Hate Working Out? It’s Not Because You’re Lazy.

Want to lose weight? My story has been featured on CBS' The Doctors, CNN, and The Huffington Post. Learn how I lost over 125 pounds (100lbs in 6 months!) by clicking here.

Hate working out?   Or, maybe you don’t necessarily hate working out, but you find that burning calories is physically and mentally exhausting?  It’s not laziness.

Shaun writes:

I have to admit. i’ve been reading the blog, and keep saying, “next week”.

For some background, I weighed 170 when i graduated from high school back in 97. went to college, and “discovered” fast food, pizza and video games (meaning, my mother wasn’t there to tell me to stop).

I turned the freshman 15 into the freshman 70.

I didn’t worry about my weight too much for years, and it slowly crept up. Studying to be an engineer, it’s much easier to get pizza or junk food on campus than think about what is “good” to eat.  My wife and I went to disney world this last summer, and while it didn’t bother me to walk a ton and ride all of the rides, I noticed issues when we went to universal studios. Suddenly, I couldn’t fit in the cool stuff.  That was my “aha!” moment, and I started trying to lose.

It’s going slowly, as I willingly admit to being weak and lazy.

We went to Vegas a week ago, and walked more than i’m used to over the course of 2 days. after the first day though, my foot had swollen considerably and was extremely painful to walk on.  But, I did anyways (it’s vacation!).  After getting home, I visited my doctor and he looked at it and tested me for gout.  Turns out, I’m clean on that one.

The question is, after all of that intro… did you ever have anything like this happen to you? my suspicions now are that i’m just too heavy (310 after vegas splurging) for how much walking I did.  Any thoughts?

First, you’re not lazy.  It’s hard to do what I’ve done.  I’ll be the first to admit it.

Secondly, you’re the only one who obviously knows the severity of your foot, but yeah, numerous “injuries” were common for me when I first started losing weight at 300+ pounds. I say “injuries” not to make light of the issues I had, but because they were (looking back) silly injuries that simply came from me doing the most basic of activities, activities I just wasn’t accustomed to doing.

During my first week, a brisk walk on the treadmill for 15 minutes caused an outbreak of blisters on my feet. Walking. For 15 minutes.  Blisters. I didn’t notice any excessive swelling like you did, but again, only you and your doctor know the severity of your injury.  I may just not have noticed any swelling — or I may have just ignored it.  It definitely doesn’t sound like I experienced what you did, instead, your body probably just reacted differently than mine to the stress you put on it.

Ultimately, our bodies poor reaction to burning calories shouldn’t come as a surprise. Personally, I spent several years of my life doing the absolute least amount of movement possible — walking around the office, in and out of parking lots to stores/restaurants, mowing infrequently during the summer, etc — that’s about it. All of a sudden, I forced my body to completely change what it had been accustomed to doing for years. It reacted poorly. My body eventually caught up to the dedication and determination that I had built up in my mind, but it took a while.

It took days of aches and pain, exhaustion, blisters, dehydration, muscle fatigue, a miserable attitude (from being on a caloric deficit) and sore feet — but it caught up.

So many people start losing weight and they get down on themselves for feeling lazy when they can’t walk on the treadmill for more than 20 minutes. It’s not laziness — it’s just a lack of physical fitness. You probably won’t be a NAVY Seal (but if that’s your goal, good luck!), but you’ll be able to do incredible things with your body if you just don’t quit.  You’ll become more fit in time, you just have to get past the part you’re at now where your body is telling you (via swelling) to quit.

Your body likes the couch. It misses it deeply.

Assuming your doctor gave you the green light to proceed with burning more calories, get to it. Your body may piss and moan (and listen closely when it does), but there’s a big difference between being “injured” and being injured.

Burning calories gets easier as you go.  Keep going.