Lack of interest in exercise


(David Cooke) #1

I have to say it: I am disappointed in the complete lack of interest shown for the important subject of exercise in these forums… I can’t imagine Keto + IF without exercise, and yet apparently most people can.
In fact I am beginning to think that people just see Keto as a weight loss method and not as a healthy life style change which results in weight loss as just one of the benefits.
Maybe I need to move on? Not that I think that I have learnt everything there is to know about Keto, only been doing it for a year.


(bulkbiker) #2

Many people here have seen multiple health benefits from keto, myself included, without “needing” to exercise. I had a rush of energy which led to a gym membership but after 3 months and a hernia (thanks leg-press) I stopped going.
My exercise now consists of 2 or 3 dog walks per day which can now be carried out without the breathlessness and fatigue that used to accompany them.
Exercise can be beneficial but is certainly not the be all and end all of health.


#3

Interesting observation David. I was thinking along similar lines while attempting to meditate today. But nutritional ketosis spurred a physically active day with no planned exercise, I just did stuff: no surf, so went swimming and looking at fish, walked up and down a sloping block of land carrying weights (water cans) in each hand, cleaning up things with a spade and wheelbarrow…

https://www.ketogenicforums.com/search?q=Exercise

Plenty to find in the search.

Some themes:

  • “Diet vs Exercise”
  • Weight gain when combining exercise with diet
  • Hunger increases with exercise
  • Multitasking phobia
  • Time management (not enough time)

I wrote this in another thread…


(Jack Bennett) #4

Different people are going to have different goals and interests.

It seems like many who have lots of body fat to lose aren’t going to have an early interest in exercise. That’s probably fine. Less stress on joints etc. I believe and have heard anecdotally that diet governs weight loss and exercise helps maintain and stabilize weight loss.

Carl has discussed this on the podcast, where his desire to exercise arose naturally as the body fat went away. But I’m sure that desire varies person to person.


(Robert C) #5

I think that exercise is a “bad word” here for some due to their history.
Many have tried exercise to get rid of weight.
Of course, tons of cardio will work - creating an extreme calorie deficit.
But, right along with any “eat less, exercise more” plan, it is not sustainable - and may have created long term joint problems along with potentially higher rebound weight gain.

The message here should be instead that finding a sweet spot - not too much and not too little - will HELP in their attempts to get their hormones straightened out.

Stress reduction and better sleep are both outcomes of moderate exercise and if either of those are messed up - weight loss can be slowed or halted even on strict Keto.


(John) #6

I have plenty of interest in it. I just don’t post a lot about it.

I went from being completely sedentary in both my job and leisure time, to trying to fit in exercise whenever I can.

I started being able to do like 10 “head raises” while lying in bed, to where you just sit up enough to be able to see your feet. Now I do 80 real situps.

I started doing incline pushups off the edge of the kitchen counter, couple of sets of 8. Now I do 3 sets of 15-20, real, strict-form pushups off the floor.

I went from where I could walk about 1/2 mile, to where I can do 4 miles pretty easily (or probably longer if I keep the pace leisurely) and generally walk at about a 15.5 minute per mile pace.

I do the following exercises during the typical week, generally 3 times a week for each exercise (not all on the same days), generally 3 sets of 8-15 except for situps:

Pushups
Dumbbell curls
Overhead dumbbell presses
Flat flyes (dumbbell)
Bent over dumbbell rows
Situps
Bridges - 3 “sets” held for 1:30
Squats
Calf Raises
Leg lifts (bench)
Walking

I also do a lot of stretching and warm-up type things.

I very much follow the Mark Sisson approach to doing this - not just diet alone, but dietary changes plus activity changes. Light endurance exercises plus lifting heavy things.

My trick is to only do things to the intensity where I don’t dread doing them, and fit it into my day as best I can.

I used to do sets of incline pushups off my desk at work and sets of squats standing in my cube. There is a fitness area with free weights and weight machines that I occasionally take advantage of, but in general I do stuff at home with just the floor, a furniture bench (not a weight bench) and a set of plates and two dumbbell bars.

I will get in a set of exercises while surfing the internet, for example, or while getting ready for work. What I don’t get done in the morning, I do in the evening.


