Bad health, need to get better - exercise questions

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by troutman

What would we do with all the people? There would have to be a limit on new births. A planet with few children.

Are our brains equipped to handle centuries of living? There are many science fiction stories on this topic.

There is always famine, war and natural disasters. But yes I get your point, there is no way the planet can handle the amount of people that we are projected to have now let alone if people stop dieing.

It does sound like sci, in fact it still is. Get the book. They explain it really well. The major thing about the book is that they explain to you how to live to reach that day. They claim that if one follows their directions you would increase your life span by several decades.

[Billy Tallent]

There is some good advice here, so I will just try to add a few basic things.

Pick activities that are accessible and easy. Walking/running is a good core activity simply because all you need is a pair of shoes. You can do it anywhere. If you have a bike in your garage, and you live in an area with good trails, go biking. When you are starting out on an exercise plan/lifestyle change, every barrier you lose is critical. Wall climbing/speed skating/exotic activity of your choice/etc. might seem like a good idea, and maybe later on they will be, but right now they will be a hassle, expensive, and an excuse NOT to exercise.

If you feel like exercising, do it. Alot of the barriers are, as I alluded to above, mental. If you are at home on a Saturday and feel like going for a walk, DO IT! Don't tell yourself you'll do it later, because you might be busy then. Lots of people fall into this trap.

Start easy. Every New Year, I see people coming into the gym, going hard for 2-4 weeks, then disappearing for 11 months. Plus they either aren't used to the exercise, or have no idea what they are doing and hurt themselves. My suggestion would be to start on basic cardio - the first few days are going to HURT, but you will be amazed how quickly you adjust. Then as your body gets used to that, ease yourself into more intense training, along with weights. In contrast to what was said earlier, building muscle is not the best way to lose weight; you still need some sort of cardio work out for this. However, muscle does burn more energy than other tissue types, and helps you in other ways, so you should have a balanced work out.

Dieting is common sense. It really is. Eat regularly, cut out the junk. Eat lots of fruits and veg (but go easy on the juice - it has lots of sugar!). Get your fibre, and get a decent amount of lean protein. The quantity of protein is not much of an issue, as the average north american diet has more than twice the daily protein intake necessary for an active lifestyle. I would even suggest leaning towards a more vegetarian based diet, getting more protein from pulses like lentils, beans, soy, etc. It's lower fat, high fibre, and cheaper than alot of protein. I used to be a big time carnivore, but replacing some meat with pulses will seriously decrease your fat intake, and thus have an impact on your weight. It is, admittedly, a pain to learn how to cook with these things though.

Good luck.

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Try out the Rapid Fat Loss diet by Lyle McDonald which has plenty of success stories posted about it online.

You could lose the weight you're looking to lose in a month.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

Try out the Rapid Fat Loss diet by Lyle McDonald which has plenty of success stories posted about it online.

You could lose the weight you're looking to lose in a month.

Losing 25lbs in a month is not the best way to go.
For however many success stories there are, I'd be willing to bet there are 10x as many people who put the weight back on, and then some.

What he needs is not a diet, but a lifestyle change.
A good goal for SUSTAINABLE weight loss is ~ 2lb/week. Sure it's slow, but it doesn't take major changes, and is generally a much more successful long term plan.

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

Losing 25lbs in a month is not the best way to go.
For however many success stories there are, I'd be willing to bet there are 10x as many people who put the weight back on, and then some.

What he needs is not a diet, but a lifestyle change.
A good goal for SUSTAINABLE weight loss is ~ 2lb/week. Sure it's slow, but it doesn't take major changes, and is generally a much more successful long term plan.

Why are those two things exclusive of each other?

He needs to lose weight rapidly. Go on the rapid fat loss diet and lose the weight and then go to the lifestyle change after. After being on the RFL diet, going to a diet that is less restrictive then before will seem a lot easier than just transitioning to it now.

[ericschand]

Looks like diet change and walking/running seems to be consensus.

Most, if not all, junk food has been tossed. Replaced with fruits and
veggies. In the short term, I can't imagine being "allowed" to have
any sugar or salt.

I've given up my parking spot downtown one block from work. Now it's
time to go to Sunnyside station and walk in from there, then walk back
to the station to go home.

Thanks for all the tips so far. And "Devil's Advocate" good work and
best of luck on the weight loss, very impressive.

ers

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

Why are those two things exclusive of each other?

He needs to lose weight rapidly. Go on the rapid fat loss diet and lose the weight and then go to the lifestyle change after. After being on the RFL diet, going to a diet that is less restrictive then before will seem a lot easier than just transitioning to it now.

I'm not saying it' can't work.
What I'm saying is, there are a lot of ways to lose 25lbs in a month, and if any of them were as easy/effective in the long run as they claim to be, then we wouldn't have any overweight people in the world.

[Sliver]

I say buy an elliptical and just stick with that in addition to modifying your diet. I've been using the elliptical 6x/week for over a year now and am looking pretty damn fine. lol

Seriously, going to the gym is a PITA.

