Health and Weight Loss

Quote: Rigondeaux

why-your-gut-microbes-love-intermittent-fasting-5716948281a3
Interesting science driven article on fasting, sleep aging and your gut.
even very short girlie fasts do a lot of good.

Intermittent fasting is usually 5:2 (days) but recently 6:18 (hours) has been shown to be optimal though rarely encountered in the USA.

Quote: FleaStiff

Heck, you can simply walk four miles a day and still get beneficial tissue oxygenation levels.

The trick of course is getting that much walking done. With my "lard belley" and crook feet its hard to walk four miles and far easier to sit on a couch and do a mile on my "mini-bike", but then it is also a matter of saddle sores.

I aim each day for a mixture of real sidewalks and mini-bike miles, but my aim seems to be lousy. A hard chair rather than couch might be better for using the bike but the Learning Disabled couple that re-arranged my "digs" put the bike in front of the soft couch.

Since those mini bikes can also be put on desk tops for arm use, I wonder if it might be better for me to get another bike rather than using dumb bells that only sit there staring back at me.

My goal is to keep my steps under 1000 per day. I probably keep it under that 50% of the time.

Quote: DRich

My goal is to keep my steps under 1000 per day. I probably keep it under that 50% of the time.

3000 is considered sedentary.

The newest Matrix movie is about a retired couple who do as little as possible and then find out they’re living in fluid filled cans.

Quote: rxwine

3000 is considered sedentary.

The newest Matrix movie is about a retired couple who do as little as possible and then find out they’re living in fluid filled cans.

That sounds like a dream come true for me.

If you're still fat, this may be for you. A gun.

Just kidding.

Anyway, Marie Osmond claims she maintained the same fit weight for the last 13 years by eating 6 times a day. She says at age 60 her metabolism needs constant stimulation, and long times in between slow it.

Quote: FleaStiff

Quote: FleaStiff

Heck, you can simply walk four miles a day and still get beneficial tissue oxygenation levels.

The trick of course is getting that much walking done. With my "lard belley" and crook feet its hard to walk four miles and far easier to sit on a couch and do a mile on my "mini-bike", but then it is also a matter of saddle sores.

My binging on avacados, asparagras, celery, and squash has brought my ankles down to a diameter that is no longer grossly disproportionate. I also resumed the meds that CVS refused to send me for six weeks. Walking is therefore getting easier to endure but the soles still have too much fluid.

I've been striking a balance between the quacks who tell me that adding weight will immobilize me and the quacks who want me add muscle mass so that i will have something with which I can exercise. I'm still trying to find some middle ground on this 'many reps of light weights' versus 'one or two reps of heavy weights'. I find myself staring at the two pound dumb bell as equally often as i stare at the twenty pound dumb bell.

I even took a vacation from my gout-irritating high protein diet by eating a variety of pastas, rice and potatoes, but have decided to focus on avoiding carbs soon. So the lard belly remains as do the muscle deficient arms and legs.

Quote: FleaStiff

Quote: FleaStiff

Quote: FleaStiff

Heck, you can simply walk four miles a day and still get beneficial tissue oxygenation levels.

The trick of course is getting that much walking done. With my "lard belley" and crook feet its hard to walk four miles and far easier to sit on a couch and do a mile on my "mini-bike", but then it is also a matter of saddle sores.

My binging on avacados, asparagras, celery, and squash has brought my ankles down to a diameter that is no longer grossly disproportionate. I also resumed the meds that CVS refused to send me for six weeks. Walking is therefore getting easier to endure but the soles still have too much fluid.

I've been striking a balance between the quacks who tell me that adding weight will immobilize me and the quacks who want me add muscle mass so that i will have something with which I can exercise. I'm still trying to find some middle ground on this 'many reps of light weights' versus 'one or two reps of heavy weights'. I find myself staring at the two pound dumb bell as equally often as i stare at the twenty pound dumb bell.

