Weird Advice from Doc

nickybr38
nickybr38 Posts: 674 Member
in Chit-Chat
SO, I ran off to see my doctor today and got some really strange advice.

Haha.

So, first off he said not to worry at all about what my heart is doing. I told him I aim for a heart rate of 130-140 during my cardio and he did say that was great for maximum benefits but he also said it's not something I should worry about. Higher, or lower won't make any huge difference, basically. Pretty much he figures I shouldn't bother checking my heart rate so long as I work up a sweat and feel good about what I'm doing.

Weird huh?

He also suggested, well, strongly recommended that I switch to small meals every two hours throughout the day. HOLY CRAPPOLA... I'm not sure if I can do that... but I've heard people mention that method before so maybe I'll give it a try.

Anyway, just thought some of you might find the whole 'don't bother checking your heart rate' thing interesting.

Replies

  • nickybr38
    nickybr38 Posts: 674 Member
    SO, I ran off to see my doctor today and got some really strange advice.

    Haha.

    So, first off he said not to worry at all about what my heart is doing. I told him I aim for a heart rate of 130-140 during my cardio and he did say that was great for maximum benefits but he also said it's not something I should worry about. Higher, or lower won't make any huge difference, basically. Pretty much he figures I shouldn't bother checking my heart rate so long as I work up a sweat and feel good about what I'm doing.

    Weird huh?

    He also suggested, well, strongly recommended that I switch to small meals every two hours throughout the day. HOLY CRAPPOLA... I'm not sure if I can do that... but I've heard people mention that method before so maybe I'll give it a try.

    Anyway, just thought some of you might find the whole 'don't bother checking your heart rate' thing interesting.
  • Hannah_Banana
    Hannah_Banana Posts: 1,242 Member
    No idea about the heart rate thing... but in terms of small meals every 2 hours... You can only change so much at once.

    For me, that isn't one of the changes I can make. I eat two large meals a day and a snack or two*ducks flying tomatoes* its annoying to me to have to plan out my eating all the time, and remember to do this or that. I stay well within my calories and I feel good. If I had to eat every 2 hours, I would simply stop the program.

    So, make small adjustments. Don't be overwhelmed by what you 'should' be doing. :flowerforyou: You may eventually feel like you can get there but just don't let it cause stress.
  • kellch
    kellch Posts: 7,849 Member
    Wellllll...about the heartrate thing.........I don't know much about it except that you want to get it up during cardio to burn fat. But listen to your doctor.

    As for the small meals every two hours......I have heard that and that's what I do. It keeps your metabolism going all day long :flowerforyou:
  • Carrie6o6
    Carrie6o6 Posts: 1,443 Member
    The heart rate thing... if you think about it... he says as long as you work up a sweat.. and if you are watching your HR you will notice.. when you are in the right zone you do tend to sweat and feel great after. You dont really need to watch your HR because you can FEEL (what he is going by) how good you are doing... maybe thats why he says you dont really need to worry what your heart is at.
  • nickybr38
    nickybr38 Posts: 674 Member
    No idea about the heart rate thing... but in terms of small meals every 2 hours... You can only change so much at once.

    For me, that isn't one of the changes I can make. I eat two large meals a day and a snack or two*ducks flying tomatoes* its annoying to me to have to plan out my eating all the time, and remember to do this or that. I stay well within my calories and I feel good. If I had to eat every 2 hours, I would simply stop the program.

    So, make small adjustments. Don't be overwhelmed by what you 'should' be doing. :flowerforyou: You may eventually feel like you can get there but just don't let it cause stress.

    Oh, for sure. I just NOW started really watching my calorie intake because I was finding it hard enough to go to the gym. Haha. So I think once Imaster this whole eating a set amount of calories per day thing I'll move on to trying to keep my metabolism going all day with small meals every two hours.

    I'm more like you, with three meals and two snacks in between. I've always aten that way so it's most comfortable but sometimes change is good. :happy:
  • MadTurtle
    MadTurtle Posts: 32
    Its really not so weird. You maybe predisposed to Diabetes.

    He is trying to control your blood sugar without medication or rather let you control it. You probably have told him about this site and your quest to lose weight and he doesn't wish to add to your burden by telling you that you are pre-diabetic.

    Might I suggest that you get a copy of the "Sugar Busters Diet Book". It will explain the whole Type II Diabetes thing and how blood sugar and insulin production are intertwined with weight loss.

    And remember Diabetes can be reversed at any time up until you have to begin using a syringe and insulin. After that you can only maintain it.

