Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 12:48:01 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Anyone else getting fit in Covid?

Started by Johnny Textface, November 07, 2020, 01:13:03 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Ray Travez

Quote from: bgmnts on April 02, 2021, 01:32:13 PM
Sorry yeah by starvation mode I mean you are losing muscle instead of fat and dont have the energy to function.

No worries. I wanted to clarify because some people think you go into starvation mode if you miss a meal or two. I know that's not what you meant :)

It's a topic I'm very interested in. Done a lot of fasts, of various lengths.

My current interest is something called sportfasting. Not sure of the specific protocol, but it involves fasting plus exercise. It sounds similar to what I do when I go to Tenerife- a lot of walking on rough terrain, then eating in the evening, one meal, low fat, mostly fruit. Seem to be able to lose fat whilst also gaining muscle. I wouldn't exactly call it 'fun', but I like the effect, I enjoy the process that my body goes through. Bit like a boot camp. I arrive unfit and leave a lot better, less flabby.

Very easy for me to lose control of my eating. Pisses me off. Can make a lot of gains, and then eat badly for a fortnight and I'm back where I started.

popcorn

Quote from: Ray Travez on April 02, 2021, 11:34:52 PM
My current interest is something called sportfasting. Not sure of the specific protocol, but it involves fasting plus exercise.

sounds like an absolute fucking nightmare.

I gobble a Wispa every day.

JamesTC

Quote from: popcorn on April 02, 2021, 11:38:35 PM

I gobble a Wispa every day.

They are only 200 calories. When I'm sticking to 1500 calories, I allow myself a bar of something which is usually a Wispa Gold or a Dairy Milk Oreo bar.

Ray Travez

Quote from: popcorn on April 02, 2021, 11:38:35 PM
sounds like an absolute fucking nightmare.

heheh! Oh absolutely

I don't mind it when I'm away on my own though. Full liberty to become a grumpy underfed bastard without it affecting anyone else.

mothman

What James said. My margin for error means I'm likely at least 1500 a day. I'm sure there are days when I've hit 1200 (or lower) but not commonly.

Schrodingers Cat

Well, if we're playing that game...

Last year I was intermittent fasting, so only one meal per day, but not paying that much attention to what I was eating, and making sure to have one big meal a day. Since Xmas, I stepped up my exercise a lot, so didn't feel like that was viable any more. So since then, been calorie counting and been doing about 1700 calories plus any exercise. So typically ends up being about 2000-2400 most days (still at a deficit). The day I did the half marathon ended up at about 3000 calories because I'd burned so much running. That's all resulted in losing an average of 1kg pr week.

ETA: once I lose a couple more kg's, and my shoulder has recovered, I then plan to up my calorie intake, probably by about 1000 (!) and try to put on lean muscle back to about 90kg (then maybe trim back down a bit if needed), then maintain.

mothman

That's really good, well done!

I'm kinda scared of doing exercise. I'm worried I'll injure myself (knees and feet are fucked already, doesn't take much to put me out of action for a week). My wife has a rowing machine, I used it some last year but did end up knackering my back a bit. Just got to take a deep breath and do it, I guess.

Kankurette

My knees are killing me, but it was a lovely sunny day, so it was worth it. Went for a walk to Platt Fields Park and back. Loads of families there enjoying the sunshine.

good times

I managed to improve my body shape during the past 12 months by focusing mainly on weight lifting and diet rather than cardio. I weigh pretty much exactly the same as I did a year ago but look and feel in better shape. I still do a bit of cardio but mainly just as a mood improver, or to allow me to be a bit greedier on certain days.

I'm annoyed at myself for leaving it until my mid thirties to start properly learning about nutrition and exercise, it's much more difficult getting in shape now than it would have been at 21.

I'm still only figuring stuff out, like last summer I was on a never ending diet and getting way too skinny but still with unwanted body fat which I couldn't shift, which was really fucking frustrating.

After a bit more research that I found out (to my surprise, although it seems obvious now) that I basically needed to start upping my calories and lifting to build some muscle for a few months before cutting calories and maintaining the lifting routine, to make sure I lost fat and held onto most of the muscle I'd added. It was ace being able to eat basically as much as I wanted for a couple of months, knowing that it made scientific sense to do so. Of course it's shit having to switch back to cutting calories again afterwards, but I would have been doing that all the time anyway.

The problem is there is no real info source (that I know of) that just tells you very basic shit like that in short, simple terms. You have to wade through tonnes of crap mostly written by people who want to sell you something or gym freaks that think that unless you go to the gym six days a week and do an hour a day you might as well not bother.

