Fitness/Diet Accountability Thread

[YorkieGal]

Hi all,

I'm not sure if there will be any interest in this for anyone else but me but, if so, that'd be great. If not, it's just a place for me to ramble because I don't have anyone in my peer group (or outside of it!) who is interested in fitness/health.

So, yesterday, I completed day 1 of <20g carbs which is a great result for me after 6 weeks hiatus. I also lifted and trained chest, triceps and abs.

Today, I am <20g carbs and trained back, shoulders and biceps and ran/walk for 30 min. Redoing week 1 of c25k.

Ok, that's all for today! Thanks for letting me share and hope you're all successful in whatever you want to achieve today!

 

[YorkieGal]

Hi all,

I'm not sure if there will be any interest in this for anyone else but me but, if so, that'd be great. If not, it's just a place for me to ramble because I don't have anyone in my peer group (or outside of it!) who is interested in fitness/health.

So, yesterday, I completed day 1 of <20g carbs which is a great result for me after 6 weeks hiatus. I also lifted and trained chest, triceps and abs.

Today, I am <20g carbs and trained back, shoulders and biceps and ran/walk for 30 min. Redoing week 1 of c25k.

Ok, that's all for today! Thanks for letting me share and hope you're all successful in whatever you want to achieve today!

UPDATE: 611 calories over my limit and 26 total carbs for the day.

I think I severely overestimated my willpower after a run with regards to hunger, confirming actual hunger versus cravings etc.

I ate 2000kcal in an hour, after 20 hours fasting, so plan on 36 hours before next meal which will be reduced by today's overflow.

Goodness, things sure get complicated when one finds themselves out of practice/discipline! Here's to tomorrow!

 

[timewerx]

UPDATE: 611 calories over my limit and 26 total carbs for the day.

I think I severely overestimated my willpower after a run with regards to hunger, confirming actual hunger versus cravings etc.

I ate 2000kcal in an hour, after 20 hours fasting, so plan on 36 hours before next meal which will be reduced by today's overflow.

Goodness, things sure get complicated when one finds themselves out of practice/discipline! Here's to tomorrow!

I'm not sure this will work for you. But after my 3 hr fasted bicycle rides, I rest for an hour before I eat anything with calories. I'll do other activities during that rest period like preparing my meals, drinking a cup of water, taking a shower but no eating.

I am definitely quite hungry upon arriving but after an hour of rest, I feel less hungry. Might help not overeating!

I estimate the carbs I eat each day averages around 300g per day and up to 2000 kcal per day. I burn it all down in exercise anyways, else, I won't be underweight!

 

[YorkieGal]

I'm not sure this will work for you. But after my 3 hr fasted bicycle rides, I rest for an hour before I eat anything with calories. I'll do other activities during that rest period like preparing my meals, drinking a cup of water, taking a shower but no eating.

I am definitely quite hungry upon arriving but after an hour of rest, I feel less hungry. Might help not overeating!

I estimate the carbs I eat each day averages around 300g per day and up to 2000 kcal per day. I burn it all down in exercise anyways, else, I won't be underweight!

Wow, that would be a lot of carbs for me! I topped out at 26 or 28g yesterday and now doing a 36 hour fast.

I'm determined that this is the last year of my life that I spend trying to lose weight and just want to maintain for the rest of my life. Also, since I practice Krav, it's important that I am fit enough to do so!

Leg day today!!

 

[YorkieGal]

Leg day was BRUTAL. Started out with weights, reduced weights and then gave up and did bodyweight. Cardio couldn't keep up with 5 of the reps and skipped bulgarian split squats altogether. Now, I'm considering eating despite committing to a 36 hour fast. lol@me - at least I never blame others or circumstances for not moving forward on things or as fast............gotta give myself some credit, somewhere!!!!

6 weeks break is reminding me why to not take a 6 week break.......................lessons learned!

 

[timewerx]

Leg day was BRUTAL. Started out with weights, reduced weights and then gave up and did bodyweight. Cardio couldn't keep up with 5 of the reps and skipped bulgarian split squats altogether. Now, I'm considering eating despite committing to a 36 hour fast. lol@me - at least I never blame others or circumstances for not moving forward on things or as fast............gotta give myself some credit, somewhere!!!!

6 weeks break is reminding me why to not take a 6 week break.......................lessons learned!

I kind of know how that feels!

