This is a great write-up and is very much in line with what PubMed abstracts have to say.
Tag Archives: exercise
Weight loss
This is a great write-up and is very much in line with what PubMed abstracts have to say.
http://physiqonomics.com/fat-loss/
Body Energy Usage
I ponder macro-nutrition needs a whole bunch. Here’s what I have handy, though my technical references are scattered and omitted.
There’s always a need for roughage, vitamins, and minerals, which come from foods with very low calories/kilojoules. Aside from that, the three main macros have specific needs.
A body needs 125 grams of carbs for your brain/nerves; just under 1 gram of protein per kilo of lean body mass to maintain tissues/muscles; and around 30g of fat for cellular and neurological structures. This is usually around 1200 kcal per day, but varies by person 10-20 percent.
Anything else you eat is either poop, or gets converted to sugar. Sugar is burned if it’s needed immediately for exercise (growing, standing, walking, cardio, whatever, anything other than sleeping). Any sugar that is not immediately needed is stored in muscles as glycogen, up to around 4% of your muscle mass. All sugar past that is turned into fat and stored in our fat cells.
This is where “whole grains” comes into play. If it’s not ground up, it takes longer to break it down. However, if you take grains, and mill them into a powder, IT IS NOT WHOLE GRAINS. Just because there is fiber in the food does not mean it’s slow to absorb. The less processed the food, the longer time period over which it trickles energy into your body. If it’s super processed, it all absorbs very quickly, and your body may have trouble figuring out what to do with it unless you’re depleted already.
This is also where some insulin resistance comes from, and why diabetics have normal sugar metabolism in their muscles during exercise, even if they are short on insulin, or are resistant to it. Resistance is GLUT4 which causes glucose receptors to move to the cell membrane, but exercise does the same thing – muscle is hungry, it asks for more. Muscle is not hungry, it asks for less, even if you try to overfeed it. Where would it put this excess sugar? It can only store so much.
During exercise, your fat cells can liberate about 90% of your weight in pounds as usable calories per hour. For me, it’s about 260 calories. The gap is made up from glycogen in the muscles, which is good for just about 90 minutes. If you exercise hard, and stop at 60, and rest for 30, those 30 mins still use up that glycogen for delayed processes, cleanup, etc.
Eating carbs cannot provide as much energy as glycogen, but it’s the next best thing. Also, if you’re fasting, your glycogen reserves get burned up pretty quickly. Glycogen is 3:1 water to sugar, so this is why the first week of dieting is so awesome. No, that’s not fat. It’s muscle energy.
Any energy deficiency not covered by food will be covered by muscle damage. About the same number of calories can be broken down out of injured muscle cells. For me, this is a total of muscle and fat sourced calories of about 520 calories per hour. If I exercise for 3 hours with no food, then my power output drops to 130 watts, which is about 520 calories per hour.
The best option to limit muscle damage, limit recovery time, and optimize exercise benefits when going for more than your glycoge, is to eat as much every hour as you burn, minus the calories that can come from fat. Staying carb focussed can give more energy, and can be easier to absorb, though for some people, this slows the breakdown of body fat.
Staying fat focussed keeps the fat burn mechanisms running, but it takes twice as much oxygen, which means you’re hear-rate limited. It’s less about muscle conditioning then, and more about cardiovascular improvement.
Staying protein focussed is tougher on the kidneys. The aminos have to be converted for use as fuel, and that’s a lot of extra ammonia to pee out. That can be an issue when dehydration might already be at play.
Cycling Fuel
Max bodyfat you can burn in an hour is roughly 1 gram per 10 pounds, or in calories, 9 times your weight in pounds.
Anything else is food, muscle glycogen, or actual muscle tissue. Glycogen max is about 4% lean muscle mass, which usually is enough for 90 mins, plus or minus. Food is whatever is in your gut, though exercise slows digestion.
Bonk is when you have used up all food, and your glycogen stores, effectively exercising while fasted.
Bonk power is the max sustained energy ouput when you are fasted/bonked. This is fat burn, and muscle breakdown, combines.
