How to loose weight without exercise

When i was first diagnosed with Pulmonary Hypertension I knew right away that I needed to loose weight. My heart was working harder just to pump, I didn't want to give it more work by having excess weight lying around. Immediately I attempted eating healthier foods, but being a college student and not being a particularly great cook, that didn't last long. Fast forward a few years --

Since diagnosis I have been all over the scale. My weight has fluctuated immensely. In fact the reason I started spending time with my husband was so he could act as a personal trainer and help me loose weight, and I did. Then last year I gained about 15 lbs! We were eating out quite a bit, so it made sense. Unfortunately the weight never left, even after cutting back on restaurants and fast food.. Finally the Hubby and I started exercising, and I gained 5 more lbs. UGH!

Now summer has come around along with hopeful wishes for a comfortable beach body. Wonder of wonders i have finally lost the 20 lbs that were gained. How did I do it? Well pictures like the one to the right are all over pinterest, and guess what? It is true. I have loved lifting weights in the gym, I am stronger than I have ever been! Without proper diet though, lifting weights will only get a person so far.

Many people, especially those with Pulmonary Hypertension cannot lift weights, and cardio is out of the question. It is easy to start gaining weight when it is difficult to walk to the mailbox. Any weight gain will only make our heart struggle more! With proper diet and commitment, anyone can loose weight. While I am no dietitian, I can speak from experience.

Commitment is the most important thing when changing to a healthy and nutritious diet. Analyze what you are eating, is there something that you could take out of your diet and see immediate results? Oftentimes if a person removes soda and fast food from their diet they will start to see results in a flash.

For myself, I did not see any weight loss until I became relentless about tracking my calorie intake. Weightloss is simple math, calories in, vs calories out. If a person burns more calories every day than they are taking in, the weight will come off. How quickly the weight comes off will depend on how much of a calorie deficit they see each day. I am on a 1200 calorie a day diet. I would encourage you to ask your doctor how many calories they feel you should ingest each day to loose weight.

Avoid Fad diets. Simply make more healthy choices and track them. My favorite way to track calorie intake is with the App myfitnesspal. This is a free App that can be downloaded to any smart phone. Food can be scanned in with bar codes, or searched for in the database. The App will even help estimate the amount of calories a person should hit based on their weight loss goals. For healthy weight loss, plan to loose about 1-2lbs a week. In most cases if a person drops weight too quickly it is not sustainable, and can even hurt their metabolism.

Since January I have been converting over to a more healthy lifestyle. Most importantly where diet is concerned. It started out slowly with cutting out candy bars and avoiding soda, then cutting out sweets and fast food. Come March I was eating pretty healthy stuff, but far to much of it. Once I started tracking with myfitness pal, the weight started to come off. It takes adapting, and it takes determination but those extra lbs can be lost and kept off. Sometimes it doesn't seem like I am making any progress, because I am a woman, or my fluid retention is high, or my fat is turning into muscle. Then all at once I gain momentum. Everyone's body is different different but if we can stay motivated, we can loose extra lbs and give our heart a bit of a break!

Remember its about your health. Diet and persistence are the top things a person needs to focus on to loose weight. Results wont happen over night, they will take months  or maybe years, but nothing is more important than your health.