I even took a vacation from my gout-irritating high protein diet by eating a variety of pastas, rice and potatoes, but have decided to focus on avoiding carbs soon. So the lard belly remains as do the muscle deficient arms and legs.

I take potassium citrate. My intermittent gout went away.

Quote: rxwine

Anyway, Marie Osmond claims she maintained the same fit weight for the last 13 years by eating 6 times a day. She says at age 60 her metabolism needs constant stimulation, and long times in between slow it.

I'm in my 40's and would love for my metabolism to slow down a bit. Maybe then I could finally build some muscle. I've weighed almost exactly the same for the last 20 years.

Quote: TigerWu

I'm in my 40's and would love for my metabolism to slow down a bit. Maybe then I could finally build some muscle. I've weighed almost exactly the same for the last 20 years.

I'll trade you! I'm in my 40's as well, and my metabolism flatlined around the age of 20!

Quote: TigerWu

I'm in my 40's and would love for my metabolism to slow down a bit. Maybe then I could finally build some muscle. I've weighed almost exactly the same for the last 20 years.

Same with me, i have weighed around 165 +-5 for the last thirty years or so. Today was 165.6.

I just look at a big mac and gain 3 pounds. I wish I had the metabolism as some of you

Quote: GWAE

I just look at a big mac and gain 3 pounds. I wish I had the metabolism as some of you

In my case I don't think I have a high metabolism. I just don't eat much. I would guess I eat about 8 or 9 meals a week.

5 appetites for humans. ?

Quote:

In 2010, Caley Johnson, a graduate student of anthropology at City University of New York, arrived to study Stella. For 30 consecutive days she followed her, watching and recording exactly what, and how much, she ate.
Stella’s diet was extremely diverse: almost 90 different foodstuffs over that time. On the surface, she didn’t appear particularly discerning. And indeed, the ratio of fats to carbohydrates in her diet varied widely from day to day.
But when Johnson crunched the numbers, something interesting popped out. When she looked at the ratio of combined daily calories from carbs and fats to calories from protein, she always got close to 4:1. This happened every day, regardless of what Stella ate. Even more interestingly, this ratio was very similar to what is considered nutritionally ideal for a female of Stella’s size. Far from being indiscriminate, Stella was a meticulously healthy eater.
How did she calibrate her diet so precisely? Doing so is difficult, and even professional dieticians have to use computer programs to do it. But Stella didn’t have access to a program because she was a wild Cape baboon.

Here's another study.

Quote:

We put 200 young locusts in individual plastic boxes and prepared 25 different foods containing various proportions of protein and carbohydrates, the main nutrients the insects eat. The foods ranged from high-protein/low-carb to high-carb/low-protein, and everything in between.
Each locust was fed just one of the 25 formulations, in unlimited quantities, until they reached adulthood and shed their skin. This took a minimum of nine days and up to three weeks. We meticulously recorded how much each locust consumed each day, plus their weight and how much fat and lean tissue they had put on.

Once all the locusts had reached adulthood or died, we worked out which diet was closest to ideal. For that, we identified the mixture of protein and carbs that allowed locusts to grow and survive best. This turned out to be approximately 300 milligrams of carbs and 210 milligrams of protein a day.
Then we looked at what the locusts had actually eaten. Obviously they were restricted by their diet, but what was striking was that all of them managed to get close to the ideal amount of protein, even if that meant missing the carbs target by miles.

The locusts that were given a low-protein diet, for example, hugely overate carbs, consuming more than double the target amount. And that came at a cost. They took much longer to reach adulthood and they got fat. Granted, it is hard to tell that a locust is fat because of its exoskeleton. But it is chubby on the inside, like an overweight knight wedged into a small suit of armour.

In contrast, the locusts on a high-protein diet ate too few carbs and were unhealthily lean. They were less likely to survive to adulthood, and those that did had too little body fat to survive in the wild.

