Lack of interest in exercise

[Jennifer72]

I walk around the house reading keto & other health related books on my kindle. I get over 10k steps in per day. I do it because it helps with my circulation. Apple move says I burn an extra 1200 calories or so per day with all the walking but I dunno bout that! Only time I lose weight is when I keep my net carbs around 15g and protein grams around 60g. I don’t count fat grams. I am too heavy to worry about aggressive exercise more than the walking I am doing. I’m 362 lbs. I’ll do more intense stuff after I walk off 100 lbs or so.

[RobC]

I am too heavy to worry about aggressive exercise more than the walking I am doing. I’m 362 lbs. I’ll do more intense stuff after I walk off 100 lbs or so.

Hi @Jennifer72,

One thing to keep in mind is that at 362, squatting (per @atomicspacebunny - working the glutes) is similar to a 200 person doing squats with a 100 pounds bar on their back (not a 162 pound bar because weight is distributed around your body).

So, if you start out doing “air squats” (squats without a bar) and practice form and getting low (which will take time) you can - as you lose weight, retain the fat burning and (once uncovered) great looking set of glute muscles. Drop 25 pounds, squat with a 20 pound dumbell, drop 75 pounds, squat with a 50 pound bar - as the weight comes off the body, add it to the bar. It will seem easy and - especially as you get older - you want to avoid muscle loss if possible (which is inevitable as you lose a lot of weight but still worth fighting against).

Good luck!

[Jennifer72]

Thanks, but if I squatted I don’t think I could get up Also thinking it might be hard on my achilles tendon. I’ve had chronic non-insertional achilles tendonosis in the right leg… it’s scarred but feels weaker than it did, and gets irritated at times if I over exert the use of it. All my tendons are so glycated from past type 2 diabetes sugar levels, they can break much easier. I’ll try a couple though to see what happens.

[brownfat]

I’ll try a couple though to see what happens.

While exercising is fantastic, getting hurt can be a catastrophe. Take it slow and easy and safely work your way up to more challenging movements. Might start out repeatedly squatting very slowly onto a high soft surface such as a bed. When that feels good try going lower onto a sofa or low chair. Through progression you can safely attain deep squats to the floor with weights but no need to rush it.

[LizEllen]

I have found that swimming makes me ravenous as well. I’m not sure why because I don’t think it burns more calories than other forms of cardio. After an hour swim, all I want is a giant tuna sandwich. Every. Time. Where you do surf, Frank?

[LizEllen]

Just a note here: You don’t know why people use those carts. My husband has a form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy and has lost significant strength in his hands. Soon, it will affect his legs, too. His brother has it more severe and already uses one of those carts.

[Shinita]

That is wrong. It’s unsupported by scientific evidence. It goes against the laws of nature.

Think of this way: If you continue to exercise without making up those calories, you will die. You will die. There is no other way to look at it.

There’s no need for scientific evidence. It’s experience. It is what happens for some of us.
No, we only die if we exercise and eat below our energy need for a very, very long time.
We didn’t talk about this before, just different exercise levels vs (not forcefully restricted) food intake.

Yep, I would probably continuously lose weight when I exercise and eat comfortably on some satiating diet - until I slimmed down. I can’t imagine my body is a suicidal idiot. But if for some reason I became too thin, I would eat more, of course. I don’t wait until I damage my metabolism and lose significant muscle mass let alone until I start dying… It’s quite normal in this forum that our goal is weight-loss… It’s mine right now. Not a very important one but it would be nice.
BUT my usual light exercise has basically no effect on my food intake (it lowers it sometimes, that’s all).

My SO loses no weight when he is active every day. He gains fat when he isn’t. Because he automatically eats just the same in order to avoid strong hunger, activity doesn’t affect his hunger and appetite. Many people have this so it’s a fact and science must find some explanation as it’s clearly not impossible. And why would it be? We don’t go against any law of nature. We just aren’t hungrier when we exercise more. Hunger is complicated, some people are never hungry, not even during an extended fast and that (if the person never stops) results in death way earlier than my tiny calorie deficit… But maybe I just avoid overeating with my exercise too, I tend to eat too much if I don’t do everything right and exercise helps with my energy balance.

I think I overexplained this but I thought I was quite clear the first time and I was wrong.

