How to find exercise info that's true (just like I had to get thru a lowfat diet to find keto)

(Auden) #1

Hi! I have been walking 30 minutes. I’m stalled at a high weight and tired of waiting to lose weight in order to get in shape. I want to start now, stall or not. I was a college athlete, but that seems like a lifetime ago and we had a full-time trainer giving us work outs. I cannot afford a trainer.

My question is: where to start educating myself on exercise?

When I started trying to lose weight I got sucked into a lot of different diets before I found keto, which I consider to be the “truth”. Has there been a similar break through in exercise? I’m really confused by the two camps: do 1-2 HIIT workouts a week, or do lifting every other day alternating with cardio, lots of intensity.

These forums have taught me so much about keto, and I’m hoping you can do the same for exercise. Thanks!

(LeeAnn Brooks) #2

The best way to break into exercise is just to get moving.

Walks are great for this.

After that, find something you enjoy. Try HIIT.
If you like it, go with it. If not, try something different like Zumba or running or bicycling.

The most important thing is to find things you’ll stick with, so find a few things to mix up and keep you coming back for more.

(Empress of the Unexpected) #3

I walk/run 30 minutes a day. And have a weight machine which I love. I think building muscle is important at all ages.

(Davy) #4

You probably already know this, but losing weight is around 80% diet and 20% exercise; even though Jack Lalanne, the GrandFather of exercise said Exercise is King and Nutrition is Queen. Still he knew the most about both. Get his book, called
“Live Young Forever: 12 Steps to Optimum Health, Fitness and Longevity”
It’s only about $8 on Amzn and it is super, super, SUPER motivational and full of every good way to exercise. He lived to be about 97 and would have lived longer, but refused to go see a doctor; which I can see his point. You’ll get tons of ideas from the MAN, about ways to exercise.

Where are you in your Keto diet?

edit: here is just a snippet on Jack’s views on exercise. You’ll love this. (nobody’s perfect, his views on eating fat are off a bit, imho. But then he did eat mostly fresh fruits, veggies, and good cuts of meat, mostly fish)
Anyway, check this out! http://www.shareguide.com/LaLanne.html

(Sarah Slancauskas) #5

I think a really good way to get into exercise is walking. Just moving more in general.

For me, I love doing at home workouts with DVDs. I use a system called Atletica by Powerstrike. It’s not for beginners but I worked up to it with various others and now I do an hour a day with 2x8kg dumbbells. I find resistance training really helps me to feel good - strong, toned, lowers anxiety. I also do Cathe Friedrich DVDs - also advanced but she does do some beginners fitness too. Jillian Michaels does some decent workouts but you need to pick carefully - very hit or miss!

If the DVDs aren’t for you, you could try a HiiT class or some other group class.

I think as AnnieGirl says, you need to find that thing you enjoy, that makes you feel good and want to do it more, and stick with it. If you don’ enjoy it you’ll struggle to build it into a routine.

Best of luck and I think it’s great you feel you want to do this for yourself!

(charlie3) #6

Keep walking while you do your research. I walk around my shop floor and use the entire 80 minutes of breaks and lunch time walking. On thursday I hit an all time high, 17,000 steps, 8 miles, 700 calories, all during working hours. Part of the reason that happened is because recently, on breaks, a runner’s app is telling me my pace and I have a metronome keeping my normal pace consistent. (My research indicates that you want to walk above 3 mph to get some cardio benefit.) Behind those is a text to speech app thats reading me those scientific papers you are presumably looking for. I’m averaging 30 miles a week. It all plays through my phone to a BT headset I also do 3 lifting sessions and a couple of cardio sessions a week. In three months of keto and exercise I got rid of 15 pounds and lowered blood pressure almost 40 points.

P.S. There is a movement in the fitness business called “evidence based”. Look of that and may be Brad Schoenfeld. He is one of the prominent Phd’s promoting this approach.

(less is more, more or less) #7

As a patient of Dr. Eric Westman, he was not enthusiastic about an exercise regimen, from the perspective of weight management. He wasn’t opposed to exercise, per se, but, like Gary Taubes, he merely pointed out that we as a society have dramatically increased our exercise habits with little to show for it. On this point, Taubes and Westman are quite correct.

Personally, I enjoy my exercise. I started it for weight maintenance decades ago (for which it was an utter failure) but now find great mental, spiritual and physical benefits quite apart from “weight reduction,” and so continue my daily exercise regimen.

TL;DR: exercise is great, but lousy for weight or health management. I like the 70/30 rule someone posted. That is roughly my experience, perhaps a little less, more like the Pareto 80/20.

More to your original question: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15708888-the-art-and-science-of-low-carbohydrate-performance

(charlie3) #8

Weight loss is not the onlyrelevent health issue. A year ago my weight was borderline overweight and the least important issue for me. I want a normal or lower blood pressure and normal blood sugar. Exercise helps. I also have a left hip that fatigues before the riight side. I’ve had this condition for at least 30 years but until a few years ago it stayed far in the background. This spring I discovered walking made it stronger. So I walk. I’m 69. When you can’t walk your independence is gone. I lift mostly because I still have a normal sized male ego but of course there are other benefits. Getting rid of 25 pounds of fat was trivally easy,for me. I want fat gone from my abdominal cavity and it is.

I bet Dr. Westman finds that people who pressure themselves to exercise are more likely to drop out of his program. I bet he’s also found that as people loose weight they just feel like being more active so why not just wait for that to happen and keep them losing weight.

What’s been hard for me is making the time for exercise sessions and the logistics of eating real food. Today I get out of work at noon and have to stop at Walmart, a produce store and Costco to assemble all the allegedly real food for the week. BTW I like what I’m eathing far better than my version of SAD but when you’re working 60 hours a week and have a long commute it’s challenging.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #9

I agree. It’s more like 80:20.

