Can someone help me pick out a treadmill

[Zolgor]

I am wanting to start adding some exercise to my Atkins and I think a treadmill would be the best thing for me to start out with. I am thinking about doing 20-30 minutes in the morning before I eat and 20-30 minutes at night before I go to bed and moving up as I feel it gets easier.

I am hacing a hard time picking out a treadmill though as there are so many kinds and ranging from $100 to thousands of dollars. I am by no means rich so I am trying to go as cheap as I can and I would like to get something that can be delivered to me as my compact nissan will not be able to haul it.

I also read about people looking for a certain heartrate, can someone help me out as to what this means and the best way to go about it. I think some treadmills have them already built into them right?

I am 390lbs now and I notice many of them say max 300lbs, I am not sure if this is just a 'soft' weight meaning that is all they have tested for (Hey 400lb people are hard to come by) and I should be ok or if I should find a heavy duty one?

Is there any words of advice you guys can give me as to what to expect and how to start out? About a month ago before I started I could not walk up a flight of stairs without having to stop at the top to catch my breath for a minute and now I notice it is much easier to walk around and I think its time for me to start getting some exercise in

Any help would be very much appreciated and I am also going to keep an excercise log in the journals area incase anyone ever wants to see how I started out and how things are going.

[sidrah]

I recently purchased one (it hasn't arrived yet) from Home Shopping Network. It is called a Carb Counter Proform treadmill. They ahave a different one from Proform that is a little cheaper. You can see it as hsn.com

I know people who have it and use it who are over 300. they all say as long as you dont run (bounce up and down on it and do it damage ) and you wlak on it for a while, it is not really problematic. When I get it in July I can offer more info. But, I did post about his originally (before some technical problems with the dorks at HSN) and got a few replies. f it is still here, you will find it in a search. Otherwise, I am sure if you search above yo uwill find link where it was discussed previosuly.

[Iapetus999]

Well, for 390 lbs you are not going to be able to get a cheap TM unless some gym is liquidating old inventory.
You will need one with a strong motor and built solidly.
It may be cheaper to join a gym.

First thing I would do is to get a heart rate monitor. The idea is to keep your heart in a "fat burning zone" for a long period of time.
Don't know your age but for a 30yo it would be 140-150 bpm.
Although you can burn more calories going faster, by keeping your heart rate down you will "train" your muscles to burn fat.
For a schedule I would do no more than 5 days a week, once a day. Start at 20 mins and try to work up to 40 mins after 2 months. (Add 5 mins every week or 2) If you keep your heartrate the same you will be able to go a little faster/further each time. If some day you feel "out of it" it's ok to skip a day or cut a workout short. If that happens too often then you need to adjust your workout or diet (post something here about it)
If you don't have a HRM you can either measure your pulse directly or just measure your exertion. You should be able to talk fairly normally during your working. Panting, gasping, wheezing, puffing etc means you're going too hard.

It took me 7 months and 70 lbs of working out to be able to run a whole mile, so this is definitely a long process.
Also having some days of cross training (bike, elliptical, swimming) helps too along with strength training. The same heartrate rules apply.

[Zolgor]

Thanks for the replies guys, I found a few at sears that will probably do the job. They seem to all be pretty expensive so I found one that has a 300lb limit and I will probably be around 350 by the time we finally move and I can have it delivered so I think I will be ok, if not they all have a full warrenty on everything.

I am probably going to go with a nordictrack because it was the only really I really recognized and the warrenty is pretty good. I plan on adding some other equipment down the road but figured this would be good to get me off to a start and I can slowly progress as I feel ready for it.

Thanks again, zolg

BTw: I am 29

[Zolgor]

Thanks for the replies guys, I found a few at sears that will probably do the job. They seem to all be pretty expensive so I found one that has a 300lb limit and I will probably be around 350 by the time we finally move and I can have it delivered so I think I will be ok, if not they all have a full warrenty on everything.

I am probably going to go with a nordictrack because it was the only really I really recognized and the warrenty is pretty good. I plan on adding some other equipment down the road but figured this would be good to get me off to a start and I can slowly progress as I feel ready for it.

Thanks again, zolg

BTw: I am 29