(Rebecca ) #7

I guess I really dislike the words, “exercise” and "work out"and prefer, instead to be “active” and stay in “motion”.:grin:


(Jennibc) #8

I go on a brisk walk daily for over an hour or when inclement weather head to the gym for the elliptical trainer. I just don’t write about it because it’s boring. Who cares what my daily routine is. I used to jog, but I have degenerative disc disease so had to have spinal fusion in January. That put and end to anything with high impact. Sadly, I have tendonosis in my shoulder so can’t lift weights. See, posting about that is kind of a bummer and I don’t want to bring people down with my age related ailments!


#9

John would you know how similar Mark Sisson’s approach to body weight training is to Ted Naiman’s?

I think Ted’s can be summed up as: push, pull & squat. Any ketonian seeking to be active can work with that.


(Bob M) #10

I have been exercising since I was about 16. I started out jogging and body building. I went to biking (mountain and/or road) with lifting. I biked 60+ miles per week in the summer. Rode centuries (100 miles). I still gained over 90 pounds, maybe 100.

I do not think exercise is worthwhile for weight loss.

Moreover, I have so many injuries due to weight lifting, biking, running, etc.

I still exercise, but now I do short, intense lifting (body weight mainly now) along with short, intense aerobics. My days of biking 6+ hours are over. I have been jogging on the weekends, though, but I try to make it shorter and more intense.

I also think exercising for long time periods can be bad for you. See this for instance:

My schedule is 2 days of intense (to failure) body weight/machine/free weight lifting along with HIIT (about 45 minutes or so) and one day of jogging plus abs.


(Rebecca ) #11

Same


#12

Its not an sports/gym forum, its a diet/woe forum, obviously peoples ideologies will be different than it will be at bodybuilding-com. Not saying exercise is not useful but people see it in a different light.


#13

Yep, it’s a bit odd. Exercise is a part of a healthy lifestyle. I am lazy and my life is dark lately and I am usually just lightly active, sometimes moderately but I am aware I should be way more active (and I kind of need it to lose fat anyway - it’s theoretically possible without it but my chance is super low even with it and way less without - but interestingly, it has the opposite effect on others). I can easily maintain without exercise but that’s not good life.
I want more muscles too anyway but that’s a different topic, I really need exercise to feel normal and at least slightly energetic (my energy level is never high but without exercise, it’s super low).
Of course the importance of exercise is different for different people, it’s way more important for me and I think I explained why but SOME exercise is needed for everyone who actually can exercise I am sure.
I understand people who are very obese and inactive. I was just a bit fat and always somewhat active, hiking for 10 hours in the mountains on some days was just a nice longer walk for me in my more glorious past (I wasn’t active normally, just 1-2 hours of walking a day, preferable with elevation. it’s minimal, I never was athletic, I can’t even run yet). Of course our attitude is different.
But when I changed my woe, I didn’t focus on exercise at all myself. It happens.

I can imagine many people tried and forced exercise they disliked and it had a negative effect… It’s complicated I’m sure.


(Katie) #14

What do you mean by “move on”?

I agree that exercise is key to human health and that everyone should move every day (walk, weights, and/or sports). Especially as we age it is important to keep doing weight-bearing exercises (strength training with weights) to keep our bones and muscles healthy, and thus our metabolisms healthy.

However, I think that a lot of people who are in this forum and who do keto are quite ill and the idea of exercising is out of the question, or at least daunting. They have to become healthy in order to begin implementing exercise. It is great that you are healthy enough to be exercising and that you do exercise; unfortunately I am not sure that a lot of people are up to it. (I am not giving an excuse for people being lazy, just providing a sympathetic perspective.)


(April Harkness) #15

That’s because you haven’t talked to me. :wink: but even as an avid exerciser… it didn’t give me the body I really wanted, until I went keto. stay tuned for the 40 second mark. 1st part of vid is me when I was powerlifting (not just exercising, I was COMPETING. But I still looked fluffy. That was back in 2015. Now I am older and wiser in 2019 at the 40 second mark. And while I still train, I know the way i eat is just as important. But eating for weight loss and maintenance, training for strength, mobility, and just to be a bada$$!!! https://www.instagram.com/p/B4nrNkKAHvs/


(Scott) #16

I don’t know why but I went from running five days a week with three trips to the gym to nothing. I am going to start back in the morning so I can be in shape for the 1st planned ski trip in late January.


