Starting April 25th I started exercising (I was doing aerobic videos at home, plus strength training, and walks/bike rides whenever) I havnt seen any results though...well in the first week and half I did, I went down 10lbs then gained it all back in 2 days which made me want to give up but I didn't I kept exercising and TRYING to eat well...although that has been slipping a bit more each day b/c I'm losing determinination again and giving in to the late night binges...

ANYWAY I think I might have buggered up my knee from the intensity of the exercise I was doing and the pressure that was being put on my knee from my weight...I don't want to bugger it up anymore...

I also read on a website that when your working really hard your body tends to burn carbs instead of fat, which could be part of the reason I havnt seen any results..

I don't know what to do now...I was thinking of starting to walk everyday, and was reading through the May walking away the pounds thread..how do you girls figure out how many miles you've walked? I've always thought walking wouldnt do much b/c it is such a low intensity but I guess when it is long and slow it tends to burn more fat but fast and hard burns carbs?!!

Would walking everyday, combined with some biking, strength training and low intensity aerobics (like leslies WATP dvd?) be ok??

Any help/comments/advice would be great! Thanks.

I started out by walking just 1 mile each day, then adding some running. I'd run as far as I could, then go back to walking, and keep alternating for that mile. Once I'd built up to being able to run non-stop for at least half the mile, I increased my distance. I kept increasing my overall distance and my running distance until I eventually was running 3 miles regularly.

But the walking itself, coupled with eating the right foods (lean meats, whole grains, fruits, veggies), still enabled me to lose weight. I was dropping around 5 pounds a week at my higher weight. As I got more fit, I added aerobics, regular running, weights, yoga, etc. But at first, I started out easy because I had a problem knee with a lot of weight on it too. I also took to always wearing general knee supports in order to provide more stabilization for my knees just to be on the safe side.

There was a time when I got overzealous and tried pushing it and ended up hurting myself, then kept trying to exercise even injured. I found that if you sustain an injury...stay off it. No matter how much you think you must exercise. And don't push so hard. They weight's gonna come off as long as you stick with it regularly. You should work up your heart rate and a bit of a sweat, but you don't need to push yourself to exhaustion. Start slow and work up to it. As you get more fit, you will naturally be able to do more safely.

Thanks so much! That really helped!! I think I'm going to try to start walking at least half a mile per day and work it up as I go, I would like to start jogging once I get more fit, not one for running but I'd LOVE to be able to jog. I'm going to continue doing strength too on my upper and lower body and abs too. I'll keep on eating right, gotta work a bit on that one too but I will just keep it simple and stick to my points and try to aim for the recommended daily value on the canadas food guide of each food group. Thanks again!! I'm gonna go get out my pedometer right now!!

I started walking last September. Very simple, just up and down the street, any night the weather permitted. I gradually built it up to a path all around my neighborhood. I'm no good at figuring out distances, so I walk to a time limit. When I can walk my route in less time, I'd add another street to the routine, and/or walk a little bit longer. I'm up to an hour now, and I've started the Couch-to-5k program to start jogging. I feel much better since starting, and it certainly helped me break a plateau that'd been nagging me for 2 1/2 years. Walking is definately worth it!

Trixie -- Walking is an excellent workout! Like some of the gals said do what works for you to start. The recommendation is 10,000 steps/day to start and that's throughout the whole day, if at night you have let's say 6,000 steps done from walking at work or school, then do the rest in a formal walk around your neighbourhood... If you are injured already it is a definite sign of overtraining, take it easy... Afterall this is a LIFEstyle you're going to start exercising for the rest of your life daily just like you brush your teeth, it's just as important...

Ilene, I'm measuring my walks in steps, too. I usually do 6000 steps in a brisk walk, then whatever gets added throughout my day. I think it averages out to about 2000 steps per mile, give or take. I think 10,000 steps is a little over 5 miles. I'd have to look at my book. I find it easier to measure in steps with a pedometer than worry about the miles.

I forgot to mention before, at the very beginning I did wear a pedometer all day to see what kind of steps I logged in a typical day at work. That pedometer was worth its weight in gold as far as motivation was concerned. I was always trying to get a little more than the day before. A great habit-maker!

