<p>Sunny warm day today–going to get DH off the couch (he’s workingon the laptop, really!) and outside.</p>
<p>Ladies–I just went bra shopping and discovered not only is my stomach skin flabby, the stuff is flabby all over! What’s up with that? I’m slim and in reasonably good shape but my skin is gradually losing it…whatever “it” is. Collagen? Ugh. :(</p>
<p>Between that and my facial wrinkles, I’ll have to settle for inner beauty. Story of my life.</p>
<p>mommusic, do you lift weights? Do ab and core exercises? Just wondering if those make a difference.</p>
<p>Well, it looked like spring outside so I saddled up for a walk. Turns out it was kind of nippy. 52 degrees, but a howling wind. I crossed the footbridge by the old mill and did my full 5K route in the state park for the first time since New Year’s Day. Probably shoulda worn trail shoes as some of the trails still had sections covered in snow.</p>
<p>I decided, at the start, to not try to push the pace, but to ease back into the longer distance. Still managed to walk it in the fourth fastest time for that circuit. 16:30 per mile on a leisurely walk, with the steep hill, and a little bit on snow covered trails. No sprained ankles. No aches or pains. Now, if it would just get a little bit warmer, that would be nice.</p>
<p>Felt good to get out for an extended walk with some good music and some fresh air.</p>
<p>I have never lifted weights except as part of a class, where light weights are used for maybe 10 minutes. My abs are good…and I have good shoulder muscles from swimming and great arms from playing the piano, 
but still, things are decidedly more flabby looking than 10 years ago. It seems to be the skin over the muscles, and it’s noticeable when the skin is compressed, as by a bra (or bathing suit.) Blech. </p>
<p>I’m getting old lady skin.</p>
<p>Alright. Alright. There’s no whining about loose flabby skin. :)</p>
<p>You want to see some lose flabby skin (and trust me, you don’t), try losing 78 pounds. I just know I would have abs of steel and look like a fitness model if it weren’t for this dang loose flabby skin. But, guess what? There isn’t a dadgum thing I can do about it and, as much as I wish it weren’t so, I’m probably never going to look like a 25 year old fitness model at my age. Hell, I was never going to look like a 25 year old fitness model when I **was **25.</p>
<p>I just try to take comfort from knowing that, underneath that loose flabby ol’ (formerly) fat guy skin are abs of steel! Except, of course, when it comes to doing Valslide Alligator Walks, then my abs of steel let me down and I collapse in a heap!</p>
<p>I just look on the bright side. I was doing some bodyweight squats today, just loosening up, and had no problem going way below parallel. No pain. No creaky knees. A year ago, I couldn’t squat down to get a snack off the bottom shelf of the fridge. I had to get down on the floor on my knees. So what’s a little loose flabby skin?</p>
<p>interesteddad, forget I mentioned it. You deserve kudos for your perseverance. I bet you are, if not a fitness model, a model of fitness!</p>
<p>I know my body is in better shape at the end of this winter than I have been in a long time, no matter what the container looks like! Today I realized I can get out of a car without my knees causing pain. That routine was starting to make me feel OLD, and I’m glad I fixed it.</p>
<p>I know a lot about getting in and out of cars and knee pain. I’m like that for one to two days after playing tennis. Knee braces help a lot.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Amen to that. One of the very pleasant surprises has been how a lot of the stiffness, aches, pains, and what I just assumed were permanently gimpy knees and hips have “miraculously” cured themselves by getting in better shape. I think this stuff is like ol’ rusty gate hinges that are half-frozen with rust. A little oil and starting to move them back and forth a little and they start working again. :)</p>
<p>I had gotten to the point where getting in and out of a car took actual effort. I was so stiff that turning around to look down the driveway wasn’t easy. It’s all that little stuff where lack of exercise and fitness starts to take a toll.</p>
<p>I started out thinking that exercise was something I just had to do to lose a little weight. Along the way, I realized that it is just a heck of lot better to be in shape and have a little fitness and strength.</p>
<p>H and I spent the day moving a few plants around the front yard. H decided that the Korean fir was too close to the house, and the large hinoki plant was too hideous for the prime spot near the porch. I know, it is already April, so plants do not typically like to be disturbed when they are waking up from the winter slumber, but these plants looked pretty dormant to me - the spring has been really cold and nasty. So how do two people lift a large plant that is to heavy for the two people to lift? Well, if you have some leftover four by four posts, a chainlink fence puller and a large wheelbarrow, you are in luck. DH constructed “gallows” using 3 posts and winched the bush up in the air with the fence puller. I rolled the wheelbarrow under the hanging bush, and DH released the chain - voila! - the plant was wheeled to its new location. Easy. After all, as one of my former coworkers said, PhDs are supposed to exercise their brains, not their muscles. 