If you're getting intense hunger cravings than you're hoping for, you may want to get some blood test, just to make sure you're not "hypoglycemic".

It's a common problem to those on keto diets and exercising while in fasted state could easily trigger the problem.

Because I eat lots of carbs, I'm at less risk of hypoglycemia but can still happen through blood sugar spikes, though less severe than if on low-carb diet.

 

[YorkieGal]

I was going to ignore the scheduled 'rest day' today but I have DOMS from working out 3 days in a row so will force myself to 'rest' even though my brain really doesn't want to...every time I imagine going into the gym, though, it's with dread instead of excitement so I know a rest day is the right thing to do...!?

I have, in the past, injured my distal bicep and had shin splints so I definitely don't want to do either of those things by training despite fatigue which then leads to bad form etc.

As an aside, my weight was up 3lbs this morning but I know that could be water retention/fiber inflammation from 3 days lifting/running.

Stay the course!

 

[timewerx]

If you don't want to rest, you can do light, low impact cardio like the elliptical bike, NOT more than 1 hour!

Light means light. Though you are allowed to sweat it out on the elliptical bike but it should feel easy and should not aggravate your DOMS. The effort should feel like you can do it continuously for 3 hrs without tiring but you're only going to do it in just under 1 hr. You muscles should not feel any soreness while doing so (other than the DOMS) and if you feel any additional soreness, back down the resistance level.

I actually prefer these light exercises during "rest" days than no exercise at all. It seems to blunt the effect of DOMS or avoid it entirely. And these easy cardio exercises will trigger release of glucose in the blood to help kill hunger cravings you may be having (before your scheduled meal time!)

 

[YorkieGal]

18 hours fasted
30 min jog
37 min lifting - upper body

18 more hours fasting to go and rest day tomorrow due to scheduling.

Hope everyone is meeting their goals today!

UPDATE: I FAILED MY FAST AGAIN haha - did 20 hours and recommencing another 20 hours

Discipline takes practice!

 

[timewerx]

Cycled 35 miles last Saturday and rested on Sunday. It was fun and I keep getting faster at cycling. It seems running and lifting on weekdays helps.

 

[timewerx]

Today is 45 minutes lifting and speed-strength exercises. Deadlift and jumping as high as possible (NOT at the same time ofc!)

Another 45 minutes high intensity running up the fire exit stairwell with very brief rest periods. Will do this again tomorrow followed by three days of moderate to light cardio exercises.

 

[YorkieGal]

I let the weekend be my WEAK end. Celebrating wedding anniversary. Now, I'm lazy and slovenly on Monday after really going for it all last week.

Diet back on track today and fitness tomorrow.

Congrats to anyone who showed more resolve than I did over the weekend!

 

[timewerx]

I let the weekend be my WEAK end. Celebrating wedding anniversary. Now, I'm lazy and slovenly on Monday after really going for it all last week.

Diet back on track today and fitness tomorrow.

Congrats to anyone who showed more resolve than I did over the weekend!

Happy Anniversary! I had actually over-eaten on Sunday and resulted to an unplanned Sunday rest day I couldn't resume strength training from feeling stuffed the whole day.

I find it a strong motivation to exercise to see my numbers go up on cycling Saturdays and keep beating my previous times.

I think the biggest killer of motivation to exercise is experiencing too much difficulty or even pain while doing so. I've been avoiding the strategy of "reps to failure" in strength training. I do my reps and when I begin to struggle, I stop and switch to light cardio as form of rest between reps.

I prefer to add weights little by little every two weeks and avoiding reps-to-failure than trying to increase reps or sets until failure while also adding a little more weight each every two weeks. That latter routine is much harder to do and if you're simply trying to lose or maintain weight while keeping yourself strong and healthy, the former routine is much easier to sustain as lifelong routine.

I think the no pain, no gain cliche within the context of exercising is overrated. You can still make gains even if your workout routine doesn't cause significant pain nor struggle.

It's way worse situation to quit or lose motivation because you find the routine quite difficult or finding the pain unbearable day after day for weeks, months. Instead of gaining through pain, you lose by giving up instead!

 

[YorkieGal]

Fitness went out of the window this week. My little dog was super sick since last Tuesday and is only now showing signs of improvement after taking him to the vet on Thursday.

For the first few days, I had about 6 hours of sleep in 72 and this derailed my sleep goals, hydration and I just didn't work out at all.