Thanks everyone! I think I'm going to start trying to walk an hour everyday throughout the week and half an hour on weekends, plus a full body strength routine that takes about half an hour twice a week. I'd like to work my way up to jogging eventually as well. I want to get a treadmill but their so expensive Hopefully I can get one before winter so that I can walk/jog in doors once the weather gets really nasty again around November. I have a pedometer and Im going to wear that as well, and I have a WATP DVD that I can also do, and maybe I'll look at some of our DVD's and see which are low impact enough so they wont hurt my knee but will still be a good workout.

You can walk indoors now. Try marching in place while watching your favorite TV shows.

And you might take a look at a club membership. Which, payments broken down monthly will run cheaper over the year than a decent treadmill. It will also give you a reason to get out and go exercise and not have a huge treadmill purchase sit in the corner of the room collecting dust.

I have a gym membership but I never go b/c I dont like going alone, and I have no way there, it is on the outside of town and the bus doesnt go to it, plus ridiing the bus everyday can get expensive and I dont have a car, or my license yet, and just walking or biking to it alone would be a good enough workout.

When the weather got crummy by me, I found a compact peddling machine (basically a set of pedals you can put in front of your favorite chair and "bike" inside) online for about $30 and used it all winter. It worked very well for when I couldn't get out and walk, but my particular machine has started getting noisy. I have to get it looked at, or at least put some grease on it, but I think it is worth the price. Not as good as a treadmill, but much, much cheaper, and probably won't bug your knee.

Yeah a good Treadmill is rather expensive, I'll have to see where I am in the fall and how much I can afford, Im planning on moving out in the fall too so I might not be able to afford too much. We used to have an elliptical machine, and a manual treadmill but my mom got rid of them cuz no one ever used them, that was like 3 years ago when all I did was complain about my weight and try to hardly eat anything at all instead of trying to do something about it the healthy way lol

Anyway like I said I think for now Im just going to walk for an hour every day, 30 minutes on weekends and do a full body strength routine 2-3 times a week, plus eat healthy and follow weight watchers.

The only problem with that is, I can do perfectly fine all day long until after supper then I can't seem to stop thinking about food - especially sweets...*cries* im going to have to work on that...

I can totally understand about night time eating !! Here are some tricks that I have discovered over the years,( I have two teenagers so there is junk coming into the house).
1. As soon as I come into the house with the groceries I tell the family to take it to the basement to hide, the hiding spot is quite obvious though, the fridge, but for me ''out of sight out of mind'' works very well... If you live at home you can ask your mom to have a special cupboard for junk food and keep it locked, to prevent you from going in there... If your whole family is overweight, maybe suggest no more junk food in the house . If I lived alone there would be NO junk let me tell ya!
2. Once the kitchen is clean I don't go back in there no matter what...
3. Unless it's to make tea and only tea...
4. Take a bubble bath...
5. Read...
6. Go for a walk...
7. Drink water...
8. Make a puzzle, knit, paint, draw....
9. Have a journal and plan your food intake and exercise for the next day
10. Last but not least -- Go to bed ...

Hope this helps!

I'm a nighttime eater, too. I've just started trying a new trick, and so far it seems to work. When i'm about to grab a snack, I make myself drink one of my glasses of water for the day first. Most of the time it takes the edge off my appetite enough to leave the snack alone. Sometimes it takes 2 glasses of water, but it still does the trick. Time will tell if I can stick with it or not. Otherwise I TRY to eat some type of fruit or veggie with high water content, i.e. watermelon, green pepper, strawberries, etc. They seem to fill me up more than other stuff.

Well I'm the only one who is overweight, my mom used to be my weight when I was yonger but she lost weight, and then lost even more when she quit drinking, down to 103, but now she is around 140 and working on building muscle, she wants to look like those bodybuilder woman. My brother is skinny as a rake (he is only 9 so that is to be expected) and my stepdad is a normal weight for his age/build.

My mom doesnt eat alot of sweets, she has more will power than I do I guess, and she is downstairs right next to the kitchen all night, I'm usually upstairs in my room. So it isn't like their close or anything, I don't always give in to the cravings either b/c I'm too lazy to go downstairs and get what I want, and I don't want my mom to see me lol Sometimes their just sooo bad tho and no matter what I do I cant take my mind off it, I usually crave chocolate or chips. I always have water near me, I have no problem with meeting and usually going over the recommended amout of water, it wasnt hard for me to give up drinking alot of pop and juices, I still have pop but not very often.

It is funny b/c I can do the same things all day and not get cravings, and when Im hungry I have no problem grabbing something healthy but as soon as night time comes Im doomed lol I'll just have to learn to ignore them I suppose.