also, an excuse to [re-]introduce a really cool "Calculator that makes you smile!"
http://instacalc.com/1735
My BMI is about 24.7* right now ... thanks to "MyFitnessPal (http://www.google.com/search?q=MyFitnessPal)" on my Android. mid-June of this year I was 26.3 , and tbh I haven't really increased my aerobic activity since then, just become way more aware of what I was eating (and how much water I drink).
So anyone else care to share / challenge [themselves]?
*yay, that means even by US standards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index#United_States_of_America), I am now officially no longer "overweight"! #whatnormalfeelslike (heck, I'm even outta the "obese" range for body fat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fat_percentage#Typical_body_fat_amounts))
Mine hovers between 29 and 30. So sometimes I'm overweight, other times I'm obese (BMI of 30 being obese). When the kids start skating again and I join them on the ice for all practices, I'll drop a bit. Also, I'm sure I could get it to drop if I just went for a 30 minute walk around the neighbourhood every day, but that would cut into my Minecraft time.
Quote from: Thorin on September 05, 2012, 02:54:52 PM
Mine hovers between 29 and 30. So sometimes I'm overweight, other times I'm obese (BMI of 30 being obese). When the kids start skating again and I join them on the ice for all practices, I'll drop a bit. Also, I'm sure I could get it to drop if I just went for a 30 minute walk around the neighbourhood every day, but that would cut into my Minecraft time.
http://www.npr.org/2012/05/09/152336802/stand-up-walk-around-even-just-for-20-minutes
"The First 20 Minutes: Surprising Science Reveals How We Can Exercise Better, Train Smarter, Live Longer" by Gretchen Reynolds (excerpt here (http://www.npr.org/books/titles/152336508/the-first-20-minutes-surprising-science-reveals-how-we-can-exercise-better-train?tab=excerpt#excerpt)
QuoteReynolds recommends standing for two minutes every 20 minutes while desk-bound ? even if you can't move around your office. "That sounds so simple," she tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "But that actually has profound consequences. If you can stand up every 20 minutes ? even if you do nothing else ? you change how your body responds physiologically.
If you can also walk around your office, you get even more benefits. You will lose weight, you lessen your chance of heart disease, and you will improve your brain. But if you can do nothing else, stand up!
^ this caught my attention because, even if many common nutrition/health "facts" might be less objectively true than "they" tell us they are (http://www.terrencechanpoker.com/2012/05/what-i-believe-human-body-edition.html), at least STANDING and WALKING AROUND is something SIMPLE and QUICK that anybody/everybody can do, when we remember we should do it more often. No controversy there.
According to a random BMI calculator I found online, I'm somewhere around 33 atm.
I was just over 25 a few months ago :( really harsh how fast you can gain weight.
Quote from: Tom on September 05, 2012, 09:49:52 PM
According to a random BMI calculator I found online, I'm somewhere around 33 atm.
This one is incredibly simple (and also demonstrates how cool/easytouse their free web insta-calculator thingie is!)
http://instacalc.com/1735
Quote from: Tom on September 05, 2012, 09:49:52 PM
According to a random BMI calculator I found online, I'm somewhere around 33 atm.
I was just over 25 a few months ago :( really harsh how fast you can gain weight.
Wow that's 45+ pounds gained, that is quite a bit. Have you changed or started new meds recently? Some medications have a profound impact on how much energy the body burns; if it slows down your metabolism but you don't realize it so don't decrease your caloric intake, then the weight plumps on. Or it could just be that now that you have more spending money, you're buying higher-calorie food and drink? Pop is terrible calorie-wise; three cans of pop a day is 480 calories - round that to 500 calories a day, then it's 3,500 calories a week. 3,500 calories is a pound of weight gain. So removing three cans of pop from one's diet can reduce weight gain by a pound a week, or four pounds a month, or fifty pounds a year.
I was drinking pop regardless. But yeah I could probably cut some out again.
