Health, Good Practises, and Exercise

[yaxomoxay]

While we can all agree that eating fast food all the time is bad for your health, the movie Supersize me is not a "documentary" in the way most people think of what that means. There's no way his weight gain came 100% from eating McDonald's three times a day. I wouldn't trust Morgan Spurlock as far as I could throw him. There's a movie called "Fat Head" that throws a lot of doubt on Supersize Me.

Unsolicited advice for those that want to lose weight: cut way back on carbs, there's no need for them unless you are training for large muscle gains over all other goals. Perhaps give the ketogenic diet/lifestyle a chance. Instead of having 5 - 6 small meals a day, have two larger ones, or just eat within an 8-hour window each 24 hours, also known as "intermittent fasting." Losing weight is so much easier if you are not flooding your body with insulin every few hours by eating carbs five or six times every day.

Yeah I think that Spurlock admitted drinking alcohol during the 30 days.

 

[macduke]

5lbs a week... I read multiple places that could be too much weight to drop too quickly.

Eh, at my age and weight it's fine. I'm actually fairly muscular underneath and I have only added muscle so far. I have dad bod and dad strength, lol. The loss rate does slow down though, and then I kinda hit a plateau because of a ton of stress at work. Then I started losing again and then went on a getaway with my wife where we were wined and dined a lot and now I'm working that back off. But I think it's mostly water weight since I don't eat much salty stuff any more. I had also injured my right elbow somehow so I had to stop doing a lot of my weight stuff for almost two weeks so I tried to do more walking and some limited running. I was able to fairly quickly build up my core to the point where I very rarely have back pain now, especially from bending over. Making my stomach smaller made situps a lot easier and the reduction of weight took pressure off my spine. The weight reduction and lower amount of food has also helped my acid reflux significantly and improved my quality of sleep, giving me more energy to keep exercising during the day. It's a positive feedback loop. My heart rate doesn't get as high as it used to when walking now, so I'm wondering if my joints would be fine with more running now, or if I should buy a weight vest and keep walking.

I found that if I added a bit more flax seed to my oatmeal and then replaced the 1% milk in my protein shakes with almond milk and increase my walking just a little bit more, I was able to eat more regular food with my family again (my wife had been making things a bit healthier anyway) and still lose around 4lbs a week. I feel like it's a good tradeoff, especially considering how much I lost, and I think after a few more weeks it will probably drop down to 3lbs per week until I reach my goal. Once I get to goal, I'm planning on doubling my protein shake size at lunch and increasing my portion size at dinner a little bit so I can go into "maintain" mode. I might even add a little bit of weight back in the form of muscle as I begin to focus more on developing that, especially in my upper body. I feel like my legs are huge and my core is pretty decent but my arms aren't very good. But before I get ahead of myself I still have more weight to lose!

 

[44267547]

While we can all agree that eating fast food all the time is bad for your health, the movie Supersize me is not a "documentary" in the way most people think of what that means.

Sure, It’s more or less he ‘documented’ his trajectory through 30 days of eating McDonald’s to an extreme level. Either way, it was still an interesting Watch, but the purpose of my post why is that what fast food can do to someone due to the ingredients and how it makes you feel, but obviously no one eats McDonald’s three times a day either for 30 days.

I wouldn't trust Morgan Spurlock as far as I could throw him.

Granted this part of your post really is unrelated to anything regarding health, genuinely curious why you don’t trust Morgan Spurlock? (As in, his did he do something misleading in his 30 day documentary of Supersize me.)

 

[HappyIntro]

Sure, It’s more or less he ‘documented’ his trajectory through 30 days of eating McDonald’s to an extreme level. Either way, it was still an interesting Watch, but the purpose of my post why is that what fast food can do to someone due to the ingredients and how it makes you feel, but obviously no one eats McDonald’s three times a day either for 30 days.



Granted this part of your post really is unrelated to anything regarding health, genuinely curious why you don’t trust Morgan Spurlock? (As in, his did he do something misleading in his 30 day documentary of Supersize me.)

