Morbid obesity is when someone has a body mass index, BMI, of over 40.  For those people, losing weight and getting in shape isn’t a vanity project, it can quite literally be a matter of life and death.  The problem is that for extreme obese women, and men for that matter, it is much more challenging to get in shape since you have so much to overcome.

Usually by the time you are morbidly obese you will also have some underlying health issues.  It can be anything from heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol to sore joints but it can all add up to make it hard to move or walk for any length of time.  Even though there are more challenges, please don’t give up hope.  You can still lose the unwanted, and dangerous, extra body fat and live a more active and fit lifestyle, you just may need a little extra help.

Here are some tips that may make it a little easier for you to find and keep the motivation to get in better shape:

1. First of all, talk to your doctor.   For one thing,  you can make sure that you are actually healthy enough to get some exercise and if you have any restrictions your doctor can tell you what they are.  Remember, working out isn’t an all or nothing prospect, even if you can’t go full bore because you have bad knees for example, that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything.  Just find out what modifications you need to do and do them. Another thing is that when the doctor clears you, you’ve just lost one of your main excuses for not working out.

2. Keep a food journal.  This may sound lame, but the truth is that we often eat for reasons other than hunger.  By keeping track of when we eat we have a better chance of recognizing a trigger and avoiding it, or at least substituting some nutritious alternative when we feel the need to snack.  I don’t know about you but at night when I’m vegging out in front of the t.v., I get ‘snacky’.  I just want to munch on something and the urge is almost overwhelming and virtually impossible to ignore.  So I decided if I can’t beat it I might as well figure out a way to make my snacks nutritious.  So now when I get ‘snakcy’ I just grab some low calorie popcorn or some fresh fruit or veggies.

3. Enlist the help of a personal trainer or a friend to keep you motivated.  Try to find a friend, preferably someone who is highly motivated about working out, and ask them if the two of you can workout together.  Ask them to give you a nudge in the rear end if you slack off.  Sometimes this element of ‘peer pressure’ can help keep you motivated.  It’s just harder to blow off a workout when you know your friend is expecting you.

4. Don’t buy a bunch of junk food and keep it at home.  Hardly anyone would have the will power to resist a craving if the food they were craving is twenty feet away in the kitchen.  Just don’t keep junk food in the house.

Whether you just need to lose 20 pounds or you’re an extreme obese women, the principles to lose weight are the same: eat a well balanced diet and move your body.  Don’t think of this as a ‘diet’, instead think of it as a new way to live your life, a better healthier way.