[ericschand]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

Why are those two things exclusive of each other?

He needs to lose weight rapidly. Go on the rapid fat loss diet and lose the weight and then go to the lifestyle change after. After being on the RFL diet, going to a diet that is less restrictive then before will seem a lot easier than just transitioning to it now.

Sorry if you misunderstood, I'm not looking to lose the weight rapidly.
I'm not sure it would work, nor am I comfortable throwing that kind of
change into myself at this time.

I am, however, willing to cut the weight down slowly. Someone said
2lbs/wk, I thought that was a lot. But 5 to 10lbs/month is good,
and achievable, and works out to 1 or 2 lbs/wk. Acheive the -25 lbs,
and then maintain it.

ers

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by ericschand

Sorry if you misunderstood, I'm not looking to lose the weight rapidly.
I'm not sure it would work, nor am I comfortable throwing that kind of
change into myself at this time.

I am, however, willing to cut the weight down slowly. Someone said
2lbs/wk, I thought that was a lot. But 5 to 10lbs/month is good,
and achievable, and works out to 1 or 2 lbs/wk. Acheive the -25 lbs,
and then maintain it.

ers

Although many here would advise you to stay away from weighing yourself too much, you might be surprised to find a fellow of your bulk might lose 2 lbs every night between when you go to bed and when you wake up.

You add it back - or not - through the day via your diet/exercise regimen.

The time of day you eat your last biggest meal does matter in that equation too.

Doesn't have to matter and it's not something you have to focus on. I only mention it because indicated 2 lbs a week as being a goal. (For me, it's about 1 to 1.5 lbs every night, almost like clockwork when I bother to check it.)

Lastly, for those starting out on a diet/exercise regimen you will probably have some rather dramatic results earlier on, probably much greater than 2 lbs a week. It's when you're getting slimmer/fitter that your weight loss trend slows down, when you're more muscle mass and less fatty mass. That tends to be frustrating later on when you're more gung-ho after some big results but it becomes a struggle to get to that final goal.

Good luck with it. Sincerely.

Cowperson

[troutman]

Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor

It does sound like sci, in fact it still is. Get the book. They explain it really well. The major thing about the book is that they explain to you how to live to reach that day. They claim that if one follows their directions you would increase your life span by several decades.

Although interesting, I would say the book is speculative. There are certainly many critics/skeptics of these ideas:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m.../ai_n29309524/

WHAT DOES AMERICA'S LEADING integrative medicine gum Andrew Weft have to say on the subject of aging and longevity? In Healthy Aging he agrees that "There are no anti-aging medicines. Scientific evidence is incomplete at best, and totally lacking at worst, for all of the products and services."

Kurzweil is a denier who is running scared and wants to believe he can cheat death. He is brilliant in his own field, but is a poor judge of medical studies. He has fallen into the same trap Linus Pauling did when he aggressively promoted vitamin C and orthomolecular medicine on the basis of preliminary evidence that was later discredited. It is sad to see a good intellect fall prey to obsessions and delusions; it is sadder to see those delusions aided and abetted by a medical doctor in a folie a deux; it is sadder still when books are published encouraging others to share their delusions.

Oh, by the way, he [Weil] sells the supplements he recommends.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=346

Much nonsense has been written in the guise of longevity medicine. In Fantastic Voyage, Ray Kurzweil explains why he takes 250 pills every day and spends one day a week at a clinic getting IV vitamins, chelation, and acupuncture. He is convinced this regimen will keep him alive long enough for science to figure out how to keep him alive forever. In Healthy Aging, Andrew Weil chips in with his own mixture of science and magic. I pointed out the flaws in their reasoning in a review for Skeptic magazine – available online. There are many other popular books that promise to tell you how to live longer. Most of them amount to little more than speculation based on extrapolations from animal studies, in vitro studies, and odd non-clinical facts.

There simply is no evidence that any intervention will extend the human life span. The most promising idea from animal studies, severe calorie restriction, is not practical or palatable and would make adequate nutrition difficult. We don’t know how to prolong human life to, say, 130 years; but we do know how to prevent a number of diseases from causing premature demise at 60 or 70. That’s what real “longevity medicine” means.

To counteract all the belief-based and speculation-based “longevity medicine,” we needed a science-based longevity book. And now we have it. Carl Bartecchi, MD and Robert W. Schrier, MD have written a book entitled Living Healthier and Longer – What Works, What Doesn’t. The price is right – it is available online for free download.

This book is based firmly on science. It covers major diseases, risk factors, and the interventions that have been tested and shown to improve outcome. It doesn’t promise survival beyond the expected life span, but it shows you how to minimize the risk of avoidable diseases and live as long as possible given the constraints of genetic inheritance and the accidents of chance.

[Dodsdomd]

About 10 weeks ago I overhauled my diet and started hitting the gym. The first 6 weeks I lost 20+ pounds. The next 4 weeks I lost another 20 pounds. My goal is 2 pounds /week and anything more is bonus.

