I'm 46 and out of shape, bad back, what excercises can I do to lose weight?

Question

I cannot afford a specialist or a gym, all my excercises will have to be done at home

Answer 1

If all of your exercises must be done at home, and you have a very bad back, your best bet is 90% diet and 10% exercise.

Spend a day, figure out how many calories you intake on a typical day. Reduce that total number by 500, and keep to that number.

Eat a lot of oatmeal in place of other things.

Next. You say "at home", do you mean you can't leave the house at all? If so...hmm...I'm not sure. But if you just mean it can't cost anything (I hear ya), start walking. Start slow, something like this:

Week 1: 3 days a week, 15 minute walk
Week 2: 3 days a week, 20 minute walk
Week 3: 3 days a week, 30 minute walk

Until you work up to about ~45 minutes/walk. Then add one more day to your schedule.

P.S. I used these methods, lost over 90 lbs. Your best motivation is to weigh yourself no less often and no more often than once a week. You'll see results right away.

Best of luck.

Answer 2

Exercising to lose weight is NOT a good idea. Well, exercising and losing weight are good ideas, but it will take you a long time to lose weight by exercising. The value of exercising WHILE you are losing weight is that you are building up your muscles which BURN calories, while fat consumes NO calories.
Dieting alone is a bad idea, because you will lose muscle tissue as well as fat deposits. Notice that I said fat deposits NOT fat tissue. Fat cells do NOT go away when you diet, they only get skinny. You have to keep the weight off for about 7 years in order to lose the extra fat cells or fat tissue.
With walking, you can exercise the most muscles with one exercise. It gets boring walking inside the house and you need all the distractions you can get to keep it from being too boring. But if that is all you got, then use what you got. Walking is also generally not a bad exercise for your bad, depending upon the severity and cause of your back problems.
Reducing your intake of fats is a good idea because other health issues are involved here as well. Try to eat only complex carbohydrates (vegetables) and try to reduce the starches like rice and potatoes. Give up desserts altogether, no cake, no pie, no ice cream, well you get the idea. Buy yourself one of those small paperback calorie counter books so when you are in doubt you can look it up. It would be wise to buy yourself a small scale like a postage scale so you can learn what a 6 oz. serving looks like. Keep your protein servings small and I would recommend a Weight Watchers diet book. By using diet margarine, you can get twice as much margarine for the same number of calories. If you eat cheese, then understand that 4 oz. of cheese is about the same as 8 oz. of lean meat or fish. Try to eat lots of fish and at least 1 meal of liver each week.
Good luck.

Answer 3

Diet, run allot, crunches, push ups, bike, rollerblade, sports, if there is a park nearby maybe there is a place there where you can do pull ups.
At school, in athletics we run/jog about a mile everyday, maybe you can try that. Once you are comfortable at a mile you might want to increase the distance.
If your back still hurts after your in shape i suggest you see a Chiropractor.

Answer 4

Try for low impact workouts. The Tony Little XL Glider is very easy to do and doesn't shock the joints at all. Also, if you can, try Pilates or Yoga. Low impact is the way to go until your back is strong enough to move on to something else.

Answer 5

Start by walking. Figure out how much you walk per day now and then increase it by 500 steps per week. Cut out fast-foods, fatty-foods, fried foods and you'll lose weight.