Activity/Exercise/Diet/Nutrition


#21

Guess who was able to do a handful of chin-ups from a static straight arm hang today for the first time in forever. Pretty dadgum good for a big body.


#22

Imma saaaayyyyy, you! :slight_smile: I don’t think I can do even one!

Pre-keto, I used exercise as a punishment for a “bad” diet, CICO…I hated every minute of it.

Now I know better and I exercise to keep my body fit. What’s my definition of fit? I have enough muscle in my arms and legs to pick up heavy boxes and if someone invites me for a long walk or a hike, I say sure. I workout in the early morning with FitnessBlender videos - strength, cardio and pilates. I walk train station-work-train station every day, that is a 5km return trip, I like walking, it clears my head. :slight_smile:
My x-mas present is Body by Science, I believe a little change will be positive.


(charlie3) #23

All summer I walked 50 miles a week, no access to an Airdyne (plenty of mail carriers do about the same). Finally back on the airdyne and realizing I benefit from time at the higher heart rate. Walking only is not ideal. Also suprised to find the Airdyne is less stressful than walking even at a higher effort.


(David Cooke) #24

Hello, yes, after three frustrated days I came back to the forum, as I just mentioned on my original thread. I said what I think there.
For myself, my body astonished me when I went Keto (threw away the statins unopened, stopped the BP meds). After a month or so I was IF 18 / 6` and a few weeks after that started running. 250 metres to the end of the road, puff, pant, wheeze, clutch my heart etc. Eventually managed to run back. Did that about ten times before I got up the courage to turn right and do a 1 K circuit, plenty of walking involved. Then a 2 K circuit, then 3.5 K, still walking some.
Now 10 months later I have one 10 K race behind me, have an 11 and an 11.5 K race waiting for me this year and am confident that I can do it, without stopping or walking.
So I have proof that Keto works the way I do it (for me), and along the way I had to learn about nutrition (eat the night/morning before a race or not?), electrolytes, hydration, recovery time and other things. No more cramps now, no more joint pain.
I will be 72 in January.


(Ellen ) #25

You’re a great example of keto woe (nutrition) and exercise used together. Impressive. I’m hoping to get back to a 10k run again. I did two 10k runs about 8 years ago. Now I walk/run about 4 miles in 60 minutes 4 days a week. You sound very healthy and should be very proud of yourself.


(Edith) #26

It looks like you’re not to shabby yourself!


(Ellen ) #27

Lol…you’re so sweet @VirginiaEdie. I was pretty hot, if I must say so myself :blush:. Fell down so fast, actually it was slow and insidious. Like I woke up one day 40lbs overweight with a sedentary job and no ambition. I feel much better now. Most times much more energetic. Funny how life can just take over and knock you down. Thanks @VirginiaEdie for saying that. Now I’ve GOT to get on the treadmill tomorrow, lol! Vanity.


(Edith) #28

Encouragement is a strong motivator. :grinning:


(charlie3) #29

Modern conveniences make life so easy we needed to invent a word, exercise, to compensate. Problem is it requires discipline, something not needed much in the past. What’s worked for me is to get “addicted” to the new way I feel. I’ve used the same approach in the past to substitute for discipline. The technique is to move into the new habits slowly and deliberately, even advance slower than is possible.

I’m breaking some exercise rules, doing more lower intensity work than commonly recommended and being minimalist about lifting, even though I’d love to be lifting more.

In theory we should be able to improve on the past. We have far greater access to food and activity/exercise can be better controled, and we can control exposure to the elements better than in the past. But then we have to use all that for improving ourselves instead of the reverse.

Right now I’m amazingly consistent, doing the exercise and staying on the diet and monitoring that with excellent apps for nutrition and activity. Does anyone know of a smart watch that approaches the accuracy of a chest heart rate monitor. I tried a Fitbit product. It doesn’t get anything right.


(Edith) #30

I bought a Garmin Forerunner HRM/GPS. The wrist HRM on it is just not as good as the chest strap. I spent about $225. Some HRM/GPS can be really pricey. Maybe the wrist monitors work better on them, but I doubt it. I think it’s just the nature of trying to measure a pulse on a wrist while moving about.