(Todd Allen) #17

Considering this is the “ketogenic forums” and exercise is only tangentially related I don’t see it as a problem that exercise is discussed much less than diet. But using the search feature one can find many threads on exercise. If you have something interesting to say about exercise others here will likely show interest.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #18

Exercise is not a part of a well-formulated ketogenic diet, since a diet is by definition a way of eating. Moreover, the focus of eating ketogenically is to control one’s insulin level by eating the proper foods, because it is lowering insulin that is the key to allowing fatty acids out of the adipose tissue to be metabolised. So exercise is not required for being able to do keto successfully.

The old wives’ tale that exercise is an important part of losing weight has been debunked by recent research. It turns out that the amount of exercise required in order to lose even a modest amount of fat is depressingly—and unmanageably—large. (The calorie counters on those machines at the gym are bogus.)

While exercise does provide many health benefits, fat loss is not one of them. Many people on these forums have reported that they have so much more energy on a ketogenic diet, particularly once they’ve lost enough fat to regain some mobility, that they naturally drifted into an exercise or sports regime that they find stimulating and enjoyable. The fat loss came from their way of eating, however, not from exercising.

Many people on these forums exercise quite a bit, but they tend to write about it mostly in their accountability threads. It also seems to be the case that some of them aren’t as active on the forums as they used to be, and many of the newer voices have other interests. Have you checked out our Exercise forum, to see what’s going on there?


(Windmill Tilter) #19

If I had to guess, I’d say the majority of people on this forum are trying to lose weight. Make of that what you will. To that end, exercise is counterproductive for an awful lot of people. I think an important part of keto is eating to satiety. Exercise really messes with satiety signals for many people. I’m one of them. I can exercise, or I can lose weight, but not both. It’s not unusual.

Given that my starting point was being morbidly obese, increasing my VO2 max to 45 through hundreds of hours of exercise would just result in me dying at ~55 with 30lbs of visceral fat and a respectable 5k time; that’s not really a win in my book! I’m not discounting the value of exercise, I’m just saying it’s incompatible with weight loss for lots of people, and weight loss is more important to longevity for many people than anything else they can do. If the priority is reversing T2 diabetes and reducing bodyfat/visceral fat, exercise is counterproductive for many people.

My workaround is high intensity resistance training as described by Dr. Doug McGuff in his book Body by Science. It takes about 20 minutes, and is done once per week. I find that I eat ~3000kcal the day I do it, and the following day. I don’t try to restrict, I just eat to satiety. It takes me a full 7 days to recover. I’ve tried doing it more than once every seven days, but my progress is greatly impaired. I spend 1hr per month in the gym, and that’s really all it takes to build muscle mass, and greatly improve my cardiovascular health. I’ve got a small business to run, and 3 little kids to raise. I’m not looking for a hobby!

That said, everyone is different. There are folks out there who are capable of spending an hour a day in the gym and they can still lose weight. If they enjoy it, more power to them!


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #20

Many people do come to keto as a means of losing fat, and then we have to talk them down when their bodies prioritise getting healthy over shedding excess fat. Many of us, however, came to this way of eating in order to restore our metabolic health (I am one of them), and we tend to bewilder the weight loss folks when we are content with the results and don’t give a shit about looking as thin as they want to be.

Furthermore, many people can get enough physical activity in their daily lives without having to schedule an intentional period of exercise. I am reminded of that old Cathy cartoon of all the people crowding into the elevator and completely ignoring the stairs; and it turns out that they were all heading to the gym to use the step machines, lol! One of the things I used to love about working in New York was how much walking and stair climbing I did just getting to the bus and the subway, quite apart from how much fun the city is to walk around in. (The same can be said of London and Paris, as well.) When I moved to the suburbs, I had to take up jogging in compensation, which is how I ended up destroying my knee joints.