Average watts is roughly 1/4 your calories per hour.
Me as an example
I’m 280 pounds, and bonk power for me is 133 watts, which is about 520 calories per hour. Doing that pretty much guarantees cramps from muscle breakdown.
Biking, I tend to burn 750-850 calories per hour, but I can peak at over 1000 in some instances (beginning, well fed, well rested, very driven).
That’s a big gap, because being big, I get more wind drag, which is 50% of your energy above 15mph. I also take more energy to climb a hill.
Downhill is faster, so less benefit (less time spent going downhill), and often waste the energy by riding brakes so as to not plow through others.
I do best consuming 600 calories per hour while riding more than 90 mins.
So, I have to eat the equivalent of a meal every hour to keep up, and reduce cramp risks. Most of that needs to be carbs that break down in less than an hour. Also, I don’t want to have a bathroom break every hour.
Ride Fuel
Sugary colas have phosphate, glucose, and fructose – all good for refueling. Cookies, sandwiches, etc usually are low roughage, good energy density, and include salt. M&Ms were actually designed to be endurance fuel for the army, and they hold up pretty well in a plastic bag.
Basically, all the things that are bad for you normally make great endurance fuel.
As to proper “race fuel”, honestly, it’s too low calorie for someone my size. Some people only need 200 calories an hour to stay fueled, so half banana, a 2″ square of granola, and a swig of gatorade is fine. For me, that would be a whole bunch bananas, and two quarts of gatorade. Just too much bulk.
Impediments
Add to all that the need for oxygen to build ATP (actual muscle energy chemical). It takes 35% more oxygen to burn blood glucose than intra-muscular glycogen. Fat takes twice as much oxygen as glucose. High heat, humidity, low pressure, altitude, carbonation, and alcohol all reduce oxygen availability. Transport of glucose into the cell takes ATP. Digestion of food takes ATP.
Diabetes, Insulin Resistance, and Metabolic Syndrome
The key there is to not eat much carbohydrate outside of the exercise times. When glycogen reserves are full (muscles recovered), and adipose cells are replete, then why would you need more fuel? That’s the practical wording of the physiology here, despite the perception of a faulty hunger mechanism for the obese, or lack of islets for type I, or the defective signalling in Type II without obesity triggers.
Exercise induced glucose uptake is normal in diabetic muscle cells:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4315445/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3899806
http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/438374
Exercise may increase glucose sensitivity:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3899806
While glycogen is being replenished, glucose uptake by muscles in normal. GLUT4 is transported to the membrane during exercise, even in absence of insulin.
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/62/2/572
http://physiologyonline.physiology.org/content/20/4/260.full
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413107000678
Gym Workout Routines
I keep a notepad on my phone to track what I did and what’s next. End of workout, I add the updated list to MyFitnessPal in the exercise notes. This keeps me from twiddling my thumbs during rests.
#### Warmup is cardio:
* About 10 mins or 200 calories warmup on the recumbent bike. I’ll start at about 50%, and crank it up to 100% a couple of times. I try to vary my RPM, but tend to hang out around 70. I have long legs, so momentum is a factor. I make sure I clear 160bpm, but I never get to max HR. Sometimes I try to draw pictures with the hill profile.
#### Safety warmup for exercises I’m not sure about:
* 10-20 reps at 50-60% just to make sure everything moves right, especially for heavier weight exercises.
#### I usually go for strength
* Target is 2-4 sets of 6-10 reps per exercise.
* If I make it to 16 reps, I bump up the weight on the next set.
* Sometimes I’ll do 8 reps, then drop 40% and do another 8.
* If anything pinches or doesn’t feel right, I’ll back off the weight.
* Not so worried about cardio since I average 75 miles per week on a road bike.
#### I do circuits for time efficiency:
* Whole Body Days: alternate upper/lower, front/back, with 30 second rests between circuits.
* Upper OR Lower Only: I’ll do 2-3 exercises with a 60-90 second rests.