I believe that Spurlock decided he was going to make a movie that showed that McDonald's fast food and their culture of excess (e.g., supersizing already large portions) can make you fat and sick, and he set out to gain a lot of weight on purpose, i.e., it seems to me he ate a lot more food than what he showed on camera. I think if you add up his weight gain vs. the calories that he likely ate during his three meals, it doesn't add up. I feel he scripted most of what he was going to say as he gained weight very carefully to show a predetermined outcome. IMO it's likely that the magnitude of Spurlock's weight gain and decline in health is from his eating extra food off camera that he's not showing us. So I think, but do not know, that he's lying and deceiving us in this film. Unless he comes out and tells us that he did deceive us, there is no way we can know what Spurlock shows in his films is due to his three meals a day at McDonald's.

 

[Dodgeman]

While we can all agree that eating fast food all the time is bad for your health, the movie Supersize me is not a "documentary" in the way most people think of what that means. There's no way his weight gain came 100% from eating McDonald's three times a day. I wouldn't trust Morgan Spurlock as far as I could throw him. There's a movie called "Fat Head" that throws a lot of doubt on Supersize Me.

Unsolicited advice for those that want to lose weight: cut way back on carbs, there's no need for them unless you are training for large muscle gains over all other goals. Perhaps give the ketogenic diet/lifestyle a chance. Instead of having 5 - 6 small meals a day, have two larger ones, or just eat within an 8-hour window each 24 hours, also known as "intermittent fasting." Losing weight is so much easier if you are not flooding your body with insulin every few hours by eating carbs five or six times every day.

I think it is still a calorie thing.
Veggies are carbs. So if you eat more. veggies you are eating less carbs vs. Potatoes/rice etc as well as eating less calories overall.

 

[HappyIntro]

I think it is still a calorie thing.
Veggies are carbs. So if you eat more. veggies you are eating less carbs vs. Potatoes/rice etc as well as eating less calories overall.

I agree that calories do matter (to a point), and eating more veggies in place of the potatoes/rice/pasta/bread that someone may be eating as a staple of their diet would be a big improvement.

I've read a lot of information about nutrition over the years and I've come to a few broad conclusions regarding what might be the best way to eat for me. However I enjoy reading threads like this to get a diverse set of experiences and viewpoints and I'm always open to changing my currently-held guesstimates on how best to eat and exercise. All we can do is take in as much information as we can stand and make our own judgement on what we see, hear, and read.

 

[Dodgeman]

I agree. I am not going to deprive myself. I use to work out about 5 years ago.
Being my height and weight 5 9 and 217lbs isn't healthy, but I am sure under the muscle it is some fat too.
I am simply cutting back my food intake overall and watching my calories. Once I get down to a comfortable weight that when I hone in on the quality vs. quantity.
I think being early in and having cravings is going to derail so I want to take it easy and slow, and slowly bring in veggies which I have been doing. Not every meal will be trash either. Also sodas, and beer are completely gone. Soda is for sure, beer maybe a once a month thing if that. Occasionally a gatorade but other than that its water 24/7.
We will see how it goes. I am sticking to around 1800-1900 calories a day.
Let see if consistency kicks end how we turn out in 3 months!

 

[yaxomoxay]

Week went well. Since Monday, Martial Arts twice, weight lifting twice. Cardio tonight, and tomorrow I'll probably swim and lift. Sunday should be rest day.
My left hamstring is still in pain if I do certain movements, but I think that I should be more or less fine by next week.
Food: I have been quite good

 

[0388631]

Week went well. Since Monday, Martial Arts twice, weight lifting twice. Cardio tonight, and tomorrow I'll probably swim and lift. Sunday should be rest day.
My left hamstring is still in pain if I do certain movements, but I think that I should be more or less fine by next week.
Food: I have been quite good

Cue your wife making budino for dessert tomorrow night.

 

[44267547]

Two new products I’m trying:

For my pre-pump formula before my workout, I usually take Elite gold NX6, I switched over to Primeval labs Mega-Pre (Non-Stim) and this is some of the best pumps I’ve ever had in the gym, where I couldn't even get my workout jacket off because my arms were stuck.

Dymatize micronized monohydrate creatine. [Blended only in my post workout shakes.)

 

[yaxomoxay]

I wanted to show my progress; it took me a little bit more than a year to go from the red to the green. It is very interesting to notice that the level of difficulty and speed of losing weight/size can be seen by how much the belt is worn out.
Right at this moment I could easily add another hole to the belt which is probably what I'll end up doing.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I recently realized I had hit a BMI of 28,5 after almost 4 years after dropping regular exercise (Having a child that also turns out to be a really bad sleeper takes a big toll on ones free time), so now it is time to do something about it. My work contract also ran out, so now I am unemployed and also have time to do something about it.