Back to it this week! He seems to be improving now and I'm very optimistic that I can start this week with fresh determination!

Chest, shoulders and abs today for lifting and a 30min run.

Hope you're all doing great! Thanks for humoring my little updates!

 

[returntosender]

I'm sorry about your dog,. That might have answered my question. I hope he is on the mend. It's always so scary when our babies get sick

 

[FireDragon76]

I've been on a calorie restriction diet for a few weeks- I gained weight last year from eating too many cookies at coffee hour, I guess. I've done diets in the past with varying results (I come from a family of overweight or obese people, so I've always tended to be overweight). This time, I am paying attention to the percentage of body fat more than the weight, through resistance training along with the diet. I increased my fiber consumption by only eating whole grains, and I only am using low-calorie sweeteners. I also cut fat to less than 20 percent of calories, and increased protein to 22 percent of calories from protein. I'm also using a keto breath tester I got years ago, to make sure I am actually burning fat (usually it reads .5-1.6 mmol/dL).

For resistance training, I am mostly relying on calisthenics with some dumbell and resistance bands. Gym memberships cost too much. We do have access to a treadmill and an old cabled-based machine in the complexy's gymn room, and I go there a few times a week to use the treadmill- not for weight loss, but just to stay in shape.

My goal this time isn't to gain or lose weight based on BMI (body mass index), it's to get my percentage body fat under 20 percent by Christmas - I started out at 24%, and now I'm down to 22%. I'm using a diet scale that measures body fat. My weight on the scale has actually increased about 1 1/2 pounds, and I'm guessing I've gained a pound or so of muscle. I also found a useful web app where you can put a picture of yourself and it guesses your percentage of body fat (it currently only works for men, though, and you need a well-lit image of yourself against a blank background ideally, with the same proportions). The app uses artificial intelligence. It seems to be reasonably accurate, and gives similar results to my fat analyzer scale:

Hassan AlJuboori

www.hassanaljuboori.com

I actually got the idea for this sort of thing myself, and I was going to see if it was possible to feed a neural network like Stable Diffusion a bunch of images with tags of body fat percentages, but it turns out somebody else beat me to it on the Internet. I noticed that people into bodybuilding do a decent job guessing body fat percentage, so I was wondering if artificial intelligence could do it better than humans. It turns out somebody has already thought of that, and there are already a few apps out there that can tell body fat percentage based on artificial intelligence.

 

[YorkieGal]

I've been on a calorie restriction diet for a few weeks- I gained weight last year from eating too many cookies at coffee hour, I guess. I've done diets in the past with varying results (I come from a family of overweight or obese people, so I've always tended to be overweight). This time, I am paying attention to the percentage of body fat more than the weight, through resistance training along with the diet. I increased my fiber consumption by only eating whole grains, and I only am using low-calorie sweeteners. I also cut fat to less than 20 percent of calories, and increased protein to 22 percent of calories from protein. I'm also using a keto breath tester I got years ago, to make sure I am actually burning fat (usually it reads .5-1.6 mmol/dL).

For resistance training, I am mostly relying on calisthenics with some dumbell and resistance bands. Gym memberships cost too much. We do have access to a treadmill and an old cabled-based machine in the complexy's gymn room, and I go there a few times a week to use the treadmill- not for weight loss, but just to stay in shape.

My goal this time isn't to gain or lose weight based on BMI (body mass index), it's to get my percentage body fat under 20 percent by Christmas - I started out at 24%, and now I'm down to 22%. I'm using a diet scale that measures body fat. My weight on the scale has actually increased about 1 1/2 pounds, and I'm guessing I've gained a pound or so of muscle. I also found a useful web app where you can put a picture of yourself and it guesses your percentage of body fat (it currently only works for men, though, and you need a well-lit image of yourself against a blank background ideally, with the same proportions). The app uses artificial intelligence. It seems to be reasonably accurate, and gives similar results to my fat analyzer scale:

Hassan AlJuboori

www.hassanaljuboori.com

I actually got the idea for this sort of thing myself, and I was going to see if it was possible to feed a neural network like Stable Diffusion a bunch of images with tags of body fat percentages, but it turns out somebody else beat me to it on the Internet. I noticed that people into bodybuilding do a decent job guessing body fat percentage, so I was wondering if artificial intelligence could do it better than humans. It turns out somebody has already thought of that, and there are already a few apps out there that can tell body fat percentage based on artificial intelligence.

