When you need to lose over 100 pounds and you are bombarded with advertisements for every gym, piece of fitness equipment, product, or team of professionals out there to invest a lot of money into your health, it can be really tough to say "no" and find it within yourself to lose the weight without losing control of your budget.

Over the years I've done gym memberships, a bit of training, a nutritionist for a short period of time, supplements, Weight Watchers, kind of run the gamut and, well...I'm bigger than ever. Why? I haven't had the consistency to stick to anything.

So starting out this year working on my health is super important to me, but as I'm saving up to make a huge trip for next Christmas, I can't afford to put more money into this (or much at least). I'm not getting a gym membership. I'm not buying fancy supplements. I'm not investing in a cardio machine. I'm just plain old going to put all my eggs in the diet and exercise basket and do it all for myself.

Obviously the food situation is a little easier. Preparation is everything and you don't have to buy fancy pre-made diet food either. I'm focusing on fresh veggies & a little fruit, lean protein and rice.

But it's the exercise that I'm finding tough. A naturopath told me that hormonally, HIIT (High-Interval-Intensity-Training) will be best for my weight loss. However, when I look up Youtube videos for HIIT, they almost always have a lot of jerking and jumping movements. I don't know if you know this, but when you have 130-150 pounds to lose, you just don't jump on your joints. BAD IDEA. So I'm trying to come up with a high intensity interval program that will be easy on my joints because I just can't do a lot of lunges and squat jumping and burpees. My knees are already crap!

Anybody have suggestions? Also, is anyone else trying to lose it all without pouring money into a weight loss/fitness company of some sort? Maybe you've got some great tips!

When I first started, I was pushing 350lbs. I didn't even know I was that big except I had a doctor's appointment I couldn't cancel and my world changed that day.

I had to get myself on a plan. What kind of plan? All I ate was junk, exercise was walking to the fridge and all I drank were calorie filled drinks. Yikes. No wonder my body was failing.

I got myself to a dietician, incorporated some really good eating habits (not perfect), and exercised 5-10 minutes at a time.

I ended up losing 150 lbs and got below 200. Obviously as I got lighter and built up exercise stamina, I could walk further and longer.

It sounds so simple but I didn't need any gimmicks to buy. The only money spent was on the dietician appointments and healthier food (which replaced all the $$ I spend on junk and takeout).

I wish I knew making all those small changes would have made such a difference in my life years ago.

You can do this. If I could, anyone could. I'm trying to get these 25lbs off now after having a rough 6 months but I know I can do it again. Small steps will add up. I can't wait to read your updates and progress!

Edit to add----all I did was walk to lose all my weight. Nothing fancier than that. Just moving my body with walking.

Walking for me too. I really don't think you need to do all that high end training stuff. If you enjoy it then great go for it. Just getting out and walking for an hour a day is going to give you what you need. Walking is a fantastic exercise and it's free. If you don't like to get out in the weather you can go to a mall and walk inside. I have lost 245 lbs doing nothing but eating right and walking. Working on getting back to the 245 goal as I stupidly quit walking and then slowly stopped eating right. Good luck, you can do it!


PS I do my walking in 20 minute intervals.

WOW! What an inspiration you guys! I was blessed enough to have a few visits with a sports nutritionist so I think my plan for food is solid, but the working out is tough. I used to have much more energy than this and my mind can picture me doing a lot more than I seem to be capable of right now. I think walking will have to be how I get going! Thanks so much for the encouragement!

Like the others said.

I just walked until I was 60lbs down. Then I started to bust my ar$e running and at the gyms. Working out is a lot easier at lower weights.

Running is cheap and my gyms are too (both $30/month).

The wardrobe post-weightloss on the other hand not so much. Good luck with that.

Another vote for walking. When I lost enough weight, I started running. In the summer, I swam in my community pool. My bike is pretty expensive, but you don't have to buy a new one. My county community center ( parks and rec center ) has an exercise room. Membership is $15 per year ( you read that right ). They are always offering free Zumba, yoga, and nutrition classes.

Roller blades aren't really expensive. Resistance bands and a good exercise mat aren't either.

Hope this helps!!

I started with walking, too. Walking, doing hand me down exercise videos (note, a lot of cable providers, if you have cable, have them on On Demand or otherwise for free, and that's a good option)...both free. A resistance band is cheap and was all the strength training I did for the first 60 lbs. And calorie tracking software is free to monitor your intake.

You can spend a LOT of money on weight loss, and it might be a little more motivating, but honestly, the amount I spent never really affected my results, except for when I hired a trainer specifically to meet a certain goal.

Amanda! - It is so great to see you back on here! Or maybe I just haven't stumbled on a thread where you have posted in a while. Regardless, it's exciting.

Mela - What the others said is true. Walking will get it done for you. You could also do it through diet alone, though exercise speeds it up a bit. It's also true that you could run at your weight. I ran at 240. As others have said, it might be worth looking into your community rec center. I get a discounted gym membership via my insurance company, and that only costs me $25 a month. I used an elliptical the other day because I didn't have my running shoes, and it is great for HIIT. Finally, I came across a 20-minute Youtube video the other day that was low-impact HIIT. It's out there. (Though the person in the back used a 2-pound weight, and it inexplicably infuriated me. Why bother?) The tools are there, and don't always cost a lot of money. You'll find them. I admire and respect your commitment to lose weight without dropping a ton of cash, and I think a lot of us here demonstrate that it can be done!

Go to YouTube or google and check out chair exercises. Some folks start out with that to take the stress off of joints.

I did not have any intentional exercise plan until after i lost around 210lbs. Even now my main exercise(s) is walking (daily goal or 10k steps or better), 30 minutes on the elliptical and the 21 day fix dvd workouts. I loove walking..

I was going to suggest YouTube as well. There are ALL KINDS of workouts available just depends on what you're looking for.

For healthy eating on a budget there is so much available online! Hard to go wrong with whole ingredients and a crock pot

Well folks. You've been an incredible inspiration to me. What walking has done for some of you just blows my mind. I think that and the one yoga class I'm taking are a great way to get started again. I want to work out hard, but I'd rather keep my joints until I've taken enough weight off to do that without hurting myself.

I walk either on a treadmill (it really isn't a clothes hanger who knew?) or with Leslie Sanson Walk Away the Pounds DVDs or if the weather allows, walking outside. I started out by walking to the end of the street and back and now I can walk 5-6 miles a day. I set a goal of 1000 miles for 2014 and logged 1295 for the year. My start weight is very close to yours.

I agree the walking is so very good to help. That is the way I lost before, but in retirement, I did more reading than walking and put back on pounds.

Gym membership fee is even lower when I paid for a year and got a bonus 2 months. I love the recumbent bike and can boost the resistance so I can do a minute fast and then lower the resistance a bit, then increase. Intervals work and I'm sure this is the year I dip below 200 again.

Actually am logging my food and on line with SuperTracker (USDA) I enjoy seeing the graphs show how I'm eating proper food, and exercising in a way that is slowly becoming more.

Walking in the mall or even Home Depot is good when weather is bad, but both are quite a distance from our home so the good old treadmill or even walking rapidly from one end of the house to the other at times during day of too much sitting, helps.

So glad to read so many success stories. Thanks to each of you.