Getting in shape

[wdfifteen]

I stepped on the scales when we got back from Europe on April 19th and they hit 240. I've never been that heavy in my life. I'm 66 years old; with worsening chronic bronchitis and wear and tear arthritis in every joint I have really slowed down the exercise. I rewarded myself for getting through the day with food and wine.
Wife gave me a Fitbit a couple of months ago that I didn't use much because it doesn't record the exercise I do most, which is rowing. But when the scales screamed 240 at me I decided I had to get serious about my health and make it part of a program.
I started using the Fitbit to record sleep and walking. There is something magic about 10,000 steps a day I guess, because that is the goal everyone goes for. 10k steps burns about 210 calories, in a normal day I take about 4000 to 6000. I have arthritis in my feet, so walking is an issue, so I row 300 calories worth in the morning, keep track of my steps, and in the evening I row whatever I need to get up to the 210 I would get from walking 10k steps. I also use the fitbit to track my sleep and make sure I get to bed early enough to get 8 hrs. I use Myfitnesspal to track food intake, keeping it to 1800 calories per day, but most days I'm closer to 1600. My wife thinks it's funny that I measure all my food, but that's the only way to know know much you're eating.
So far:
Sleep is up from 6 hrs a night to almost 8
Weight is down to 232
I feel a LOT better
I'm 6'2" and I've stayed between 210 and 220 all my adult life. I'm comfortable at that weight so my goal is 215. It's looking attainable.

Anybody else having any success getting in shape? What do you do?

[Tobra]

I find that if I don't eat late in the day, after 1700, I tend to stay at a better weight. Walking/ running the dog, pushups and situps are about all for exercise.

Do something for your abs/core or else you will have back problems. Maintain your flexibility or you will have problems as well. Stretch out your legs every day.

[911dean]

Keep up the good work. I've been weight training for 10 years now and very consistently. Usually 4-5 times a week. I try to use the treadmill 3x a week before work. I'm not as consistent as I'd like to be with cardio but feel remarkably better through the day when I am. I also ride a bike in season. I really enjoy it. My greatest issue is diet. Currently I weigh 228 at 19% body fat. I'd love to break 200 by the time I'm 50 which is 6 months from now. I don't know if it's feasible though. I last was at 200 5 years ago and was getting into some 32" waisted pants and easily into anything marked 34. I think I might have put on more muscle since then and think I'll be at about 208 and fit in the same stuff. We'll see. Anyways keep up the good work. Working out can become a lifestyle it certainly has for me. Rarely do I miss working out.

[wdfifteen]

I forgot to add that I'm tracking water intake and I do 15 minutes of stretching-type yoga in the morning. The yoga is better than 10 cups of coffee for waking up.

[id10t]

Went from 290 to 245 by stopping sugared sodas (Coke Zero isn't bad...), sweet tea, and sugar in my coffee. Cut back on desserts quantity wise and about half frequency.

[LeeH]

To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More - NYTimes.com

[ckelly78z]

I congratulate you on your weight loss efforts, once that weight is on, it doesn't want to leave.

I'm only 51 and have been concerned about my weight lately. I'm 5'-10", and 190-195. Most of my life, I had been 165-170 and maintained that weight fairly well from the very busy factory job I had. I still have the same job, but was promoted to a half office/half prototyping job within the same company.

My biggest problem, and what maybe should concern you also with the chronic bronchitis, is how much sodium/salt intake you have on a daily basis. My chronic bronchitis turned into congestive heart failure a few years back, and I fight a constant battle with fluid retention around my heart, and lungs. I take a diuretic when I feel I need it (prescribed by my doctor), which can purge 3-4 pounds of fluid in a single morning. I try to eat less processed food, and drink more clean filtered water, but not always convenient.

[bleucamaro]

While I'm (only?) 34, I'm 6', and had hit 210. Not really fat by any means, but it was a wake-up call similar to what you had. I don't have a fitbit, but my phone tracks steps. I was doing 6000+ steps a day just at work, but wasn't doing much else.

My first step to weight loss was I caught the flu, and lost almost 10lb in a week. After I recovered, I told myself, this was a good kick-start. I cut out most breads, pastas, cut back on beer... basically I googled foods that cause bloat and cut those out. I also cut way back on soda. I'll drink iced coffee or iced tea instead. For me, this was all a pretty small change, and easy to do. I basically traded sandwiches for tacos, and pasta for sushi, and I think that's an upgrade all the way around.

At the same time, I upped my water intake a whole bunch, and if I feel hungry, my first go to is now a glass of water. If I still feel hungry, or tired in 20 min, I'll eat.

That's it for the diet part.

