I pulled a muscle Tuesday doing deadlifts. left lower back. It felt ok to decent rest of the workout but then got really tight and sore that evening. Slept on it and it was improving but still really stiff and hurt. A hot pad improved it immensely instantly and using it a few more times yesterday and today has helped heal.
Took the workout today easy and didn’t do a pendulum squat I’d had planned. It’s feeling better even than before the workout. Should be back to normal within a few days, already feeling 85% there.
Erased over 10 years of weight in three months.
Started taking exercise seriously in September and grabbed an Apple Watch to track my calories. Things have been going great and I feel great but I've got a nagging worry that this is too good to be true and this pace could have it's own risks.
There was a week where I was losing a pound a day which felt intoxicatingly great but that was because, only eating when I was hungry, I was only taking in 1200 cals(My stomach was happy to kill me). Have to track my calories to make sure I get around 2000.
The exercise is very easy to maintain as it's just walking 9 miles a day which is something I like to do anyway. My VO2 Max is creeping up slowly but still pretty low so I'm trying to sneak 90 seconds of running into my walks here and there. Two minutes of running is my fall over struggle to breathe max right now.
If I was doing something dangerous I'd have started feeling side effects by now right?
outside of standard "talk to your healthcare professional about weight loss, diet, and exercise effects" all I really know is that once you get into the groove of things the early improvements can be pretty dramatic at first depending on more factors than i'm qualified to say.
Like the activities you are describing don't sound bad on their own (just be careful pushing that max out run).
Erased over 10 years of weight in three months.
Started taking exercise seriously in September and grabbed an Apple Watch to track my calories. Things have been going great and I feel great but I've got a nagging worry that this is too good to be true and this pace could have it's own risks.
There was a week where I was losing a pound a day which felt intoxicatingly great but that was because, only eating when I was hungry, I was only taking in 1200 cals(My stomach was happy to kill me). Have to track my calories to make sure I get around 2000.
The exercise is very easy to maintain as it's just walking 9 miles a day which is something I like to do anyway. My VO2 Max is creeping up slowly but still pretty low so I'm trying to sneak 90 seconds of running into my walks here and there. Two minutes of running is my fall over struggle to breathe max right now.
If I was doing something dangerous I'd have started feeling side effects by now right?
A few thoughts, ordered roughly from least to most likely to be controversial:
If you're interested in taking up running, I suggest doing a Couch to 5K (C25K) if you haven't already. A C25K slowly progresses you from running 30 seconds or so at a time, to running about 5 kilometres. Don't be afraid to repeat weeks - I had to repeat a week when I did a C25K back when I started running. Don't be afraid to go slow - running doesn't have to be sprinting.
If you haven't started lifting yet, I suggest that you do so. Ideally, a person gets both cardio and strength training - many of their benefits don't overlap. You don't need to go to a gym if that doesn't interest you - you can do just fine as a beginner with a basic pair of dumbbells, and there are plenty of people in this thread, the strength training thread, and on YouTube who can suggest exercises to do.
As for dangerous side effects, from spending four years in the loseit subreddit I think that the most dangerous side effects with regards to weight loss are mental, and usually take the form of all or nothing thinking or doing things to excess. Examples include overly restrictive diets, thinking that there's a "perfect" body weight to obtain, being emotionally invested in daily/weekly scale variations, assigning morality to weight or fat or fitness or health in one form or another, completely cutting off enjoyable food and experiences, unsustainable diets or exercise routines, eating too little, getting upset over something that can't be tracked accurately, etc. I think that for most people are going to be fine as long as they can avoid those sorts of pitfalls. I'm a big fan of the idea of all things in moderation, including moderation.
I don't know what you have planned as your end point for weight loss, or even if you have an end point planned. I suggest thinking about your end point now if you haven't done so already. Having a defined goal is useful! Plus, it helps sort out the "should I keep going or not?" question if you know when the answer is going to be "no" well ahead of time. I also suggest that you don't set your end goal too low. I think that BMI provides a handy rule of thumb here - I would aim for a BMI no lower than between 24 and 25 as the goal, or between 23 and 24 if you're East Asian. Also, keep in mind that BMI is a population level metric used to calculate relative risk that doesn't necessarily apply well to individuals, and that this is only a rule of thumb. It’s totally valid and fine and worthwhile to have a goal weight that’s higher than BMI 24, I just suggest not going below that point, at least until you’ve maintained at that point for an extended period of time.
