Health tips? Diet/Weight Loss/Exercise routine tips? Post em here.

[Warren DeMontague]

[Warren DeMontague]

1. I'll start.

I was a tall and skinny kid groing up, hit about 15 and broadened out, never needed to worry about weight or exercise until well in my 20s.

As such, i hit a point as i got closer to 30 where my metabolism slowed way down. Gained a bunch of weight, looked like shit, felt like shit.

Around 30ish i started making lifestyle changes.. Quit drinking, stopped eating red meat, heavy fatty foods. For a while i was completely vegan but that only lasted a year.

That was enough to keep me at a good weight for a while, but then it started creeping back up as i got closer to my mid 30s.

At which point i got real serious about exercise. Now, i try to do several hours a week, mostly exercycling..i also do all our yard work. In recent years ive added some weight lifting to the mix. In short, im probably in the best shape of my life, now. I remember, after i finally took the weight off, that thinking "hey! I must be doing something right--- Women are flirting with me, again"

My diet is still pretty good- fortunately i live in a part of the country where its easier to eat better, and ive always liked vegetables. Ive taken up gardening in recent years and have found that not only are things like kale perfectly suited to the colder rainy clime i live in, but thankfully the ever present slugs in this area dont particularly like it, either.

I know lots of people struggle with things like diet and weight. For me, half the battle has been making sure to eat better meals that skew lower on the food chain, and half is exercising religiously.

[Swede]

2. I started a low carb diet on January 1st.

It was a lot easier than I thought. I've lost about 20 pounds and feel great.

Here is Garry Taube's food pyramid.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Good for you!

Good luck. Im of the opinion that theres no one "right" way, although i do think theres something to be said for moving away from highly processed grains and carb dense foods even if youre not going the low carb route, specifically.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. Green tea.

I cant say enough good things about green tea. Especially if you can do it without sugar, just plain green tea.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Build a house.

Sadly, this house is now done, so I need a new idea.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. I bet.

Thats gotta keep you in shape!

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. It also helps shed excess wallet weight.

Which is why I probably won't do it again.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Come update mine!

[Major Nikon]

8. Cycling has always kept me in pretty good shape

Years of cycling have developed my legs into tree trunks. I don't do much of anything for my upper body.

One thing I've learned is that diet has a much greater effect on weight gain/loss than exercise for most people. Exercise, and especially exercise performed in the cardio zone, is great for maintaining overall health and keeping blood pressure, lipids, cholesterol, ect. in check.

I say most people, because if you're doing 15-20 hours per week of hard cardio, you can pretty much eat anything you want, but most people aren't going to do this or at least won't maintain that regiment over long periods of time.

If someone is strictly wanting to lose weight, focusing on diet is a great way to go. I've never been much for fad diets. Counting calories by portion control has always worked for me. With the smart phone apps you have today, it makes it really easy. For eating at home, get a kitchen scale and weigh your portions. For eating out, get good at estimating portion sizes and taking doggie bags home. Using these methods you can eat whatever you want, but you find out pretty quickly that lower calorie, high bulk foods fill you up much better than high calorie foods. The hardest part of dieting is the first few weeks. After you get into a routine, your body accepts what it is being given and your hunger levels will go down. You don't want to get too aggressive with dieting. Some people want to lose 10 lbs per week or more, and the problem with that is you're going to be losing a lot of muscle along with the fat doing it that way. As you get older, lean muscle mass gets harder to put on. A slower, long term approach works much better.

Naturally diet combined with exercise is going to produce the best results. For reasonably healthy people, I always recommend cardio exercise because it's much more efficient and produces greater health benefits. Walking, slow biking, etc. is fine for those who can't do cardio, but if you can, cardio is the way to go. Do something that gets your heart rate up. You want to get your heart rate up to the point at which you can just barely carry on a normal conversation, and maintain that rate throughout your routine as much as possible. Heart monitors work very well and are a great tool to use for this. As with diet, the hardest part is getting started. Once you get into a routine it becomes much easier, your muscles don't ache, and you will really start to notice your health and energy levels improve. Start slow with say 15 minutes in the cardio zone or at much as you can do. With each week, try to do a few more minutes. Your endurance will build up pretty quickly.

I also recommend that anyone just beginning a diet and/or exercise routine go to their doctor and get a full physical before they start. Not only is this important for making sure you're healthy enough, but to establish a bench mark so you can guage how much your health improves over time.

[Kaleva]

10. Posting at Meta does not work. At least for me.

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. This week it's gathering, chopping and stacking firewood. nt

[G26]

12. Great tips!

I'm 50 and my weight really started to drift up this year after a gradual rise since my mid-30s.

I agree that diet is the key - you can't exercise enough to make up for a poor diet. And by the time you reach 40 or so, you either have to have a really solid diet or you are getting chubby - it's that simple.