I'm actually 5lbs lighter now than I thought I was. But its probably a combination of some meds I was on, and splurging a bit food wise.
The main reason I think I was losing weight so well before, was that not only did I have to cut my food budget significantly, but In order to not waste as much food, I also went shopping every week, meaning a couple/few km walk each time.
Long story short: at one point I had hit 260lbs. The over a few years I had eventually gotten that down to close to 180lbs (might have been 185-190~). Now I'm back up to 235 in only say 6 months.
Been trying to work on it again the past little while. I suppose its working in that I'm not still gaining.
BIGGEST change in my diet since June: cutting out virtually ALL "liquid calories", including fruit juice. Fruit juice, and fruit itself = fructose = apparently the kind of carbo/sugar that most efficiently/quickly gets converted to / stored as body fat. I replaced that and pop with just simple tap water, as long as it is cold it seems to be just as quenching (if not more so).
Fruit juice is really no good, it's basically sugar with some water, better to eat the actual fruit (you get some fibre and vitamins that way too).
I've really cut down on what I drink again, basically unless its a special occasion I only drink coffee or water (occasionally tea).
No pop, no beer, no more than 2 units of alcohol. I'm already noticing a difference, it's easy to forget how many calories come from drinking stuff like pop/beer/whatever. Also I don't know if it's because of the diuretic I'm on or what but I find that pop actually makes me thirstier.
Quote from: Mr. Analog on September 06, 2012, 12:25:48 PM
Fruit juice is really no good, it's basically sugar with some water, better to eat the actual fruit (you get some fibre and vitamins that way too).
I've really cut down on what I drink again, basically unless its a special occasion I only drink coffee or water (occasionally tea).
No pop, no beer, no more than 2 units of alcohol. I'm already noticing a difference, it's easy to forget how many calories come from drinking stuff like pop/beer/whatever. Also I don't know if it's because of the diuretic I'm on or what but I find that pop actually makes me thirstier.
Pop is like drinking salt water. Your system uses more water than you get from the pop to flush it out. You can imagine the dehydration headaches I used to have when all I drank was cola. No water at all.
Salt water (like from the ocean) dehydrates you because it gives you dairrhea, where your body expels more fluids than normal. In my earlier life, I've had times where all I drank was pop for an entire week or more. If the pop truly made me expel more water than I was taking in, I would've been dying instead of flourishing. The headaches you were suffering were more likely from a glucose imbalance caused by the speedy rate of absorption of fructose from the corn syrup, or possibly from all the caffeine you were ingesting if you were drinking caffeinated pop.
Pop does not dehydrate you! It does, however, seriously @%&# with your blood sugar levels, and if caffeinated, keep you on a high-low cycle of attentiveness. That said, some ingredients found in some secret formulas for some soda pops do act as a diuretic, making you pee more if you drink a lot of that pop. Coke is known for this (amazingly, no one's made this claim about Pepsi nor any other cola).
Quote from: Thorin on September 06, 2012, 02:17:14 PM
Salt water (like from the ocean) dehydrates you because it gives you dairrhea, where your body expels more fluids than normal. In my earlier life, I've had times where all I drank was pop for an entire week or more. If the pop truly made me expel more water than I was taking in, I would've been dying instead of flourishing. The headaches you were suffering were more likely from a glucose imbalance caused by the speedy rate of absorption of fructose from the corn syrup, or possibly from all the caffeine you were ingesting if you were drinking caffeinated pop.
Pop does not dehydrate you! It does, however, seriously @%&# with your blood sugar levels, and if caffeinated, keep you on a high-low cycle of attentiveness. That said, some ingredients found in some secret formulas for some soda pops do act as a diuretic, making you pee more if you drink a lot of that pop. Coke is known for this (amazingly, no one's made this claim about Pepsi nor any other cola).
And all I drank back then was coke ;) All I know is that I was dehydrated.