For exercise and activity, I downloaded a free app. There's a bunch of them, I like "Sworkit". It has a few built in workouts, and downloadable ones. I downloaded the "Beach Confident: Arms & Abs". It has customizable time settings. I was at 15min/day, and just changed to 20min/day. They are 30 second exercises that don't require equipment or anything fancy. There are .gif's that show you the movement. It moves you through the 30 second exercises with only 5 seconds between. Every couple min there is a 30 second break.

Now, I'm down to 180lb, have a pretty much flat stomach, abs are showing up, chest and shoulders are looking better. But the best part is, I feel better, have more energy through the day, and sleep better at night.

I thought my goal would be 175lb, but I'd be happy keeping at 180 and building definition. If I creep back to 185 and increase athleticism, that would be good too.

I hope you find something that works well for you.

[Charles Freeborn]

Yep - fork in mouth disease is the real problem. When you get weight off it hurts less to exercise - vicious circle, but you have to put in the work. I row as well - both on a machine and on the water. Best possible impact free exercise. I'll do a minimum of 5k pieces. On the water my route is closer to 10k. That's a workout.
I'm 6'4" and when my weight gets up around 190 I start to feel it in my knees. 180-5 is much more comfortable.
Another thing to look at as we age (I'm 59 in a few days) is your GI health. I had my gall bladder removed several years ago and my digestion is all different now. I take enzyme supplements to help with digestion.
Completely cut out junk foods - soda, oily chips, etc. Snack on fruit or nuts. Hold the vino to a glass a day with 2 or 3 days per week as "school nights" -no alcohol.

[island911]

Originally Posted by id10t

Went from 290 to 245 by stopping sugared sodas (Coke Zero isn't bad...), sweet tea, and sugar in my coffee. Cut back on desserts quantity wise and about half frequency.

From what I understand, the diet drinks make your brain/body crave calories. (read: soda water, or flat water, is better for those wanting to be comfortable with fewer calories.

[Evans, Marv]

Unfortunately I find as I approach my mid 70s, I've lost all interest in attempting to "work out." I bring this up to point out if you enter a point where you loose interest in that sort of thing and are overweight & grossly out of shape, you might also arrive at a point of no return. I've always been physically active throughout my life and remain so, but just don't have any interest in doing something purely for exercise. I'm still more active than 90+% of my friends & neighbors, still wear 32x32 pants for the past 40+ years, and have weighed in my low to mid 170's (5'10") as my max weight. Our place is 2 1/2 acres along with the house to care for. So during portions of the year I am required to do certain maintenance things that require hours/days with a weed whacker, brush cutter, weed pulling, digging, painting, repairing, etc., etc. I also take a walk lots of days for two miles which includes uphill of around 400 ft. My wife & I enjoy hiking. For instance we hiked to the top of a small mountain yesterday - a six mile round trip with about 1K ft. of uphill. I've noticed I don't need as much food as I used to and actively try to not eat more than I feel like I need. My wife has cut out sugar, bread, pasta, etc., sweets in general and I've really cut down on a bunch of that as a result. I'd say as you get older, it's a decent health advantage to have "built in" activities to burn calories and keep your parts moving. You might just not feel like "working out" for the sake of it at some point.

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by id10t

Went from 290 to 245 by stopping sugared sodas (Coke Zero isn't bad...), sweet tea, and sugar in my coffee. Cut back on desserts quantity wise and about half frequency.

I did the opposite. I stopped drinking any diet drinks and drink ones with real sugar when I want a soda and mostly drink unsweetened tea. 3 - 4 times a week on the treadmill and softball once a week same as before and I feel much better. I do drink less soft drinks than before and try not do get any with HFCS. We do eat less processed foods as well which certainly helped.

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by island911

From what I understand, the diet drinks make your brain/body crave calories. (read: soda water, or flat water, is better for those wanting to be comfortable with fewer calories.

Arstechnica had an article on how it messed with the fauna in your gut as well which makes it hard for your body to process real sugar.

[Tobra]

Patrick, exercise in the AM works well to raise your metabolism for the rest of the day. At your age, you should do some weight training to help maintain lean muscle mass and bone density. This is something that is more important for women than it is to men, because of what happens to a woman's estrogen levels at a certain age.

Muscle is heavier than fat, but it also burns more calories at rest, which also serves to increase your base metabolic rate.

Soda pop is poison, even if it is sugar free. You would be better off drinking beer or wine, IMHO. There are many that advocate for tea, rather than coffee, particularly green tea. If you want to drink something on a hot afternoon, drink iced tea, rather than a Coke.

