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PFM Health Club II

Rowing and running at the gym going well, more so rowing than running. Weight loss not going so well, don't know if it is consequence of now working out as before I used to drop weight very easy just with diet alone and no exercise, diet hasn't changed I've just incorporated the gym. I'm not too worried at the minute but I would eventually like to see it come down.

I am going every day although two things have become apparent- First, who knew school kids were mad on the gym? Mine is full of the buggers every day between 3-5pm, I wouldn't mind but they get on a bit of kit and spend 60 seconds fannying around with all the settings and playing at it then moving on and another jumps on behind them. Second thing I've noticed is that most adults aren't much better at it than the kids, there is little wonder a lot of people get nothing from working out when you see the shocking form or lack of effort most put in, they're barely out of breath or just plodding along, I mean it is probably better than doing nothing but only just!
 
On the subject of weight management, I have just listened to an interesting BBC radio program in "The Expectation Effect" series (it's number 5 of 8). It is on BBC sounds at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0019b3j. It deals with expectation and its effect on how the body manages energy use and regulates hunger.

In summary (go to 12:15) the basic thesis is: No sugary drinks. Don't eat a bland and uninteresting diet. Eat foods that are indulgent and tasty to set up an expectation of satiation - your body will generate hormones that tell it that you have eaten well. Also, don't be distracted by doing something else while eating, to remain mindful of what you have eaten - your body will respond by telling it that this is a time of plenty so metabolism can run at a higher level without the need to preserve energy reserves.
 
Just FYI, a further note on weight maintenance after weight loss.

My weight reached target (67 kg) in about June 2021 – 21 months ago. I have managed to keep it between 66.5 kg and 68.0 kg (post-Christmas peak) since.

I researched some professional literature on weight maintenance after weight loss. It isn't encouraging because of an effect called adaptive thermogenesis (AT).

With sustained weight loss, it seems that energy used for basic metabolism reduces by a small but significant amount. This adaptation can persist for months, years or indefinitely according to different sources. Persistent AT frequently gets blamed for weight re-gain.

I assume my basic metabolism must have adapted. However, I have noted that in recent months I am taking in about 200 kcal/day more than when my weight stabilized, while my weight still remains stable. I have been doing a little more exercise since reaching my target weight, but it’s outdoor activity and not much during the recent winter. Anyway, I don’t think this extra exercise can account for more than 100 kcal/day on average, so I have to assume there has been an increase in my basic metabolism to account for the rest of my extra calorie intake.

I hope this apparent recovery in basic metabolism is sustained. I shall have to see. If so, it seems possible that for me metabolic re-adaptation after weight loss took about 18 months. If anyone is looking to stabilize weight after weight loss it may be wise to consider this possibility and plan longer-term than perhaps expected.
 
