Restricting diet and no excercise

Blythmag · October 2018

Ive never set foot in a gym, im 50 and have the physique of a bodybuilder, my weight is up n down , i diet, to keep active i walk, i dont run my knee wont allow it now.
My job is driving a lot, i shouldnt look like i do, work that one out !

AnvilHead · October 2018

holycrosser wrote: »

Ive never set foot in a gym, im 50 and have the physique of a bodybuilder, my weight is up n down , i diet, to keep active i walk, i dont run my knee wont allow it now.
My job is driving a lot, i shouldnt look like i do, work that one out !

That is called "genetics".

amusedmonkey · October 2018

Being inactive has negative effects on health. Being obese and inactive has even more negative effects on health. I would encourage people to be active (not necessarily gym, I haven't used a gym since I was a teen), but I wouldn't criticize their attempts to stay at a stable healthy weight regardless of their activity. What I often see is the opposite, though. It's currently trendy to be fit and "diet" is a taboo word.

CarvedTones · October 2018

I have 2 herniated discs, spinal stenosis (from MRI) as well as undifferentiated spondylitis. In other words, my back is jacked up. I see this as a reason to exercise, rather than a reason not to. I can carefully strengthen muscles in my lower back to give me more support and experience far less pain. I know a few people around my age (2 months from 60) who see conditions like this as signs of getting old and a reason not to exercise, which I believe hastens their decline.

I cannot make a sweeping generalization about people with a similar diagnosis. I am a stoic and I am willing to "bite the stick" sometimes to turn the corner, getting strong enough to take some pressure off the spine. Losing a lot of weight also helped. Some people have worse pain and/or are unable or unwilling to push through it. The doctor told me it was okay to do that as long as I was reasonable about it; there is no magic PT that will improve it without some pain. There is going to be some grinding; I just have to use the machines and do the exercises that minimize it. SUP paddling helped tremendously.

kiela64 · October 2018

Look, sometimes you can only make one big change at a time. And tbh if you’re going to try to fix a problematic lifestyle diet isn’t a bad place to start. I know exercise is great but trying to get ahold of my (very out of control) eating was probably the best place to start.

Aside from that, physical injuries make trying to understand what exercises you can do a challenge. And being obese made these things harder for me. Not impossible mind you, but yes it’s harder. Trying to exercise often left me with another injury so I wasn’t getting great reinforcement. These came from systemic issues that probably wouldn’t have been that bad had I never been obese, and taking weight off of my joints through diet makes it safer now. Not totally safe, but safer.

I think I’ve even seen it recommended here before sometimes to lose weight before throwing yourself into trying to be fit to prevent injury. I don’t think it’s always bad advice. Especially if you’ve come from a very sedentary lifestyle (like me).

One thing I really don’t see discussed here is how overwhelming learning new things like how to eat and exercise can be when you’ve never done it before. It takes skills with planning, foresight, energy, sometimes math, sifting through a lot of misinformation and trying to figure out a) what’s true and b) what actually applies to you. Even if you’re very intelligent in other areas, this can feel overwhelming. Food and lifestyle can also be very personal, emotional, and a real sore spot for those of us who have ‘dropped the ball’ or never really had it to begin with.

If you can start with one thing & it’s effective, it’s not a bad thing. It’s a start. A diet change is a good start. Complaining that it’s not enough to be perfectly healthy is a recipe for overwhelm and giving up, imo.

elizabethmcopeland · October 2018

Often, our goals aren't things that actually serve us and our health. We can have the tendency to control something that gives us quick visual changes but won't help us be better or more capable people in the long run.

We have to do the hard things to learn, challenge ourselves, and grow. The obsession with constantly becoming or maintaining smallness as an end to itself is problematic when you think of the fact that the human body is amazingly good at coping and we should do things to encourage our bodies to remain healthy in that interesting state of flux as we grow and age.

Specifically, I'm talking about developing muscle mass as you grow older to help with independence and capability (there are a few articles out there talking about how we should prioritize that more), which...you can only do through weight training (even if it's body weight stuff) and eating enough to sustain that development.

AnnPT77 · October 2018

elizabethmcopeland wrote: »

Often, our goals aren't things that actually serve us and our health. We can have the tendency to control something that gives us quick visual changes but won't help us be better or more capable people in the long run.

We have to do the hard things to learn, challenge ourselves, and grow. The obsession with constantly becoming or maintaining smallness as an end to itself is problematic when you think of the fact that the human body is amazingly good at coping and we should do things to encourage our bodies to remain healthy in that interesting state of flux as we grow and age.

Specifically, I'm talking about developing muscle mass as you grow older to help with independence and capability (there are a few articles out there talking about how we should prioritize that more), which...you can only do through weight training (even if it's body weight stuff) and eating enough to sustain that development.

The bolded is not strictly true. Weight training is the most efficient and effective way, but it's not the only way. Anything that taxes your muscles enough to make them stronger can add strength and muscle. Weight training is fastest and has more ability to take you to your genetic maximum potential, but it's not the only route to functional strength.

Among the most capable and independent older women I've known were old-school farmers. They never lifted a weight, but they worked

I have a few nice li'l ol' lady muscles myself, just from rowing . . . rowing really, really a lot. (I'd have more if I enjoyed lifting, lazy hedonist that I am.)

SFJULES66 · October 2018

It’s a personal choice. People like my 82 y.o. dad have never “exercised” but are in great shape because they naturally move during the day. He doesn’t understand why someone would want to “waste all that good energy at a gym” because he can mow the lawn and do chores with it instead. One size doesn’t fit all.

jseams1234 · October 2018

holycrosser wrote: »

Ive never set foot in a gym, im 50 and have the physique of a bodybuilder, my weight is up n down , i diet, to keep active i walk, i dont run my knee wont allow it now.
My job is driving a lot, i shouldnt look like i do, work that one out !

Any pics of this "bodybuilder physique"? I'm curious as to what this type of physique looks like to you.

elizabethmcopeland · October 2018

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Among the most capable and independent older women I've known were old-school farmers. They never lifted a weight, but they worked

YES MA'AM! I wasn't thinking about the fullness of my terms used, and you're completely right. "Work" is a significantly better word capturing what I intended when I said "weight training." Move things, do things.

Restricting diet and no excercise

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