High Blood Pressure

[my5hens]

Mine is high tonight. It was 140 over 72 and the 140 is not a good thing. I'm only 29 but I am very overweight and I really dont know how to lose weight. I think I may need OA because I cannot afford weight watchers.

This is awful

 

[Imp]

Are you seeing a doctor?

edited to add:

HBP is very treatable

Imp- Sorry, you are young, to be dealing with this.

 

[thaiturkey]

Do you know the cause of your weight problem? If it's to with diet and exercise, you can deal with it yourself. If willpower is a problem for you, then a session or two with a Clinical Hypnotherapist should deal with that.

Have you had your cholesterol level checked?

Awareness of the problem and the desire to deal with it is a big part of the battle dealt with. At your age, you should get away with this with no lasting damage but do deal with it now.

Good luck.

 

[newfoundland]

Don't panic about this. The best thing you can do to reduce your blood pressure is reduce your weight. Even a few pounds can make a significant difference. There are loads of tips and advice free online and lots of diets you can follow, but you can do things yourself that will not require much change in your diet but will reduce your weight.

Here are a few of my tips:
Reduce portion size, use a smaller plate. Fill up on veggies and fruit.

Drink a glass of water 20 mins before a meal, it will make you feel full quicker.

Seriously reduce the amount of fat in your food, for example butter on bread, or oil in cooking. Try to use only half of what you have been using.

Don't snack between meals, if you have to, raw carrot is filling and low in calories (compared to chocolate).

Build more exercise into your day, but begin slowly. Don't pound yourself into the ground on day one!

Walking around more, even if it's gently strolling will burn up more calories than you have been burning.

Your blood pressure is not too high, and I think reducing it by losing some weight and getting a bit fitter is very achievable. Good luck and let us know how you are progressing.

 

[Mahonri]

Best thing to lower my BP is to walk. Doing an hour a day of walking will do wonders for you.

I'm still heavy, but I've got my BP down to 125/65. Not bad for a fat boy.

 

[bakerjw]

140/72 isn't great but it isn't that bad. The lower number is the one to be most concerned about. The upper number, the systolic is your blood pressure when the heart is pumping. The lower number, the diastolic, is when the heart is between pumps. From my experience, the diastolic doesn't change all that much when exercising, but the systolic will increase. At least it did for me on a treadmill stress test.

My BP has always been borderline, but it improved once I started cutting down on my sodium intake and started cardio exercising.

Losing weight is all about will power and the realization that it takes time. People that want to lose a lot of weight get discouraged because results are slow in coming. I weighed in the 270s to 280s about 10 years ago. I went on the Atkins diet for 5 months and was losing 2 pounds a week and I couldn't tell much of a difference in my appearance after 3 months. That was about 24 pounds later. Eventually the weight loss started to show. I even hit plateaus where I wouldn't lose anything for a few weeks.

There are a lot of sensible diets out there but IMHO the main things to avoid are processed starchy foods. i.e. things made with white flour. White bread, pasta, etc... So a sensible diet and exercise will get you a long way.

 

[dewey]

As others have said, there's lots of good info online, and also free support groups. Check out the 3-fat-chicks site, and also here's a mayo clinic link with some info: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-blood-pressure/HI00027

You will be surprised how fast the pounds come off just by eating simple, everyday type foods that you can easily make...lots of colored and dark green vegetables along with baked, broiled or grilled chicken, fish, meats, dairy, and grains in the correct portion sizes for your caloric needs. There are sites that will show you how many calories a day you should be consuming by entering in the activity level and the desired weight for your height, and then stick to that amount of calories per day and the weight will drop off. The sticking to it is what can take some adjusting to.

Hoping you've seen a doc, and wishing you the best.