Rant VII: Now With 25% Less Drama

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drifter

drifter

Sorry to hear that, LittleSin. If it's any consolation, you're probably better off counting calories as opposed to exercising strictly in terms of weight loss. As an example: I weight about 170 lbs. For me, running leads to a net calorie loss of about 100/mile. If I run, say 15 miles a week, it would take over two weeks to lose a single pound! It would be much more efficient to carefully count my caloric intake instead.

Also, regarding cardio: if you can't do anymore, just slow down and ramp it back up when you catch your breath. I wonder if you're putting too much pressure on yourself and going too hard, which is a mistake that a lot of people make. There's no need to kill yourself with the cardio; if you can't go over twenty minutes, slow it down until you can. If that means occasionally slowing down to a walk (or whatever equivalent to the cardio regimen you're doing) that's okay too, as long as you keep on going. A heart rate monitor would help in this regard.

Doing cardio with weights in between honestly doesn't make a lot of sense to me, as the cardio benefit mostly comes from doing it over ~30 min, and lifting weights is an anaerobic exercise. Some people do cardio and weights on the same day, but I've never heard of mixing it together like that. Of course, IANA trainer so take it for what it's worth.
 
Espy

Espy

Yeah, I"m with Drifter, don't stop working out, the only way to get past your burn-out doing cardio is to do more and more, BUT count those calories. Eating Vegetarian does not=healthy. I know a LOT of really overweight vegetarians.

BTW: You can do this LS! I know it :)
 
Null

Null

heatherling said:
The Borders store at my local mall is closing!! T^T Borders is also home to Seattle's Best Coffee where I get beans every Friday (Bean Friday = bag of beans + free latte!). Now I have to get my coffee at one of the 3 (that's right, 3!) Starbucks in the mall. /cry
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Yeah, the one I usually go to, in Whitehall, is also closing.
 
Baerdog

Baerdog

My oldest friend was killed in a car accident this morning and I can't do anything because I'm stuck halfway around the world.
 
strawman

strawman

LittleSin,

Don't do cardio in order to lose weight. Exercise, for you, at this point, is going to merely be about getting your metabolism up, and to get you to a point where you can do 30-60 minutes of exercise per session. You should not expect or plan on cardio having a direct effect on your weight loss.

Aerobic exercise is pretty much ineffective for weight loss if you can't maintain it for 30 minutes. For the first ten minutes you're only burning the sugar reserves in your bloodstream. It takes a little longer than that for your body to figure out that you need more energy than you have available, and start converting fat to sugar.

Further, aerobic exercise quickly loses effect if your heart rate gets up too high. Aerobic exercise is where you are maintaining a steady level of oxygen that matches your muscle performance requirements. If you exercise too hard, you quickly pass the aerobic state and end up in the anaerobic state where you cannot possibly take in enough oxygen to keep up with your muscles. You quickly run out of breath, your lungs and muscles start to burn, and your heart is literally racing, trying to keep you oxygenated.

If you don't have a personal trainer to help you understand when you are in the fat burning zone, the aerobic zone, and the anaerobic zone then you need to learn where those zones are for you, and take your pulse frequently during exercise to make sure you're staying in the zone you need to be at. I find that a heart rate monitor chest strap, especially the newer ones with heart rate alarms to remind you to stay in the right zone, helped me a lot. I could read and watch TV while exercising and only pay attention to my effort level when the monitor alerted me. Heart rate monitors can purchased (affiliate link, just go to amazon.com and search for "heart rate monitor" if you don't like affiliate links) for under $40.

While your ideal heart rate is different than others, it requires a bit of work to find accurately, so most people follow simple generic charts such as this one: http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll164/stienman/acumen_target_heart_rate_zone2.gif which lists the aerobic zone as "target heat rate". This zone is best for conditioning your muscles, and that's what you need right now. The fat burning zone will be useful later, but you should be exercising to get your muscles in shape, which will accelerate your weight lose more than staying in the fat burning zone for exercise.

