<p>I do not need to “recover” from my exercise, my exercise is “recovery” from everything else, relaxing and taking care of myself personally. But if rigor is your game, if it adds excitement and makes it more entertaining, why not? Whatever works, it is much better than doing nothing. Just do not hurt yourself.</p>
<p>Yeah, especially as we get older, I think we have to watch out and not overdo it.
I’m new to golf, played 18 long holes with my H a few weeks ago, was driving the ball really well…but ended up with pretty bad pain in my forearm (“tennis elbow”)…so now my weightlifting routine has been very limited. Might have to do PT. 
Everytime I try to get back to running, my knee yells at me, very loudly
So walking, biking and yoga for now.<br>
And limiting those calories too…this board helps keep me motivated. I must say I’m in awe of MOWC.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP–I lost 30 lbs. after childbirth, in about a week. 
My DH still has his pregnancy weight gain, when he was eating for two as well. :D</p>
<p>Seriously, I agree with those who say it’s a combination of being active and eating right. (Not “exercising” and “dieting.”)</p>
<p>Recently, I lost about 15 pounds and I’d like to lose more but maintaining right now (while kids are home for summer, etc.) is the goal. Anyhow, I found the livestrong website to be helpful. There are others like it, but this one is free. There is a section called myplate and you can track all foods and exercise. The site calculates the number of calories burned for various activities and has a massive data base to calculate the calories in various foods. You can track the calories taken in and expended on a daily basis. Research shows that those who write down what they eat lose more weight than those who don’t. Often, people who are dieting convince themselves they are eating less than they really are. I had talked myself into thinking that my increasing age and slowing metabolism was the reason I kept gaining weight. Yes, my metabolism has slowed dramatically over the years, but I was eating more than I was admitting to myself. Forcing myself to track what I was eating made me see that it really is possible to lose weight if one is very disciplined. What I’m happiest about now is that I have eaten a lot of what I’ve wanted to this summer and not gained it back – and I think that’s because I am exercising on a pretty regular basis and checking the scale carefully. That’s the other piece of success I think – having a number that you don’t let yourself get past. The hard thing is when holidays roll around, etc. and the pounds pile back on. I just hope that knowing all of this will translate into some long-term weight management for me. MomMusic, I always lost everything by the 6 week checkup after my first three kids were born. The last one, when I was older of course, was a big reality check when the weight didn’t just come right off. That was when I knew my metabolism was starting to change.</p>
<p>Another free site that my daughter likes a lot is SparkPeople, although the email notifications can get overwhelming.</p>
<p>My advice to men is they need to lift lighter weights and reduce the resistance / incline levels on the aerobic equipment. In other words, drop the machismo. Lighter weight lifted and returned slowly is better for you - particularly the return or lowering of the weight done slowly (often called eccentric loading). Better for joints, tendons and just as good for building strength because you stress the muscle for longer. Or you can do quick repetitions for longer at light weight. </p>
<p>On equipment, stop trying to prove you can hike up a mountain and concentrate on raising your stride count. Then extend your stride length and increase resistance as you keep up your stride count. This pushes your heart rate up. </p>
<p>It’s been known for a long time that intervals work well for fitness. That’s received new attention, mostly because people have been looking at very short intervals. Start with 10 seconds or 20 of high rate and then back off for a minute, repeat, repeat, etc. Your aerobic system will improve dramatically - because you’re building a peak fitness level - and as your heart rate increases (and you’re pumping a lot of blood) you’ll see metabolic change that lasts. </p>
<p>A trick for reducing hunger after exercise is the old standby: caffeine. No calories, appetite suppressant. </p>
<p>A more basic trick is to learn to ignore hunger. That’s easier than you think because you did it when you were little - and you couldn’t control your eating times - and most people in the world do it every day. Ignoring hunger requires basic mental discipline and you can help learn that by working out harder. </p>
<p>My test for whether I’m working hard enough is simple: if I’m in the gym, am I looking at the TV? If I am, I could be working harder. If I’m concentrating, if I’m only stealing a glance to check the score (or some girl), then I’m doing it right.</p>
<p>Blackberries starting to peak at lower elevations. Last few days I’ve been eating about a pint during my rides. I was thinking of making some buttermilk biscuits, blackberries, vanilla ice cream… too much after a bike ride?</p>
<p>Blackberry fritters, blackberry stew, blackberry ragout, blackberry soup, blackberry liqueur . . . . . . I could go on and on!!</p>
<p>It’s amazing how much you burn just by being active (as opposed to exercising). When I had mono in my twenties, I was put on bed rest, but told to keep my diet the same, so my body would have the nutrients it was used to. I wasn’t working out at that time in my life, just walking around a lot. Despite having sores in my mouth, I gained 15 pounds in 8 weeks from lying in bed.</p>