#31

I have a Polar Vantage M and the review said the HRM deviates a little, especially during cardio exercises. The accuracy is much better with the chest strap, but I don’t have it so my watch will have to be enough. My husband has a Suunto and we notice differences in meters walked (we both turned on the hiking program at the same time and place, same for turning it off), our watches record hand movements as steps (driving, etc) and hiking poles cause errors in step counting, etc. I believe that these watches are like tracking apps, they aren’t 100%, deviations are very likely. If someone wants detailed and correct HR, chest strap would be a must?


(Scott) #32

I had a chest strap monitor but got tired of having to lick it in the morning to get the contacts to take. I have a versa fitbit with HR but it doesn’t (last time I checked) sync to my running app. I liked looking at the overlay of HR on my route, hills light up bright red. Maybe since Adidas bought runtastic they can sync soon.

I have been making it out to run and stop by the gym every other day the last two weeks now. They say it takes two weeks to make something a habit so I am sooo close.


(charlie3) #33

I tried a fiitbit Ionic for a while and compared chest strap with the watch. The Ionic was useless for HR. I use a chest strap for all my airdyne rides to monitor the work, lots of insights. Recently I’m doing 2x1 hour rides per day, less on lifting days. So why do I feel stronger on the second ride than the first? It’s a small difference I might not notice except for the HR monitor.


#34

I took my 17 year old nephew on a surf trip for two days.

Now that is a work out. We surfed twice a day, and because I was the alleged responsible adult, I stayed out in the waves with him until I couldn’t paddle.

He constantly ate, mainly carbohydrates. He is as muscly and skinny as a greyhound.

I did note that after 2 hours in the surf he had to paddle in and eat 4 bananas and a couple of hundred grams of dry granola. Then he paddled out again.

We got to a lunch-time feed break on day 2 and he asked, “Uncle Frankobear how is it you can surf all morning but without any breakfast?” That’s when I implanted a low carb and healthy fats idea in his thinking. Sneaky.

I have that nice, contented muscle soreness this morning of a few days well spent in activity in the ocean.


(charlie3) #35

My last employment involved steady physical work. I thought I must be at least in okay shape. Wrong! Modern work is work, it’s mostly not exercise. 20 months of reformed diet and exercise has been transformative.

Interesting or important things compete for our time. Food preparation and physical activity get left by the side of the road in favor of all that other stuff. It would be hard to do all this health and fitness stuff if I was still working 60 hours a week. In retirement mode these days.


#36

Two days of surfing with a teenage nephew. It was quite intense physical activity.

Usually, I might have a relaxing 60 to 90 minute surf every few days in summer; 3 or 4 surfs a week. On other days I’d swim or walk etc. These surf sessions are at quite wild beaches that require literal leg work, long soft sand walks (aching calf muscles and gluteals), or steep beach side trail climbs (Nature’s step machine), while carrying the board and beach gear.

With the nephew, it was 2 x 2 hour surf sessions per day for me. He was in the water for 6hrs+ each day. I surfed and paddled until I couldn’t. I couldn’t paddle and let the waves wash me in to have a rest in the shallows before dragging myself up the beach.

Within the two day work out, my sleep for the two nights and hence, has been amazing. So deep. Rapidly to sleep at 9pm and awake and day ready (albeit slightly muscle achy) at 6:30am.

I did the morning surf fasted. He had cereal and fruit. After about 2 hours from breakfast he would paddle in and eat dry cereal and fruit (bananas) from his pack. He was constantly hungry. I swear he grew taller in front of my eyes over the two days. On the second morning I fed him bacon and eggs before surfing. Yes, I used my nephew as a lab rat. That morning he surfed 4 hours without a feeding break (he noted it mentally, as he didn’t have to lose any waves to eat). At lunch I ate higher carb than my normal Keto WOE. Eating meat and salad in rye bread, or 4 fried eggs on top of green salad and coleslaw (cabbage), and we both ate some bakery food, and had fruit (mango or banana) smoothies.

