Lose weight in a wheelchair or with limited mobility? It’s can be an easy task.

You see: Losing weight is simple mathematics. If for every calorie you put into your mouth you burn off more calories you will lose weight.

How fast you lose it depends on how great the difference is between food going in and calories being burned up.

I know what you’re going to say! “I am sitting in a wheelchair! I can’t job. I can’t swim. I can’t hike. I cannot play sports or even walk the dog. How do I burn off those calories”

Your point is well taken. However, I am in a wheelchair and I’ve lost 40 pounds. And, I didn’t stop eating.

I love my food too much for that. Let me share with you the step of my diet plan for wheelchair users.

Checking Your Weight

Before we begin with a diet plan for physically disabled, let’s talk about checking your weight. It’s not as simple as stepping on a scale.

Begin by checking what you should weigh using the Body Mass Index (BMI).

Then, discuss your ideal weight with your doctor. He/she will suggest a method of determining your present weight

Why is this important? By determining what you presently weigh and checking to see what you should weigh, you gain a good picture of how much weight you should be losing.

This helps you set realistic goals and miles stones along the way.

For this reason, the bathroom scales are an important and useful tool. They help you see that you are progressing toward your end goal.

But, don’t get obsessive about weighing yourself. It is normal for weight to fluctuate. It is normal for weight to fluctuate.

How to Lose Weight in a Wheelchair or with Limited Mobility

The first step in your journey to weight loss and good health is to lose your tunnel vision. Stop listening to those voices in your head.

No matter what those voices tell you, it is possible to lose weight from a wheelchair. I am living proof. Believe in yourself.

Step #1: Cut Your Calories with a Complete Diet Plan

Remember what I said about a diet plan for wheelchair users? You need to ingest fewer calories than you are burning off.

Here are some healthy eating tips for how to lose weight in a wheelchair or when disabled.

A complete diet plan for wheelchair users :

I. Eat Your Fruits and Veggies

The Dietary Guidelines recommend eating two cups of fruit and two and a half cups of veggies every day.

It is a smart plan to include both fruit and vegetables in every meal and between-meal snacks.

Fruits and vegetables are a natural source of vital nutrients like fiber, vitamins A and C. folate, and potassium.

II. Aim for Variety

In all foods, try to include cooked and raw, foods from all colors, fresh, frozen, and canned. That way you get nutrients that will help prevent chronic sickness and diseases. The rule is everything in moderation.

III. Ditch Carb Phobia

Somewhere we have the notion that carbs are bad for you. But you need the high fiber in carb-rich foods. Here’s a guideline. At every meal, what you eat should be one-third carbs. I am talking about bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, and cereal grains.

Choose whole-wheat over white. Opt for brown rice and eat potatoes with the skins on.

5 High-Carb foods that  are super healthy :

• Oats – 66% carbs
• Quinoa – 21.3% carbs
• Buckwheat – 71.5% carbs
• Bananas – 23% carbs
• Sweet Potatoes – 21% carbs

IV. Choose Low-Cal

Low-calorie foods will help you lose weight whether you exercise or not. How do you eat low-cal? Forget those rich, creamy, calorie-laden heavy dressings. Make melted cheese a distant memory. Be restrictive on bread. Avoid the bakery. There is nothing low-cal there.

Shop the outside of your grocery store. That is where you will find the whole foods. Avoid packaged and prepared foods. They are high in salt, sugar, fat and calories.

Take a different route home to avoid fast-food restaurants. Pack your own healthy snacks. Nothing in vending machines is good for you.

To make foods tasty, add spices and herbs.

Change the way you prepare food. Roast, broil, grill, and stir fry instead of frying foods.

V. Make Fish Your Friend

There are many reasons to eat at least two fish entrees a week. Make sure one of them is oily fish. It is high in omega-3 heart-friendly fats. Oily fish include: herring, salmon, sardines, trout, and mackerel.

Fish are an excellent source of protein. Non-oily fish are still good for you. Eat haddock, cod, tuna, skate, plaice, and hake.

Choose fresh, canned or frozen fish. Canned and smoked fish are high in salt

Learn to prepare fish so it is low-cal. This means grilled, poached, baked not fried or breaded or battered.

VI. Learn to Read Labels

In choosing healthy eating, you are trying to cut fats, sugars, and salt. Look for foods that contain low percentages of these.

Yes. You need fat in your diet. However, you want to avoid saturated fats. These increase cholesterol in your blood.

Aim for a maximum of thirty grams of saturated fat daily if you’re a man and twenty if you’re a woman. Children should have even less.

