Middle age health thread for fatties

[revbob]

Since this is the thread for it, here's sharing some of my recent exploits:

i gained some weight over the last six months (the broken foot really knocked the wind out of sails in the spring and then recovery was taking place in the summer combined with some mental and phsyical lethargy from job woes) but I've been pretty good and disciplined for the last month or so, hitting the gym and running just about every day and really tightening up the diet (in the sense of general food consumption, not going on a diet per-se) and I've already lost about half the weight I put back on. I've been using three techniques:

1. Calorie tracking for food intake: I use MyFitnessPal on my phone to track what I eat. While it's basically obvious to a person when they've eaten enough or too much or whatever, forcing some focus on eating decisions pays dividends for me at least. I did this in my initial bout of losing weight and it was probably the single most effective thing I did. When I get out of the habit, there's a tendency for drinking 1-2 beers to turn into 3-5, you know how it goes...

2. Intermittent fasting: Not in the sense of skipping eating for 1 or more days at a time, but trying to not eat for 13-16 hours nightly, mostly while I sleep. There's some evidence that this form of fasting is helpful for accelerating weight loss and regulating appetite: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/int ... 8062914156

While I'd take that with a bit of a grain of salt, it has the very obvious benefit of stopping late night snacking which keeps from eating more than I planned and also usually leads to a better night's sleep since I'm not going to bed with a bunch of food or drink churning in my stomach.

3. Regular exercise: There's evidence that exercise doesn't do as much for losing weight as one thinks, but there are other obvious psychological benefits (and weight maintenance benefits) to getting back into the habit of regular exercise. Besides recommitting to regularly running - I have a 10k coming up on Thanksgiving and I've been talking to the missus about signing up for my first full marathon next year - I've rotated weight lifting into the mix this year, which has been great. I'm finally leaning into the 80s hardcore punk aesthetic I've surrounded myself with all my life, lol. I have some buddies who hit the gym regularly, and so we can use it as a way to socialize on the reg which is a good motivator too - I've definitely felt the "hard to spend time with friends" bug bite in adulthood. We have a pretty nice municipal rec center that's a 5 minute drive from me too, which helps. Great steam room and sauna for when we wrap up, which is a nice treat.

Anyways, this has been pretty effective for me. I definitely do better when I have some sort of structure with which to think about health choices I'm making but without a ton of rules (like, around eating and such) that I'll inevitably break. I'd say the difference between now and the last time I went on a weight loss jaunt is that this time I'm incorporating the intermittent fasting as a way to curb snacking and I jettisoned some daily, short meditating I'd been doing and stopped feeling like I was getting a lot of value out of. I think "meditating apps" and the like have some uses but probably ultimately aren't as satisfying as a real medidation session led by someone with experience, so I might stick to finding some of those occasionally.

Ratty?

[revbob]

If I could just give up soda I'd be happy...

How much do you drink?

Dr Shame in the house

[Dr. Medulla]

If I could just give up soda I'd be happy...

How much do you drink?

Dr Shame in the house

Dr. Shame is a Wisconsin-only store-brand Dr. Pepper rip-off.

[WestwayKid]

If I could just give up soda I'd be happy...

How much do you drink?

More than I should. I was just reading Flex's account of his weight loss and thinking to myself about my lifestyle choices and the one that really stuck out was my soda consumption. I tend to drink a lot at work, but not much at home. I can easily put away 4 cans during the day which is a lot of calories and sugar. I've quit before (and lost weight). It's just a question of deciding to do it and then following through.

[revbob]

If I could just give up soda I'd be happy...

How much do you drink?

More than I should. I was just reading Flex's account of his weight loss and thinking to myself about my lifestyle choices and the one that really stuck out was my soda consumption. I tend to drink a lot at work, but not much at home. I can easily put away 4 cans during the day which is a lot of calories and sugar. I've quit before (and lost weight). It's just a question of deciding to do it and then following through.

I used to drink a fair bit for caffeine as I never took to coffee and tea just sometimes doesn't do it for me. I don't like the fake sugar either. I finally settled on a caffeinated seltzer with a small amount of sugar for the morning and then drink lots of water otherwise. I have a water bottle that isn't too big I finish it eventually have to go to the bathroom and then fill it up again.

[Dr. Medulla]

If I could just give up soda I'd be happy...

