Diet/Exercise/Health/Wellness Support Thread

Parent Cafe
20881

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<p>That’s what all the labels on treadmills would have you believe. The logic is that you are burning a higher percentage of the calories being burned from fat. The problem is that you aren’t burning very many calories. When you crank the intensity way up, the energy comes more from burning stored carbohydrates (glycogen) and less so from fat (as a percentage), but you are burning a ton more calories and more total fat.</p>

<p>However, I don’t even think that’s the issue because, frankly, the calories you burn from exercise (over and above the large number you are already burning just sitting on the couch) are not significant in the grand scheme of things. Instead, there appear to be benefits of exercise on your hormonal balance (Insulin resistance, growth hormone, testosterone, etc.) and those hormonal issues determine whether it’s easy or hard to lose stored body fat, not just while you are exercising, but for as much as 24 hours afterwards. For example, if you become more sensitive to insulin, you will tend to store less fat period, 24/7, 365 days a year than someone is more insulin resistant. The impact of exercise on hormones may explain why exercise hasn’t been shown to have much impact on weight loss in studies, but has been shown to be absolutely critical in keeping the weight off. Basically, we have no prayer of keeping weight off without exercise.</p>

<p>From a fat loss standpoint, the best advice I’ve seen is to focus on exercise that:</p>

<p>a) builds lean muscle (resistance strength training)
b) cranks up your metabolism (short bursts of high intensity/high heart rate exercise rather than long hours of low intensity exercise).</p>

<p>There’s room for all of it. You can only do resistance strength training two or three days a week. You really need a day off in between workouts. And, high intensity cardio intervals (90% to 100% of your max heart rate) are just so miserable that you can only do them a couple times a week, tops. So, there’s a place for a nice walk or some other fairly low heart rate exercise.</p>

<p>If you want to do any kind of endurance distance stuff: running, or long distance swimming, or bike riding, then you have to do long sessions of low intensity/low heart rate training in order to develop that kind of stamina/fitness. But, it’s not the most effective way to lose body fat. It’s actually training your body to burn less energy per minute. For losing body fat, you want to be inefficient – burning more energy.</p>

<p>As a practical matter, if you can do some kind of exercise that gets you bent over panting like a dog, sweating bullets for a few minutes, a couple of times a week, you’ll be ahead of the game for fat loss. High intensity is good, but it has to be in small doses.</p>

20882

<p>dstark:</p>

<p>Yeah, that calculator looks about right. But, basal metabolic rate is the calories you would burn lying in bed 24/7.</p>

<p>There’s another set of formulas that multiplies that by a number representing your overall activity level. Here’s a popular version, the Harris Benedict multipliers:</p>

<p>[Harris</a> Benedict Equation](<a href=“http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/]Harris”>Harris Benedict Equation)</p>

<p>Most of us would multiply BMR by somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 to get a rough estimate of how many calories we are actually burning. I figure my BMR is somewhere around 1600 calories a day now and that I’m “lightly active” so I multiply by 1.375. That means that I’m probably burning, on average, 2200 calories a day. That’s about where I’m weight stable, so it’s probably a decent estimate.</p>

<p>The lighter you are, the less calories you burn. That’s why weight loss slows so dramatically when you lose a lot of weight and get down near your optimum target. It’s counterproductive to eat below BMR (that’s starvation that slows your metabolism and eats up muscle). BMR really determines how low you can go. If that’s only a couple hundred calories a day below what you are burning, you can’t expect to lose weight fast. It takes a 500 calorie per day deficit to lose a pound a week.</p>

20883

<p>I would have a hard time working out between 100 and 120. My normal range is 150-170 according to my HRM.</p>

20884

<p>Many thanks to those who are contributing to this very informative discussions. SO much to learn.</p>

<p>I got one more myth about the size of stomach. My feeling is that as the waist size going down, so does the size of your stomach. I used to be able to eat two big mac, with super sized fry, plus some chicken for a snack. Now, with pant size down 7 inches, I could take much less food. While I do feel hungry all the time, I could only do smaller meals many times a day. </p>

<p>We have booked a AI vacation, if this continues, I will miss many lobsters.</p>

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<p>Interesteddad, how are you “lightly active”!?!?!</p>

20886

<p>Much of this discussion is about what occurs during activity, but activity also affects what the body does afterward at rest as well, right?</p>

20887

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<p>Because those categories appear to be looking at the grand scheme of things. I work at the computer. That’s sedentary most of the day. Highly active would be guys who work doing manual labor, like landscaping or factory work, 8 hours a day. Or professional athletes who are training hours a day.</p>

<p>It’s easy to over-estimate the effect of exercise which, even for the most dedicated, is probably still only a few hours a week. That’s why I don’t even think about exercise as ‘burning calories’ per se. I think that leads to the trap of thinking, “oh, i burned x number of calories, so I can eat a little more…”</p>

20888

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<p>You can be lighter than that and eating whatever you like. It really depends on the body, and to some extent what you like and how much of it, I suppose. Who knows why.</p>

20889

<p>“Ifell sorry for the 125 pound women. They can’t eat anything. They are stuck with drinking zero calorie flavored water.”</p>

<p>Since zero calorie flavored water makes me puke, I eat bacon and eggs, Greek yogurts, fruit, veggies, meat and even bread. :)</p>

20890

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<p>I can generally stay just below 120 walking on flat-ish terrain or, usually, when I’m hiking downhill (unless it is super steep). Weight lifting workouts are mostly below 120. But, jogging or hiking uphill or anything like kettle swings or burpees or Airdyne is immediately above 120.</p>