    So don't be the frog that gets boiled. Now is the time to educate yourself and reverse the onset.
    Climb out of the pan and go online or to the book store and do some reading and you will see I am right.
  • nickybr38
    nickybr38 Posts: 674 Member
    Its really not so weird. You maybe predisposed to Diabetes.

    He is trying to control your blood sugar without medication or rather let you control it. You probably have told him about this site and your quest to lose weight and he doesn't wish to add to your burden by telling you that you are pre-diabetic.

    Might I suggest that you get a copy of the "Sugar Busters Diet Book". It will explain the whole Type II Diabetes thing and how blood sugar and insulin production are intertwined with weight loss.

    And remember Diabetes can be reversed at any time up until you have to begin using a syringe and insulin. After that you can only maintain it.

    So don't be the frog that gets boiled. Now is the time to educate yourself and reverse the onset.
    Climb out of the pan and go online or to the book store and do some reading and you will see I am right.

    Um, I highly doubt that. This is the first time I've seen this doctor. :smile: He really doesn't know anything about me beyond the fact I'd like to lose weight and have a thyroid problem. He's sent me in for a ton of blood work to test for diabetes and the like but really I got the impression the advice he gave me is the advice he gives to anyone looking to lose weight.

    Any doc that WOULDN'T tell me a possible future health risk is not a doctor I'd want to see.
  • MadTurtle
    MadTurtle Posts: 32
    My guess is that you only hear what you want to hear.
    It is not above a physician to consider all aspects of a patient when giving advice.

    Also they are not gods and often are ill informed about weight loss and or many topics.

    For example there is no test for diabetes! It is diagnosed from following several indicators in your blood work over a period of time. If only one visit is what you had with this doctor it would be beyond the pale for him to even suggest any diagnosis concerning diabetes!

    Yet as his patient he owes you some kind of advice and also would have the need to set up controls for further testing. Hence the the meals every two hours.

    You can stay with in your diet guide lines and exercise all you want and still not lose any weight if you are massively spiking your blood sugar twice a day! When you spike your blood sugar you over produce insulin and the only way the body can deal with it is by binding the insulin to fat.

    Which makes the the fat on your body extremely resilient and hard to get rid of and makes it so just looking at food and you gain weight type of scenario a hard cold fact.

    In either case whether its your thyroid or your pancreas you are dealing with two very DANGEROUS DISORDERS!!! You best get your head out of the sand and start educating yourself.
  • Fitness_Chick
    Fitness_Chick Posts: 6,648 Member
    SO, I ran off to see my doctor today and got some really strange advice.

    Haha.

    So, first off he said not to worry at all about what my heart is doing. I told him I aim for a heart rate of 130-140 during my cardio and he did say that was great for maximum benefits but he also said it's not something I should worry about. Higher, or lower won't make any huge difference, basically. Pretty much he figures I shouldn't bother checking my heart rate so long as I work up a sweat and feel good about what I'm doing.

    Weird huh?

    He also suggested, well, strongly recommended that I switch to small meals every two hours throughout the day. HOLY CRAPPOLA... I'm not sure if I can do that... but I've heard people mention that method before so maybe I'll give it a try.

    Anyway, just thought some of you might find the whole 'don't bother checking your heart rate' thing interesting.
    Hey Nicky....great plan on trying out the mini meals...it really helps to spread your meals out and really helps in many many ways! Plenty of water too:drinker:

    Regarding what your doc said...if he's not a nutrionist that's been trained in the fitness field...it's common they say things that aren't really accurate...my past dietician told me to never eat more than 900 cals a day, never heard of eating excercise cals and told me never to do something that way and she shared she thought I should leave this group as eating excercise cals was plain silly. She also told me not to worry about my heartrate:huh: :noway: too, said if you sweat you're working hard.

    Well I got rid of her and always keep in mind what your doc says unless he's in a particular field might be going by old information and not be up on the latest. Any trainer or fitness instructor, nutrionist (a good fitness one) will know exactly what you're talking about regarding working in your heart rate zone. Not to low definitely NOT way over either!

    Hang in there...alot of this can be learned here from Pscyknife and SongbyrdSweet...they both give invaluable info on fitness....and are both very knowledgable, not merely giving their opionions but actual facts they've learned. Vivikay is also that way... researching then sharing is their method.

    Best to you:flowerforyou:

    FC:heart:
  • Fitness_Chick
    Fitness_Chick Posts: 6,648 Member
    My guess is that you only hear what you want to hear.
    It is not above a physician to consider all aspects of a patient when giving advice.

    Also they are not gods and often are ill informed about weight loss and or many topics.

    For example there is no test for diabetes! It is diagnosed from following several indicators in your blood work over a period of time. If only one visit is what you had with this doctor it would be beyond the pale for him to even suggest any diagnosis concerning diabetes!