So I started out eating much more focused (And less!), and signed up at the local gym. 14 days in, and I am down 3,8 kilos, so that's pretty encouraging! If I can get a kilo a week after that, I'll be very satisfied. I am going for loosing around 8-10 kilos, depending on how I end up looking, and how my exercises turn out.

The local gym also has a large outside area with "strong man exercises" which is completely new to me (Essentially just working with extra heavy things; logs, boulders, concrete blocks, iron bars, tractor tires, etc.), so that's fun to try out, and it really hits my muscles in ways I haven't been used to before.

 

[yaxomoxay]

I recently realized I had hit a BMI of 28,5 after almost 4 years after dropping regular exercise (Having a child that also turns out to be a really bad sleeper takes a big toll on ones free time), so now it is time to do something about it. My work contract also ran out, so now I am unemployed and also have time to do something about it.

So I started out eating much more focused (And less!), and signed up at the local gym. 14 days in, and I am down 3,8 kilos, so that's pretty encouraging! If I can get a kilo a week after that, I'll be very satisfied. I am going for loosing around 8-10 kilos, depending on how I end up looking, and how my exercises turn out.

The local gym also has a large outside area with "strong man exercises" which is completely new to me (Essentially just working with extra heavy things; logs, boulders, concrete blocks, iron bars, tractor tires, etc.), so that's fun to try out, and it really hits my muscles in ways I haven't been used to before.

Fantastic!!! Keep us updated please! just be careful, don't overdo The gym is now my happy place

 

[44267547]

Duplicate post from Fitness/Activity Thread:

One year bodybuilding update: Long Post....

{I completed 252 training sessions exactly in 12Months, totaling just over 500 hours worth}.

So, for those who didn’t know, I started last year at this time on July 13, 2018 in pursuit of starting as a bodybuilder. I’ve always enjoyed weightlifting, but I decided to take it to the next level and really start building the framework during my first year of making the commitment, learning from my mentors and striving to be the best version of myself that I can be as a bodybuilder (I don’t have a coach, aside from following professional bodybuilders online). It’s been the most challenging lifestyle change I’ve ever encountered through all kinds of emotions, and have come across quite a few hurdles in terms of changing my eating habits, dietary/supplements, sleeping patterns, and basically I demolished any social life I had spending five days a week in the gym on top of my personal/work life.

There are a lot of misconceptions about bodybuilding and what it really is, it’s not about being inside the gym all the time, half of it is living the lifestyle outside the gym in the things I mentioned in the above paragraph, and then of course remaining committed all the time. I never felt like giving up, I always remained focused to my craft, I never missed the gym unless something absolutely took priority over it.

There’s lots of areas improvement in the future for me, but I’m proud of where I once was to what I’ve become now, but now that the first year is out of the way and I figured my learning curve, learned from mistakes I made and strengthening my weaknesses, the second year for 2019 leading to 2020, I plan on really putting on some serious body mass, Now that I have a strong grasp of what I need to do to push myself to the next level.

I’m on vacation at my time share in Ft. Meyers, the saga continues of my bodybuilding lifestyle 2.0 for R.P. Once I return, as I will continue to share my updates.

~Cardio on the beach~

 

[yaxomoxay]

Duplicate post from Fitness/Activity Thread:

One year bodybuilding update: Long Post....

What a wonderful post, thank you for sharing!

{I completed 252 training sessions exactly in 12Months, totaling just over 500 hours worth}.

This is truly impressive. You spend two hours at the gym basically every day.

a few hurdles in terms of changing my eating habits, dietary/supplements, sleeping patterns, and basically I demolished any social life I had spending five days a week in the gym on top of my personal/work life.

Not a bodybuilder, but I am experiencing the same while preparing for my black belt test. I just have to focus, which means lots of sacrifice, not going out, not drinking beer if not once every blue moon, etc. I'd say that this healthy lifestyle is more about focus than actual pumping iron or cardio.

half of it is living the lifestyle outside the gym in the things I mentioned in the above paragraph

This. This is the realization that changed my body and health for the better. I am also noticing more how many temptations we have every single day, from our colleagues that brings donuts to work, to restaurants everywhere.

