Lots of good stuff here...
For what it's worth:
I'd pay some close attention to the salt/sodium in your diet. nancy said before that water weight is often a problem for people who have heart conditions. I don't know what your situation is, but I wouldn't be surprised if at least some of the weight you carry is nothing more than excess fluids.
Finding another, BETTER cardiologist is definitely worth looking into. I'm suprized that your current one didn't offer to set you up with a program to lose that weight he said you needed to lose. I'm only about 20 pounds over my "BMI" and my cardiologist has twice offered to help me find a nutritionist or a dietitian who would be covered by my insurance...
On a side note, we discussed it and I'm doing OK on my own for the moment, though I'm still leaving the option open.
Some simple suggestions beyond the obvious stuff:
WeightWatchers and other freezer meals for dieting/low carb are nice, but you have to be selective about the sodium content if you have heart issues. Some of those things can have over half the US RDA for sodium. That, two slices of white toast, an egg, and two sausage links and maybe a ham salad sandwich (again on white) for lunch puts you over the limit before you've hit dinner.
A lot of people tout a "water" diet where you gulp down bottled water all day long instead of reaching for snacks. Well that might work for heart healthy folks, but probably not for us at all. Certainly not for me! I like my carbonated drinks, I'm kind of addicted. I also started drinking flavored seltzer water. The brand I've found is unsweetened, just carbonated water and some lemon (or raspberry, lime, plain, whatever) extract for flavor. I like it a lot and it's no carb, no sodium. Basically no nutrition really (
) but it's probably a lot helathier for me than drinking Dr. Pepper all day...
Fruits and veggies are great for snacks and even meals. There's nothing that says you can't pick out on a veggie tray as long as you have a sensible dip if you like such things. Peter Pan now has a low sodium peanutbutter that's great on celery. It's the only time I can get my 4 y/o son to eat celery....
The other suggestion I'd make if you're really serious about losing weight have pretty much exhausted all other forms of diets and such would be jumping into the stomach reduction fad...
Mind you, I REALLY don't know what they'd say about working on someone with known heart issues, however I DO know that having an essentially life threatening condition that would be alleviated (at least in part) by a drastic reduction in weight is one of the qualifying marks such surgeons look for.
My sister-in-law had it done at the end of June this year when school let out for the summer (she's a teacher) and she's lost (over, I think) 100 pounds by now. She was teetering on the edge of diabetes and she and my brother have wanted to start having children, something that would be very difficult for her at the weight she had before surgery. She has to be picky for a while about what she eats and she does a fair amount of exercise, but as she recovers, her diet can include anything. The trick the the surgery is that by reducing the physical size of the stomach, one gets fuller much faster. Where she may have used to have two helpings of spaghetti at a meal, now she usually leaves a little of one helping behind, and she's FULL and satisfied. She's doing great.
It may be worth asking aobut if all other options have failed.
Ask around about cardiologists and talk to a surgeon or two. You should be getting help to get better, not being told you're going to die because you're too fat.