    Yet as his patient he owes you some kind of advice and also would have the need to set up controls for further testing. Hence the the meals every two hours.

    You can stay with in your diet guide lines and exercise all you want and still not lose any weight if you are massively spiking your blood sugar twice a day! When you spike your blood sugar you over produce insulin and the only way the body can deal with it is by binding the insulin to fat.

    Which makes the the fat on your body extremely resilient and hard to get rid of and makes it so just looking at food and you gain weight type of scenario a hard cold fact.

    In either case whether its your thyroid or your pancreas you are dealing with two very DANGEROUS DISORDERS!!! You best get your head out of the sand and start educating yourself.
    actually I believe there is a test for diabetes:flowerforyou:
  • DjBliss05
    DjBliss05 Posts: 682
    :huh:

    Maybe he is just saying that it is more important to exercise than it is to exercise at a certain intensity?

    As for the small meals, lots of people advocate for that.

    Do what works for you, but take the advice into consideration.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    Again I'll preface this by saying I NEVER post. But I'm feeling a little extroverted today so, I'll post twice in one day.

    Anyway, What you're doctor said makes sense. Although he could have explained it a little better to you. It's like telling someone to go stand behind that wall and something good will happen. Uh, .....ok, thanks I think.
    Basically his logic is this, if you work hard enough and long enough to work up a good sweat, you are in the right cardiac zone anyway, if you're heart is at 70% max or 75% max doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of difference in the long run. You may burn more calories, but if you stay with this kind of workout for a couple of years, in the end the result will be a stronger heart muscle and a faster metabolism.

    As to the food, it's not so much about keeping your metabolism up (there are lots of studies on this, and while it does help a little it's not so big a boost as people think). It's more that your body can only digest and burn so much at any one time, so if you have 2000 calories for the day and have 2 big 1000 calorie meals, yes, you stayed within your calories, but you're body couldn't burn 1000 calories all at once, so you still put on fat (random example only). Eating small meals throughout the day keeps your body from storing as much fat. Technically this IS the metabolism, but it doesn't mean you burn more calories throughout the day, it just means you burn them more healthilly, and burn less lean tissue (muscle).

    Hope that helps.
  • nickybr38
    nickybr38 Posts: 674 Member
    My guess is that you only hear what you want to hear.
    It is not above a physician to consider all aspects of a patient when giving advice.

    Also they are not gods and often are ill informed about weight loss and or many topics.

    For example there is no test for diabetes! It is diagnosed from following several indicators in your blood work over a period of time. If only one visit is what you had with this doctor it would be beyond the pale for him to even suggest any diagnosis concerning diabetes!

    Yet as his patient he owes you some kind of advice and also would have the need to set up controls for further testing. Hence the the meals every two hours.

    You can stay with in your diet guide lines and exercise all you want and still not lose any weight if you are massively spiking your blood sugar twice a day! When you spike your blood sugar you over produce insulin and the only way the body can deal with it is by binding the insulin to fat.

    Which makes the the fat on your body extremely resilient and hard to get rid of and makes it so just looking at food and you gain weight type of scenario a hard cold fact.

    In either case whether its your thyroid or your pancreas you are dealing with two very DANGEROUS DISORDERS!!! You best get your head out of the sand and start educating yourself.

    I'm a little confused as to why you think I am at risk for diabetes? There is no history of this disease in my family and I have been tested numerous times for it and have never shown any of the symptoms. My insulin and sugar levels have always been fine. On the road to discovering my thyroid problem my previous doctor took all measures to find out what was wrong and that included testing extensively for other disorders.

    Are you normally so combative when commenting in this community? I think you might like to check how you've been attempting to give me advice because you have been doing so in a very offensive manner.
  • nickybr38
    nickybr38 Posts: 674 Member
    Again I'll preface this by saying I NEVER post. But I'm feeling a little extroverted today so, I'll post twice in one day.

    Anyway, What you're doctor said makes sense. Although he could have explained it a little better to you. It's like telling someone to go stand behind that wall and something good will happen. Uh, .....ok, thanks I think.
    Basically his logic is this, if you work hard enough and long enough to work up a good sweat, you are in the right cardiac zone anyway, if you're heart is at 70% max or 75% max doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of difference in the long run. You may burn more calories, but if you stay with this kind of workout for a couple of years, in the end the result will be a stronger heart muscle and a faster metabolism.

