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Exercising with lyme and heart issues

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Posted 6/6/2015 9:00 PM (GMT 0)
hey everyone, does anyone know of any easy ways to drop weight by doing light work outs when you have certain lyme and heart issues?


What type of exercise do you all do? I am overweight for my height at the moment and my doctor says it is important that I lose weight fast if I want to avoid blood pressure problems and other health ailments, but I know that with the issues I have it is hard to work out a lot to where I can lose weight fast.


I tried the treadmill in my basement for about a half an hour but after I was done I got all these heart symptoms and had to take an aspirin and it was tiring, but I notice when I take a walk around my block I have no issues at all pretty much. My basement doesn't exactly have the best air supply so that's an issues as well.


But yea anyway can anyone reccomend any easy yet not too strenuous ways to drop weight fast when you are overweight with lyme and heart issues? I have never been diagnosed with core heart issues officially but I mean I do have a lot of chest/heart symptoms but I have had a full heart workup And all came back normal so it's confusing.


But yea if anyone can reccomend any exercises that aren't to strenuous and will help lose weight with chronic illness it would be appreciated, thanks .

Post Edited (Dolph ziggler fan) : 6/6/2015 3:37:12 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 6/7/2015 3:58 AM (GMT 0)
Dolph ziggler fan, I don't know anything about your doctor or his experience with Lyme but just by the statement that you say he made "my doctor says it is important that I lose weight fast if I want to avoid blood pressure problems and other health ailments" I would not trust this doctor one bit.

You see, blood pressure is one of the first things that is affected by Lyme, gaining/losing weight is another, so unless you are currently morbidly obese, that would be the last thing that I would be concerned about right now if I was your doctor. Why? because by treating the infection(s) first, there is a chance that as you heal, that the weight will go back to normal and that the heart will strengthen again thus allowing you to exercise once again.

According to health professionals, to lose weight you have to reduce the amount of calories going in while burning more calories than you take in. As your caloric intake goes down, in theory, you should lose weight. However, very often what happens with Lyme is that your metabolism slows down drastically so your body will not burn the amount of calories that it normally does, so even if you eat less and exercise more, you still end up retaining weight because your endocrine system is not working properly. On top of that, if you diet, your body will go into "hibernation mode" and hang on to your calories because it thinks that there is not food to eat so it tries to conserve what it has. That is why crash diets almost never work.

Any light exercise (which is helpful by the way) would be just to keep your muscles and ligaments flexible so they don't waste away. Yoga is a wonderful exercise that is often recommended here as a way to do light exercises and stay mobile.

So please, hold off on pushing yourself too hard at least until you get a second opinion from a medical professional who is more attuned to the risks of exercising with Lyme.
Posted 6/7/2015 5:58 AM (GMT 0)
darn so you can't lose weight at all with lyme and it's hopeless? darn that sucks to know. I have to since my blood pressure was a bit high, I guess I could try diet and light walking, or I do have xbox fitness I could use which has 10 minute fat burning programs on it.


My doctor does not know much about lyme but he did advise that I lose weight since I am overweight for my height, I guess it can't hurt but I also want to do this for myself as making it a goal of mine since I have put on so much weight since the bite last year.


I don't plan on doing any strenuous or crazy workouts at all, I just need something to where I can break a sweat a little bit and get the metabolism going so I can at least try to drop a couple pounds each month.

A person without disease can burn at least 500 calories a day no problem, I used to do it before I got bit, but to burn that much requires at least a 45 minute high impact workout which I no longer have the composure to do since I get rather dizzy and my heart tightens up(that's how it feels anyway) and all.

So I am just going to try dieting the best I can and try some light walking or stretching just to break a bit of a sweat each day, only thing I really can do right now exercise wise.
Posted 6/7/2015 8:19 AM (GMT 0)
DZF- I have lost 20 lbs by changing my diet & walking. I cut dairy, gluten, sugar and unnecessary carbs out. It seems to help a lot with symptoms and also my overall health. I too have heart "issues" & was told by my llmds to take it easy until my heart adjusts or heals..
Posted 6/8/2015 1:23 PM (GMT 0)
Dolph ziggler fan, yes, you can lose weight with Lyme and it is not hopeless. My response to you earlier was a precautionary one because exercising with heart issues can put you in danger.

As Alyrose stated, changing what you eat can help you lose weight. I myself went from 196lbs to 148lbs by cutting ALL sugar and flour from my diet. I lost the weight in about three to four months. Someone at work did the same thing after they saw how much weight I lost and she too lost 50lbs in about 6 months just by cutting all flour and sugar from her diet. I think it took her longer because she was working out while doing this (non Lymie) and she gained muscle weight as she was losing fat weight. She looks amazing now.

As for exercise, you can start with some yoga. It is very helpful for those with Lyme because it helps clear the mind, it stretches the muscles and ligaments, and people who do yoga usually have better sleep patterns.

If you want to go further, you can get yourself a stationary bike. I bought mine for 25 dollars at a garage sale and is in excellent condition. You can start exercising very mildly and increase resistance and time as you get used to doing exercise. I remember someone here using one and starting at less than 5 minutes and within a month they were doing a half hour workout.
Posted 6/8/2015 2:48 PM (GMT 0)
I'm really interested in this too. To be honest, I haven't exercised much the last year since I found out I have Lyme (well I take my dog for a lot of long walks so I guess that is technically exercise). I used to be a marathon runner, so I know I can't do anything like that.

I am also on Levaquin, so I have heard you need to be careful with certain types of exercises that could strain the ligaments. Anybody have any suggestions?

My LLMD has told me low impact and nothing that strains the body too much. I was thinking aside from walking I could do yoga (but does this mean I can't do HOT YOGA...I like that much better), weight lifting, elliptical? I'm just not used to doing "mild" exercise...I've always gone on the extreme side, so I feel a little lost!
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