Lack of interest in exercise

(Todd Allen) #75

After I received the genetic confirmation of my disease my doctors had no interest in looking for any other factors that might be contributing to my decline. But the research for both Kennedy’s disease and myotonic dystrophy finds weak correlation between severity of disease and the severity of the underlying genetic mutation (the number of expanded repeats) suggesting additional factors matter. In both diseases there is significant correlation between disease severity and insulin resistance. I had all 5 biomarkers of metabolic syndrome, strong indicators of severe insulin resistance and since going keto I’ve reversed all 5.

I’ve also found many other things, some very common, which were contributing to my poor health and apparently accelerating my disease. Here’s a book on Alzheimer’s which explores how so many things contribute to that disease and curiously are many of the same things which contributed to mine.
https://b-ok.cc/book/3397126/551677
While the link I’ve posted allows one to freely download the book in violation of copyright I hope if you choose to do so and find the book helpful you are able to buy a paper copy of the book, if not for yourselves perhaps as a gift for your husband’s brother.

(Liz Ellen) #76

I didn’t think you were casting judgment; I am sensitive to this issue for obvious reasons. To answer your question, yes, I think the disabled stayed home and suffered before they had wheelchairs or motorized carts. I also think a disability meant a drastically reduced lifespan.

There is someone from my community who has engineered mobile carts for those living in impoverished countries. The carts are able to traverse rough terrain and have given mobility to those who were previously shut-ins.

At the same time, yes, we have a terrible obesity epidemic and it is robbing people of years of happiness. It makes me sad and angry, too, especially when the advice they receive so uniformly is only making the matter worse.

(Liz Ellen) #77

Thank you for sending this. You’re absolutely right that the disease is linked to insulin resistance. His labs haven’t looked bad previously, but there can be a lag between when you see BG issues and IR. Joe’s MD doctor is supportive of the keto diet, but I’m not certain if it’s just because it’s slimmed him down or because of metabolic benefits related to the disease progression. His father and grandfather died young of heart issues, and because of the diagnosis, we are not closely monitoring his heart. He had a defibrillator implanted over the summer. I will check out the book. Good luck to you, Todd. I’m glad you are seeing positive results!

(Todd Allen) #78

We are rapidly learning that genetics plays a role in many diseases including things like obesity and diabetes. But chronic diseases are exploding in frequency and severity while the pace of genetic change is undoubtedly quite slow.

I’ve been trying to convince people with my disease that lifestyle choices matter and our genes are not the sole determinants of our fate. It’s a difficult sell because many are comforted by having a genetic bad luck explanation for their misfortune. I suggest traffic accidents as an analogy. Bad genes are like driving somewhere with many bad drivers. The odds of a bad outcome are worse but how you drive still matters. Driving badly due to haste, aggression or impairment can make things much worse. Driving very defensively attempting to sense and mitigate every dangerous situation as it develops can make it much better.

It’s not just about whether an accident is our fault or someone else’s but did we do everything possible that we could have done to avoid it? Doing everything possible sometimes isn’t enough there is no antidote for truly horrendous bad luck. But I want to do what I can to improve my odds. It doesn’t help though that most people think going to a doctor for an annual exam and taking prescribed pills plus maybe a multivitamin while following US government nutritional guidelines are the most important defensive health actions one can take.

#79

South west Western Australia. A long, long way from the real world.

#80

Such a good post. And @atomicspacebunny Bunny’s reply about the epigenome and gluteal muscles is brilliant. We shall soon all have buns of steel.

The other entanglement of exercise and the ketogenic diet I came across this past week is how it relates to addiction.

This addiction specialist talks about how addictions transfer. How smokers give up cigarettes and transfer to carb addiction. How cocaine use goes up 2 years after gastric bypass surgery etc. The 3 doctors in the discussion seem to agree that transferring carbohydrate addiction to exercise addiction was the only healthy addiction. ( I’m sure we could point out many other healthy addictions that release dopamine e.g. drawing)

I dropped the comment in to a conversation with my wife and she commented that exercise addiction shouldn’t get a free pass, as it can form part of eating disorders, especially in young women.

also in the thought mix

https://www.ketogenicforums.com/t/food-addiction-dr-joan-ifland/95142?u=frankobear

Can you do keto without coffee? Why not?
(Robert C) #81

Totally agree on that! As with anything, it is use vs. abuse. A moderate amount of exercise helps in a bunch of ways so more is better, right? WRONG

Exercise addiction will consume you - you either cut sleep short or hurt your career showing up late or both to get more and more in each morning.

Split routine can hurt sleep if done too late.

Can’t meet friends for coffee in the morning (which might help with your stress) because you are stressed out about making your mileage or hitting your next personal best.

All numbers (weights, mileage, time spent in the gym,…) have to keep going up until you burn out under such a big workload and huge exercise-created calorie deficit. Severe injury can sideline you for a while and permanent joint issues can evolve.

Add these up and

Might better say that addiction transfer is a dead end concept - better to deal with the root cause of the addictive behavior (mediation for its therapeutic effect and, if needed, psychotherapy).

#82

@cooked, I share your frustration about some of the rhetoric about exercise on the forum but I’m one of many on here who exercises a lot and rarely posts about it. I’m in the middle of an Onnit steel mace training; I love bodyweight exercises, hot yoga, kettlebells… but other than responding here and there to other folks when they ask about exercise, I don’t post on what I’m doing.