Edit: one more item: I very strongly suggest setting a daily calorie floor and maximum deficit for yourself. For example, I don’t eat fewer than my floor of 2,000 calories a day, ever, even if it means I’m not going to hit my deficit target. And I don’t let myself have a deficit of more than 1,000 calories as calculated by my Garmin. Setting those sorts of guardrails for oneself in black and white can be helpful.
Shadowhope on
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
outside of standard "talk to your healthcare professional about weight loss, diet, and exercise effects" all I really know is that once you get into the groove of things the early improvements can be pretty dramatic at first depending on more factors than i'm qualified to say.
Like the activities you are describing don't sound bad on their own (just be careful pushing that max out run).
Yeah. The only thing that even hits on a possible concern is the 1200 calorie days. But if you were eating when hungry, even that doesn't sound dangerous unless continued long term. I was aiming for a 1900 calorie day (and tracking my estimated exercise calories) and I'd still go under by 300-500 calories some days.
Now I'm in maintenance and just eating decent meals without tracking.
@agoaj if you want to work on your VO2 Max, what I did was start working on going a mile on an walk/run interval. Start with 30 seconds on, one minute off. or whatever isn't completely punishing. You want each running interval to be hard but not absolutely destroy your heartrate nor your lungs. Then start working up from there, increasing the running periods and decreasing the walking. I sat at an equal period of both for a while, just working on stamina. Get good running shoes if you don't have them!
Though, if you want to work on running more, I'd suggest dropping your total walk mileage. Nine miles is a lot on top of building running stamina and going for weightloss. Basically, you're trying to hold multiple competing priorities, so just be aware of that and adjust accordingly. Running on a calorie deficiet is fine, just don't overdo it. Which you are already addressing with tracking calories.
Your weight-loss pace feels about what I had through 2021. (105 lbs lost over eight months, Feb to Oct.) I didn't feel mine was dangerous or had any side effects back then or now.
[*] If you're interested in taking up running, I suggest doing a Couch to 5K (C25K) if you haven't already. A C25K slowly progresses you from running 30 seconds or so at a time, to running about 5 kilometres. Don't be afraid to repeat weeks - I had to repeat a week when I did a C25K back when I started running. Don't be afraid to go slow - running doesn't have to be sprinting.
[*] If you haven't started lifting yet, I suggest that you do so. Ideally, a person gets both cardio and strength training - many of their benefits don't overlap. You don't need to go to a gym if that doesn't interest you - you can do just fine as a beginner with a basic pair of dumbbells, and there are plenty of people in this thread, the strength training thread, and on YouTube who can suggest exercises to do.
[*] As for dangerous side effects, from spending four years in the loseit subreddit I think that the most dangerous side effects with regards to weight loss are mental, and usually take the form of all or nothing thinking or doing things to excess. Examples include overly restrictive diets, thinking that there's a "perfect" body weight to obtain, being emotionally invested in daily/weekly scale variations, assigning morality to weight or fat or fitness or health in one form or another, completely cutting off enjoyable food and experiences, unsustainable diets or exercise routines, eating too little, getting upset over something that can't be tracked accurately, etc. I think that for most people are going to be fine as long as they can avoid those sorts of pitfalls. I'm a big fan of the idea of all things in moderation, including moderation.
[*] I don't know what you have planned as your end point for weight loss, or even if you have an end point planned. I suggest thinking about your end point now if you haven't done so already. Having a defined goal is useful! Plus, it helps sort out the "should I keep going or not?" question if you know when the answer is going to be "no" well ahead of time. I also suggest that you don't set your end goal too low. I think that BMI provides a handy rule of thumb here - I would aim for a BMI no lower than between 24 and 25 as the goal, or between 23 and 24 if you're East Asian. Also, keep in mind that BMI is a population level metric used to calculate relative risk that doesn't necessarily apply well to individuals, and that this is only a rule of thumb. It’s totally valid and fine and worthwhile to have a goal weight that’s higher than BMI 24, I just suggest not going below that point, at least until you’ve maintained at that point for an extended period of time.
[/list]
Edit: one more item: I very strongly suggest setting a daily calorie floor and maximum deficit for yourself. For example, I don’t eat fewer than my floor of 2,000 calories a day, ever, even if it means I’m not going to hit my deficit target. And I don’t let myself have a deficit of more than 1,000 calories as calculated by my Garmin. Setting those sorts of guardrails for oneself in black and white can be helpful.