But then I get dehydrated a lot. Always thirsty. I can easily go through more than a couple liters of water a day. And thats on top of other drinks. Some times I find I'm going every hour.
Don't forget your body gets water from a variety of sources, not just what you are drinking.
A couple of interesting reads about pop and dehydration:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/nutrition/04real.html?_r=1
The Snopes article mentions the same as what Mr. Analog pointed out - you can get a lot of water from food.
Yeah, I'm sure I get some from my regular breakfast and lunches, when I remember to eat them ;D
Just sayin I'm almost always thirsty :(
Quote from: Thorin on September 06, 2012, 02:36:59 PM
you can get a lot of water from food.
and you SHOULD -- unless your diet is full of processed bagged crap and bread. Even cheese and milk contain at least some water that your body can utilize... though being salty and high in protein they tend to make you extra thirsty too...
"rely on your senses" good simple advice, "know [/be honest with] thyself" helps in healing of all kinds, not just the physical kind.
If you are thirsty, drink. If you are tired, sleep. If you are hungry, eat. If you are no longer hungry, STOP EATING. If you are feeling anxious your answer you are about to provide to a woman's question about her clothing and the size of her butt...
(http://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/2009/2/17/128794005565140010.jpg)
Quote from: Tom on September 06, 2012, 03:03:03 PM
Yeah, I'm sure I get some from my regular breakfast and lunches, when I remember to eat them ;D
Just sayin I'm almost always thirsty :(
Oddly enough eating regular meals helps balance dehydration. Worst thing you can do it miss important meals like breakfast and lunch, if anything make dinner the optional meal.
Quote from: Mr. Analog on September 06, 2012, 03:12:30 PM
Quote from: Tom on September 06, 2012, 03:03:03 PM
Yeah, I'm sure I get some from my regular breakfast and lunches, when I remember to eat them ;D
Just sayin I'm almost always thirsty :(
Oddly enough eating regular meals helps balance dehydration. Worst thing you can do it miss important meals like breakfast and lunch, if anything make dinner the optional meal.
Even more oddly enough is that a lot of folks in the fitness world are saying that THAT is myth, i.e. 3 "big" meals with a gap between > 5 or 6 "small" meals, because with so many meals your body is pretty much digesting stuff nonstop which changes the chemistry/phyisology or something so you aren't gonna hit your peak potential (athlete worry, obv. us sedentary folks = meh; snack all day? HELL YEAH!)
imo just keep drinking lotsa water throughout the day, and make sure meals have some kind of protein (preferably "lean protein"), you'll feel full and then you won't need to worry about eating at the "right" time or the "right" portion size, just eat until you know you're probably close to full and you've got your nutrients for a good chunk of the day...
But if you wanna check out the Debate:
http://www.google.com/search?q=6+Small+Meals+vs.+3+Regular+Meals
All you do if you eat many small meals a day is increase your body metabolism, I recently had a physical and they made it a point to reiterate the importance of regular meals (in a traditional pattern or not). Skipping meals is REALLY not good for you.
The problem is that BMI does not take into account build, muscle and also does not scale well below 5 foot or above 6 feet tall.
If you take my height of 6 foot 4, I should be about 200 lbs, however I tend to float around 210 to 215. Some BMI calculators go as far as rating me obese at 215, so I don't take much stock in them..
I suspect healthy for me is actually more between 205 and 210, as I think the last time I was down around 200 I could see my ribs.
Quote from: Lazybones on September 06, 2012, 04:00:04 PM
The problem is that BMI does not take into account build, muscle and also does not scale well below 5 foot or above 6 feet tall.
If you take my height of 6 foot 4, I should be about 200 lbs, however I tend to float around 210 to 215. Some BMI calculators go as far as rating me obese at 215, so I don't take much stock in them..