20891

<p>I’m probably over 120 just walking from my car to my office (carrying 30 pounds of gear and walking fast and up stairs). I walk fairly fast in general and that’s just kind of my normal mode.</p>

20892

<p>Almost bailed at the start, but didn’t. This was just too soon after the marathon 2 weeks ago. I started and finished with a slow 4:55. Not sure of age group place yet. Beautiful day and much of the course was very scenic. I fell once at 8 miles but just bumped an elbow. Would have quit then but couldn’t figure out how to! Had Coke at a few aid stations starting at about 17 and it seemed to give me a better boost than the gels and Powerade. Done.</p>

20893

<p>Interesteddad, thanks for the link. I will play with it later.</p>

<p>I worked out the other day for 70 minutes at an average heart rate of 131 beats per minute. My workouts since have not been as good. If I workout above 115 beats per minute for 70 minutes my recovery isn’t very good and I end up burning fewer calories going forward.</p>

<p>My primary goal is to lose weight. Anything after that, I will see.</p>

<p>I can’t believe you old guys are working out with such high heartbeat rates. On the other side, my heartbeat rate isn’t going over 110 by walking unless I am walking steep hills.</p>

<p>“Since zero calorie flavored water makes me puke, I eat bacon and eggs, Greek yogurts, fruit, veggies, meat and even bread.” lol.</p>

<p>I had crazy hours working. Starting at 4 in the morning wears on a person. At least it did for me. My blood pressure was 128 over 80.</p>

<p>Off the job for a couple of weeks. Working out. Walking. I checked my blood pressure. 106 over 74. I talked to my ex- boss yesterday. He kind of p… Me off. Well, not kind of. Did p… Me off. Retook my blood pressure. 118 over 78. </p>

<p>Still better than when I was working. :)</p>

<p>I am impressed with the posters that are able to work out at high intensity levels. Or run marathons. Or ride bikes forever.</p>

20894

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<p>In my case, the very high heart rates were a function of my incredibly poor physical fitness. The first time I walked up the steep hill a half mile from my house, I saw a heart rate of 96% of my age-predicted max. I had to stop by the side of the road, panting with my hands on my knees. From walking up a hill. </p>

<p>The first time I rode my bike, I saw a heart rate of 100% of my age-predicted max after getting to the top of a hill in too hard a gear.</p>

<p>So, I figured out, by default, that pushing my heart rate up in short bursts probably wasn’t going to kill me.</p>

<p>One of the best predictors of dying in the next five years for men is a poor heart rate recovery in 60 seconds after that kind of maximum effort. When I started, I was borderline in the danger zone. My heart rate recovery rate was very poor. That’s been one of the most dramatic improvements I’ve seen. My recovery rate is now somewhere in the top 20% or so for men my age. I attribute that to a lot of intervals: repeated cycling up to very high heart rates for a short burst and then recovering back down. I’ve also seen a pretty dramatic fall in my resting heart rate. I’ve seen it as low as 48 beats per minute and it’s consistently down near 50.</p>

<p>So I think high heart rate interval training has been good for my health. On the other hand, my long distance slow steady state capacity, like jogging for miles, is horrible. I just can’t bring myself to exercise slow enough for long enough to see gains in that area – although this hiking stuff is probably helping me as it involves hours at a time of fairly low heart rate exercise (on the downhill part).</p>

20895

<p>Walking doesn’t put my heart rate over 110 most of the time, but I still figure it’s better than sitting at the computer. My heart rate is around 120 for weight lifting / machines and I try to have it around 130 with intervals of 150+ on the elliptical. I’m not very good at forcing myself to be panting like a dog, but I do believe it’s beneficial.</p>

<p>I don’t weight 125 yet (but I used to). I can’t stand flavored water either. I drink plain water, seltzer, wine and beer on the weekends and lots of coffee with a little bit of steamed milk. Eat tons of vegetables, 6-8 ounces of meat every day, and an egg for breakfast every day except Saturday when I have pancakes or waffles. I eat bacon 3 times a week, one slice. It makes me happy.</p>

20896

<p>Yay. MOWC. Any marathon description that includes the word “done” was a successful marathon!</p>

<p>You and I need to work on staying upright. This falling down business is for the birds… I’m still saying “ouch” multiple times a day from the skin I left on the rock the other day.</p>

20897

<p>I think that playing tennis (which is essentially interval training for one to three hours) has always had me used to high heart rates. I took up running later in life and it’s just more comfortable for me to run distances at higher heart rates.</p>

<p>I can run more slowly but I generally prefer not too without a physical reason.</p>

<p>I did a short Yoga session this afternoon. I’m always looking for YouTube videos with good stretching sessions and found something decent. I did a few pretzels this afternoon - it certainly feels good afterwards. Stretching is a very weak point for me and doing it makes me feel better for a day or two.</p>

20898

<p>“Would have quit then but couldn’t figure out how to!” </p>

<p>^^CC quote of the day! Congrats, MOfWC. Well done.</p>

20899

<p>Congratulations on your second 26er of the season, MOWC. :)</p>

20900

<p>Hilly 5K walk/jog intervals for me. I was tempted to just veg on he sofa in front of football, but it was such as nice fall day – blue sky, 62 degrees, leaves falling – that I couldn’t resist. </p>

<p>It’s now dry enough that the heart rate monitor is unreliable at first until I get sweaty. Even with anti-static spray on my shirt, I got false spikes that ended the first four intervals way early before it settled down for the final ten intervals. Looks like I saw a peak heart rate of 94% (159 bpm) of my max.</p>

<p>Now, it’s time to veg on the sofa in front of football!</p>