[Though I did start an entire thread about how exercise is actually more helpful for weight loss than people seem to think : "Exercise is not an effective tool for weightloss" is nonsense.
I don’t quite understand why folks who are so savvy about the hormonal effects of food suddenly revert to CICO when they talk about exercise!]

#83

Exercise is not required to lose weight. Anyone can lose weight just sitting in a chair :slight_smile: and I kinda put it with being more healthy but I put it as when one heals internally and gets more energy from eating better we can then choose to just move more as we see fit. A personal choice we all make on how we want to move forward in life.

I am carnivore. I am healthy. I moved more as I lose some lbs. and I get healed internally.

I despise scheduled exercise. Will never do it. Hate gyms. Hate weights. Hate running. Nope. Nada. Will never go that route.

What I do is activities such as mountain climbing hiking trails, rode my horses all the time, kayak a ton when weather is nice, swim every chance I get. Bike again in good weather and I feel like it.

So for me it is an active lifestyle vs. ‘routine scheduled repetition exercise’ in a nasty gym. I say nasty cause I don’t like them LOL personal opinion here :slight_smile:

Only thing would be maybe an exercise forum that is probably having a lot of keto people on its site? Might make you feel more in tune with how you are proceeding with your life? I am sure there would be a few great ones out there maybe. But this forum is great also…nice thing is you can visit a few forums to get good info on things if you want.

#84

Bikram? I used to love the breathing to control the rising anxiety of being in such a hot room.

New Doug McGuff

#85

Yes, Bikram- though my studio (like most others) has stopped using the name because the guy himself is such a mess.
I love it! It’s one of my staples even when I’m trying new protocols.

Thanks for the McGuff video link! I’ll take a look.

(Edith) #86

One problem for some of us is that as we get older and have more responsibilities like having jobs and children, our time becomes limited. Many of us have sedentary jobs, but we are tired by the end of the day and just want to relax, not exercise. It is hard to make it a priority.

(Scott) #87

The only way I can exercise is to do it before anyone else wakes up. She doesn’t get upset that I am away for too long, the streets are empty (safer to run) and the gym is mostly empty (no waiting on others). Of course you had better go to bed early. I woke up at 3:45 am every day this week. I know that is too early so I read til 4:30. Man I do have to admit that it is so tough to get out of that nice warm bed when its cold outside.

(traci simpson) #88

It’s about priorities. People will find time to do what’s important to them regardless of what it is. If working out isn’t a priority, then they won’t work out.

(Bunny) #89

That’s the man (…THE MAN…) that’s going to solve the obesity and diabetes problem in my opinion!

Smartest doctor on planet earth!

Everything in my post above came from him?

I love watching his lectures!

If you watch all of his lectures you’ll see what I’m talking about?

(charlie3) #90

There is a lot of nutrition and food expertise on this forum which I value. The exercise side of things may be gets less attention. In other places like FB the exercise buffs seem devoted to competitive goals where extreme training usually ends with injury, over training, PED’s, etc. I’m tired of photos of amateurs on gear.

How about let’s try a thread called Activity/Exercise/Diet/Nutrition in the General catagory? I’ll start that (then have to go shopping). Share your ideas. I’ll do the same later today.

(David Cooke) #91

Sorry, I got frustrated and tired of the whole subject, didn’t come back. When I say exercise, I mean the whole thing to do with what happens to your body when you exercise, what forms of exercise are beneficial for certain goals, and NOT whether this is a good way to lose weight. In fact I realise that I get tired of reading that most people do keto primarily to lose weight and not because they are obese because they are ill and need to get healthy. Does that make sense?
I am member of a Facebook page concerned with Keto running, not so much concerned with competition as with nutrition etc.

(Hyperbole- best thing in the universe!) #92

I think I know what you are saying…

What I am saying is that, as a ketogenic forum, this particuar site is focused on diet rather than excersize. So a general complaint about lack of interest in excersize may seem like a criticism of this site in particular. But I walk an average of 9000-10000 steps a day, occationally quite a bit more. Do I swing those kettlebells as much as I think I should? No. Is any of that worth making a topic about? No.

Does excersize contribute greatly to weight loss? No. Does it contrbute to general health? Finally I can say… Yes.

But an increase in gym membership and even gym participation is not the same as an increase in activity. So when you comment on a lack of interest in excersize are you also commenting on the “what did you see on your walk today” thread? Or the personal accountability threads where people who used to send their children up or down stairs to run errands subsequently reported how many times they did so themselves, and now completely do not comment on it since it is now a normal, every day part of their days not worth commenting on?

I’m not saying a discussion about excersize doesn’t belong here. It clearly does belong here. But not talking about something and lack of interest in it are two very different things.

(Windmill Tilter) #93

Doug McGuff is absolutely incredible. I hope Dr. McGuff and Dr. Fung get a nobel prize some day; they deserve it. If I could get anyone to read just two books, it would be Fung’s “The Obesity Code” and McGuff’s “Body by Science”. McGuff is to exercise what Fung is to obesity and insulin resistance. McGuff isn’t asking for anything crazy, it’s literally 20 minutes a week of high intensity resistance training. I’ve been doing it, and it absolutely works.

I watched this video a few weeks ago and I was really impressed. The impact of muscle loss (sarcopenia) on overall health is enormous, and easily reversible. For those of you intimidated by the length of the video, the best part (imho) starts at 31:28. Just watch 5-10 minutes from there and then decide if you want to watch more.

I’ll just repost the link again here:

(Edith) #94

We do have a lot of threads discussing exercise. You may want to look through them.
You can always reinvigorate one or several of them.