This experiment documented for the first time the battle between two nutrients: protein and carbs. When the locusts’ food didn’t allow them to eat a balanced diet, they prioritised protein over carbs at great cost to growth and survival. In fact, we later realised that what we were seeing wasn’t so much a competition between nutrients as between two appetites – one for protein, the other for carbs. Locusts had two separate appetites.
Up to that point, appetite had always been viewed as a single entity, an all-consuming drive that compels animals (including us) to eat our fill. This was the first hint that there was more to it.

Quote:

That was the purpose of the Stella study and many others that we have done. These have shown that appetite-driven nutrient balancing is common across the animal kingdom. It has been documented in life forms as diverse as slime moulds, cockroaches, beetles, spiders, cats, dogs, mink and non-human primates. Some turn out to have not two, but five appetites, three for the main macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fat) and two for specific micronutrients – sodium and calcium. Given a range of foods to eat, they will always precisely calibrate their intake.

Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632831-400-you-have-five-appetites-not-one-and-they-are-the-key-to-your-health/#ixzz6N7hHpL00

And if you wonder how that is useful, here's the process -near the end of the article

Quote:

The initial step is to calculate your protein target. First, look up the daily energy requirement for your age, sex and level of activity. You can do this with something called the Harris Benedict equation calculator, available on numerous websites.
Next, work out the portion of those calories that should come from protein by multiplying it by roughly 0.15 (that is, 15 per cent of energy from protein; this multiplier varies depending on age: 18 to 30-year-olds require 18 per cent (0.18), people in their 30s need 17 per cent and those over 65 should get 20 per cent). Then divide the resulting number by 4 to get the number of grams of protein per day you should eat (a gram of protein contains 4 kilocalories of energy).
Finally, work out how to obtain that from protein-rich foods such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy, pulses, nuts and seeds. This is slightly complex, but the protein content of all these foods is available online and on food labels.
Everything else flows from this. It will satisfy your protein appetite and automatically ensure that you don’t overeat carbs and fats. In fact, you don’t need to keep track of these at all, as your protein appetite will manage them for you. Just make sure you supplement the high-protein foods with mostly wholefoods, mainly plant-based, which will also supply the fibre you need.
Most important, avoid ultra-processed foods. Keep them out of the house. You will eat them if they are there. They are designed to be irresistible.

There's a study confirming that eccentric muscle contractions can reduce your exercise of building muscle by half.

Quote:

The study saw three groups perform different types of dumbbell curls, twice a week for five weeks (as well as a control group who did none of the exercises). Those who only lowered the weights saw the same muscle improvements as participants who both raised and lowered them – despite doing just half the number of reps.

So, the obvious question is, how do you lower a weight without lifting it first, other than employing another person or some powered device?

I'm on a campaign to lose more weight. After the holidays, my weight had ballooned to 183 lbs. By April I had reduced that to 174. I now have it down to 173. I'm aiming for 165 lbs, a weight I haven't been at for several decades.

I figure that weight loss is a single factor that can:

- improve appearance
- increase energy and vigor
- decrease high-blood pressure
- lower A1C/blood sugar
- lower inflammation in blood vessels and joints
- make it easier to exercise

I admit to having a problem with my clothes not fitting. When your pants start slipping below your waist, this is a non-trivial problem.

Quote: gordonm888

I'm on a campaign to lose more weight. After the holidays, my weight had ballooned to 183 lbs. By April I had reduced that to 174. I now have it down to 173. I'm aiming for 165 lbs, a weight I haven't been at for several decades.

I figure that weight loss is a single factor that can:

- improve appearance
- increase energy and vigor
- decrease high-blood pressure
- lower A1C/blood sugar
- lower inflammation in blood vessels and joints
- make it easier to exercise

I admit to having a problem with my clothes not fitting. When your pants start slipping below your waist, this is a non-trivial problem.
link to original post

My weight fluctuates between 160 and 170 (probably closer to 170 at the moment). I have found about the only way I lose weight is if I have a weight loss bet with someone. I don't care about my health but if I have $500 riding on it I will lose whatever weight we agreed upon. As a former wrestler, losing 10 pounds is simple, 20 pounds is more of a challenge at my weight.