Phyical Fitness

[The Stig]

Several years ago I was 215lbs, couldn't run to the neighbors house and back without dying and was a flabby mess.

I remember posting about "if you can't run to the mailbox and back what good will you be in a SHTF event". Yet, sadly, I was one that couldn't.

The low point was getting invited to shoot with some real-deal, legit, 100% verified high speed guys. I shot fine. Physically, I was smoked after 5 minutes of bounding movements. It was so humiliating.

It was the motivation I needed to get my ass, for the first time in my life, in some form of middle-aged shape.

I am happy to report I weighed 170lbs this morning, am doing my first 100mile bike ride this weekend and have obtained some level of physical fitness above "slug".

Lessons learned:

Start small: Don't start out with a crazy program you can't sustain. I literally started out doing a 20 air-squats as a "work out" for the entire day. My first bike ride was literally to the neighbors driveway. I just kept adding little bits here and there. Now I'm working out in some fashion 6 out of 7 days for a reasonable and sustainable amount of time.

Diet is key: Again, start small. I eat out a lot due to my employment. First, I stopped ordering desert. Then appetizers. Then I tried to get more fish and veggie side dishes. Then I cut out all the bread. Then I got off the diet-soda. This process took a long while but the results started being noticeable, especially, when my physical activity increased.

Repetition: 5 sets of 10 pushups is better than 50 straight pushups for building up strength. Same with cardio. Better to go on 3x bike rides during the week than 1 monster one every other week.

Change up what you do: The body responds to different stimuli. So just doing 1 exercise over and over means your body will likely plateau. Plus it gets boring. So change up what exercises you do to stimulate your body to more improvements.

Rest: Be sure you get plenty of rest. That's when your body recovers and grows. You can't run on fumes all the time.

Get advice: I felt like a retard asking really fit people basic n00b questions but man was it helpful. So much good advice and little tips along the way. Plus it increased the size of my network.

Listen to your body: While my goal going forward is overall strength improvements, I'll likely never be a massively strong person. I'm more of a cardio endurance person. Example: went hiking with a 40lbs pack a ways back. The group I was with walked at a faster pace than I do. Instead of trying to keep up and get blown out I walked at my own pace for about the first mile. Once I got warmed up I gradually increased the pace until I passed the main group and hung with the fast walking leader for the next 5+ miles.

I'm the same on bike rides. I need to start slow and gradually increase.

Listen to what your body is telling you.


Not trying to pretend to be an expert on the subject, nor am I saying I'm a ripped god of the gym now. I'm just happy that I can haul a pack 5 miles and not be dead, have a decent tone and have slimmed down (and kept it off). I did an all day shooting class earlier this year and wore plates and full kit the entire day. I looked like a dork, and yes I was tired, but I was effective at the end of the class.

Plus, I feel great.

I believe this is one of the best preps I've made thus far.

[LUNCHBOX]

Definitely have your head in the right place. Keep it up.

[helomech]

Congrats. I have been on this journey for a few years now. Learn more all the time and get better at it over time. I was 185 and 30% body fat, now I am 150 and 12% body fat. Just a little more body fat to go, then I start hard on my bulking program. 3 years ago I had high blood pressure and was not in good shape. Now, I can keep up with most people half my age, and have been training in martial arts for 3 years. I can fight better, shoot better, and have more stamina than I did 15 years ago.

[Fidel MD]

Good work.

As you say, diet is the key. You cannot exercise enough to compensate for a bad diet. And what is bad? Pretty much everything the government tells you to eat. Grains, carbs, and diet sweeteners; eating lots of small meals. Funny how the obesity and diabetes (both types) epidemics started pretty much the same time the government started shilling for agriculture.

There are a couple of books I recommend:

The Big Fat Surprise https://www.amazon.com/Big-Fat-Surpr...words=teicholz

and

The Obesity Code https://www.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-...g+obesity+code


In short, don't worry about your blood glucose: Worry about your blood insulin. Dont snack. Dont worry about dietary fat: Worry about carbs - including 'healthy' fruit. The sugar in fruit, fructose, is REALLY bad for you: Far worse than glucose or table sugar. And excess blood glucose is converted to FAT, by insulin.

Your body does NOT require ANY external carbohydrates. Your body will produce all the glucose it NEEDS, from fats and proteins. Excess sugar is just bad.

[ElevenBravo]

thanks for the post. id like to learn more about your diet, and the science behind it please!

[bacpacker]

Fidel, When time permits would you mind expanding on your post? I am interested in learning more. I will be checking into the books you mentioned.

Stig/Helo, congrats to you both on your acheivements. Much effort to make that happen.

[ElevenBravo]

Any feedback on Sick, fat and nearly dead? this guy is a hard core juicer.

[helomech]

Good work.

As you say, diet is the key. You cannot exercise enough to compensate for a bad diet. And what is bad? Pretty much everything the government tells you to eat. Grains, carbs, and diet sweeteners; eating lots of small meals. Funny how the obesity and diabetes (both types) epidemics started pretty much the same time the government started shilling for agriculture.

There are a couple of books I recommend:

The Big Fat Surprise https://www.amazon.com/Big-Fat-Surpr...words=teicholz

and

The Obesity Code https://www.amazon.com/Obesity-Code-...g+obesity+code


In short, don't worry about your blood glucose: Worry about your blood insulin. Dont snack. Dont worry about dietary fat: Worry about carbs - including 'healthy' fruit. The sugar in fruit, fructose, is REALLY bad for you: Far worse than glucose or table sugar. And excess blood glucose is converted to FAT, by insulin.

Your body does NOT require ANY external carbohydrates. Your body will produce all the glucose it NEEDS, from fats and proteins. Excess sugar is just bad.