Yeah, if BMI says you are 24.x (i.e. normal weight) but your Fat% is like 35% (even on an inexpensive sale with the 2 electrodes you stand on) then you have work to do. And if your BMI says you are 26.x (i.e. overweight) but your Fat% is 15%-20% then you'll certainly know you are in good health.
It's just part of a collection of stats, but it's one that is super easy to figure out and track over time, and can encourage folks to at least make changes that they can virtually immediately measure/see the results/success of, and to compare themselves to "the average" as well as their own previous #. for MOST folks anyway, no luck to you or Stephen Merchant.
Quote from: Mr. Analog on September 06, 2012, 03:59:07 PM
All you do if you eat many small meals a day is increase your body metabolism, I recently had a physical and they made it a point to reiterate the importance of regular meals (in a traditional pattern or not). Skipping meals is REALLY not good for you.
DING DING WINNAR!
Yes, if you don't eat and get busy and then find yourself NOTICING your hunger, and especially if your stomach acid gets all ouchie, that means you've messed up for today, you've been ignoring what your body senses have been trying to tell your noggin. Pay better attention and respond quicker next time, lesson learned. <-- self-reminder for ME :)
It can be a lot more subtle, people who find themselves having a hard time keeping normal body rhythms (sleep/activity cycles) don't connect skipping meals. It's something that has a greater effect as you age (as I'm sure many of us are finding out :) )
Well, but, if you overeat at each meal because you're used to eating larger portions because you only eat once or twice a day, then switching to three, four, five, or six meals a day you do have to pay attention to your portion sizes.
And the increase in one's metabolism from more frequent meals, while measurable, is not
significant, as far as the studies have shown. Sure, the basal metabolic rate has been shown to raise by 1% to 2%, but that's 25 to 50 calories a day. Or in other words, you can burn off 1/8 to 1/4 of a Mars bar per day by doing the more frequent meals. This in and of itself will not make a significant impact on anyone's weight, especially if they think they're burning more so can afford to eat more.
Yes, putting food in your stomach kickstarts the metabolism so that more calories are burned off, since the body no longer thinks it needs to conserve energy (well, for the next few hours). And that's why regular meals are important, rather than one big one a day a la lions (none of us are the Lion King!). But tracking just how many calories are going in and how many are being used up is very important, too. Otherwise you get, "I eat six meals a day so my metabolism is higher, I can have this Dilly bar that I used to never allow myself to eat [..two months later..] How did I gain three pounds?!"
Quote from: Lazybones on September 06, 2012, 04:00:04 PM
The problem is that BMI does not take into account build, muscle and also does not scale well below 5 foot or above 6 feet tall.
If you take my height of 6 foot 4, I should be about 200 lbs, however I tend to float around 210 to 215. Some BMI calculators go as far as rating me obese at 215, so I don't take much stock in them..
I suspect healthy for me is actually more between 205 and 210, as I think the last time I was down around 200 I could see my ribs.
Well, that raises the question of what is healthy? Fine specimens of the human race in tip top shape frequently are able to show their ribs. Just look at the many athletes we saw at the Olympics this year.
Body fat percentage is a good measurement to determine if you have a decent ratio of fat vs muscle and bone, but that hides decidedly unhealthy factors like high blood pressure or plaque-hardened arteries.
I can't really eat large meals regularly anymore. Things happen so slowly that it causes issues. I basically have to keep it to three small meals and some snacks.
For a while I was trying 5 smaller meals. That was cool, but I really don't have enough choice in my diet anymore to really do that without getting sick and tired of everything. So basically I try and mix things up for dinner, and breakfast/lunch tend to be the same things. Depends. For a long time I was doing a really awesome egg/baccon-or-sausage/hashbrowns for breakfast, but I've been lazy for a long time now and fell back to cereal (gluten free) and yogurt. Lunch is typically cottage cheese and fruit cocktail (I really can't think of other things to have to eat for lunch).
Right now there are only statistical factors that relate obesity to heart disease