[dj_patm]

Funny cause I'm doing the exact opposite. I'm going to the gym and adjusting my diet in the hopes of gaining 20-ish pounds. So I'm trying to load up on calories (WAY harder then cutting them) and it's killing me

Skipping meals does wonders to keep your weight down. Unhealthy as tits, but proven! Unless you overeat after in which case you are dumb

[TheSutterDynasty]

Originally Posted by dj_patm

Funny cause I'm doing the exact opposite. I'm going to the gym and adjusting my diet in the hopes of gaining 20-ish pounds. So I'm trying to load up on calories (WAY harder then cutting them) and it's killing me

Skipping meals does wonders to keep your weight down. Unhealthy as tits, but proven! Unless you overeat after in which case you are dumb

I just want to be the first to say that this was a really stupid post.

[Super Nintendo Chalmers]

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

I just want to be the first to say that this was a really stupid post.

That really depends on the person and the goal. I can easily lose weight. It mostly happens when I don't pay attention to my diet. Gaining weight is a real chore for me. I have to force food down.

[TheSutterDynasty]

Originally Posted by Super Nintendo Chalmers

That really depends on the person and the goal. I can easily lose weight. It mostly happens when I don't pay attention to my diet. Gaining weight is a real chore for me. I have to force food down.

Well I guess that explains the underweight epidemic that is currently plaguing North America.

[Human Torch]

I did treadmill running for about 3 months over the summer and thought I was getting in good shape. In september I started doing p90 and immediatley got my ass kicked. Stuck with it and went down 15 pounds and I'd say my overall fitness went up. Started doing p90x in January and getting even better results. The program pretty much plans everything for you so I had no trouble following it.

[dj_patm]

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

Well I guess that explains the underweight epidemic that is currently plaguing North America.

Cause that has nothing to do with lazyness right? Everyones just working so hard to lose weight

It is harder. Have you ever had to force yourself to finish a meal even though you were completely full? Well imagine doing that EVERY TIME you eat. It sucks.

Eating less is simple if you're committed. You just don't eat as much and eat better food. Unfortunately a lot of people a) don't care b) are not committed enough to cut there portions and eat healthy.

Forcing yourself to eat more then you can is something you can't just do, simply because you tell yourself you should. When you're full, you are full so getting more food in you is a very tough thing to do. It's a physical challange not just a mental one

The secret to eating more in my book is eating high calorie snacks but god damn does it get hard.

I know everyone is different but when I was in Tae Kwon Do I had to constantly cut weight for tournaments, and don't get me wrong, it's hard but trying to gain weight is much more difficult especially when you want to gain good weight (Muscle, healty amount of fat).

[TheSutterDynasty]

Exceeding caloric intake is so difficult that millions of people do it unintentionally every day.

Originally Posted by dj_patm

Cause that has nothing to do with lazyness right? Everyones just working so hard to lose weight

A lot of people are working quite hard to. Changing your entire lifestyle is not an easy thing to do.

Originally Posted by dj_patm

It is harder. Have you ever had to force yourself to finish a meal even though you were completely full? Well imagine doing that EVERY TIME you eat. It sucks.

I read this in a whiney 13 year old girl tone.

I'll remember how hard I have it the next time I stuff my face with two large pepperoni pizzas and not worry about it contributing to a deteriorating heart.

Originally Posted by dj_patm

Eating less is simple if you're committed. You just don't eat as much and eat better food. Unfortunately a lot of people a) don't care b) are not committed enough to cut there portions and eat healthy.

Simple for you and I perhaps. I've never had an ounce of excess fat on my body, and have I lived an athletic lifestyle my whole life. I have never had to make any difficult life changes, so yes, while I agree it's doing a few simple things, actually accomplishing them and maintaining them is very difficult.

Originally Posted by dj_patm

Forcing yourself to eat more then you can is something you can't just do, simply because you tell yourself you should. When you're full, you are full so getting more food in you is a very tough thing to do. It's a physical challange not just a mental one

The secret to eating more in my book is eating high calorie snacks but god damn does it get hard.

If you're eating carrot sticks all day, then yes, it will probably be hard to gain weight. A foods volume does not determine it's caloric content. There are weight gain powders that you could probably have 2 servings of and not feel full (2000+ calories).

Originally Posted by dj_patm

I know everyone is different but when I was in Tae Kwon Do I had to constantly cut weight for tournaments, and don't get me wrong, it's hard but trying to gain weight is much more difficult especially when you want to gain good weight (Muscle, healty amount of fat).

If you hadn't noticed, we're talking about losing and gaining fat, not just "weight". Cutting weight short term for wrestling or what have you is not cutting fat; it's cutting water and "bulky" foods so the scale tells you a smaller number.

[Super Nintendo Chalmers]

Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty

Well I guess that explains the underweight epidemic that is currently plaguing North America.

If you'll notice, I'm talking about me, not North America.