You cannot outrun or ride a bad diet

[Wafer]

From my understanding, all calories are calories (more or less, anyway) but some foods are more likely to leave you wanting more of them than feeling full. And the people selling them to us would rather we didn't realise this.

Yes, good point, more that calories consumed do not equal calories 'gained'. Something similar with cholesterol too.

 

[pclay]

I have lost half a stone over the last few weeks, by simply counting calories and riding my bike. It's so easy to eat too much in a day. Going to bed with hunger pains is a good sign that you will loose weight.

 

[Twinks]

I have lost half a stone over the last few weeks, by simply counting calories and riding my bike. It's so easy to eat too much in a day. Going to bed with hunger pains is a good sign that you will loose weight.

sleep!

 

[david k]

Yes, good point, more that calories consumed do not equal calories 'gained'. Something similar with cholesterol too.

How do you mean?

 

[jefmcg]

The big problem is, I know someone who did exactly that.

He was a big sweaty lad, diabetic, a real heiffer. One day he decided he had enough so started running. Not far at first, but eventually worked up to some big daily mileages. Hasn't changed his diet one bit and still drinks like a fish, all he did was start exercising to a high degree. Adios to a third of his bodyweight.

http://drmirkin.com/histories-and-mysteries/jim-fixx-running-guru.html

At the time of his death, the whole country believed that running was healthful because Jim Fixx had transformed himself from an ugly, obese smoker into an attractive svelte runner who appeared to be at the peak of health. On his many television shows and other public appearances, he would bring out his old pants with a waistband of more than 50 inches that could easily fit three men, and hold them up against his slim, muscular body.
[..]
Jim Fixx’s autopsy showed that what was inside his body was much different from what appeared on the outside. The three main arteries leading to his heart were almost completely blocked with plaques and the autopsy showed that he had had at least three heart attacks weeks before the one that killed him. His other arteries were filled with plaques also.

Ken Cooper and Nathan Pritikin Explain All
Dr. Kenneth Cooper, exercise physiologist and aerobics pioneer, reviewed Fixx’s medical records two years after his death and concluded that:
* Fixx had a horrible family history of heart disease; his father had a heart attack at age 35 and died of one at age 43
* Fixx had been a heavy smoker
* He was under terrible stress from a second divorce
* Even though he had lost 70 pounds, he did not have a healthful diet.

I had dinner with Jim Fixx several times when we spoke at running clinics together. He always ordered steak. After Fixx’s death, Nathan Pritikin wrote a book, Diet for Runners, that included the following: “Jim Fixx phoned me and criticized me for writing: ‘many runners on the average American diet have died and will continue to drop dead during or shortly after long-distance events or training sessions.’ Jim thought the chapter was hysterical in tone and would frighten a lot of runners. I told him that was my intention. I hoped it would frighten them into changing their diets. I explained that I think it is better to be hysterical before someone dies than after. Too many men, I told Jim, had already died because they believed Dr. Bassler when he said that anyone who could run a marathon in under four hours and who was a nonsmoker had immunity from having a heart attack. Six months later, a passing motorcyclist discovered a man lying dead beside a road in northern Vermont. He was clad only in shorts and running shoes. The man was Jim Fixx.”

 

[Drago]

That's all very nice, my the chap I am referring to isn't Jim Fixx and is already somewhat older than him.

 

[Tin Pot]

How so?

Because it's more than just about calories - the article explains it.

Calories are like the 19th century approach to food.

Setting fire to food and measuring how much it heats water tells you not a great deal about the foods affect on your health.

 

[Dan B]

I can't tell whether or not you've read the article, but you certainly don't appear to have read my posts.

Never mind

 

[Drago]

Perhaps he had better things to do. Like yawning.

 

[jefmcg]

Setting fire to food and measuring how much it heats water tells you not a great deal about the foods affect on your health.

Or indeed, how much of the food you actually digest. Calories in corn in based on the complete combustion of it. But it's very obvious that we don't complete break down corn.

(TMI?)

 

[raleighnut]

Inactivity certainly plays a part though, my diet hasn't changed but being laid up with my broken femur caused me to gain around 3 stone over the past 18 months. Hopefully once I get back onto 2 wheels (instead of the trike with the electric kit) it'll come off again.
Before anyone suggests that I don't use the electric power I will say that it is a 'double edged sword' scenario in that I can't get up hills without it but the extra weight makes the trike very slow without using it....................At least it got me mobile again (I don't drive) and the physical act of pedalling is great for regaining mobility in my leg, in fact my physiotherapist is quite 'blown away' by the progress I have made.

 

[ColinJ]

Inactivity certainly plays a part though, my diet hasn't changed but being laid up with my broken femur caused me to gain around 3 stone over the past 18 months.

Yes, activity levels and calories required are obviously connected, but you failed to compensate for your lack of activity during those 18 months. Ideally, you would have noticed the first half stone go on and cut back on your food. I made the same mistake though, which is how I put 4 stone on after being slim aged 50 (see avatar photo on left).

My experience with enforced inactivity was the opposite. When I had my initially undiagnosed DVT/PE in 2012 my activity level was the lowest it has ever been. I could barely even make myself a cup of tea. I spent a month in bed and during that time lost about 2 stone in weight. The difference is that I pretty much stopped eating as well. I not only lost fat, but also much of my muscle too. My legs ended up horribly skinny.

The ideal way of losing weight is probably to do regular exercise for health and fitness, and average (say) 750 cals a day less in food and drink intake than you are using up. That should produce a loss of about 1.5 lbs a week without negative effects on your muscle mass.

 

[Tin Pot]

Or indeed, how much of the food you actually digest. Calories in corn in based on the complete combustion of it. But it's very obvious that we don't complete break down corn.

(TMI?)

You're still focussing on the calorie - the article is about your health.

What is the total effect of the food you consume.

 

[jefmcg]

You're still focussing on the calorie - the article is about your health.

What is the total effect of the food you consume.

No, I'm not. I just mentioning what I think is an interesting fact.

 

[moo]

The bigger question is why would anyone want to run.