We could have simply hacked the bush to pieces and bought a new one, but we decided to spare its life. Digging in the dirt fell really good!</p>
<p>1925 calories</p>
<p>25% carbs
26% protein
49% fat</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The use of BMI has nothing to do with a “carb conspiracy” that you seem to be blaming for everything.</p>
<p>BMI is used because it is conveniently measurable and calculatable from numbers that most people know (height and weight). It also assumes that most people do not exercise enough to have large amounts of muscle (an unfortunately true assumption for most Americans), so that it is a reasonable proxy for body fat percentage in population studies. Actually, the typical American has so little muscle that even those with “high normal” BMIs in the 23 to 25 range are frequently in the unhealthy high body fat range, a condition known as “normal weight obesity”. Muscular athletes and the like with “overweight” BMIs but healthy low body fat percentage are a small minority in the US.</p>
<p>Of course, the reasons that BMI are used apply best to population studies, not individual assessment. If you know your body fat percentage or a reasonable proxy (like waist / height ratio), and it is in the healthy range (and not trending toward the unhealthy range), then you need not be concerned about your BMI being in the “overweight” range.</p>
<p>BCEagle–no knee braces here…just exercises for legs & all the muscles around the knees. If the muscles do the work, it spares the joints. I guess that works for all of them, but my experience is with knees.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>IDad, research is showing that fitness, not weight, is actually the most important factor in terms of quality of life, general health, and longevity (actually more important than almost any factor other than heavy smoking).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, tennis puts an extraordinary amount of stress on the knees.</p>
<p>The knee braces are to align the kneecap so that cartilage isn’t worn off the backside of the knee.</p>
<p>My workout for the morning was bringing in a full tower PC from home to office to replace the motherboard. The thing weighs about forty pounds but the problem is the shape - it was a bit awkward to carry under my arm.</p>
<p>Whew! Survived H’s 50th birthday weekend still fitting in my skinny jeans! I won’t let idad see the carb count on my Livestrong account. ;>) Dinner Saturday in Boston’s North End with friends and then a small family party Sunday. I’m staring down a couple of homemade baking powder biscuits left over from last night’s strawberry shortcake. They may have to go in the garbage disposal today. </p>
<p>On the topic of fitness, it was nice just to be able to walk from our hotel to the restaurant without huffing and puffing and sweating as in days of yore.</p>
<p>nrdsb4- I disagree with much of the Cooper study. I know the authors and I admire most of the Cooper research and have been involved in several of their studies. Ken Cooper is a family friend. HOWEVER, these authors have always promoted the “fit and fat” concept. If you saw Steve Blair you might understand why. I agree that it is important to be fit. I do NOT agree that you should be able to excuse being overweight by the fact that you are “fit”. I don’t buy it- have told Steve Blair that (as have others)- and think it is bad information to put out there. Cooper’s whole concept is based on cardiovascular fitness and the need to MOVE! I agree with that. I also think a healthy body weight is crucial and that barring eating disorders, there is almost no such thing as “too thin”.</p>
<p>I was thinking this morning about all of the great research that could be done with the LiveStrong database. Imagine taking the top 10 percent of people that lost twenty percent or more weight and looking at what they ate, how they worked out, etc. or perhaps interviewing them to see what they did.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>They are related in that government health policy tends to become universally preached and accepted, even if it’s dead wrong. Doctors give bad advice. Health websites give bad advice and, before long, you have the country largely believing bad advice. Let me give you an example. Over 90% of all people in the US who have successfully quit smoking (about half of all smokers) did so with no pharmaceutical nicotine products. Clearly it is not only possible to quit smoking without buying a nicotine patch, it is extremely common. Millions of people have done it and are continuing to do it every day. Yet, the official government message is that quitting without nicotine is so impossibly difficult that you really shouldn’t even try it. Doctors must (if they want insurance reimbursements) attempt to sell every smoker pharmaceutical nicotine. Yet, several large scale population studies now demonstrate that these products not only don’t work, but that people who quit cold turkey are more likely to still be non-smokers one year later.</p>
<p>IMO, giving people misguided information like BMI (and Barack Obama being borderline “overweight”) is a negative in the fight against obesity. Now, you can say that of course BMI isn’t accurate and that it’s only useful for population studies, but when I – just an average Joe – go to the government CDC site on healthy weight and use their BMI calculator, here is what I’m told:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So basically, the goverment is telling me that I should lose at least 13 more pounds and that it would be OK if I lost an additional 54 pounds. That’s crazy. I haven’t weighed 159 pounds since I was in college. That would be somewhere in the range of 11% to 14% body fat. For a 57 year old guy? Just to squeek out of the “overweight” category, according to government information? I mean sure, I might be able to get to 14% body fat, but is that really normal by any stretch of the imagination for a 57 year old male? Most of the stuff I read suggests that 16% to 20% body fat is the ideal range for a 50 to 60 year old male, yet I’m being told, by the official government site, that this ideal range would, in fact, make me fat?</p>
<p>I’d be dead before I ever got to 118 pounds. I would have zero body fat at around 140 pounds.</p>
<p>Yet, go to any diet site or any doctors office and the first thing you’ll get hit with is your BMI. How does that help anyone? How does it help anyone to tell them not to try quitting smoking the way 9 out of 10 successful quitters have done it? How does it help fat people to tell them to eat more carbs? It would be better to just say nothing, IMO.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh, I definitely think there is such a thing as too thin. Not that many people have that problem, of course!</p>
<p>There’s a point where getting thinner (or maintaining thinness) requires burning up muscle and lean body mass. That’s not good. Even ultra-lean fitness models can’t stay at very low body fat percentages indefinitely.</p>
<p>The bigger issue, IMO, is the psychological danger in telling people that must strive for impossible goals. That’s where the real risk lies. I do tend to think that exercise and some degree of fitness is probably more valuable than the absolute number on the scale. I sure saw dramatic improvements from increasing fitness even while I was still in the overweight or even obese category on the scale.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>“They” say that an important part of successful weight control is being able to blow it out for a holiday meal or celebration, without guilt, and then get right back on the healthy eating horse. Basically, to give yourself permission for the occasional splurge.</p>
<p>When I did that over Christmas, I found that giving myself permission actually resulted in some degree of moderation. I bet that you still ate less, even during a celebration weekend, than you would have before you became a fit person.</p>