Some first hand experience from someone who has trained and maintained a healthy diet for the last 35 years, but also was a twice a week binge drinker for 12 years. I weigh 78kg at 5 foot 10 inches, the same as I did when I was 22 years old. Apologies, much of this many of you will know already:
  • Binge drinking (12 bottles of Becks on Friday, 16 on Saturday, week in week out for 12 years) made no difference to me in terms of leanness or athletic capability, as long as I had a day off the sauce before I hit the gym. I stopped drinking suddenly and almost completely when I reached 32yrs. I expected great things to occur based on all the evil I had read about excess booze. Untrue, no change.
  • If you want to be lean, fit and strong all of your life then you need to make good diet and exercise your lifelong norm. No stopping and starting, if you lose weight then go back to you old lifestyle then you will go back to your old weight
  • Its much easier to remain lean by not overeating in the first place rather than trying to burn off the calories through exercise. The maths shows that little dietary indiscretions require huge workloads to burn them off.
  • Completely effective diet and exercise regimes are much simpler than the myriad of click bait articles that get conjured up every year with "new breakthrough" information would have you believe. These articles are designed to make the writer money, nothing more than that. Buy the book Ultimate Sports Nutrition by Dr M. Colgan and be done with the topic.
  • Don't get injured and just as important don't use bad technique that will contribute to wear and tear that will not show up until years down the line.
  • Consider if you are of low enough bodyweight for impact sports to be safe for you long term. Cycling, rowing, swimming vs squash or running.
  • As you get over 30 start stretching if you haven't already. You will need to do this to help remain injury free as you train.
  • As you get over 40 start balance exercises as this physical skill starts to go down the pan too.
  • As I discovered in lockdown, there are strength building exercises that do not require you to hoist weights in a commercial gym. You can maintain and even develop strength just as well at home with some low cost bits and pieces.
  • If you need to lose fat do it very slowly, a kg every few weeks so as to not lose strength and feel hungry.
  • You can lose many kgs (10kg in my case) of fat not by cutting calories but by switching you food sources to favour complex carbs over fats. This way you won't feel starved.
  • If you train consistently and injury free throughout your life you will lose little strength or endurance up to your mid fifties, maybe beyond, I don't know yet. It's your recovery speed that deteriorates and you can't change that. Therefore you need to cut back on training volume or else you will overtrain and go backwards!
  • Recognise plantar fasciitis symptoms and prevent it getting worse. I've had it for nearly 2 years and can't heal from it.
  • If you have a week off training and come back immediately stronger then you were doing too much.
  • Stay fully hydrated to train effectively. I think it helps me think more clearly too, maybe!
  • If you find your new healthy diet bland and lacking in flavour be patient. Give it two weeks, in that time your taste buds will recalibrate for subtler flavours and before you know it you'll be happy with the the new food.
  • Better results come from intensity, not volume with strength training.
  • You can eat a load of crap one day each week as long as the calories are the same as they would have been on your healthy diet and it won't affect your weight.
 
I was told six weeks ago that my blood-sugar level was creeping up. I stopped the cake/chocolate/biscuits/donuts habit immediately. I haven’t missed that crap at all, just as I didn’t miss meat when I stopped that 22 years ago. So easy.
Thankfully my job keeps me fairly active and agile.

I wonder if I’ll ever get ‘my’ life back…
 
Well done Tony. Maybe your new life will become just as fulfilling as the old one? Take satisfaction from, and have pride for, your achievements in the health realm?
 
paul rich said:
Well done Tony. Maybe your new life will become just as fulfilling as the old one? Take satisfaction from, and have pride for, your achievements in the health realm?
Click to expand...
I doubt I’m too different to most people in that being told about my blood-sugar level made the decision easy. I didn’t need to think about it at all.
I have to be able to care for my wife, and at 59 years old I need my health on my side.
Coincidentally, I’m in the tea bar at work, and the counter is covered in birthday treats. I’ve not even moved off my chair.
Leftover homemade curry later will do for me :)
 
paul rich said:
I think you do yourself discredit. The nationwide increase in type 2 diabetes says others don't have your resolve.
Click to expand...

Perhaps they found out too late? Saying that, an ex-colleague is losing his second toe soon. 28 stone, hides food around the home and workplace…
 
From what I understand T2D is slow in its onset with plenty of warning symptoms. I had a colleague who refused to cut out the beer despite his T2D and gout. He had a few years of the GP nagging him about his diet before it took him out.
 
Tony Lockhart said:
Perhaps they found out too late? Saying that, an ex-colleague is losing his second toe soon. 28 stone, hides food around the home and workplace…
Click to expand...
Compulsive eating drives so much obesity and associated illness.

paul rich said:
From what I understand T2D is slow in its onset with plenty of warning symptoms. I had a colleague who refused to cut out the beer despite his T2D and gout. He had a few years of the GP nagging him about his diet before it took him out.
Click to expand...
It is, a mate has been hovering on the edge of T2D for years and is 20+ stone. His brother was diagnosed with it, at the time he was living on takeaways and lager. He said "I'm not having this", bought a bike and went on a diet. It's gone away, he is now in a cycling club, much less overweight, no T2D and still enjoys a few beers now and again. Just not every night. It can be done, but some people don't *really* want to. Just like my pal above, who has just had a stroke and is still taking a largely "que sera, sera" attitude to the whole affair. The warning signs have been there for 20 years, his own brother got T2D and dieted his way out of it 10 years ago, but some people don't actually want to listen.
 
