, and that was intense for me, but I was able to do it every time.

It's possible something with your health has changed between then and now. Maybe consider talking to your Dr about it? I haven't used a treadmill in years. I just walk down my street. I know it's winter, but could you try that? You can walk at your pace and take a walk as short or as long as you can tolerate and then, when you feel ready, start back on the treadmill again. Do the newer treadmills let you set your mph? You could start out at 1 mph, then up it when you feel you are ready.

I won't address the second half of your post, partially because I'm not qualified, and partially because I have heart problems and I don't think my biases would be helpful in this particular case.

However, I do have a suggestion: Try doing weights, or other lean-mass building exercises.

Lots of people—probably most people—lose lean mass while losing fat, especially when losing quickly. You didn't mention how quickly those 65-odd pounds came off, but 1200-1400 calories is very low when you weigh 256, so I'm willing to bet your body shed a lot of lean mass along with fat.

Thing is, lean mass is what burns calories for us all day long, even when we're not exercising. So if you have hardly any lean mass, your maintenance calories will be very low. Possibly right around 1200-1400 calories. Therefore you would have to eat an unhealthily low amount (or do a significant amount of cardio) to lose weight.

Cardio is great for burning calories on a daily basis, but it does pretty much nothing when you're not actively doing it. In fact, over time cardio can reduce your lean mass (which is fine if you keep it up, because it's really just your body adjusting to its perceived needs - and cardio requires lithe toning, not heavy bulk).

If you want to increase the amount of calories you burn while you aren't doing any exercise, you need more lean mass. And the way to get that is to eat more protein, do strength exercises like squats (or push-ups, or hand weights, or anything along those lines), and lose weight slowly instead of quickly (since fast weight loss will cause loss of lean mass).

You can still do the cardio, it shouldn't interfere noticeably and it's good for your heart (as long as you get your doctor's okay), and good for burning calories day to day.

Anyway, I could be entirely wrong about lean mass being your issue. It's just the most likely issue in my mind—and I'm no professional.

Unfortunately the area I live in is very unfriendly for walking. Almost no shoulder on the road, and people driving like mad - lots of stray dogs (this gets me into trouble when trying to walk my dog), and people that get really mad if you walk on their property to avoid the road. That's why I invested in the treadmill.
But yes, I can and have been setting the mph to really slow. The results I have been having have been happening at no faster than 2.1mph


The initial weightloss happened in a little over a year, so it was slow. I occasionally did things like squats but it was mostly just low calorie. If I ate more than I listed I either gained or stayed still for months. Then I did the 30 day shred - got through the entire thing and thought for sure something would of happened, but no weight loss and not any difference at all in the tape measure. It was extremely discouraging to put effort into that every day for a month and get zero results... I even added short sessions of squats and 5lb weights outside of that throughout the day. That's why I decided to start up on the treadmill again. I don't know. Nothing seems to be working for me anymore.

I just ordered a HRM watch so hopefully that will help me figure out if something is going wrong with my body and the treadmill.
Do I need my heart rate to be up when doing strength, though? Does that not matter the same?

Thing is, everyone has a different exercising and resting heart rate. So for some people 200bpm+ isn't an issue when exercising, and for others (like me) getting my rate up to 120 feels like a crowning achievement. I think it's much more important to evaluate how you're feeling—and if you feel like something is off, go to the doctor.

I've heard of people feeling dizzy/weak/pale/nauseous/etc after exercising. My personal thought would be to pull back a bit on the intensity, and work slowly towards being able to do more (and still feel okay). You used to be able to do it, so it's probable you can again. You just need to be gentle with yourself, and don't give up (but again, see a doctor!).

Your heart rate will rise during strength exercises but it's not really the same as cardio. When you're doing strength it's more important to make sure you're breathing a lot and getting oxygen to your muscles. Also, posture.

Severe exercise intolerance like that (especially that's different from a previous experience with exercise) warrants a trip to the MD. I wouldn't do *anything* physical until speaking with your doc.

Just my opinion. Hear me out though.

I know you're young, but from one young person to another, you need to get your ticker checked out. Just because you're young doesn't mean you don't have some kind of heart issue going on. Shortness of breath, chest pain in the center/tightness... these are not normal "out of shape" feelings. Trust me, I spent years in denial thinking my chest pressure was asthma related, or from just being out of shape. It wasn't.

I'm 28 years old, and last year was diagnosed with Prinzmetal's angina after having significant enough chest pain/dizziness/pressure/palpitations that I couldn't keep up with the pace at my work (I'm an inpatient RN on a busy floor.)

It sounds to me like you need a cardiac workup. Seriously. Don't screw with it- it's not worth the risk. You don't need to build tolerance... you need to make sure there's not another problem first.

Good luck to you.... I don't mean to sound scary, but it's way easier to deal with it now and figure it out than it is to recover from a sudden cardiac arrest (if you're lucky).

I agree with Eydawn, you NEED to see a doctor...soon!

Go to the doctor. I am 5'4" and over 200 pounds and can exercise harder and longer. Get checked for asthma and other things.

You may have to drive to a park or trail to find a good place to walk your dog.

Zom,

I definitely feel for you. I wish you all the best and hope it's nothing seriously medical related. The one suggestion I could make is perhaps join a club or take a yoga/fitness/dance class. Make exercise as fun as possible for yourself- perhaps get together with a friend and do Tae Bo together 3 times a week.

I find that the treadmill can be very dull and that when you incorporate games/people/fun/music into your routine - you enjoy exercise a lot more and the results come.

Best,
-Daniela