* I average almost one working set for every 2 minutes. That includes the set, equipment setup, walking between machines, updating my notes, and any rest/cooldown time. That excludes the warmup time at the start. (eg, a 2 hour workout has 20 mins of warmup, and 40-45 working sets. A 1-hour workout will have 10 mins warmup, and 18-24 sets.)
#### With a workout buddy:
We could alternate on the same machine with 60-90 second rests. This is less overall workouts, but more social. We could also do the circuits, and just be one machine off from each other. Less social, but more efficient.
#### Workout Duration:
I prefer a longer, whole body workout every 4 days. I get better results, and less wasted time. My goal is to grow muscle mass, and I’m missing the sprinter gene, so recovery time is usually 3-5 days instead of 2-3 days for most people.
If I have only 1 hour, it’s best if I stick to only upper or only lower, because exercises always pull in a other muscles a little. I don’t feel I get quite as good of a workout this way.
#### Upper Body Exercises:
* Freeweight bench row (Low-Back sparing vs seated)
* Chest Press (like a bench press)
* Lat Pulldowns
* Seated dips (because I’m too heavy to do real dips yet)
* Chest fly & rear deltoid fly (same machine, diff settings)
* Biceps curls (cable or dumbell)
* Triceps extension (Slow to improve)
* Sometimes I do a shoulder press or a vertical row, but those are not so great on my shoulder sockets.
* Lateral dumbell arm raises.
#### Lower Body Exercises
* Freeweight seated calf extension (Soleus Muscle)
* Rotary Calf Extension (Gastroc Muscle)
* Inner/Outer thigh (adductor/abductor)
* Leg Curls (Hamstrings)
* Leg Extension (outer and inner quads, nearer the knee)
* Leg Press (because it doesn’t load my low-spine like squats & deadlifts do.)
###### Back Pain avoidance (Chronic and Acute)
* Nothing with a torso twist (wood choppers, obliques) – always causes days of increased pain.
* No abdominal crunches – Still hurting from 2 weeks ago when I let my form get sloppy.
* No back extensions – Same as with crunches, though a 45 degree bodyweight back extension bench would be fine if I could find that at my gym.
* Backed off of seated rows, just to be safe. I’ve moved to bench rows, though bent-over single-arm dumbell rows are okay too (off-arm is on the bench, so no low-back load).
* I should be doing planks and leg lifts at home, but I keep forgetting. This gets core without abusing low-spine.
* I should do more stretching on non-workout days, but I keep forgetting. This helps keep from putting too much strain on low-back when moving around.
#### Preferred Machines
I like the Hoist machines my Gym has best, but I’ve maxed out the leg press. Not sure I want to use the freeweight leg press without a big spotter. I like most of the Precor machines, and use them for things missing from the Hoist line-up. Last are the Life Fitness for a couple things, but they use bigger weight stacks for the same effort, and just seem to be on a different scale from all of the others.
Calories
This is what SEEMS to make the most sense for me. No *way* is easy, but this seems the least hard.
Energy Plans:
* Defer first meal until actually hungry (9:30a-12:30p for me)
* Keep each meal before 3:30pm around 12% of my daily intake.
* Eat before I get ravenous (around every 2 hours).
* Try to keep a reserve of about 25% of my calories for the evening.
* Don’t be TOO aggressive (20% deficit is okay, but 40% is not).
Procedures:
* Keep extra servings away from my plate/bowl.
* Split up snack/mini-meals when I’m not hungry.
* Stay busy (yay computer!)
* You have to exercise, because your body will reduce your BMR to keep from losing fat reserves.
* Hungries are worse the day AFTER exercise, so save your calories for tomorrow.
Foods:
* Lots of broths, leaves, fresh veggies to add bulk, and fill in when I’m STILL HUNGRY!
* Make sure I get the food groups and vitamins daily / weekly rather than every meal.
* UMAMI: Your tongue creates Peptide YY it detects meat, glutamate, etc. Reduces hunger by 30% in the lab.
* VITAMIN A: Hunger hormones are produced by fat cells. Empty fat cells do not get recycled without Vitamin A.
* VITAMIN D: Vitamin D is blocked by Vitamin A, and is deficient for many indorsy people.
