I'm going to have a heart attack one day!!

[Em.ma]

Hi I'm an 18 year old girl who's very unfit. After a short walk in out of breath etc etc and Get a sharp pain in calfs. I went through a stage of only eating bacon sarnies n crisp for about a year and felt to low to do anything at all. From tommorow my diet is changing! And I'm going to walk 30 mins a day to start with I'm just scared the damage Is done already !!

---------- Post added at 18:41 ---------- Previous post was at 18:31 ----------

Fruit for snacks cut cheese and bacon etc out of diet. Also used to eat cakes etc and biscuits for dinner. I'm 8.9 stone so normal weight but not healthy and not fit etc.

---------- Post added at 18:41 ---------- Previous post was at 18:41 ----------

Never had any fruit in diet or Veges.

---------- Post added at 19:10 ---------- Previous post was at 18:41 ----------

The pain in calf could be due to blood not flowing properly around . It lingers after the walk to.

---------- Post added at 19:20 ---------- Previous post was at 19:10 ----------

The pain is not a pulled muscle type of pain it's hard to exPlain its sharp ands very painfull still lingering but a dull pain now had this for years scared its due to heart

[Mr Brownstone]

For what its worth, if you're only 8st 9 and 18 years old, I doubt you've done yourself any permanent harm. For the diet and exercise, set yourself goals, both short and long term.You'll have a better chance of keeping it up if you do.

[Em.ma]

thanks
im going to start with a 30 min walk mon-fri :D

[hamesh]

Even if you were on a year long Mcdonalds diet, it would still be very unlikey you'd have a heart attack.

[JackInTheBox]

Exercising does a whole world of good to you, if you are very unfit the approach I'd recommend would be the "easy and long" one.

This means a very light workload, which is safer for the body in general terms, the heart in particular, but it takes longer to get "visible" results so it's more demanding in terms of self-discipline.

The 30 min walk seems like a great idea, maybe you see a GP to see if he could recommend you a specialist to help you set up a "safe" diet and workout?

[Tessar]

Hey Emma; Try not to beat yourself up over all of this. You're very young & have plenty of time to make adjustments to your lifestyle. I can remember worrying about things like this. I know if I walk just a bit too quickly sometimes it can affect my leg muscles - usually it's just that I've over done it & they can ache for a few days if I really over did it!
Everyone's advice here is right. Usually heart disease stems from years of unhealthy behaviour & you are young.
The suggestion to make an appointment with your doctor is right. You could have your cholesterol checked which will put your mind at rest. As regards exercise, diet etc they might be able to give you suggestions or refer you if that's available.
I know you'll want to make instant changes but try to do it gradually. If you have not such good days regarding eating, dont worry. It happens. The way I look at it is if I can eat healthy about 80% of the time, then the other 20% doesnt matter as much. OK, I'd like to eat healthy all the time but really, it's not possible. Sometimes having something tasty (albeit bad) is good for you. I find if I try to cut bad stuff out 100%, I just obsess over it & then end up having a binge. So that's why I have a little bit here & there to stop it getting out of hand in my mind. Regarding exercise definitely build it up gradually.

[Em.ma]

Thank you I'm going to see a doc and build up gradually like u said n not feel bad about odd slip up