I’m on vacation at my time share in Ft. Meyers, the saga continues of my bodybuilding lifestyle 2.0 for R.P. Once I rerun, as I will continue to share my updates.

Enjoy your vacation, the place looks AMAZING. And thank you for the inspiring post.

 

[HappyIntro]

Beautiful picture R.P.! Keep up the great work, your positivity is a good example for all of us.

 

[SandboxGeneral]

After falling off the wagon for almost 2 years I put a bunch of weight back on. However I got back on the wagon mid-April and have lost 21 pounds so far.

I know how to exercise and lose weight, but it's just a matter of will power and wanting to do it of course.

This time around (I'm a yo-yo sadly) I'm choosing to lose the weight differently. Previously, I was gung-ho on the exercise and diet routines, taking them to extremes. I'd track every aspect of my workouts (exercises, duration, sets, reps etc.) and I'd track my food (calories, macro-nutrients etc.) and I'd exercise 5 to 7 days a week. It all worked and I was in great shape.

But I was burned out and exhausted. Such as is my nature; when I do something, I do it all the way. I have a hard time with moderation in this area of my life.

So this time I'm trying to take it easy so that perhaps I can sustain a healthier lifestyle for a lot longer.

I'm not tracking my food or exercise with extreme accuracy or details and only working out 3 to 5 days per week. I sold the Apple Watch and got rid of the FitBit a long time ago. I don't track the calories or the macros any longer.

But what I am doing is making wise food choices based on my knowledge of past experience, overall eating less and as for exercise, only tracking duration of the session. I'm sticking to 30 to 40 minute sessions and doing mostly cardio, with a day or two of kettle bell workouts for strength training.

So far, I've lost the 21 pounds easily and I don't feel exhausted or burned out from the relentless pace I was doing a couple of years ago where I couldn't keep up any longer. I also don't feel burdened with the metrics trackers of the Apple Watch/Fitbit and I don't feel burdened with watching the calories/macros.

The only measuring device I use is the clock (30 to 40 minute sessions) and the smart scale that I step on about once per week.

I hope that with this regimen I can be successful for a lot longer than in times past. All that rigorous training and tracking was too much to keep up with.

 

[A.Goldberg]

I’m on vacation in Colorado right now. My sister who live-streams here took my girlfriend and I on a hike yesterday 2hrs outside of Denver. I generally swim about 10,000-12,000 yards per week (2500-3000/day, 4x/week). My girlfriend is currently training for a short triathlon. So you could say the two of us are in pretty decent shape, especially with cardio.

The trail was rated moderate and it’s base was 7,500ft. By like 0.2 miles and the first hill or so the two of us (used to living in Boston aka sea level) were completely winded. We weren’t tired, but we were gasping for air. It was rather eye opening. The trail was about 1.5 miles to the top of a mountain with intermittent inclines. By the time we reached the top it was embarrassing. My sister, well acclimated to the altitude, was barely broke a sweat.

We’ve only been here 4 days and 3 were in Denver (5000ft), so clearly we haven’t had enough time to acclimate. I can definitely say Colorado has kicked my ***.

 

[0388631]

Not easy to drink at altitude either.

 

[Huntn]

I’m on vacation in Colorado right now. My sister who live-streams here took my girlfriend and I on a hike yesterday 2hrs outside of Denver. I generally swim about 10,000-12,000 yards per week (2500-3000/day, 4x/week). My girlfriend is currently training for a short triathlon. So you could say the two of us are in pretty decent shape, especially with cardio.

The trail was rated moderate and it’s base was 7,500ft. By like 0.2 miles and the first hill or so the two of us (used to living in Boston aka sea level) were completely winded. We weren’t tired, but we were gasping for air. It was rather eye opening. The trail was about 1.5 miles to the top of a mountain with intermittent inclines. By the time we reached the top it was embarrassing. My sister, well acclimated to the altitude, was barely broke a sweat.

We’ve only been here 4 days and 3 were in Denver (5000ft), so clearly we haven’t had enough time to acclimate. I can definitely say Colorado has kicked my ***.