I am have been keto for about 2 months now, and I have more energy than I ever have, and am sleeping better than ever. Lifting more weight, down 15 lbs.

- - - Updated - - -

Another book is the Art and science of low carb living.

Me and my wife are doing a program called Athletic Keto.

[Fidel MD]

Fidel, When time permits would you mind expanding on your post? I am interested in learning more. I will be checking into the books you mentioned.

Stig/Helo, congrats to you both on your acheivements. Much effort to make that happen.

Read the two books....I'd start with the Fung book. The Teicholz book will probably piss most people off.

Other good books are by Gary Taubes. https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...es%2Caps%2C224

But for instance, yesterday my breakfast was a egg and chorizo bowl from McDonalds (I was on the road), without the potato cake. Coffee and cream, no sugar or artificial sweetener. Dinner was roasted chicken and cole slaw with oil and vinegar dressing. No snacks, a few cups of coffee, and water.

Breakfast this morning was bacon and eggs, and coffee. I doubt I will be hungry for lunch, steak and broccoli, maybe a baked potato with butter and sour cream.

I drink perhaps 1.5 to 2 liters of water a day. When others would grab a coke, I grab my water bottle. I am rarely hungry, and can't recall the last time I felt weak from low blood sugar.

That feeling is from your blood glucose level swinging high (from eating carbs) and then bottoming out (because the body produces more insulin than required for the glucose present...it's a slow responding process.

As Fung says, worry about your blood insulin levels - which is quite different than blood glucose: Keep the glucose down by minimizing carbs and the insulin will stay low too.

The biggest problem with the typical western diet is that since at least 1970 the US Government has been telling people to eat carbs - grains, fruit, etc. That breakfast is the most important meal of the day...brought to you by General Mills and Post. And since 1970 the incidence of obesity and Type II diabetes has increased, right along with the consumption of grain products.

Grain products are relatively easy to grow, very easy to store without a lot of wastage, and are easy to transport - they don't require refrigeration at least in the unprocessed state. So, by using bad science and the tyranny of the majority the truth is supressed.

I follow a low-carb diet. This doesn't mean a high protein diet (most people eat WAY more protein daily than they actually need), it means a low-carb diet. Fortunately, the body is a terrific processing machine and even if I ate no carbs, my body would still produce the glucose my brain and muscles need, from protein and fat metabolism.

The things I avoid (at least as a regular food) are bread, crackers, etc. No cereals. I rarely eat cakes or cookies (wow! processed grains with extra table sugar on top!). Fruit - I occasionally will eat berries since they have little sugar in them, but avoid fructose (fruit sugar) no matter if it's from an orange, an apple, or corn syrup. I will indulge every now and then, but not as a regular thing. And by making these sorts of foods treats, I appreciate them even more. I had a piece of pumpkin pie the other day, a favorite of mine: It was GOOD.

FWIW, my LDL (bad cholesterol) was 85 a week ago (pretty darned low, where it should be), my HDL (good cholesterol) is 85 (high, where it should be), and my blood hemoglobin A1C (a measure of long-term blood glucose) is 4.1 which is low normal.

Despite what some medical professionals, and rent-seeking organizations like the American Diabetes Association may claim, the physiology and biology support this sort of diet. Claims that a high-carb diet are healthy havent worked = never mind the biology involved, they just FAIL so trying them even harder don't make any sense.


Now, I'm not advising anyone to radically change their lives, especially if you have diabetes (either type). But avoiding carbs will cause most people to lose weight, and that will help them control their blood insulin by lowering blood glucose.

As far as Type II diabetics, their problem is insulin resistance: The cells in their body don't use insulin normally to move glucose from the blood into the cells, and the glucose then causes problems for the liver, kidneys, etc. The truth of the matter is that I can create insulin resistance in people.....easily, by giving them insulin. Or most of the drugs that type II diabetics normally use (metformin, for example). I can make their bodies more responsive (less resistant) to insulin by reducing their blood glucose (eating fewer carbs). There is one new class of drugs for Type II diabetics (the SGLT-2 drugs) that will actually lower blood insulin, and you will lose weight on them (a little, anyway). If there is a mechanism for replicating Diabetes Type II then that method just might have some relation to it's causes.

This is good news, and bad, for preppers. Most LTS foods are carb-intensive, because they don't require refrigeration to store. OTOH, if you are already drug dependent because of diabetes (either type) your survivability is pretty well hosed anyway. So, getting healthy NOW might be a good choice.

[Fidel MD]

I am have been keto for about 2 months now, and I have more energy than I ever have, and am sleeping better than ever. Lifting more weight, down 15 lbs.

- - - Updated - - -

Another book is the Art and science of low carb living.

Me and my wife are doing a program called Athletic Keto.

There are a few variants of the sort of diet I follow - Atkins, Paleo, Keto. Most are close to what I think is ideal - Atkins, for example, had the right idea but advocated pretty high protein intake (as a result of his food recommendations). I try and make it simple, which makes it easier for me to follow. The basic premise of what I normally eat is based on two things - it had a face (animal protein) and green (green leafy vegetables, low in sugars).

I will occasionally eat other foods, but not as a regular item.

I even eat at McDonalds, occasionally. No fries, but I will get two McDoubles, and throw the bread away from one and use the meat and condiments on the other one...making a McQuad, I guess. BTW, the bread at McDonalds has a ton of sugar added, and so do their condiments - ketchup, even mustard, are sugar added because kids like it. I'm not saying never eat that stuff, just be aware of it and avoid it most of the time.

I can even eat at a Dennys....A build it myself slam, double eggs, bacon and sausage. No bread. Fills me up for the day. In short if it takes a combine to harvest, I don't eat it.