People had a lot of weight-loss success with the low-carb diets a few years ago. Unfortunately, it was a fad for most people, even the ones who lost more weight than they had ever managed to do dieting. It's true though - a good diet mostly involves minimizing or eliminating simple carbs, as delicious as they often are.

[ZenLefty]

14. What works for me may not be what works for you.

But I'm going to tell you what works for me, anyway.

I lift heavy weights. Very heavy. Just basic Olympic weightlifting exercises - bench press, squat, deadlift, overhead press, those sorts of things. I aim to exercise every muscle group regularly every week. How you split it up is unimportant; following an adequate plan with consistency is better than following a great plan occasionally.

I eat copious amounts of protein. Egg whites, milk, lean meats. Nuts and cheeses. I avoid sugars. Not afraid of consuming fats, but know that they pack a lot of calories in a small space. The worst sin of fats is they don't make you feel really full. Other than that, they're just a fuel like any other.

I get about 3,000 calories per day. 200 grams of protein per day (which comes out to 1 gram per pound of body weight, a good rule of thumb when strength training) and the rest from wherever they happen to come from.

My best advice would be this: don't train to look a certain way or to weigh a certain number, train for what you can do. In other words, don't do squats hoping you'll reach a BMI of 22. Do squats until you can squat 2x your body weight. And when you attain that, 2.5x your body weight. If you can squat 3x your body weight, know you are one of the few and one of the best. How you look, how much you weigh, should not be as important as what you do.


"There are few things graven in stone. Except that if you don't squat you're a *****." - Mark Rippetoe

[G26]

15. I think that Olympic lifts (with enough calorie intake) are the surest path to ...

serious, functional strength. However, if your technique is not just-right there is a real risk of injury. Because of that fear (and because I'm an exercise loner), I took the other path: high reps and bodyweight. The core of my routine is 45 pullups, 45 dips, 60 bodyweight squats, 40 bodyweight lunges (each leg) twice a week, plus a few miscellaneous exercises to hit all the major groups. This approach doesn't make you any bigger - it actually leans you out. But I can eat a normal diet (just avoiding carbs) and there's almost no risk of real injury, so I should be able to keep it up until I drop dead of a heart attack.

[ZenLefty]

19. I'd say the risk of injury is about, oh, 100.0%

100.0% +/- 0.0%

You're going to injure something someday lifting heavy weights. I suppose the same can be said for any activity, to some extent. I've learned that as I get older (and ironically, more injury prone) I know my body better and I know how to push myself and when to stop. I've been very thankful for the strength I've built on many occasions; it's all good.

Generally, it's not a big deal. There aren't many injuries you can't recover from. And in many cases, stronger than you started out. But like you said, everyone's path is different. My path is certainly not for everyone. I will say, it allows me to eat pretty much whatever I please and in whatever amounts I want and I don't gain a lot of fat from it. But I know runners and cyclists who eat twice what I eat.

It's kind of a risk-reward thing, no? You can sit on the couch, risking no injury at all, and end up in poor fitness completely unable to fend off the impending zombie apocalypse. Or you can run / bicycle / muy thai / lift heavy weights and risk serious injury but you'll be in a better position to hack the heads off the zombies when they come.

Not judging either way. Everyone's gotta find their own path. But when the zombies come, I don't have to outrun them. I only have to outrun you.

[westerebus]

16. Yoga

If you want a workout that will build strength, increase endurance, and add flexibility it's one way to go. You would have to commit to eight or ten classes to get the benefits, but it is well worth it. And once you start, you can take your practice with you anywhere and continue it as long as you can walk. You will meet some very nice people too.

Yoga is especially helpful for men of all ages. Depending on your physical condition and health factors it's a low impact - high outcome form of exercise when done regularly.

Simple test, can you touch your toes? Can you maintain a squat position with knees bent, chest off your thighs and your arms overhead while alternately raising your heels? Can you stand in an airplane pose, on one leg with the other parallel to the floor with your arms opened at your sides also parallel to the floor and hold it for thirty seconds?

It's not a completive sport. The challenge is yourself. Getting your body to do what the mind tells it to do while being in control of your breath.

Great stress reducer by the way.

Eat a balanced diet and stay hydrated.

Did I mention my current yoga teacher was a NFL cheerleader? Must have slipped my mind.

[westerebus]

18. If it works, it works.

As guy's, we tend to compact and shorten our tendons and ligaments so we become injury prone. Yes, we are stronger, but we pay a price for it. More knee and shoulder surgery and bad backs.

You could always surprise her and take a few classes to get the basics down and then show up in her class.

Not that you need them, but, major major points just for showing up, bonus points for participation.

Ask her to pick out a yoga mat for you. Watch the smile.