2 of My Favorite Easy Tasty Recipes for Fast Weight Loss:

a. Pomegranate Chicken and Couscous

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 cup couscous
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 1 large red onion sliced thinly
• ½ pounds of chicken breast
• 4 tsp tagine spice paste or 2 tsp harissa
• ¾ cup unsweetened pomegranate
• 7 tsp pomegranate seeds
• 8 tsp toasted flaked almonds
• 2 sprigs fresh mint

Directions:

1. Boil the kettle and heat the olive oil in a large frying pan. Add seasonings to couscous in a bowl. Crumble in half the stock cube. Add the onion to the pan. Sauté. Pour boiling water over the couscous to cover. Cover the bowl with a tea towel. Set aside.
2. Add the chicken breasts to the frying pan. Brown on all sides. Stir in the tagine paste or harissa and pomegranate juice. Add the rest of the stock cube. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. The sauce will thicken and chicken will be cooked. Add pomegranate seeds.
3. Fluff couscous with a fork. Add almonds chopped mint. Serve chicken on couscous. Spoon sauce over top.

b. Salmon and Thai Noodle Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 skinless salmon fillets
• 1 large orange. Squeeze juice. Chop pulp. Grind zest.
• 7/8 cup green beans, chopped
• 7/8 tsp mange tout shredded
• ½ cup peas
• 1/3 cup vermicelli rice noodles
• 3 tsp red curry paste
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 4 green onions chopped
• 2 tsp basil chopped

1. Boil a pan of water. Line a steamer with baking parchment. Add the salmon fillets and scatter with orange zest. Add beans to the pan. Place salmon in the steamer. Cook for five minutes. Set salmon aside.
2. To the pan, add frozen peas and mange tout. Cook for a minute. Drain the vegetables. Return boiling water to the pan. Add noodles. Let soak for five minutes.
3. In a salad bowl, put the curry paste, fish sauce, and orange juice. Add chopped onions. Drain noodles. Add remaining orange zest. Toss ingredients. Add and a little of the remaining zest and the spring onions.
4. Drain the noodles. Add chopped orange and chopped basil and vegetables. with the basil or coriander and the cooked vegetables. Tip in the juice from the salmon. Toss well. Serve noodle mixture in individual salad bowls topped with salmon.

Step #2: Drink Water Instead of Soda

Water flushes the toxins from your system. It keeps organs hydrated and working smoothly. Water is also a natural appetite suppressant.

Here’s how it works. When your stomach is full, it tells your brain to stop eating. If you drink water before a meal, you feel full sooner. You eat less.

Step #3: Get Active in a Wheelchair

It is no myth. You can get active in a wheelchair. I didn’t say it was easy to lose weight in a wheelchair. Think of it anatomically. Your legs make up over half of your body’s muscle. When they don’t move, you burn considerably fewer calories. But it is not impossible to lose weight.

You have to get creative. If your legs are not burning calories, what else can you do? Well, one solution is to engage in an upper body workout for wheelchair users.

It is no myth. You can get active in a wheelchair. I didn’t say it was easy to lose weight in a wheelchair. Think of it anatomically. Your legs make up over half of your body’s muscle. When they don’t move, you burn considerably fewer calories. But it is not impossible to lose weight.

You have to get creative. If your legs are not burning calories, what else can you do? Well, one solution is to engage in an upper body workout for wheelchair users.

Here are some ideas that may exercises for wheelchair users work for you!

Best Wheelchair Exercises for Weight Loss

If you are a visual learner then YouTube is a wonderful source of weight loss exercise for wheelchair users.

If like me you are not a “group exerciser” then you can do these in the privacy of your own home. You can exercise whenever your energy is highest.

Here are three of my favorites:

In this video, physiotherapists, Bob Schrupp and Brad Heineck, demonstrate how to stretch from a wheelchair. From a seated position, thy demonstrate how to decrease your muscles strain, aches and pains at the same time, increasing your flexibility and range of motion.

Narrated and demonstrated by Ashley Freeman, this fifteen-minute video presents a full upper-body workout.

How to Lose Belly Fat in a Wheelchair?

This video features amputee KymNonStop as she demonstrates a seated ab and arm workout intended especially for those who want to lose belly fat in a wheelchair.

All three of these videos were created by real people in wheelchairs. They provide upper body exercise for wheelchair users to lose weight.

See it. Believe it. Achieve it.

When my sugar levels were reaching pre-diabetic levels and my blood pressure was creeping up, I knew it was time to get serious about losing weight. I hated the way I looked. I couldn’t lift myself from the chair to my bed anymore because I was just too heavy.

That’s when I gave myself an attitude adjustment. I knew that being in a wheelchair was no excuse for weight gain.

My first step was to visit my doctor. Together, we set realistic goals. I posted them so I saw them often.

Next, I saw a nutritionist. Finally, I engaged a personal trainer.

It has been a long but successful journey. Without the support of those around me, I am not sure I’d have reached the “achieved it” stage. The journey starts with YOU. You must be prepared to see what you don’t like and believe you can change.