Exercise?

#42

5 hour (with more hours as breaks) is around my limit (I did it once but it didn’t feel good) after I have gotten used to it! I do very tiny distances and not all year round. But it’s very nice to cycle in the nearby wildlife park :slight_smile: or quickly go to the village (our own, it’s 3.5km from us…? something like that, the center is 4km. if we would be farther, we would belong another village! :D) or some of the nearby towns. I can do 20km (and another 20 back) if it’s not too steep. But some steepness is important, it would be boring and too easy without!

There is a too steep hill in one direction, it’s not too bad at most part but it’s LONG. I need to walk a lot :frowning: (more like I stop, wait, drink, walk a little and try again. but it happens too often :frowning: ). I need more stamina :(. My 3 gear simple bike surely doesn’t help. On the way back I reach about 45km/h (depends on the wind).
40+ mph, that is impossible level for me uphill, clearly!
I don’t like that road, too hard uphill, too fast downhill (I brake before I take a big turn in the bottom because I am a chicken and the road is very bad quality anyway. still, I shouldn’t brake THAT much, maybe I will learn one day).

Now I want to cycle again. I didn’t do it since weeks!

#43

I never used to have to exercise, due to the job (on the tools electrical installation and maintenance engineer) but I still did when I was younger: jogging, cycling and weights. When i got older and busier, not so much- more dog walking tbh, which is still good. I’m 46 btw.

Then after a couple of promotions I became more or less a pen pusher, accountant, contract manager type role…so I wasn’t running around sites with a ladder on my back and a tool bag slung over me. It didn’t take long for the weight to start piling on after that. Just a few years and I was in trouble diabetes wise- but I put this down to age and diet also, not just lack of physical activity…maybe stress also.

Anyway, I haven’t really increased my activity since losing all that weight under keto. I still take the pup for a good run every day. I do all my own chores (not shared with anyone!) because I’m divorced and live alone with the pup.

But I have bought a good bicycle, and have tentatively started cycling again. I also still have the weights out in the garage waiting for me to get my mojo back :wink:

#44

My SO is the type who immediately and quickly starts to gain when his activity goes down, it happened even just in winter holiday (they get a few weeks off around that time).

I don’t have this. I may go inactive and start to eat carbs, I probably will maintain, unless I do it longer term, I very slowly gain there but I can’t do that anymore, thankfully.
I need exercise to lose fat, of course along with eating less than I did this far… Maybe it happens one day.

But exercise is for my health and joy :slight_smile: I never ever want to stop weightlifting. Well ask me when I get 100 years old but I really will need it then, won’t I? But maybe I will just walk marathons then. Or something. (I want to go hiking in the mountains on my 100th birthday and I am super stubborn.) I don’t make predictions after 120, I probably will be impressed if I live and walk some. (If I can’t walk anymore, kill me. I know it’s too important to me, not logical, I have brain and hands to draw with but still. I can’t stay still for long. it’s fine and dandy to do wheelchair races but it’s not for me, I have stairs anyway and don’t want to move).

Exercise is key to keep myself healthy enough for 120+ years, I am sure of that. I have good genes, okay diet, good enough attitude I suppose… But I need to do everything right. So I never will stop exercising. I hope.

But even if you takes off a few decades, I NEED exercise to feel best. I get super low energy without exercise even if I am healthy at 45… I can’t not to do it.

#45

Surfing. :surfing_man: Maybe it’s meditation?

#46

It should be noted though, that exercise is not the (only) answer to weight loss and metabolic syndrome…that can only be addressed through what nutrition/crap you are eating…and how much.

#47

Outside of weight loss bubble, exercise is still very healthy in many ways and very useful specially to people who dont move much on their work/free time.

The time needed to have the positive effects is also very low.

(Allie) #48

Agreed, the benefits of exercise go way further than any weight loss that may be achieved (although exercise for weight loss is really not helpful at all).