<p>The key to moderation for me: plates heaped with fruits and vegetables. If you eat piles of that, you will be able to eat small portions of richer foods without feeling deprived. Also, in restaurants, I anticipate that I’ll be served double what I need, and I deliberately order food that will be good at lunch the next day. It’s much easier to stop eating halfway through when you are looking forward to enjoying the second moderate portion of the meal tomorrow at work.</p>
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<p>True. There was a recent article in the NYT that said it was optimal to have protein within 15 minutes following your workout. But that you just need a little. I now use the Special K drink packets that have 5 grams of protein plus 5 grams of fiber which helps with the post exercise hunger issue.</p>
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<p>Living on 300 calories a day is likely to make you ill and all research shows that this type of extreme deprivation does not result in sustained weight loss. I’m 120 pounds and need much more than that.</p>
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<p>Pointers to your research please.</p>
<p>exercise is also very good for skin. I read somewhere that women who exercised regularly from young age maintain much younger looking skin well into the advanced age all things considered because exercise facilitates blood circulation and brings more nutrients to skin and gets rid of more waste from skin which contributes to oxidation and aging. however, this effect is really long term and should have been in place from the time the women were much younger, not like losing 2 pounds after two weeks of diet and exercise.</p>
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<p>The issue is, you put your body into starvation mode which slows your matabolism and leads to burning as much lean muscle mass as you do fat:</p>
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<p>Yes. But you will eventually lose muscle anyways as you don’t need as much muscle to support your new lower weight.</p>
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<p>Is his book considered peer-reviewed literature?</p>
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<p>Why do you assume that you will eat as much afterwards?</p>
<p>Humans are variable animals and behavior can vary very widely. My guess is that
there are studies which indicate that weight returns. For some percentages of the
studies. If you can find one that says that it is true for 100% of the participants
with a large enough sample size, then you could convince me. But I have a feeling
that this isn’t what the studies show.</p>
<p>Frankly, I have no idea how the author is perceived. I found that in a quick search and it echos what my great trainer taught me on the way to feeling the best I ever have and having incrediblty low fat with great strength. </p>
<p>My trainer will tell all that the did it all wrong before studying–daily weight training, low calories and extreme exercise. It doesn’t work and is unnecessary.</p>
<p>Slow and steady wins the race here IMO.</p>
<p>You stated that:</p>
<p>“all research shows that this type of extreme deprivation does not result in sustained weight loss”</p>
<p>I am simply asking for one bit of research which verifies what you say. If indeed ALL RESEARCH says what you stated, then it should be trivial to find one bit of peer-reviewed research with findings consistent with what you said.</p>
<p>Right?</p>
<p>All you need is a little bit of time in a research library to see if you can find one paper that supports your statement. Of course that is insufficient to verify your statement as you stated that ALL RESEARCH states what you said. To verify that, you would have to actually go through ALL RESEARCH on the topic. Which is why that it is generally wise to be careful with the word ALL.</p>
<p>Maybe I should rephrase: Over the last 15 years or more, I have worked with some very credible fitness specialists and read myriad books on fitness. There was not one that did not say that rapid weight loss is typically not sustained. There are very straight forward reasons for this as stated above.</p>
<p>Weren’t you the one who also believed you should weight train daily? Again, something every expert says is destructive and will not give you the results you’ll get if you let your body recover.</p>
<p>Everyone needs to pick their own guru, but steady, 2 pound per week weight loss (unless you start out obese) while not throwing your body into starvation mode seems to be the mantra of most.</p>
<p>A man living on 300 calories a day is at risk for so many problems I don’t know where to start.</p>
<p>BCEagle, 1,000 calories a day plus that much exercise honestly sounds like an eating disorder. 1,000 calories a day IS self-starvation, and piling massive calorie reduction through exercise on top of that is a form of purging.</p>
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<p>Okay. That is a great distance from ALL RESEARCH. And the inclusion of the weasel-word <typically> blunts your point.</typically></p>
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<p>I don’t know. I personally would just go back through the thread if I thought that someone said something that I wanted to use. To not do so would be intellectually lazy.</p>
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<p>I’ll bet you a million bucks that you can’t demonstrate that every expert says that weight training every day is destructive. In fact I’d guess that you could find the exact opposite of what you say.</p>
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<p>Even this isn’t true.</p>
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<p>I’m a fairly pragmatic type and try not to follow gurus, cults and shopping networks.</p>
<p>I also try to be careful with certain words, like ALL, RESEARCH, EXPERTS, etc.</p>
<p>1000 calories a day with burning 700 with exercise is true eating disorder.</p>