[Rajseth]

IMHO, a good health span rests on 4 legs - diet, sleep, exercise, stress :

Proper evolutionarily appropriate diet - fat heavy, duration of fasted state > fed state
Proper evolutionarily appropriate sleep - lots of it, respecting circadian rhythm
Proper evolutionarily appropriate exercise - walking, carrying weight, and short intense bursts of activity - as in when we faced / escaped hazards
Proper evolutionarily appropriate stress - not chronic, but in short intense bursts - (see exercise above)

Wait - thats only one leg - proper evolutionarily appropriate behavior.

Evolution has outlasted all life forms on the planet
Evolution WILL make you its bitch if you don’t watch out!

[Diygurl19]

Great article. Thanks for sharing.

[Shinita]

Yes, I am sure this is the right attitude. I see that people tend to be active when they are young and want to show themselves and others how great their body is. Then they get busier, it’s okay that being pretty isn’t so important for most person but it’s about our HEALTH too! People get fatter and fatter, using their comfortable cars instead of their legs, exercise doesn’t even cross their mind. Many people aren’t like this but too many are.
I find exercise even more important as I age, it’s usually easy to be healthy when we are very young but if I want a very, very long healthy life, that requires efforts. (And I never looked good compared to my peers. It will be easier when I will be old and yet, not frail and weak and sick It’s not really important for me though, I just want to feel good and I can’t handle pain and sickness well, not much experience with those and I prefer them to stay so. And the most naturally possible muscles as an old woman? That is little to begin with, it would be awful if I wouldn’t even attempt to get close. I really need to start weightlifting again…)

[brownfat]

Just a note here: You don’t know why people use those carts. My husband has a form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy and has lost significant strength in his hands. Soon, it will affect his legs, too. His brother has it more severe and already uses one of those carts.

People use those carts because they need them for a great variety of reasons. I used to use them in part because I also have an adult onset muscle disease, Kennedy’s disease aka SBMA, defined by a genetic mutation and supposedly progressive like type 2 diabetes. I found the electric carts preferable to being pushed around in a wheel chair by my wife. But in my case I’ve been getting better for several years and no longer need a wheel chair or an electric cart to go shopping. I think eating keto with a focus on high quality animal sourced foods has played a significant role in regaining my health and fitness. I hope you and your husband and his brother all find success in your own efforts to sustain health and fitness.

[LizEllen]

Thank you, Todd. That’s wonderful that you are seeing improvements! My husband has myotonic dystrophy and was diagnosed a year ago. We’ve been doing keto together since January, and he thinks it helps him. However, he is losing strength rapidly. Last year, he had trouble opening jars for me; now he has trouble getting baggies open or buttoning up a dress for our 5-year-old. He’s still walking fine, though. We went hiking and canoeing on our anniversary and enjoyed being slimmer and having more energy. Really trying to live in the moment and enjoy our health now.

[PortHardy]

I feel the same too…
I swim 2K at the pool and come home starving and thirsty as heck BUT if i do a 1.5hr weight training session in the gym… im the opposite. I actually lose my appetite for a couple hours and feel almost nausiated…weird how that works

[Rclause]

You don’t know why people use those carts.

Very true and I appreciate that you didn’t scold me and accuse me of being judgmental. Sometimes in forums when I make a general observation it get torchered into absolutes. There are many that use these carts or park in handicapped parking spots that have unseen/unknown medical conditions. This is a valid reason for use and no I don’t go around and make a judgment on each person I see (sorry, this is not my goal in life).

That said we would have to all be blind to not notice that the number of people that abuse handicapped parking has increased. Example:I saw some neighbors that live down the street and they were parked in a handicap spot with a permit card and I thought that’s odd, they walk several miles a day at a fast pace. The electric carts are more complicated. I see some that are in pain due to obesity and because of that need a cart. No doubt there are others that have a failing body for other reasons like MS, parkinson’s etc. Some have brought this (possibly unknowing) on themselves with diet and others it is genetics they have no control over. Either way I feel for them however they arrived at the need for a electric cart. It does make me wonder, years ago we didn’t have these carts. Does this mean people with the need stayed home, suffered through it or do we have an obesity epidemic.

[brownfat]

My husband has myotonic dystrophy and was diagnosed a year ago.

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.

[LizEllen]

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.

[LizEllen]

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!

[brownfat]

Some have brought this (possibly unknowing) on themselves with diet and others it is genetics they have no control over.

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.

[FrankoBear]

Where you do surf, Frank?

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

[FrankoBear]

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.

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