Q: i'm a 24 year old double below amputee with diabetes i've spiked up to 270lbs and i'm 5'10 i really can't do some of the exercises needed like running and biking i want to get dowm to about 150-180lbs how can i do this.

A: Unfortunately I haven't had any experience with cases like yours, so take my advice with a grain of salt... Diet-wise you'll ideally try for the same diet as anyone else looking to lose fat. That means many small meals each day, with lots of protein (lean meats, chicken, fish), veggies, and heathy fats like olive oil. You can fill outhttp://www.mikesfitness.com/content/fitnessguide too see a suggested diet.

Exercise will be a little trickier. For an excellent whole-body cardio exercise, consider swimming. Unfortunately you may need help getting in and out of the pool, but you should be able to swim on your own. Of course you'll want to be careful and have somebody to help you along in the beginning. For weight-training I hope you have access to a gym or can get some dumbbells for home. You will want to perform all the exercises you can with dumbbells, including bicep curls, tricep overhead extensions, and shoulder presses. Depending on the design on the machines in your gym you may also be able to perform machine pulldowns and/or machine rows -- both of those are excellent back exercises and would give you a big metabolic boost by working your back. You will want to pick such weights that for any given exercise you can only perform it 6-12 times before exhausting your muscles. Since the number of exercises available to you will be limited, you can do 2-3 sets of each one and go through all of them in a 1-hour session. Try to 2-3 such sessions per week.

Finally, try to be as active as possible in the wheelchair, even if it's just making loops about your house. If you at all can, consider finding an arena where you can go in your wheelchair. Especially if you try to do sprints, it'll be an excellect combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise. Please feel free to ask any other questions here if you have them and best of luck to you!