Need to lose weight!!?!?!

I'm sorry for your accident, Teri. Chronic pain is very difficult to deal with.

The key thing about weight loss/gain overall is that you want to have energy expended being greater than energy consumed. This forces your body to use its energy stores, like fat.

If you are eating healthy but not losing weight, there are a couple of things to consider. First, you might be eating more calories than you realize. This is very common; we often underestimate the number of calories we take in, even those of us who eat balanced diets. Keeping a caloric journal or subscribing to a program like Weight Watchers can help get a sense of what your energy intake is.

Second, working out at a gym is a great idea. Any exercise you do is going to burn more calories, plus it will help to develop lean mass which will increase your BMR. Thus you will use more calories at rest. Swimming is a great, low-impact exercise that is often more accessible to those with joint and back pain.

Third, make sure you don't overeat at meals. This can be very difficult for some of us, especially those who were raised to finish everything on their plate. When we start listening to our bodies, though, we'll realize we often get fuller much faster than we realize.

Fourth, eat more often rather than less often, but eat smaller meals. This works along with not overeating to create sustained blood sugar levels and not create huge hormonal swings.

Good luck!