RESISTANT STARCH.
I discovered that this is the way to lose fat, especially around the waist.

No diets. You must cook potatoes, or sphagetti , or Amaranth grain, etc. Then let it cool down to room temp. Then, next day, you heat it up hot and serve with whatever.
Simple. And works.
Research 'resistant starch'.
I use organic, whole grain items- usually purchased from Healthy Supplies in Sussex. Good firm to use.
 
paul rich said:
Better results come from intensity, not volume with strength training.
Click to expand...

I agree with the caveat that as you get older injury risk increases for few-reps of high resistance. It also depends if you're aiming to build pure strength or some combination of strength and endurance.
Interestingly for cardio the opposite is said to be true. 80% of your cardio workouts should be at low intensity, with no more than 20% at high intensity, and try to avoid medium intensity.
 
paul rich said:
Some first hand experience from someone who has trained and maintained a healthy diet for the last 35 years, but also was a twice a week binge drinker for 12 years. I weigh 78kg at 5 foot 10 inches, the same as I did when I was 22 years old. Apologies, much of this many of you will know already:
  • Binge drinking (12 bottles of Becks on Friday, 16 on Saturday, week in week out for 12 years) made no difference to me in terms of leanness or athletic capability, as long as I had a day off the sauce before I hit the gym. I stopped drinking suddenly and almost completely when I reached 32yrs. I expected great things to occur based on all the evil I had read about excess booze. Untrue, no change.
  • If you want to be lean, fit and strong all of your life then you need to make good diet and exercise your lifelong norm. No stopping and starting, if you lose weight then go back to you old lifestyle then you will go back to your old weight
  • Its much easier to remain lean by not overeating in the first place rather than trying to burn off the calories through exercise. The maths shows that little dietary indiscretions require huge workloads to burn them off.
  • Completely effective diet and exercise regimes are much simpler than the myriad of click bait articles that get conjured up every year with "new breakthrough" information would have you believe. These articles are designed to make the writer money, nothing more than that. Buy the book Ultimate Sports Nutrition by Dr M. Colgan and be done with the topic.
  • Don't get injured and just as important don't use bad technique that will contribute to wear and tear that will not show up until years down the line.
  • Consider if you are of low enough bodyweight for impact sports to be safe for you long term. Cycling, rowing, swimming vs squash or running.
  • As you get over 30 start stretching if you haven't already. You will need to do this to help remain injury free as you train.
  • As you get over 40 start balance exercises as this physical skill starts to go down the pan too.
  • As I discovered in lockdown, there are strength building exercises that do not require you to hoist weights in a commercial gym. You can maintain and even develop strength just as well at home with some low cost bits and pieces.
  • If you need to lose fat do it very slowly, a kg every few weeks so as to not lose strength and feel hungry.
  • You can lose many kgs (10kg in my case) of fat not by cutting calories but by switching you food sources to favour complex carbs over fats. This way you won't feel starved.
  • If you train consistently and injury free throughout your life you will lose little strength or endurance up to your mid fifties, maybe beyond, I don't know yet. It's your recovery speed that deteriorates and you can't change that. Therefore you need to cut back on training volume or else you will overtrain and go backwards!
  • Recognise plantar fasciitis symptoms and prevent it getting worse. I've had it for nearly 2 years and can't heal from it.
  • If you have a week off training and come back immediately stronger then you were doing too much.
  • Stay fully hydrated to train effectively. I think it helps me think more clearly too, maybe!
  • If you find your new healthy diet bland and lacking in flavour be patient. Give it two weeks, in that time your taste buds will recalibrate for subtler flavours and before you know it you'll be happy with the the new food.
  • Better results come from intensity, not volume with strength training.
  • You can eat a load of crap one day each week as long as the calories are the same as they would have been on your healthy diet and it won't affect your weight.
Click to expand...