[vash]

DIET trumps exercise.

if had to guess..80% diet, 20% exercise.

stay at it!!

i think a great way to control diet is to make all the food. do the cooking. all of it. i'm around the restuarant biz, most of my life. the food needs to be delicious to sell, and they go to great lengths to make it delicious. (think butter)

and you will be suprised how little french fries and pie you eat if you have to make it yourself.

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by LeeH

To Lose Weight, Eating Less Is Far More Important Than Exercising More - NYTimes.com

Interesting... I was just consulting a reknown foot surgeon (side benefit of working in the medical field) to discuss a relapse of plantar fasciatis that's seriously curtailing my exercise regimen (if you can call it that)..

We were chatting weight/plantar fascia catch 22 (hard to exercise when your feet hurt, hard to lose weight without exercise), when he dropped that same nugget (same as article above).

He said exercise is nice to do in general, but *as far as losing weight*, his opinion was that it was all about intake. He personally dropped 40 lbs in 2 years and reduced his chlesterol to silly low levels by going vegan (while laughing that he doesn't give a **** about killing animals, just focused on the medical risk), he's the only Vegan I know who's not an ass about it - said he still loves meat but has grown convinced frm the research that the stuff will kill ya - he makes all sort of "bad for you" food still, but not using milk or animal source.. just plant based... He wasn't even pushing me that way, he just emphasized that I should focus on reduced/better food intake over extra exercise. Thought it was interesting considering he's got access to a lot of research... he also had interesting comments on cholesterol and strokes (huge reduction in risk when you go <150, not the 200 that doctors use as a threshold), said he wants his stroke to kill him, not leave him drooling ;-)

Anyway, yeah, eating less and better. *MUCH* tougher than exercising for me !!

[gatotom]

Nobody said getting old was easy, it surely isn't for wimps, it takes a lot of work to say is reasonable shape.

Most of my life staying in shape was easy, couple days riding bike, bingo, few days skiing, bingo. Not anymore.

I am 67, my best fighting weight was 165-170, I am 6'0", now 5'11" and in the winter can hit 190, feel fat at that weight. I get down to 178-182 and feel ok. The thing that scares me is the loss of muscle strength. I lift weights every day, not much but weights it is and to fine keeping the tone but if I miss a week, darn, it takes about two weeks to make up for the loss.

I have not put a soda on to my lips in ages but wine is consumed 5 out of 7 days. On days I am working outside or doing carpentry work, I drink beer, it is a hamburger in a bottle, can work all day on a few beers and if its Kokanee, its a few more. kok is like Coors, Colorado kool aid.

Our meals in the evening are usually salad with tomatoes, avocados, nuts of some kind, garbonzo beans or ham or chicken pieces.

So getting old takes way more work than being young if you want to be in reasonable shape and health. One more thing, you should have at least two bowel movements daily, you have to keep that septic system working and clean, can't imagine a day without.

[stevej37]

Two words......portion control

Takes a while to adjust to it, but it really works

[Vipergrün]

I am heading quickly towards 51 and am doing bootcamp training 3-5x per week. I still need to meet my target weight goal, but strength and conditioning-wise, probably close to the best shape of my life except when in my teens/20s when I surfed all the time and did construction. I completed my first Spartan race last December and am starting to train for a Spartan Super.

Diet is key. I try to eat "clean", but this is also why I have not hit my target weight goal. I enjoy wine and thick IPA's too much :--) I don't recall the last time I had a candy bar or soda.

For me, a group training is the way to go. You'll be so sore the first week you'll want to die, but work through it and you'll see quick results.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Last July I decided that I needed to make a serious change. I was 6'1" and almost 230 lbs, and hated looking at myself in the mirror. Today I am at 185 lbs thanks solely to making some serious changes in my diet. I started off with using the Weight Watchers app, which is a fantastic way of helping you realize just how bad most of the stuff you eat really is. I cancelled the app a few months ago and simply track my weight weekly on my iPhone health app, because I felt that I had finally made it a lifestyle change vs temporary habits. The wife and I did it together which helped a lot, and she has had equally dramatic results. The primary changes in my diet were to almost totally cut out processed foods, dramatically reduce fatty dairy products like cheese and sour cream, eliminate some guilty pleasures like pizza, drink more mixed drinks and less heavy beer, quit eating all fried foods, eat more fruits and vegetables, and primarily eat lean meats and seafood when I want meat. I feel like I eat well and still drink too much, but I've never felt better. In hindsight I'm amazed at how easy it was, as I didn't increase my already busy activity schedule and don't do any exercise for the sake of exercise. I'd really like to lose another 10 lbs, but in reality I can't remember the last time that I looked and felt this good.