* CALCIUM: Requires Vitamin D to be absorbed. Prevents brittle bones.
Some days will be better than others. Don’t give up. Keep tinkering.
Bike stats – Lazy
I’m lazy, so I’m not posting bike stats here. There’s no real reason to do it. My accounts can be found from prior cycling stat posts.
Sugar is not bad for you
Be sure to know what a “Complex Carbohydrate” really is. It doesn’t mean long-chain starches. Those are still sugar. A baked potato, bowl of white rice, a slice of bread, and even corn on the cob are just fast-acting sugars to the body. In fact, they all have a higher glycemic index than table sugar (except some low-carb breads such as Ezekiel bread).
“Complex” means trapped inside of other things. So, an apple is complex. Broccoli is complex. Kale is complex. Peppers, asparagus, etc. You have to chew it, and it has fiber that hasn’t been milled in a factory.
Not apple juice, or any type of juice. As soon as you juice or puree something, even if you “leave the pulp in”, it’s no longer complex. The body no longer has to wait to absorb the calories out of it.
Sitting at a desk, you need about 0.4 kcalories per pound per hour. There is no need to eat anything starchy or sugary. It is turned into glucose before it enters the blood stream, and it only has a half-life of 15 minutes. Anything you didn’t burn in an hour will be turned to fat. Most sugars other than glucose, including half of table sugar, is sent to the liver, converted to glucose, and only about 10% of it makes it into the blood before being turned into fat.
If you’re exercising for 2 hours, you should be able to fuel that with reserves, even at maximum effort. The key is to keep your water and mineral levels happy (20-30oz per hour, with a gram of salt mixed in, and whatever else you want to flavor it). If you want to eat, eat whatever you can stomach.
However, if you’re exercising hard for 5 hours, there is no reason to eat fresh vegetables during your workout. You should have done so before, and will do so after, because of the vitamins and minerals. Those are just too slow to provide your energy needs during cardio.
Exercising at maximum effort, you need about 4 kcalories per pound per hour, plus water and extra minerals. At sustainable effort, you need 3kcal/pound. A tablespoon of corn syrup (not HFCS) washed down with water is almost exactly what you want. (2mg magnesium, 4mg calcium, 9mg potassium, 31mg sodium, 16g glucose, 57 kcal).
Even if you stop for an hour in the middle, you’re still running 30% over idle. If you don’t supplement during the exercise, even with a meal break in the middle, you’ll run out of energy. This will feel like you’re too tired to go on, and if you’re measuring, you’ll lose 30% or more of your peak effort. The refill rate is 3x longer than the burn rate, so once this happens, it’s too late to come back.
Ultra-athletes can double this reserve, and improve their ability to burn fat to extend their peak efforts. Also, their peak efforts move further up, so they can operate at a lower percentage of peak, meaning they can refuel a higher percentage of their reserve consumption during the workout.
Even so, even the best athlete will eventually run out of glycogen reserves. They just have learned how to keep going at this point. They’ve killed off the muscle cells that can’t handle it, and walled off the parts of the brain that tell them they are too tired to continue (fatigue is mostly in the mind if your hydration and electrolytes are okay).
Proof? Look up ultracycling mph ranges. 7hour riders might be in the 17mph range, 12 hour rides in the 16mph range, and 2.5 day rides in the 13.5mph range. Many of these riders can easily average 20mph for 2-3 hour rides, and push 22mph averages for hard workout days. These stats do not subtract rest stops.
Comparatively, my non-athlete speeds, and I did 40mi at 14.8mph, 23mi at 16.3mph, and I can easily hit 18-20mph on flats, even 34mph on a downhill if I don’t have far to go. I *do* subtract out rest stops.
2014-02-13 FM/Coppell After-work ride with Sharon.
2014-02-13 FM/Coppell After-work ride with Sharon.
HR sensor took a couple of miles to wake up, and reported impossible pulses up front.
