Azdak Member

When doing a step test, the cadence of steps is up, up, down, down (both feet step up, both feet step down). When using a 10 inch step at a frequency of 24 steps/min, the approximate energy cost is over 5.5 METs. Moderate intensity exercise is defined as 3-6 METs. When climbing stairs, there is no recovery like you would…

I don’t have time to look it up since I’m in the middle of some serious housecleaning, but isn’t fenix the top-end line? If so, do they still use r-r analysis based on the firstbeat software? The walking pace/hr model is likely based on the old Rockport walk test and so will be affected by all of the inaccuracies…

Are you questioning the accuracy of the speed readings or your ability to ride the bike faster? Bike speed is affected by terrain, road surface, wind, equipment, and conditioning.

Climbing actual stairs is a lot harder than most people think.

Your questions are asking me to give medical advice and I am totally unqualified to do that. My only goal is to give you information to allow you to have a more productive and knowledgeable conversation with your doctor. I will say one more thing: the recovery will take as long as it needs to take and will depend on the…

From what I can read, you appear to have more than one tear of the meniscus, sprains in the ligaments in the inside and outside ligaments of the knee and multiple areas of damage to the surface cartilage lining of the knee. The first part describes ligament thickening and edema that is consistent with a sprained ligament.…

The meniscus is a crescent-shaped cartilage “pad” that is located on the outer rim of the upper tibia. You have two—one on the side of the knee closest to the body midline (medial) and one on the outer part of the knee (lateral). They form the “junction” to fit the rounded condyles of the femur to the flat surface of the…

If you are just starting (or restarting), then the threshold needed for improvement is much, much lower than if you are lifting regularly. Research suggests that there is little difference in interim progress at the beginning whether you lift heavy or (relatively) light. I always tell beginners—pushing it at the beginning…

There are a lot of exercises you will be able to do that will help with “core strengthening” and back stability. They may not be what you think. Things like push ups (full plank with modified incline), step ups, bird dogs, modified single leg Romanian deadlifts, hip abduction (crab walks), are examples of what I am…

For someone your size, an 800+ calorie/day deficit is not too high, depending on the quality of your diet. To me the issues with larger deficits are: are you getting enough nutrients (macro and micro), are you sufficiently fueling your activity (esp if the large deficit is fueled by a high volume of activity), and is the…

So, essentially, it is helping you do a better job of “counting calories”.

If you are paying attention to your activity and your Fitbit readings (which it sounds like you are), you should be able to see patterns that can help guide you, even if the numbers are not precisely accurate. I would not get too focused on predicting “x” amount of weight loss based not the “deficit” determined by the…

I am perfectly fine with people disagreeing with my posts. I try to write so that my words stand for themselves and don’t need to evaluated within the context of either past comments or my background. That’s the way it should be. I am 1000% opposed to what you call “message board elitism” in any form. In this case I am…

If someone is large enough and active enough that they can eat a healthy amount of calories (and I would certainly put 1800 into the “healthy” category), and, with activity they are expending enough to lose 3 lbs per week, then, no that is not unhealthy, nor is it “too fast”. However, seeing as you have to be pretty fit…

Exactly what does a 440lb man need to “nourish” that can’t be done in 1800 calories? There is no research that I am aware of that suggests that losing weight “too fast” (which you haven’t defined) is unhealthy for someone that large. Quite the contrary. I think you can make a general argument against losing weight “too…

Your primary goal before a longer endurance event is to maintain/increase glycogen stores. Trying to maintain a calorie deficit during that time probably not the best strategy.

It’s important to point out that “interferes” does not mean “prevents”. It is quite possible to do high volumes of cardio and still increase strength and mass. You just can’t maximize your gainz. For the average person who will never come close to maximizing their genetic potential, it makes almost no difference.

My antipathy towards weight loss drugs in general is that I have never seen anyone maintain the weight loss achieved by using them. I’m sure there are some who have but in my experience the number is so low that they seem to just delay people from starting an effective lifestyle plan. Having said that, you have multiple…

You did the right progression. 10” is not too high and you did the right thing to lower the weight. Doing 45x2 means you were plenty strong. Sometimes stuff just happens.

Depends on whether it’s a strain or a tear. A strain might not be that serious. A tear will take more time. The tricky part of a tear is that it’s easy to reinjure if you start back too soon, even with overly aggressive stretching. If there is any bruising, then it is more likely a tear. Sometimes you can actually palpate…

Everyone is focusing on low blood sugar, but your symptoms can also be experienced during short runs of a random arrhythmia. Heart rate monitors detect pulses in the arteries. Sometimes if you experience certain types of tachycardia, insufficient blood is pumped to register as a “pulse” to a HRM. That could explain the…

The study you cite confirms what I and others have been saying. The effects of anemia do not directly affect calorie burn. They impair the intensity and endurance of the activities you do. It doesn’t affect calories burned at rest, or “metabolism”—it affects functional work capacity.

I’m not going to comment on your medical condition or even try to explain what you are calling “slow metabolism”. But what you are citing above is not how the body works. Calories are not expended based on the amount of oxygen in the blood. They are expended by the amount of oxygen used by the tissues, which is dictated by…

I hadn’t gotten to that part yet. 😅 I was focusing first on the methodology. Without even going to that level of detail, the very fact that with serial testing you got such widely varying scores should tell you something was wrong. It looks like what you have here is a situation that’s relatively common with “franchise”…

I'll throw in pallof presses. Not only are they underrated, most people do them wrong (too fast). Another would be various types of dead bugs.

I started to respond to your initial comment about the lack of accuracy of the test given to the OP, but work tends to pile up at the end of the week and wasn’t able to finish it. While I have a lot of experience in this field, I have not had the opportunity to work extensively with actual metabolic testing devices. Your…

I’m not sure I understand the question. I did mention low thyroid in my comment as one defined “slow metabolism” condition that a doctor would treat. Are you saying that you consider most claims of “metabolic damage” to be as a result of low thyroid? In my mind (purely subjective of course) I define “metabolic damage” as…

I am not going to address the OP since she has made it clear that she only wanted specific supplement dosage information, and I want to respect that. But for the larger audience, I want to make a couple of points: It’s common for people to talk about “damage” to their “metabolism” caused by diet practices or weight loss.…

I attended a seminar several years ago on supplements and the takeaway on magnesium was that it was only helpful if you were deficient. Otherwise, there were no scientifically proven benefits.

As disappointing as that is right now, it really is the best choice. At the risk of being Capt Obvious, here is a stretch you might try if you haven’t already: https://youtu.be/2qZ517Rw7ME It helped me about 8 years ago with similar symptoms.