very interesting, only caveat I would suggest is more reps as you age as opposed to more weight-just a personal philosophy
 
sean99 said:
I agree with the caveat that as you get older injury risk increases for few-reps of high resistance. It also depends if you're aiming to build pure strength or some combination of strength and endurance.
Interestingly for cardio the opposite is said to be true. 80% of your cardio workouts should be at low intensity, with no more than 20% at high intensity, and try to avoid medium intensity.
Click to expand...

very interesting-any links for the cardio recommendations?
 
I agree David and Sean99, regarding too few reps and the load this implies versus the risk of injury. In fact I would say this applies to trainers of any age. All of the research I read stated that reps below about 4 were more to do with demonstrating the strength you have rather than developing more strength.

However there is a way to avoid injury but still subject your muscles to nice productive high intensity stress - reduced rep tempo. I can smoothly and slowly progress through reps with quite modest weights whilst still experiencing failure in the strength building 6 to 10 rep range by doing this. Because there is no significant acceleration at the start of each rep the peak load spikes that tear tissue don't occur. Plus the lack of momentum ensures all movement is generated from a sustained fatigue inducing effort by your muscles. I don't lift anything ballistically anymore. Your muscle doesn't know how much weight is on the bar, just how much work it has to do and at what intensity.

Talk of ballistically lifting big weights reminds me of a funny little story. In my mid twenties a very attractive girl started training in our spit and sawdust alpha male predominant gym. After two weeks of her joining up the gym owner complained to me that his takings were down. "Everyone's trying to impress her with what they can lift, there're all ****ing injured. Even me for ****s sake and I'm forty year old!"
 
paul rich said:
From what I understand T2D is slow in its onset with plenty of warning symptoms.
Click to expand...

Not always - or at least not in my case. I've just been diagnosed but despite my blood sugar more or less being off the chart I don't have any symptoms at the moment.
 
paul rich said:
I agree David and Sean99, regarding too few reps and the load this implies versus the risk of injury. In fact I would say this applies to trainers of any age. All of the research I read stated that reps below about 4 were more to do with demonstrating the strength you have rather than developing more strength.

However there is a way to avoid injury but still subject your muscles to nice productive high intensity stress - reduced rep tempo. I can smoothly and slowly progress through reps with quite modest weights whilst still experiencing failure in the strength building 6 to 10 rep range by doing this. Because there is no significant acceleration at the start of each rep the peak load spikes that tear tissue don't occur. Plus the lack of momentum ensures all movement is generated from a sustained fatigue inducing effort by your muscles. I don't lift anything ballistically anymore. Your muscle doesn't know how much weight is on the bar, just how much work it has to do and at what intensity.

Talk of ballistically lifting big weights reminds me of a funny little story. In my mid twenties a very attractive girl started training in our spit and sawdust alpha male predominant gym. After two weeks of her joining up the gym owner complained to me that his takings were down. "Everyone's trying to impress her with what they can lift, there're all ****ing injured. Even me for ****s sake and I'm forty year old!"
Click to expand...

Low reps have a very specific part in a training routine; basically towards your 'peak' if you're about to compete... Gets you up to around your opening weight etc...

As for gym training; they're not needed at all, unless you're specifically overloading and only training a section of the lift (ie rack pulls, Anderson squats, bench press with blocks/boards, high pulls etc)

And again with 'speed reps' there's no need, at all.. Best way to pop a tendon or tear a muscle...!
 
Not been able to train calisthenics since Christmas due to a prolapsed c4 disc. Thankfully on the mend now. Might start again next week.
 
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