I'm still convinced that some of what I'm doing is a waste of time or self defeating (or worse, seriously fucking up my joints or muscles or something) but I just try and learn what I can gradually through sporadic research.

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: good times on April 05, 2021, 06:47:33 PM

I'm annoyed at myself for leaving it until my mid thirties to start properly learning about nutrition and exercise, it's much more difficult getting in shape now than it would have been at 21.



I'm in the same boat, although I was actually underweight up til the past few years but horribly unfit and only in the past couple of years have started to seriously work out. I seemed to go from struggling to put on weight to struggling to lose weight overnight.

But, even if you had gotten in great shape in your 20s, you'd still be having to maintain it in your 30s and 40s and it gets harder to do that regardless of how fit you used to be. But, you can still be as fit as younger people. "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now"

bgmnts

Yeah I wish I were proper fit in my 20s. In my early 20s I was around 14 stone and thats the lowest I've been and that still wasn't great but nowadays I'd bite hands off for that. It would be nice to spend the rest of my life at 14 stone and relatively fit. Have a couple of years to get that sorted, but I do feel like I've missed out on a huge part of formative life that most people go through in their teens and 20s, a large part of that being because I'm fat.

But I suppose experiences shape you and you have to learn from them.

mothman

I know everything I'm doing is probably too little too late. I can look to a few things in my favour: that I've never smoked, I have always tended to avoid excessively fatty foods (never really like chips, for example). I've always like breads, cakes, pastries; but right now I'm avoiding them and don't miss them.[nb]My first serious stab at weight loss was in 2012 when I did Dukan. It was hard work and once I stopped weight went back on, albeit gradually. But I lost 3 stone and have never been that heavy since. But man did I miss bread - not helped by holidaying in Jersey that summer, with bloody bakeries and cake shops everywhere...[/nb]

Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse

No it's never too little, too late. Any exercise at all is better than none, as long as you don't do something stupid like lift weights without using proper form and fuck your back up.

mothman

No danger of that, they gave us new chairs at work and it's fucking my back up quite nicely already!

I've decided - posting it here, so you can all make sure I do it - that I'll get cracking on a daily rowing machine sesh on Friday.

Dex Sawash

Watch some rowing machine videos, if your form is good back should be fine. On the recovery, dont shoot the slide forward until your hands are past your knees. Rowers that have pivoting bar "oars" instead of a straight pull chain or strap can lock you in to awkward motions that cause problems.

Schrodingers Cat

2nd half marathon ran today! (Or, it would have been if I hadn't misremembered the correct distance and finished about 200m short...but I'm still counting it!)

Even accounting for the (slightly) shortened distance, I managed to knock off about 9-10 minutes from my first one. From approx. 2h13 to 2h03. Pretty happy with that. Even if I am annoyed with myself for my stupidity! Next time (whenever that is) I WILL do it in under 2h!

Rugby training has restarted the last 2 weeks as well, so this week I trained every day mon-thurs, did 3 short (approx 7.5km) runs, and then that today. I just need to complete my shoulder rehab, and I can get back in the gym as I actually need to put weight back on asap (if someone had told me 12 months ago my main concern going into the rugby season would be I was too light...).

Kankurette

Once my period ends, I'm going the gym again. I have missed it.

bgmnts

If my gym wasnt so shit and people actually were considerate i'd enjoy it but it's bot so just walking for me.

JaDanketies

Bit of humble bragging but back in 2020 and the preceding years, I couldn't open a jar of olives, gherkins, pickled cabbage, beetroot et al without the use of tools. Maybe I could open a small jar but not a big one. I used to pop the safety seal and the vacuum by pushing / twisting a knife against the inner side of the lid. A practice that would inevitably leave me bleeding out on the kitchen floor one unfortunate day, an inanimate jar of gherkins mocking me in my last moments as I slip out of this world into a fiery eternity, filled with the jeers and ridicule of an uncountable array of gherkins.

But now, you pass me one of them pickle jars, and bang. An effortless turn of the hands and you're in a tart and salty wonderland.

There is a possibility that Tesco made their pickle jars easier to open recently. But for me, it feels like it's a significant mark of progress (on the balance of probabilities). I am now achieving the bare minimum that would be expected from a desirable man in a movie thanks to my ability to open pickle jars.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Stab the top of the jar with a knife. Loosens the seal enough that even one of those tiny little women's wrists you see everywhere could manage to open the lid.

Hehe, stupid tiny women's wrists, they're so much worse than ours!*

*on average

willbo

I've been working out and jogging all year but I just haven't been able to cut down on the snacks. Been doing pretty well for the last couple of weeks and I really want to get rid of my "wheat belly" for the first time since it grew, if I can.