But I also like exercise for other benefits.

Mainly, regular exercise makes me feel strong in a way no amount of weight loss alone could. Both physically and mentally.

I was always the awkward kid while my sisters were both athletes. So finding a sport that makes me feel good now is empowering.

#10

Hi @auden – can you share which benefits you hope to achieve through exercise?

  • weight loss / maintenance
  • mental health & vigor
  • athletic performance
  • physical endurance
  • physical strength
  • body recomposition and appearance
  • avoidance of chronic disease & longevity
  • overall quality of life

Different kinds of exercise pertain to different goals. My bias: as the fittest fat guy in Southern California, I found exercise to be less than useless for losing weight. I lost 60 pounds by changing my eating, and use exercise purely for mental health and overall quality of life. My regimen is 15 minutes per day of light cardio, 15 minutes of resistance twice per week.

(Auden) #11

Yes! Exactly what you said - I would like to be strong, toned, and lower anxiety for sure. Plus I just enjoy it!

(Auden) #12

Wow, that level of exercise at work is awesome. And very creative use of apps! I’ve never heard the walking above 3 mph before, I will look into that. And thanks for mentioning Brad Schoenfeld, I will check him out!

(Auden) #13

Thanks! I will get that book out of the library. I really enjoy exercise! I am so tired of waiting to lose weight to start exercising - I want to do it now. I just don’t know where to start with my non-college-athlete body. (I did start with walking!) That is really cool that you’re a patient of Dr. Westman. I can totally see where he and Taubes are coming from on the weight perspective.

(Auden) #14

You make a very good point about all the benefits of exercise! I’m mostly thinking about stress reduction and being stronger just going through my day

(Auden) #15

Yes! This is exactly what I’m thinking about. Also, I am so tired of waiting to lose weight in order to start training. I come from working out 3 times a day when my sport was in season in college. I love that feeling of exercise and of competition. I’m not sure where to start with this extremely out of shape and overweight body. I’ve been walking, so now I’m trying to find what I want to do. I rowed in college, but I don’t have a river nearby, so I guess that sport is out for me right now! I wish I could run, but I’m being mindful of the load on my joints. I really enjoyed running. Maybe spinning is the answer!

(LeeAnn Brooks) #16

Have you considered doing a couch to 5k? That’s how I got started running 2 years ago. I quickly progressed from there once I met my 5k goal.

(Auden) #17

Thanks for breaking down the options! I would say mental health and I just miss the focus on the physical task. I also need to be fitter just in my every day life. I’ve given up on weight loss for the time being although I miss running in the worst way - I weigh 250 pounds, so there is no way I would risk it. Obviously weight loss would be fantastic, but I understand that weight loss comes from diet, and exercise might do more harm than good to that goal. At first I thought about lifting weights, but I think maybe spinning would fulfill that runners high with less risk to my joints. I really don’t like swimming. I did a master’s team with my husband for awhile after college and I just didn’t like it. Maybe yoga? It’s hard for me to “zone out” with that, possibly because I need to improve at so I’m not constantly thinking about my form.

(Auden) #18

I’ve tried it, but I think I need to repeat weeks and bring it down to my pace. That’s a really good suggestion, thank you! I’m off to google it

(Alec) #19

Auden
What a great question: I love it.

My opinions:

  1. The CW up to 5-10 years ago was that in the exercise world for the masses, slow cardio was best for you. Then the HIIT movement seemed to gain a lot of traction, and as you point out, right now there isn’t really a CW consensus amongst the experts on what is best.
  2. My opinion (I have done a LOT of research on exercise, being a fairly serious runner), is that both of these approaches are relevant and useful. They are each training different systems in the body (but they do cross into each other’s benefit territory as you can’t do any type of exercise without benefiting many body systems at the same time).
  3. My view of the best approach is this:
  • top priority: just do something. Do not wait. It doesn’t matter what you do, just do something today. The non-weight loss benefits of exercise are so clear (lots of studies showing the health benefits of exercise), that everyone who cares about their health should do some exercise.
  • next priority: refer to priority 1
  • next priority: optimise: if you have limited time, do HIIT. There is no doubt there are major benefits of doing HIIT, lots of studies showing this. If you have a bit more time to devote to exercise, then do both, a bit of HIIT and some longer slower cardio (walking, jogging, swimming, cycling).
  • probably the most important element of your choice of what to do is what you enjoy doing. The most important thing is consistency. If you don’t enjoy what you do, you will not keep doing it. So you need to find what suits you the most. I tend to like endurance stuff (longer slower), but I am now at a point when I also love doing some HIIT style short sharp quick stuff.

So, lots of words, but in summary, my advice is find something you like doing, and go do it today. And tomorrow. And the next day etc etc etc.

(Alec) #20

And one important additional point. A mistake I have seen people make is to see studies showing the great benefits of HIIT, and thinking that more is better and doing HIIT nearly every day. Wrong. For your average person (you and me), HIIT is intense. Very intense. If you do it more than 1-2 times per week, you are doing it wrong.

HIIT is performing at max for very short time frames 30secs-1 minute. But performing at max is a serious undertaking, and should not be treated lightly. You are stressing your body systems big time, and if you think you can do that every day, and have no consequences, you are wrong.

If you do HIIT, do it 1-2 times per week max. But do it properly: warm up, do your very short and max efforts (often no more than 3-5 of them for 30 seconds!), then cool down. Done in 25 mins.

But max means max. You need to be mentally prepared because it is hard, or you won’t get even close to the advertised benefits.