© 2024 Divine Weight Loss | Website design by Jetfuel Creative
If you’re struggling with limited mobility, you’re far from alone. Research suggests that 12.1% of U.S. adults have a disability that makes them struggle to walk or climb stairs. These physical disabilities aren’t limited to older populations, either!
Whether you’re dealing with an injury, you have a disability, or you’re in a wheelchair, you may not be sure how your weight loss goals fit into the picture. What should you do to shed a few pounds if you can’t do typical activities like walking or jogging?
Knowing how to lose weight when you can’t walk can help you jump-start your fitness journey. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.
This is the best strategy for losing weight fast, whether or not you can jump into a high-intensity workout.
In fact, study after study suggests that for most people, nutrition is much more important than exercise when you’re trying to shed a few pounds. The saying “You can’t outrun a fork” has a ring of truth to it!
The right dietary adjustments can be powerful. Even better, the principle behind diet-based weight loss is a simple one: aim for a caloric deficit. With a caloric deficit, you’re eating fewer calories than your body needs every day.
If you’re unable to exercise, you might think your body doesn’t need much fuel a day, but you’d be wrong! We use calories to do everything from housework to shopping to cleaning. We even burn calories when we sleep!
However, it’s also important to be careful with this kind of focus on your diet. Creating a caloric deficit that’s too severe can lead to yo-yo dieting, which is when we lose weight and gain it back once we’ve stopped limiting calories. In the long term, severe caloric deficits can even wreak havoc on our metabolism and immune system.
To avoid harm, experts recommend eating only around 200-500 calories less than you’d need to maintain your current weight. Plenty of online calorie calculators can help you estimate how much you eat now and where you should be for your weight loss goals.
For ultimate safety, talk to your doctor or work with a weight-loss expert who can monitor your medical needs. This is especially important if you’re dealing with health conditions like diabetes, which can make weight loss complicated.
Just because you can’t walk doesn’t mean you’re unable to exercise! You may not be able to jump into traditional workout routines like a morning jog, but there are plenty of exercise alternatives worth trying.
Try chair yoga for a low-intensity way to stretch and strengthen your muscles without standing up. You can also find other chair workout videos on sites like YouTube.
If you are able, try swimming or water aerobics with the muscles in your upper body. Be careful to ensure that you can safely exit and enter the pool.
For wheelchair users, adaptive sports are a great way to dive into exercise. Wheelchair basketball, tennis, and rugby can be excellent cardio activities to help you burn some extra calories.
At home or the gym, weight lifting can strengthen your muscles and increase your heart rate. Even better, research suggests that this type of exercise may help you continue burning fat after your workout.
If your injury or physical disability still allows you to do gentle, low-impact exercises, stationary cycling may help. Many machines offer little resistance on their lowest setting, so this can still be a good way to get your body moving.
Don’t count out popular exercise programs, either! Whether you’re interested in Zumba or CrossFit, the chances are good that these programs can be adapted for wheelchair users or people with other disabilities. Check with your local gym or look for workouts on YouTube.
No matter what you choose to do, make sure you’re opting for something you love. The more tempted you are to exercise, the more likely you are to stick with a new workout routine.
To lose weight fast, consider choosing medical treatments to help.
Certain injections can help you feel full, minimize cravings, and reduce your caloric intake. For anyone struggling to lose weight and keep it off, these medically supervised options may be your best bet.
There are a few different medications that help patients burn fat:
Semaglutide is one of the most popular options available at the moment, thanks to recent celebrity endorsements. This medication increases insulin production and targets the parts of the brain that regulate appetite. The result is a decreased appetite and weight loss with the right semaglutide program.
B12 injections are another helpful choice. While these injections don’t have as direct a link to weight loss as semaglutide, their energy- and metabolism-boosting properties can help you shed excess pounds.
Lipotropic shots are packed with powerful vitamins and nutrients, including B complex vitamins, L-carnitine, methionine, and more. Placing these injections in areas that contain fatty tissues allows the active ingredients to help your body burn fat more effectively.
You may also hear about hCG injections, a popular diet trend in recent years. However, the FDA has reclassified this medication as a biologic compound, meaning that pharmacies cannot produce the formula. As a safe alternative, make sure you’re only considering approved treatments, and avoid any clinic offering this option!
When you’re struggling with a physical disability and weight loss seems like a distant goal, don’t panic! There are plenty of safe, healthy ways to boost your metabolism and get rid of extra weight fast, even if you feel your options are limited. Knowing how to lose weight when you can’t walk will help you jump-start your fitness journey in no time.
If you’re looking for a partner on the road to wellness, look no further than Divine Weight Loss. With medical supervision, customized injections, and tailored treatment plans, you’ll be on target to reach your goals in an efficient and safe way. To learn more, get in touch!