Distance: 22.59 mi
Calories: 1,595 C
Time: 1:26:47
Moving Time: 1:26:06
Elapsed Time: 1:34:04
Avg Speed: 15.6 mph
Avg Moving Speed: 15.7 mph
Max Speed: 28.2 mph
Elevation Gain: 333 ft
Elevation Loss: 329 ft
Min Elevation: 533 ft
Max Elevation: 700 ft
Avg HR: 173 bpm
Max HR: 184 bpm
Avg Power: 226 W
Max Power: 1,137 W
Max Avg Power (20 min): 266 W
Avg Bike Cadence: 80 rpm
Max Bike Cadence: 109 rpm
Avg Temperature: 61.6 °F
Min Temperature: 56.2 °F
Max Temperature: 68.8 °F
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/444849998
http://www.strava.com/activities/113134735
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/483632421
http://runkeeper.com/user/xaminmo/activity/304540582
Calories are as calculated by the Garmin, but that reports 50% high (3x Strava).
Power is based on average calculations, which is 65-100% higher than Strava.
http://ns1.omnitech.net/cycle/
Everymove Badge List
I wish EveryMove would show me what’s required to obtain all of the different badges. I did some URL scraping by decrementing my last badge…
URL format was similar to https://everymove.org/Badges/BadgeSummary?earnedBadgeId=17732923532794500
That seems dead now, but I can get to https://everymove.org/Badges/Earned?personId=112592
With that, plus the help of a few people on LiveJournal and in email, here is what I have so far:
Best Friends Forever – Gave 50+ active day bonus points to a friend
Big Top – Logged both a unicycling and a juggling activity within 30 days
Bodhisattva – Logged 10 yoga activities within 30 days
Day Care –
Extra Life – Did a video game workout lasting at least 30 minutes on three different days in the past week.
Flower Power –
Fundraiser – Earned $25 worth of donation rewards
Giant Steps – Got 70,000 steps in a week
Greased Lightning – Ran at least one mile at a six-minute pace using a GPS tracking device or app.
Gym Rat – Go to the gym 12 times in 30 days
Home Team – Logged 3 different “around the house” activities in a week
Life’s a Beach – Did five beach activities or checkins in the past month.
Like a Boss – Top of the employer leaderboard, every day, for one workweek, Monday through Friday.
Like Clockwork – Did the same activity at the same time five days in a row.
My Copilot – Walk the dog 5 times in a week
Night Rider – Biked for at least 30 minutes after 8pm on five different days in the past month
Orange Crush – Earned seven orange hearts in a row.
Own the Night – Ran 10 kilometers after 8PM
Pedal Power – Biked 100 miles in a week
Playing the Field – Played a field sport for at least an hour on five different days in the past month.
Proclaimer – Logged 500 miles of walking on EveryMove. “Now you’ve walked five hundred miles ? Let’s go walk five hun-dred more!”
Racketeer – Played racket sport 3 times in a week
Road Rarrior – Ran 26.2 miles in a week
Shoot the Moon – Shared active day bonus with 12 different friends
The Life Aquatic – Did three different water activities within 30 days
Trendsetter – Invited three friends who joined EveryMove.
Well Connected – Earned points from three devices or apps
I haven’t figured out the threshold for a “Very Active Day Bonus” but it seems pretty low.
Also, in the summer of 2014, they introduced “Levels”. Here’s what I have so far:
Level 4 – 500 points in 14 days or 450 points in 14 days plus one friend.
Level 5 – 600 points in 14 days or 540 points in 14 days plus connected to Facebook.
Level 6 – 700 points in 14 days or 630 points in 14 days plus connected to one app or device (excluding Facebook).
Level 7 – 1000 points in 21 days or 900 points in 21 days plus added one membership.
Level 8 – 1200 points in 21 days or 1080 points in 21 days plus added three friends.
Level 9 – 1500 points in 21 days or 1350 points in 21 days plus connected to Twitter or Foursquare.
Level 10 – 1800 points in 28 days.
Level 11 – 2100 points in 28 days.
Level 12 – 2500 points in 28 days.
http://xaminmo.livejournal.com/1394894.html
http://omnitech.net/xaminmo/2013/09/28/everymove-badge-list/
