<p>“all inclusive resort with incredible food,”</p>
<p>Is there such a thing? Is there an all inclusive that has good, unlimited nigiri and sashimi? Not that that defines incredible food, but it’s a start. </p>
<p>I too wear a pedometer at work. I am at a low end BMI. In order to not take a lunch break and be able to get out of work on time I started staying at my desk most of the time. I went from 4000 steps at work to 1500. If I walk around the building more and take a lunch time I will add one hour to my work day. I exercise at night about 8000 steps in an hour and half, so that is worth it.</p>
<p>emeraldkity: Yup. A taxi for a half-mile. I know people in their 20s who are out of breath after walking a half-block – they aren’t going to walk a half-mile. I see people at hotels all the time who take the elevator to go from the lobby to the mezzanine. </p>
<p>My husband, who is incredibly healthy and fit and pretty knowledgable about food and fitness, would not agree, I don’t think. While he believes exercise is vitally important, I think he would say that what you fuel yourself with is most important.
Our food has changed – so many genetically modified ingredients. Food is not as healthy as it used to be.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link ucbalum!</p>
<p>I can’t believe that researchers trying to understand obesity have nothing better to do than to flog the dead horse of the NHANES data yet again. Those surveys are so flawed (food diary from memory “What did you eat, on average, last year”) as to be completely worthless.</p>
<p>IMO, if you have to exercise 150 minutes a week to not gain weight, your diet isn’t working very well.</p>
<p>My husband doesn’t eat that well, imo.
Pizza for lunch or deli meat sandwiches with american cheese on french rolls & potato chips & cookies, breakfast sandwiches & a maple bar for breakfast, and what ever i make for dinner. Its easier to make what he will eat.
He weighs what he did in high school, which was over 40 years ago.
He quit smoking a couple weeks ago, so Im waiting to see if that means he will start eating more or maybe even gaining weight!</p>
<p>emeraldk4- good chance he will gain weigh even if he eats the same</p>
<p>Very few people exercise 2-3 hours/day…who has the time? 30 minutes on treadmill or running outside is pretty good/day, do some weight lifting, mow your lawn with a push mower once/week and you’ll be in pretty good shape…if you eat healthy too.</p>
<p>Im hoping so.
He lost weight when he quit drinking, so he should gain weight from quitting smoking.
Maybe it will even be the start of eating healthier.</p>
<p>An interesting point is that studies are clear: exercise will not cut your weight, mostly because a) you don’t burn as many calories as you think while exercising, especially if you net those versus what you would have been doing during that time, and b) you eat more because you’re hungry. This says to me the decrease in movement is particularly insidious because it tends to throw you into a dieting/not dieting cycle rather than make small but lasting changes in lifestyle. </p>
<p>As for diet itself, because I lift, I find I have a strong need, an urge, for protein. I buy protein powder and mix it with my coffee in the morning. If I do aerobic work, I tend to crave more carbs, meaning more sugars. I think that speaks to the body’s needs in recovery from kinds of exertion. </p>
<p>Well… I am at the gym for the third time today. Probably going to do 40,000 steps today.</p>
<p>After having a burger, fries, and a piece of cake, I kind of have to hit the gym. </p>
<p>I think eating right really helps keep the weight off. </p>
<p>8500 steps to go…sh…</p>
<p>. If I do aerobic work, I tend to crave more carbs, meaning more sugars. I think that speaks to the body’s needs in recovery from kinds of exertion."</p>
<p>For me, this is true.</p>
<p>I have a pocket pedometer. It’s a good reminder that when working from home I don’t walk much. I try to walk around the neighborhood. </p>
<p>I rarely hit the 10,000 step goal… but I often get an extra few thousand due to the reminder to walk. It’s not vigorous exercise, but it beats sitting on the couch and eating. Oh- I tend to eat healthier once I’ve gone to the trouble of getting extra exercise, </p>
<p>I used to be a stick in high school. I had to take meds to put weight on because I was 6’ and under 130 lb. Then it worked too well and I shot up to 200 lb. I definitely don’t look obese but nothing changed- if anything, I eat much healthier now. I finally started exercising and have lost close to 10 lb in the last month but it’s hard work. </p>
<p>OTOH, my fiance eats nothing but pizza and crap food. Rarely exercises. He’s ~6’2" and MIGHT weigh 150 lb soaking wet- MAYBE. It’s frustrating -.-</p>
<p>I wish I could walk to places but because of where I live, nothing is within walking distance. When I’m in Ann Arbor at school & work, I walk pretty much everywhere. I do have an exercise bike and weights. I walk the dogs when they’re being cooperative (one is very elderly and can only walk about a half mile- the other one just doesn’t like to walk). I’m hoping to move somewhere out of the motor state where there is less reliance on cars. We’ll see… </p>
<p>For those interested in walking data, I know there was a very cool study done through the University of Minnesota (one of the Social Epi profs whose name is escaping me) that looked at walking in different neighborhoods. I’ll try to find a link for it. </p>
<p>ETA: This is the prof if anyone wants to look up his work: <a href=“http://sph.umn.edu/faculty1/expertise/sociology/name/michael-oakes/”>http://sph.umn.edu/faculty1/expertise/sociology/name/michael-oakes/</a></p>
<p>Yes, I think pointing out the proportion and type of sugars is important. “Calorie” is not all that strong a concept, because the way it is measured in the lab (energy release from combustion) is not comparable to the way the body processes food (for many foods, a lot of the calories come out the other end).</p>
<p>Do you all own those wrist band thingies? Is that how you all seem to know how many steps you are taking a day? How many steps in a mile, roughly? (For short women, say – I understand that it would vary!)</p>
<p>Too much leisure time is spent sitting looking at a screen. I’d guess more of us live in the suburbs and drive, too, and it is oh so easy to drive somewhere and not even get out of the car. I’d bet screen time is the big difference between now and 1988. </p>
<p>I am a little skeptical. I work in a gym and see loads of people working out that are heavy. There are lots of great reasons to exercise. In my experience weight loss seems to be one of the weakest reasons to take up exercise. Most people I meet don’t seem to lose from exercise - unless they were very sedentary.</p>
<p>Okay, but why is it automatic to say, “It must be exercise?” I mean, if people are eating the same number of calories, but they come from a different kind of food, that could be “it” too?</p>
<p>I mean, nobody in my family is heavy and we all walk everywhere and work out with weights regularly. (I consider that to be the greatest gift I gave both my girls, the image of a woman working with weights four times a week)… But up til I was 40 I ate anything and everything and never gained an ounce. I’ve told my girls they will have to give up carbs at some point, no fighting it.</p>
<p>I would say, the study only shows that people are eating similar amounts of calories and exercise has maybe gone down. There are multiple factors to what each kind of food will do inside your body.</p>
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<p>I would rather exercise/walk more, and be able to eat more than 1200-1500 calories a day. So that’s what I do. I eat a fair amount, most of it healthy, but because I exercise a lot more than 150 minutes a week, I don’t gain weight.</p>
<p>And I live in a real neighborhood. I walk to the drug store, the library, the gym. I do own one of the fitness trackers, and one of my friends is amazed by my step count. But my car sits in my driveway, while she has to get into hers to do anything.</p>