    As to the food, it's not so much about keeping your metabolism up (there are lots of studies on this, and while it does help a little it's not so big a boost as people think). It's more that your body can only digest and burn so much at any one time, so if you have 2000 calories for the day and have 2 big 1000 calorie meals, yes, you stayed within your calories, but you're body couldn't burn 1000 calories all at once, so you still put on fat (random example only). Eating small meals throughout the day keeps your body from storing as much fat. Technically this IS the metabolism, but it doesn't mean you burn more calories throughout the day, it just means you burn them more healthilly, and burn less lean tissue (muscle).

    Hope that helps.

    Yes that was helpful. :happy: I always get too nervous when I'm visiting a new doctor to ask all the questions I should. I was more concerned with my heart rate and thyroid to think about asking him for more info about the small meals thing.

    Thank you.
  • Fitness_Chick
    Fitness_Chick Posts: 6,648 Member
    My guess is that you only hear what you want to hear.
    It is not above a physician to consider all aspects of a patient when giving advice.

    Also they are not gods and often are ill informed about weight loss and or many topics.

    For example there is no test for diabetes! It is diagnosed from following several indicators in your blood work over a period of time. If only one visit is what you had with this doctor it would be beyond the pale for him to even suggest any diagnosis concerning diabetes!

    Yet as his patient he owes you some kind of advice and also would have the need to set up controls for further testing. Hence the the meals every two hours.

    You can stay with in your diet guide lines and exercise all you want and still not lose any weight if you are massively spiking your blood sugar twice a day! When you spike your blood sugar you over produce insulin and the only way the body can deal with it is by binding the insulin to fat.

    Which makes the the fat on your body extremely resilient and hard to get rid of and makes it so just looking at food and you gain weight type of scenario a hard cold fact.

    In either case whether its your thyroid or your pancreas you are dealing with two very DANGEROUS DISORDERS!!! You best get your head out of the sand and start educating yourself.

    I'm a little confused as to why you think I am at risk for diabetes? There is no history of this disease in my family and I have been tested numerous times for it and have never shown any of the symptoms. My insulin and sugar levels have always been fine. On the road to discovering my thyroid problem my previous doctor took all measures to find out what was wrong and that included testing extensively for other disorders.

    Are you normally so combative when commenting in this community? I think you might like to check how you've been attempting to give me advice because you have been doing so in a very offensive manner.
    hm I too got confused on the diabetes comment... I didn't read anything about it in your original post either Nicky...figured I'd misses something:drinker:
  • nickybr38
    nickybr38 Posts: 674 Member
    hm I too got confused on the diabetes comment... I didn't read anything about it in your original post either Nicky...figured I'd misses something:drinker:

    Maybe he thinks anyone who is overweight is pre-diabetic? Haha.
  • MadTurtle
    MadTurtle Posts: 32
    Most certainly there is for type 1. When you start talking about type II things get fuzzy. And Doctors are reluctant to hang that diagnosis until there sure.

    But most of all I just wanted to impart to her that your health care is still really up to you. You need to educate yourself so that you can understand your doctor and he understands you.

    She may have tested negative for full blown diabetes but that doesn't mean she not a marginal Type II diabetic. So many of our young people are carrying 20,30,50 or even 80 pounds of fat today and are border line Type II and don't know it.

    When my wife was in her thirties she carried 30 or 40 pounds more than she needed but when she got into her forties it came home to roost so to speak. She now has to take medication and test her sugar and eat small meals all through the day. She is a member here and we are working on reversing her Type II and hopefully at some point she will not have to take pills anymore or test her sugar but she will always be a member here to keep her food intake balanced and tracked.

    I myself find that four balanced meals a day works really well for keeping my sugar levels right and maximizing weight loss. There is much to be said for the Sugar busters diet book for understanding how blood sugar and insulin production effect weight loss. I have lost 15 pounds since the day after Thanksgiving with little or no exercise eating within the 1 pound loss guide lines.

    I have noted that when the weekends came i would revert to the Two meals a day program I have always eaten and my weight would immediately rebound. I no longer do this! 3 balanced meals with a quarter of your calories invested in small snacks spread through the day and your weight will roll off.

    And just to add fuel to the fire. Exercise is a wonderful thing and it is good for you but it has absolutely no relation to weight loss. 10 year study out today from Lyola university points this out rather dramatically. So before you get crazy remember I didn't say it wasn't good for you I just said it has no relation to weight loss.

    Keeping your blood sugar balanced and staying within guide lines is what makes this program tick.
  • MadTurtle
    MadTurtle Posts: 32
    And yes if you are more than twenty pounds overweight your insurance company and your doctor and the AMA feel you are at risk of diabetes!!!
  • nickybr38
    nickybr38 Posts: 674 Member
    Keeping your blood sugar balanced and staying within guide lines is what makes this program tick.

    Then it's a good thing my blood sugar is balanced. :happy:
    I wish your wife the best of luck!

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