How much do you drink?

More than I should. I was just reading Flex's account of his weight loss and thinking to myself about my lifestyle choices and the one that really stuck out was my soda consumption. I tend to drink a lot at work, but not much at home. I can easily put away 4 cans during the day which is a lot of calories and sugar. I've quit before (and lost weight). It's just a question of deciding to do it and then following through.

Just an insane amount of sugar in pop. You could try weaning yourself off by switching to diet stuff. I rarely drink pop now, but when I do I have to do sugarfree because the sugared stuff is way too intense.

[revbob]

If I could just give up soda I'd be happy...

How much do you drink?

More than I should. I was just reading Flex's account of his weight loss and thinking to myself about my lifestyle choices and the one that really stuck out was my soda consumption. I tend to drink a lot at work, but not much at home. I can easily put away 4 cans during the day which is a lot of calories and sugar. I've quit before (and lost weight). It's just a question of deciding to do it and then following through.

Just an insane amount of sugar in pop. You could try weaning yourself off by switching to diet stuff. I rarely drink pop now, but when I do I have to do sugarfree because the sugared stuff is way too intense.

I just find the fake sugar to taste awful and Im also not convinced it is "better" for you than real sugar.

[Heston]

I've never liked pop, I'd rather drink water.

[101Walterton]

I drink a glass of full fat Coke about once every 6 months and only as a hangover cure. Never been in to fizzy drinks.
Watched a documentary recently about sugar and how Mountain Dew is lethal and a real problem.
Sports drinks like Powerade and Gatorade are just as bad.

[Dr. Medulla]

If I could just give up soda I'd be happy...

How much do you drink?

More than I should. I was just reading Flex's account of his weight loss and thinking to myself about my lifestyle choices and the one that really stuck out was my soda consumption. I tend to drink a lot at work, but not much at home. I can easily put away 4 cans during the day which is a lot of calories and sugar. I've quit before (and lost weight). It's just a question of deciding to do it and then following through.

Just an insane amount of sugar in pop. You could try weaning yourself off by switching to diet stuff. I rarely drink pop now, but when I do I have to do sugarfree because the sugared stuff is way too intense.

I just find the fake sugar to taste awful and Im also not convinced it is "better" for you than real sugar.

Long-term, no, it isn't good for you. But if your goal is to wean yourself off pop, I found it useful.

[Dr. Medulla]

I've never liked pop, I'd rather drink water.

A couple years ago, I bought the Boss a Soda Stream—her idea—cos she likes fizzy water but not pop. I like plain old tap water, but fizzy water is gross as fuck to me.

[101Walterton]

I've never liked pop, I'd rather drink water.

A couple years ago, I bought the Boss a Soda Stream—her idea—cos she likes fizzy water but not pop. I like plain old tap water, but fizzy water is gross as fuck to me.

I agree with that. MrsW drinks fizzy water, I can’t stand it.

[Dr. Medulla]

I've never liked pop, I'd rather drink water.

A couple years ago, I bought the Boss a Soda Stream—her idea—cos she likes fizzy water but not pop. I like plain old tap water, but fizzy water is gross as fuck to me.

I agree with that. MrsW drinks fizzy water, I can’t stand it.

It's the weirdest thing, isn't it? Normal tap water is fine; normal tap water with carbonation is horrendous. Somehow the taste changes.

[101Walterton]

I've never liked pop, I'd rather drink water.

A couple years ago, I bought the Boss a Soda Stream—her idea—cos she likes fizzy water but not pop. I like plain old tap water, but fizzy water is gross as fuck to me.

I agree with that. MrsW drinks fizzy water, I can’t stand it.

It's the weirdest thing, isn't it? Normal tap water is fine; normal tap water with carbonation is horrendous. Somehow the taste changes.

Yep to the point I can’t even drink it if that is all there is.

[Dr. Medulla]

I've never liked pop, I'd rather drink water.

A couple years ago, I bought the Boss a Soda Stream—her idea—cos she likes fizzy water but not pop. I like plain old tap water, but fizzy water is gross as fuck to me.

I agree with that. MrsW drinks fizzy water, I can’t stand it.

It's the weirdest thing, isn't it? Normal tap water is fine; normal tap water with carbonation is horrendous. Somehow the taste changes.

Yep to the point I can’t even drink it if that is all there is.

Same.