Decades ago on a cross country to Colorado Springs, decided to drive to the top of Pike’s Peak (14000’, 4367M) On the way up I saw joggers and various athletic activities going on. At that time I was running regularly and in great shape. I felt fine, until I started walking around and I immediately got nauseous and had to sit down. It was a rather short visit. I did run down at Colorado Springs elevation and noticed, but could get through it at 6000’ (1828M).

 

[yaxomoxay]

@Relentless Power I've got a question for you. How do you manage off-days from a dietary point of view? Do you reduce calories intake, do you change your protein/carbs/fat ratio? Etc. (by off-days I don't mean a long vacation, I mean the one or two days a week you don't go to the gym)

 

[44267547]

@Relentless Power I've got a question for you. How do you manage off-days from a dietary point of view? Do you reduce calories intake, do you change your protein/carbs/fat ratio? Etc. (by off-days I don't mean a long vacation, I mean the one or two days a week you don't go to the gym)

So on my off days, I actually maintain a ‘caloric surplus’, and the reason for that is, I’m not burning nearly as many calories as I would in on my ‘gym days’ that I have to make up for when I’m through with the session. On my off days, that’s when I really try to continue to put on some size, because I’m not really burning any calories. My diet stays pretty much the same consistency with foods I eat with chicken, beef, eggs, vegetables, ect (I also do at least one cheat day a week), I just try to increase my calories on those off days.

Managing the calories is the hardest on my gym days, because I exert so much energy, that I have to make up for those burned calories, Plus I have more time on my ‘off days’ where I can basically eat whenever I want without having to work around going to the gym that day. [At least for me], I also find that your body tends to grow much more when I have the time to relax on my off days away from the gym.

 

[0388631]

Took a nice dip in the pool and did 50 "laps." I've taken to early morning runs to make place for my pretzel habit. Following a 4-5 mile run I do about 30 minutes to 35 minutes of interval training per @D.T.'s recommendation a year or two ago and by the end with tongue out and wanting to throw myself off a cliff, I can safely say my previously low resting heart rate is bit lower now and I can run more at a faster pace than I could previously. I'm assuming I've managed to increase my VO2 max at some point through continuously doing this.

So on my off days, I actually maintain a ‘caloric surplus’, and the reason for that is, I’m not burning nearly as many calories as I would in on my ‘gym days’ that I have to make up for when I’m through with the session. On my off days, that’s when I really try to continue to put on some size, because I’m not really burning any calories. My diet stays pretty much the same consistency with foods I eat with chicken, beef, eggs, vegetables, ect (I also do at least one cheat day a week), I just try to increase my calories on those off days.

Managing the calories is the hardest on my gym days, because I exert so much energy, that I have to make up for those burned calories, Plus I have more time on my ‘off days’ where I can basically eat whenever I want without having to work around going to the gym that day. [At least for me], I also find that your body tends to grow much more when I have the time to relax on my off days away from the gym.

I'd say you watching what you eat at your young age, especially given your career choice where you're usually sitting, is a good move.

 

[44267547]

I'd say you watching what you eat at your young age, especially given your career choice where you're usually sitting, is a good move.

I’m gonna be honest with you, as much as I try to eat a ‘high-protein diet bodybuilding diet’, I don’t stop myself from eating what I want either. I do that for a few reasons, one to keep my sanity and number two, is my whole goal this year is to put as much size as I physically can. One thing I’ve learned about food being equivalent to bodybuilding, is that ‘my life revolves around the food, the food does not revolve around you’. In the end, that’s all that matters to put on size, is the food. This whole thing really is a science that has to be customized, it’s not easy, nor fun (Aside from I do love to eat ), but you adjust.

When I was traveling on vacation in Ft.Meyers, that probably was one of the hardest things, because my whole diet was thrown off from the times that I eat due to flying w/layovers/driving, etc. And if I don’t hit that two hour mark where I’m not eating, my body will let me know real quick. [But the seafood was amazing on the Gulf, I was eating red snapper, Grouper, mahi-mahi, flounder, etc, no deep fried- All-Grilled/blackened.]

What’s interesting about my body composition, (also I’m not relatively tall), I can put on weight easily, but I can also shred really fast too. That’s probably due to my metabolism, being that I eat almost every two hours, where my metabolism is like a machine that never stops running.

 

[0388631]

red snapper, Grouper, mahi-mahi, flounder, etc, no deep fried- All-Grilled/blackened.

Apart from that grouper, I hate you.