Where to start from, fat loose activity with injured leg?

Hi Guy,s

Hope all are doing great and keeping well

I am back to the forum after YEARS; been too busy with life itself that did not take time out for personal health.

So I need your support and guidance. I am currently 5'7 height and 87 kgs weight, AGE 30 . I am literally in a bad shape. I am not feeling well myself physically and my vitals are out of normal range as well i.e. sugar, cholesterol, vitamin, all are not within appropriate limit. Not only this, I am looking for partner these days and with this physique, I am not even feeling self-confident and it is not giving a good feeling about myself.

I want to kickstart my weight loss journey. It is not that I have not loose weight in past but that was all through cardio and that too without gym and all.

The twist is I got a stress fracture on my knee 2 years ago while playing a sport. After that, I stopped cardio. I was in recovery. I can now walk and run I suppose (have not tried natural running on an open field after injury) but do not want to rely solely on machine running and elliptical for weight loose.

So what blend of exercises are recommended for me to start my weight loss journey. I want to put little but stress on the knee as well to make it functional as it should be in the case of a normal person. If I overdo cardio, my knee at times gives pain.

Please advise.

Your story sounds eerily similar to mine when I was 30, and got diagnosed pre diabetic with sleep apnea, my blood work showed all the same issues you listed. Your height and weight is very close to what mine was.

Most important thing is cleaning up your diet, cut out the sugars, supplement omega 3 (control cholesterol and triglycerides), and a good multi vitamin (get vitamin range within safe). Do you know how to count calories? There lots of phone apps now that make it much easier than back when I was 30. 500 calorie a day deficit, should help with weight loss.

If you have a bad knee limiting your cardio, machines are going to be the only way you're going to be able to do cardio without being limited by your knee. Personally I like doing HIIT on Airdyne bikes, basically no wear and tear on joints, regardless of how high intensity you go. Also, lots of calories burned in short time invested.

Can you lift weights? Weight lifting will increase you metabolism for hours after a workout.

you don't need to do any cardio to lose weight. if you want to lose fat and preserve as much muscle as possible, you'll need to do some type of resistance training like weightlifting or calisthenics

count your calories and make sure you're in a caloric deficit. i'd say 2300-2500 calories is a good start, weigh yourself every morning, after two weeks adjust your calories if necessary

[QUOTE=BiGx5MurF;1641232053]Your story sounds eerily similar to mine when I was 30, and got diagnosed pre diabetic with sleep apnea, my blood work showed all the same issues you listed. Your height and weight is very close to what mine was.

Most important thing is cleaning up your diet, cut out the sugars, supplement omega 3 (control cholesterol and triglycerides), and a good multi vitamin (get vitamin range within safe). Do you know how to count calories? There lots of phone apps now that make it much easier than back when I was 30. 500 calorie a day deficit, should help with weight loss.

If you have a bad knee limiting your cardio, machines are going to be the only way you're going to be able to do cardio without being limited by your knee. Personally I like doing HIIT on Airdyne bikes, basically no wear and tear on joints, regardless of how high intensity you go. Also, lots of calories burned in short time invested.

Can you lift weights? Weight lifting will increase you metabolism for hours after a workout.[/QUOTE]

Thanks a lot for taking time to reply man. You are right about the condition. pre-diabetic, sleeping disorder, and whatnot. Yes, a clean diet is the way to go for it.
For weight reduction, can you suggest some good program or blend of program that I can refer to. I have subscription to a gym which is nice, contains elliptical, treadmill, cycling and weight lifting machine.

With proper plan to act on, I can begin the exercise. otherwise I get distracted without exercise or aim in mind. Further, is elliptical good for person like me having an injury?

Yes agreed, as you have injury the only thing you can do is to control your diet.

I broke my knee in December 2020 and had to get surgery and now have a plate and 7 screws in my leg. Spent about 12 weeks on crutches. 6 months later I'm still working on recovering full ROM in my knee and dealing with nerve issues, but I'm at least mostly functional now.

Once I was able to comfortably bear weight on my leg (about 4.5 months post-op), I started working out, starting first with upper body and working on lower body exercises as directed by my PT. As my leg grew stronger, I started incorporating other lower body exercises as my knee would tolerate, and I'm currently working on building up strength from bodyweight exercises. Go slow adding weight. I also found that leg presses are much less stressful to the knee than squatting.

As far as cardio for knee injuries, go low impact. For me personally, I have been doing spinning and walking. Spinning has been amazing for rehabbing my knee and I can feel a difference in my knee the days I don't spin.
You can also look at elliptical or swimming for low impact cardio.

Biggest part of weight loss is diet. So focus on calorie deficit before anything else to lose weight and add in strength next, then cardio.