I've been incorporating some of the suggestions from C25K, that's where I got the idea for the little jogs from. Was able to complete a mile in 13:40 with a combo of walking and running.
I also have some free weights I keep in my office to lift when I'm idle every couple of hours. I started with the 10s and am now on the 15 lb ones. I don't know what to do with them besides bicep curls though. I'm definitely stronger than I've ever been as I've never worked out my arms before.
[*] If you're interested in taking up running, I suggest doing a Couch to 5K (C25K) if you haven't already. A C25K slowly progresses you from running 30 seconds or so at a time, to running about 5 kilometres. Don't be afraid to repeat weeks - I had to repeat a week when I did a C25K back when I started running. Don't be afraid to go slow - running doesn't have to be sprinting.
[*] If you haven't started lifting yet, I suggest that you do so. Ideally, a person gets both cardio and strength training - many of their benefits don't overlap. You don't need to go to a gym if that doesn't interest you - you can do just fine as a beginner with a basic pair of dumbbells, and there are plenty of people in this thread, the strength training thread, and on YouTube who can suggest exercises to do.
[*] As for dangerous side effects, from spending four years in the loseit subreddit I think that the most dangerous side effects with regards to weight loss are mental, and usually take the form of all or nothing thinking or doing things to excess. Examples include overly restrictive diets, thinking that there's a "perfect" body weight to obtain, being emotionally invested in daily/weekly scale variations, assigning morality to weight or fat or fitness or health in one form or another, completely cutting off enjoyable food and experiences, unsustainable diets or exercise routines, eating too little, getting upset over something that can't be tracked accurately, etc. I think that for most people are going to be fine as long as they can avoid those sorts of pitfalls. I'm a big fan of the idea of all things in moderation, including moderation.
[*] I don't know what you have planned as your end point for weight loss, or even if you have an end point planned. I suggest thinking about your end point now if you haven't done so already. Having a defined goal is useful! Plus, it helps sort out the "should I keep going or not?" question if you know when the answer is going to be "no" well ahead of time. I also suggest that you don't set your end goal too low. I think that BMI provides a handy rule of thumb here - I would aim for a BMI no lower than between 24 and 25 as the goal, or between 23 and 24 if you're East Asian. Also, keep in mind that BMI is a population level metric used to calculate relative risk that doesn't necessarily apply well to individuals, and that this is only a rule of thumb. It’s totally valid and fine and worthwhile to have a goal weight that’s higher than BMI 24, I just suggest not going below that point, at least until you’ve maintained at that point for an extended period of time.
[/list]
Edit: one more item: I very strongly suggest setting a daily calorie floor and maximum deficit for yourself. For example, I don’t eat fewer than my floor of 2,000 calories a day, ever, even if it means I’m not going to hit my deficit target. And I don’t let myself have a deficit of more than 1,000 calories as calculated by my Garmin. Setting those sorts of guardrails for oneself in black and white can be helpful.
I've been incorporating some of the suggestions from C25K, that's where I got the idea for the little jogs from. Was able to complete a mile in 13:40 with a combo of walking and running.
I also have some free weights I keep in my office to lift when I'm idle every couple of hours. I started with the 10s and am now on the 15 lb ones. I don't know what to do with them besides bicep curls though. I'm definitely stronger than I've ever been as I've never worked out my arms before.
Tricep extensions, lateral raises, wrist curls, hammer curl, just to name a few.
Saturday I did 40 boulder problems indoors, Sunday I did an hour and a half of oly lifting and three hours of climbing outside, and yesterday?
Yesterday was day 1 of new plan I.e S&C day. TRX rows, one armed TRX rows, pullups, weighted pullups, low rows, wide pullups, crunches, hanging knee raises, pallof presses, twists, band pullovers, pressups, y-raises, benching, dips... and then mobility stuff. Took bloody hours. Hopefully faster in future as I'll know the routine off by heart.
I’m having a weird reaction after my last workout. It feels like I can’t read right now. Like I’m just getting words wrong, or just sounding it out in wild incorrect ways. I can type all of this. But pausing to read is like tiring and kind to terrifying even if it’s just exhaustion or otherwise a thing that can be normal
Edit: ok I feel better but I have no idea what happened. I don’t know if it was from the workout or walking home in the cold and sleet or what. But I got home, drank my protein shake, then noticed I was having a weird issue with my vision not fully focusing kinda like when you get those staring at light afterimages. Then from there I tried to read my phone and just wasn’t making sense of anything.
yeah, I realized it was maybe not the best thing to make that post while feeling it still, and it was probably a little bit of panicking at a very not usual occurrence.