My morning fasted blood glucose after the higher carb days was 6.1mmol/l (110mg/dl) both days and blood ketones 0.1mmol/l. Fair enough for over-exercising and carb loading. Today, after returning to 2 meals per day, 17:7 for the past 2 days, BG is back to my regular 5.1mmol/l (92mg/dl) (fasted) and 0.3 mmol/l blood ketones.

Having the slight ketone production in view of the higher carb intake tells me that my insulin response was likely quite good and that high persistent insulin did not shut down blood ketone production despite the dietary change and increased activity.

Today is 72 hours since the 48 hour repeating cycle HIT workout. On day 1 after the surf trip, I was back in the office sitting in a chair for a 4 hour meeting (getting some sceptical looks from management due to the wind swept appearance) plus a 3 hour car drive. Recovery day 2 was back in the surf for 90 minutes until paddle muscle fatigue failure point, also back on to Keto WOE with 2MAD and 6 hrs between meals, ‘intermittent eating’, in the feeding window. that is my normal pattern. Today is recovery day 3 back in the Keto WOE routine. I feel amazingly motivated to be active despite the hot summer weather. I will be going on a surf check after I post this. But I feel that contented muscle ache of having been physically active, not enough to make me feel like resting, nor do I feel tired. I feel strong, if strong can be a feeling?

It was an interesting combination of events that has resulted in many positive results. A combination of family social bonding, accidental high intensity workouts, a dietary change that included increased carbs during increased physical activity, and a rapid return to Keto WOE, without the whole feared train wreck and weeks of potential carb bingeing in the festive season.

Forget paying a personal trainer. Just identify a near by sporty teenager and try to keep up with them, maybe 2 days per month.

There remains a dilemma. Surfing season is upon us. I have just received a government sponsored CGM (continuous glucose monitor) with which I was going to test various n=1 responses to food during my work holidays. But I’m in the water every day now it seems.

Has anyone used a CGM while surfing or bodysurfing or ocean swimming? I might have to postpone the experiments, KCKO, and keep on surfing at a pace the befits my more senior years (rather than at teenager pace).


(charlie3) #37

My diet is pretty much figured out, routine. Crono says the micros are covered and the macros where I want them. I look forward to meals. 40 net carbs seems good enough considering my activity and sometimes I wonder if it should be higher. My only gripe is the big salad is getting pricey.

In the mean time, I do a bunch of cardio, either walking or the Airdyne, lately prefering the Airdyne. A question for me has been, what’s the optimal time and intensity on the bike. I’ve been going by what feels right even when it seems to fall short of my ambition. I use a heart rate monitor and I’m in the most comfortable groove when it reads (220-70) * 70% = 110 heart rate. I found a running trainer (I don’t run) today who’s apparently renowned for his 180 system of heart rate training. He advocates most training time should be spent with heart rate at 180 - age for the sake of building an aerobic foundation. For me that’s 180 - 70 = 110, right where my body is already telling me to be. The important news is may be I don’t have to push the intensity beyond that. He also says no benefit to more than 2 hours a day. My body tells me the same thing. It’s nice to have those confirmations.


#38

Submaximal effort at around 70% is apparently a good area for increasing cardiovascular endurance. You can do the long, slow method or do interval training.

As long as you progress in time or intensity you should be good.

I’m not well read on running, I’m more of a weight room strength coach.


#39

@anon24390425 Tyler. Any comments or advice about the Body by Science approach by Dr. McGuff? I’m active daily. But I want to increase strength so I can survive in the ocean when there are big waves.

Every summer I get too excited, see my fitness improve and then get an injury. So activity for me starts with rule #1: Try not to get injured. (A la Ken Ford from the STEM Talk podcast)

Dr. Naiman’s approach holds appeal, but still may contain injury risk. #fearofinjury #middleage


(charlie3) #40

Endurance implies a sports goal. I’m not aiminng for any sports goal per se because that means accepting risk of overuse, overtraining, etc. 2x1 hour rides on the airdyne at 70% are getting routine and feel fine. Apparently comparable training over long periods is also productive for elite performers so I don’t have to push it any further. 90-120 minutes a week of resistance training feels like enough high intensity. Lately I’m doing 1 set of 10 exercises 3 times a week. If it makes even the smallest strength gains over time that’s fast enough progress.