I expect you will be able to get into the the fat burning zone and even the aerobic zone merely by walking at a slightly faster pace than normal. If you can walk for 30 minutes, monitoring your heart rate (ie, put your fingers on your neck over your jugular vein, count the pulses for six seconds timed using your watch, then multiply by 10), then you will be able to figure out where you're at and whether you need to speed up or slow down.

And if you can only walk for 10 minutes at a time while in the aerobic zone, that's fine. Just make sure you aren't going into the anaerobic zone.

I'm not a professional health counselor or fitness trainer, so don't take my advice and then die or injure yourself or anything. This is merely what I discovered about exercise and fitness, and your rant suggests to me that you may be doing your exercise in the anaerobic zone, so hopefully this post helps you understand what might be happening, and what you can try to fix it, if this is the cause.

I can understand the frustration you feel. When you start eating healthily, you can gain weight if your body starts getting nutrients it needs and hasn't had enough of for awhile - it's rebalancing your chemistry. Don't give up, and don't let it get to you. Keep eating healthily, watch your calories, and exercise in order to improve your muscle tone and stamina.

You'll get there.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
Baerdog said:
My oldest friend was killed in a car accident this morning and I can't do anything because I'm stuck halfway around the world.
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Fuck, dude. That sucks ass. You feel like making a thread or twenty talking about him and the good times you have you go right ahead. Tell us more about him.
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Espy said:
Yeah, I"m with Drifter, don't stop working out, the only way to get past your burn-out doing cardio is to do more and more, BUT count those calories. Eating Vegetarian does not=healthy. I know a LOT of really overweight vegetarians.
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Everyone's metabolism is different, but for my biggest enemy is sugar. There are multiple reasons, but the main connection to weight is that eating sugar makes me feel hungrier (as does eating simple carbs like white flour/rice). Also sugar gives a quick energy boost, which I then start craving when I'm tired (which is constantly), so I ate when I wasn't hungry. Having gone off of most sugar and carbs for over 6 months (I used to eat tons of breads, chips and had some sort of dessert every day, on the diet it was like once every two weeks), and slowly reintroducing grains into daily eating, I'm actually quite shocked at how my eating habits have changed. While grains were generally off-limits, I had a hard time over-eating. Even when I could have as much meat, butter, cheese and other fatty stuff as I wanted. Fat makes you feel full, and since I was eating good fats (grass fed beef, olive oil, fatty fish) my cholesterol and triglycerides went down even as my fat intake went up.

The low carb thing isn't for everyone. In fact I was doing so poorly on the diet (which was meant to deal with fungal infection) that I had to add in some fruit to keep me going. Right now I'm on mostly following of the GAPS diet, slowly trying to figure out what works best for me as I build my health back up.

I also feel for LittleSin on the exercise thing. If you've seen my pics you might wonder why, but despite my appearance, I'm in horrible shape, due to chronic illness. I used to love excercise, but now I get winded waving a cat toy around for more than a couple minutes. If you can do even ten minutes, you're capable of more than me. I need to push myself harder than I have been, but it's so hard. If this is how I feel getting back into shape after being athletic in my early teens (before getting sick), I can only imagine it must feel even more daunting if someone never been fond of excercise.

Also, LittleSin, how is your sleep? Part of my long-term health problems was sleep apnea, and my doctor now has me using an oxygen machine at night. As he explained it to me: at night I would stop breathing, robbing my liver of the oxygen needed for doing it's detox work. So, during the day all my oxygen was going to the liver to do catch-up work it missed during the night. With a little one around I imagine your sleep schedule has been far from perfect, but if you're not getting enough good quality sleep, that can lead to a lot of problems, especially some that make excercise and weight loss difficult.
Added at: 19:52
makare said:
Well pronounwise it kind of does.
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"He/him/his" can be used as gender-neutral pronouns.
 
LittleSin

LittleSin

I just want to say thanks you for all the good advice and support!

To answer figmentPez question (mainly because its, like, right there in front of me as I write this) my sleep schedule is...odd. Jet is sleeping through the night now and I find myself going to bed earlier and earlier but I never feel rested, even after 10 hours sleep. After just three hours of being up I feel wiped and all I want to do is lie down again.