I love hearing about others fitness journeys and goals! Sounds like you've got yours all lined up and I'm sure you will see some good returns with consistency!

My consistency has waned over the last 2 years, since I started working out, because I've had a couple of injuries which took forever to heal. Shin splints and distal bicep sprain. They were the worst and meant I couldn't jog or lift!!!!

All good now, though. I do dumb bells @ home and treadmill @ home so I know what you mean about the gym but you really don't need the gym, especially if you're just trying to get healthy and consistent, from what I've learned.

I am following a program that is video based via YouTube from a personal trainer and only costs about $130 a YEAR. Let me know if you want the info! It's oriented around dumb bells, body weight and/or resistance bands and meant to be for people who work out at home. There is also a lot of cardio for those interested in that.....

Today is BENT OVER ROWS AND I HATE THEM and I will never like them because I don't know 100% if I'm doing them right, if they are targeting where they need to be as a result etc but I PERSIST.

 

[YorkieGal]

Calories about 2k a day, on average, but goal WITH exercise was just under 1700. I have not been to the gym apart from 1 day of 7 this week.

So, basically, I am not doing great! Sarcopenia and fat is going to attack me! I am going to fast 24 hours (after this coffee with cream) and try to shrink my appetite!

The only thing that's been good this week is sleep! I seem to correct one thing in order to derail all others! Hard to strike a balance!

 

[timewerx]

I've been on a calorie restriction diet for a few weeks-

It can actually turn profoundly difficult to lose weight by calorie restriction.

The main "problem" is that the body is super adaptable. It will adapt to scarcity and guess what? When you restrict or undercompensate calories, your body will adapt to become more "fuel efficient" and be able to extract more calories from the food you eat while burning less calories at the same time, even during exercise!

It's a good thing if you're in a survival situation like post WWIII and you're rationing the very little food you have gathered from the ashes of what used to be densely populated cities. These adaptations will let you keep your strength and alertness even if you're covering great distances on foot or bicycle looking for food while eating so little.

Otherwise, if you live in a peaceful era of plenty, it will make your job of losing weight that much harder.

You then have to reduce daily calorie intake more as the body keeps on adapting. It's crazy.

While the required daily nutrients are probably essential, the required daily calories on the other hand may not be absolutely needed and you go under by a substantial margin.

If you're looking break this "barrier" you may need time your exercises and only do them intermittently for short durations instead of one long session and only when you're feeling hungry.

Doing a short exercise while hungry will trigger the "Hepatic Response" and will suppress your hunger. But you really have to keep the duration of the exercise short, like no more than 5 minutes each which can be moderate to high intensity.

Because if you exercise too long trying to suppress your hunger, you'll run out of the stored sugar in your liver and then the only way you can suppress your hunger is by eating.

 

[FireDragon76]

It can actually turn profoundly difficult to lose weight by calorie restriction.

The main "problem" is that the body is super adaptable. It will adapt to scarcity and guess what? When you restrict or undercompensate calories, your body will adapt to become more "fuel efficient" and be able to extract more calories from the food you eat while burning less calories at the same time, even during exercise!

It's a good thing if you're in a survival situation like post WWIII and you're rationing the very little food you have gathered from the ashes of what used to be densely populated cities. These adaptations will let you keep your strength and alertness even if you're covering great distances on foot or bicycle looking for food while eating so little.

The strength and alertness in such situations is often due to elevated adrenaline due to starvation. Living in such a situation long term will also take a toll on the human body, and will make it more vulnerable to infectious illness. In fact that's how most people living under starvation conditions die (infectious disease).

Otherwise, if you live in a peaceful era of plenty, it will make your job of losing weight that much harder.

You then have to reduce daily calorie intake more as the body keeps on adapting. It's crazy.

The main adaptation that tends to happen are increases or decreases in non-exercise related activity. Fidgeting, pacing, the propensity to undertake physical activity, etc. In the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz in Poland, the guards and prisoners called the worst victims of starvation Muselmänner because they tended to just lay about on the ground, prostrate.

Humans are warm-blooded animals, and there are limits to how efficient they can become in utilizing calories. A cold-blooded creature like a snake or a cricket can turn much of the food it consumes into body mass and growth, but a human being has to spend alot of his or her energy maintaining a constant body temperature.