I was going in Holland and Barrett to buy nuts and vitamins, but they always have tons of sugary foods on offer! Like choc covered nuts and big "energy" choc bars which are just sugary, nutty regular chocolate bars.  I always came out with a bunch of cheap "organic" junk food.

good times

I stopped exercising properly for a couple of weeks cos I fucked my leg up and now I'm a chubby little cunt again.

What I've been wondering recently is how the people in my office who went to the gym at lunch pre-corona actually made that work?

We get an hour for lunch but they have to squeeze in eating, walking to the gym, getting changed, doing some actual exercise, getting showered, getting changed, walking back to the office. Are they doing about 5 minutes exercise or just taking the piss with their lunch hour?

Blue Jam

I have just ordered some running clothes for the warmer weather, some loose tops I won't feel too self-conscious in. Plus a running belt. It is definitely NOT a bumbag, alright? ;)

Had a bit of a setback with Couch To 5K. Stopped for a few days to give my hip a rest. Hip is now much better but for some reason my asthma has been really bad this past week (and no, I don't have hayfever), I've had to take little breaks and abandon runs a bit earlier than I'd have liked. My GP surgery has asked me to book an "asthma review" with a nurse so I'll see if we can get my rubbish lungs to behave.

Kankurette

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on April 13, 2021, 09:50:57 AM
Stab the top of the jar with a knife. Loosens the seal enough that even one of those tiny little women's wrists you see everywhere could manage to open the lid.

Hehe, stupid tiny women's wrists, they're so much worse than ours!*

*on average
I use a spoon.

I.D. Smith

I just finished Week 5 of Couch to 5k and today was the first big jump from doing multiple smaller runs in the session, to just one big continuous run, this time for a single 20 minute stretch. I was a bit concerned at first when I was already out of breath and my legs feeling like lead after only 5 minutes, but thankfully I managed to push on through that and make it to the 20 without stopping or slowing to a walk. Made sure to keep any inclines to a minimum, which unfortunately meant my route was up and down the same stretch of pavement alongside the main road with all the car fumes that entails, but I really don't think I'd have made it if my route had included the hilly suburban streets round my bit.

Feeling vaguely proud of myself for not quitting on it, which I'm prone to doing when I've only got myself to motivate me. I'm not necessarily new to running - pre-Covid I was doing it regularly on the treadmill as part of my gym routine - but for some reason I find outdoor running so much harder, and I've also been pretty much non active the past year until I started this[nb]I really, really struggle to motivate myself to workout outside of a gym. Gyms seem to have some magical effect on me where I have 1000% more energy and motivation to work out when I'm inside them. I think it's because there's no distractions, so all I can do it workout, whereas at home I'm going for a seat every few moments and that leads to checking my phone, watching a bit of telly, reading a magazine, and before I know I've been sitting for 20 minutes since my last set.[/nb], so I'm quite glad I've stuck with it and not cheated at all.

My only concern is I don't seem to get the running high at all anymore. It had long since dropped off pre-Covid, but after a year off I had kind of hoped it would've come back, like the caffeine buzz you get from your first coffee after a long period of abstinence. Does that ever come back?

mothman

I seem to have plateaued. There's less of me to move around, so the moving around I'm doing is burning less calories. I'm not giving up hope, but it's dispiriting. Mildly alleviated by my FitBit auto-recognising my cutting the grass yesterday as a 20min bike ride...

Kankurette

I WILL go the gym, dammit. Stupid fucking migraines.

mikeyg27

Quote from: I.D. Smith on April 18, 2021, 08:05:14 PM

[nb]I really, really struggle to motivate myself to workout outside of a gym. Gyms seem to have some magical effect on me where I have 1000% more energy and motivation to work out when I'm inside them. I think it's because there's no distractions, so all I can do it workout, whereas at home I'm going for a seat every few moments and that leads to checking my phone, watching a bit of telly, reading a magazine, and before I know I've been sitting for 20 minutes since my last set.[/nb]

Because you're paying for it, maybe? I really struggled to bother working out at home and I barely bothered at all in this lockdown. Part of it is that I don't have the equipment / room / appropriate flooring to do my preferred powerlifting / barbell stuff. Also, I only had 10kg adjustable dumbbells which are fine for some things but inadequate for others. I even let myself get ripped off for some 5kg weight plates because I knew if I didn't get some momentum back then the first month or so back at the gym was going to be a disaster (the only thing worse than starting working out is re-starting working out).

Kankurette

OH GYM HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU.

Legs killing me, but worth it.

bgmnts

Think I'm going to rejoin the shit local gym on a monthly basis once I get my student card, mostly to do resistance shit. Just wish people wiped up after themselves and didnt spend 20 minutes on one machine chatting and texting.