That's not normal, right?
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
LittleSin said:
To answer figmentPez question (mainly because its, like, right there in front of me as I write this) my sleep schedule is...odd. Jet is sleeping through the night now and I find myself going to bed earlier and earlier but I never feel rested, even after 10 hours sleep. After just three hours of being up I feel wiped and all I want to do is lie down again.

That's not normal, right?
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Definitely not. I read an article recently about how hours slept relates to general life expectancy. Generally speaking less than 6 hours or more than 9 are linked to a shorter life expectancy. The speculation is that people sleeping less are probably getting less than they need because they're pushing themselves too hard, and that people sleeping more than 9 are probably not getting good enough sleep and are sleeping longer to try and make up for that. If you're in bed for 10 hours and you don't wake up feeling rested then something is wrong (and you're not alone, I used to sleep 10 - 12 and wake up more tired than when I went to bed.)

I'm not a doctor, so I wouldn't presume to know all that could be wrong, but from what I've been told, sleep is really important to metabolism, and it's going to be a lot harder to loose weight if you're not getting good sleep. Being overweight is a big cause of sleep apnea, but there are other things that can stop someone from getting a sound night's rest. If you can talk to your doctor about sleep, and possibly see a specialist, that might be beneficial. I'm lucky that my parents are footing my medical bills, but I know not everyone gets their health care covered so easily.
 
LittleSin

LittleSin

Welp, I'm in Canada so I think anything my doctor wants tested is pretty much free. Perhaps I shall consult with her again, though the last time Iwent to her, as I stated above, she seemed less the receptive to my concerns. That was odd. She's been my doctor since before I was born...I've never seen her so cold.
 
W

Wasabi Poptart

Baerdog said:
My oldest friend was killed in a car accident this morning and I can't do anything because I'm stuck halfway around the world.
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I'm sorry for your loss and the tough situation that you are in due to your location, Baer.
 
Cheesy1

Cheesy1

Can't begin to say how heartbreaking it must, Baer. Stay strong buddy.

One of my mother's fellow teachers and good friend just found out her husband's cancer is terminal. They have two very young sons.
 
strawman

strawman

Just rear ended someone, and of course I'll have to wait here for the police who are doubtless dealing with all the other idiots who, like me, underestimate the ice and snow.

/facepalm

Small fender bender, just enough to break a bit of the bumper on both cars, but annoying all the same.
 
Dave

Dave

Staff member
First Lady Puffinstuff said:
Just rear ended someone, and of course I'll have to wait here for the police who are doubtless dealing with all the other idiots who, like me, underestimate the ice and snow.

/facepalm

Small fender bender, just enough to break a bit of the bumper on both cars, but annoying all the same.
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As long as everyone is okay.
 
strawman

strawman

The officers ticket printer was on the fritz. Though I'm at fault, I don't get a ticket. Better than I could have hoped for...
 
Officer_Charon

Officer_Charon

Just FYI, in most cases, as long as someone's clearly at fault, you don't need a police report. The only reason for one would be in the event that you need someone to arbitrate or investigate the crash scene (i.e. someone turns in front of you, causing the crash. They insist that it was clear, and you must have been speeding. They are at fault, because when entering a roadway, the onus is on you to ensure the road is clear in all directions.)
 
Tress

Tress

Officer_Charon said:
Just FYI, in most cases, as long as someone's clearly at fault, you don't need a police report. The only reason for one would be in the event that you need someone to arbitrate or investigate the crash scene (i.e. someone turns in front of you, causing the crash. They insist that it was clear, and you must have been speeding. They are at fault, because when entering a roadway, the onus is on you to ensure the road is clear in all directions.)
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I thought the law said that if the damages go over a certain cost, you must call the police and file a report? No exceptions?
 
strawman

strawman

If either party wants to claim insurance damage, even in a no fault state, the insurance company really wants a police report.
 
M

makare

The highway patrol always stops and helps me change my tires. Such helpful young men.
 
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