(Karen) #49

As a number of you know I exercise regularly. I have never been trying to lose weight, the woe (carni) has always been for optimum health. The exercise though is just so good for the muscles, heart and lung capacity and also mental wellbeing. It isn’t going to stop lifes little interruptions such as heart attacks, strokes etc but if you are fit and healthy beforehand it can only help toward your recovery. I don’t mean to sound flippant, I had a stroke last October but they consultants all remarked that my good fitness level was probably my saving grace.

If one hasn’t done a lot of exercise in the past then start with baby steps, we all had to start on day 1 but those baby steps can be gradually imcreased and the more one does the more energy one gets. Sure, it does hurt to start with and if one continues to push oneself it hurts no matter how fit one is. If it was easy then what would be the point. The pain doesn’t last long after the workout has finished unless its muscle ache and that’s a good ache because it says “Yay I feel that working” and will ease off during the next workout.

Remember to listen to your body, tune right in and it will tell you when you’ve done enough, when you need to rest and above all try and give yourself a good window of opportunity for sleep as that aids mind and body recovery.

#50

Very good advice.

:slight_smile:

#51

When circulating blood ketones reach 1.0 mmol/l-ish physical activity is physiologically compelled. People start moving with the correct fuel.

(Bob M) #52

I was thinking about exercise. Let’s say you’re eating high carb, and you always walk (say, the dog) after eating. That alone would limit the blood sugar spike and potentially lead to lower weight, or less increased weight. It’s not the “calories” being burnt, it’s what you’re doing to blood sugar, insulin, hormones, etc.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #53

In addition, the exercise also helps combat damage to to muscle-cell mitochondria, which gradually become more and more damaged from trying to metabolise the glucose in all that carbohydrate.

#54

I was always a naturally active person. Through my teens and early twenties, I walked literally everywhere (be that to get to a place or recreationally). When I started going into the city to socialise, there was no such thing as night buses then and I couldn’t afford taxis, so I would always walk the 2+ hours home after a night out.

Later, I took up cycling and it became my primary method of transport (still is). I fell in love with yoga and did some weights and interval on and off.

My problems began with the pandemic really. We went to WFH and have remained this way. To begin with, I was very good about remaining active, but as time wore on, the laziness set in; if I didn’t HAVE to go anywhere, then I simply wouldn’t. I had been battling some severe depression that started with some hormonal imbalance (medical thing… many medical things, thanks uterus), I started eating crap and became a sedentary, unmotivated ball of misery.

Now that I’ve embraced putting all of that right again, I’ve started out slowly with some daily stretches to which I gradually add more, I’ve added in some short HIIT sessions and a little weights just recently, and I’m back out an about on the bike again. I feel much better for it.

I think the main benefit for me is the mental one tbh. Obviously, it’s nice to have less wobbly jelly bits and some decent muscle tone, but then even that really plays into the psychological aspect by allowing me to look in the mirror without hating myself and motivating me to keep at it.

From what I understand, a degree of physical activity is absolutely necessary for preserving brain function and cognition.

Anyway, done rambling now… thanks for coming to my talk xD

(Bob M) #55

I like the Ted Talk.

I exercise primarily because it makes me feel better, both physically and mentally. When I signed up for my last gym (way pre-covid), they had you fill out a form, and one question was “what are your goals for exercising”? I had none then and have none now.

When I was younger, I was a pseudo-body builder (pseudo because I lacked both time and genetics), and I did have goals, like: “Lift X weight by Y date”. Then I realized that I was not genetically gifted to be strong, so what I thought would take a month or a few months in reality took years. I got bigger – a lot bigger – but it took years of work and I never got close to being able to compete.

After that realization hit home, I kept working out for the way it made me feel. I simply feel better after exercise. And, for me, lifting weights (now, body weight training) has a better stress-relieving effect than does aerobics. So, I do body weight training not to get “huuuuuge” but to get stress reduction and to feel better. I still do aerobics, as this lets my mind wander and get into a zen-like state. But both of these have the primary benefit for me of making me feel better.