Posts
Took the workout today easy and didn’t do a pendulum squat I’d had planned. It’s feeling better even than before the workout. Should be back to normal within a few days, already feeling 85% there.
Started taking exercise seriously in September and grabbed an Apple Watch to track my calories. Things have been going great and I feel great but I've got a nagging worry that this is too good to be true and this pace could have it's own risks.
There was a week where I was losing a pound a day which felt intoxicatingly great but that was because, only eating when I was hungry, I was only taking in 1200 cals(My stomach was happy to kill me). Have to track my calories to make sure I get around 2000.
The exercise is very easy to maintain as it's just walking 9 miles a day which is something I like to do anyway. My VO2 Max is creeping up slowly but still pretty low so I'm trying to sneak 90 seconds of running into my walks here and there. Two minutes of running is my fall over struggle to breathe max right now.
If I was doing something dangerous I'd have started feeling side effects by now right?
Like the activities you are describing don't sound bad on their own (just be careful pushing that max out run).
A few thoughts, ordered roughly from least to most likely to be controversial:
Edit: one more item: I very strongly suggest setting a daily calorie floor and maximum deficit for yourself. For example, I don’t eat fewer than my floor of 2,000 calories a day, ever, even if it means I’m not going to hit my deficit target. And I don’t let myself have a deficit of more than 1,000 calories as calculated by my Garmin. Setting those sorts of guardrails for oneself in black and white can be helpful.
Yeah. The only thing that even hits on a possible concern is the 1200 calorie days. But if you were eating when hungry, even that doesn't sound dangerous unless continued long term. I was aiming for a 1900 calorie day (and tracking my estimated exercise calories) and I'd still go under by 300-500 calories some days.
Now I'm in maintenance and just eating decent meals without tracking.
@agoaj if you want to work on your VO2 Max, what I did was start working on going a mile on an walk/run interval. Start with 30 seconds on, one minute off. or whatever isn't completely punishing. You want each running interval to be hard but not absolutely destroy your heartrate nor your lungs. Then start working up from there, increasing the running periods and decreasing the walking. I sat at an equal period of both for a while, just working on stamina. Get good running shoes if you don't have them!
Though, if you want to work on running more, I'd suggest dropping your total walk mileage. Nine miles is a lot on top of building running stamina and going for weightloss. Basically, you're trying to hold multiple competing priorities, so just be aware of that and adjust accordingly. Running on a calorie deficiet is fine, just don't overdo it. Which you are already addressing with tracking calories.
Your weight-loss pace feels about what I had through 2021. (105 lbs lost over eight months, Feb to Oct.) I didn't feel mine was dangerous or had any side effects back then or now.
I am so fucking shattered (600 ft+ of climbing)
I've been incorporating some of the suggestions from C25K, that's where I got the idea for the little jogs from. Was able to complete a mile in 13:40 with a combo of walking and running.
I also have some free weights I keep in my office to lift when I'm idle every couple of hours. I started with the 10s and am now on the 15 lb ones. I don't know what to do with them besides bicep curls though. I'm definitely stronger than I've ever been as I've never worked out my arms before.
Tricep extensions, lateral raises, wrist curls, hammer curl, just to name a few.
seated shoulder press.
Some dumbbell workouts that I like:
Yesterday was day 1 of new plan I.e S&C day. TRX rows, one armed TRX rows, pullups, weighted pullups, low rows, wide pullups, crunches, hanging knee raises, pallof presses, twists, band pullovers, pressups, y-raises, benching, dips... and then mobility stuff. Took bloody hours. Hopefully faster in future as I'll know the routine off by heart.
Today? Tired. Also ow. Rest day earned.
https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/249546/the-fitness-thread-asks-the-hard-question-cardio-vs-strength
Edit: ok I feel better but I have no idea what happened. I don’t know if it was from the workout or walking home in the cold and sleet or what. But I got home, drank my protein shake, then noticed I was having a weird issue with my vision not fully focusing kinda like when you get those staring at light afterimages. Then from there I tried to read my phone and just wasn’t making sense of anything.