I was just wondering how everyone started out with their exercise? I try and my knees hurt or some other part of my body is hurting 10 min into it. I was interested in some ideas for exercises that wouldn't be so hard. Thanks!

The easiest exercises to do are walking and swimming. They are also both excellent for increasing fitness.

I use the elliptical machine and the stationary bike at the gym.
My advice is not to run until you get to a lower weight, I did this and got a stress fracture in my leg and then couldn't exercise at all for 3 months.

I've been doing Curves. It's low impact but I work burn at least 550 cal per session. I have a rod in my leg so I understand about legs and knees hurting. Low impact is the best for me. I also like to ride a stationary bike.

The best exercises to do until you get to a lower weight would include water exercises (swimming, water aerobics), and walking (make sure you have good sneakers!)… Other than that, there are some seated exercises that you can do (arm raises, leg lifts)… Basically, you want to avoid exercises that are going to put too much strain on your joints.. Good luck

I started by bouncing on a rebounder, in front of the TV, for 20-30 minutes at a time. I loved that...it was a perfect starter exercise for me. I switched later to a variety of things - exercise tapes, walk/jogging, and finally, the elliptical, running, and weight lifting.

Depending on how I define 'starting', it would be a few different things. The start of my successful weight loss started with weight lifting only.

I started off by doing aerobics tapes which show "beginner" options. I like the tapes/DVD's which have people of different levels working out at the same time, so you can just pick a person at your level and follow him/her.

I have older tapes from Susan Powter which have exercisers of all shapes, even one spunky lady who looks to be quite obese but she powers through the work-outs just fine. So, I just followed that side of the room.

If you can find some of those tapes from Susan I would recommend them highly for a beginner. She always shows modifications for exercises if you are having trouble doing them or keeping up, she has people of all sizes in her tapes doing the work-outs at the different levels with different modifications, and she stresses proper form. She isn't doing high impact aerobics or lunges, so it should be do-able for you.

I started out with long, slow walks around town. I was all achy at the end without any muscle pain so I started taking glucosmine to help with the joints and I still take ibuprofin from time to time after a walk, but the aches and stiffness went away after a few weeks of taking glucosmine (just pretend I spell it right).