Life The Getting in Shape Thread

[Gold Knight]

Okay, I think we could use a thread like this: especially all us otakus and fujoshis who barely do much else but read manga and watch anime, hang out on IRC, and eat chips and ice cream for dinner at home. Even if it hasn't happened to you yet, it could happen that you start to feel your body getting a little more vulnerable to illness, weight gain, and so forth, so...

First, I'd like to go over some things though:

Spoiler: Disclaimer, Should Everybody Be Thin...? No! Main point is to stay healthy.

There are a fair amount of people out there whose bodies can stay perfectly healthy even despite their big frames, and sometimes it's actually unhealthy to be thinner than you should be. Besides, there are plenty of big people who still look fine, too, even women. In fact, sometimes I tend to think some people look best that way. Of course, that's usually more true for men than women, but not always. For example, I had a friend who would be considered midway between thin and big (around 180 pounds - 82 kg - I'd say), and I thought she looked great, she was very sexy. But when she started losing weight or gaining weight in either direction, she didn't look as good, at least to me anyway. And I've had a Korean girlfriend who was far, far too skinny than she should be, I actually worried about her because she kept thinking she had to lose even more weight, despite being one of the cutest girls I've ever known. I wasn't surprised that she got sick often as well. So it all depends on you, what you think about yourself, and, *especially*, how you feel. Though, if people seem to respond in a positive sense to you regardless of your weight, then you probably don't need to worry about it for an appearance reason at all.

Even if they don't, you don't really have to seriously worry about your weight UNLESS you sense that it's causing problems for your body, such as high blood pressure and various other ailments I could think of... (besides, it may be your personality or something that you have to look at instead, keep in mind... lol). Anyway, there have been a lot of big people (think John Candy) who died because they could never lose weight, sadly. And even if you don't feel like you're at any risk of dying because of your weight, even feeling a little better may be a good reason to get to work. Right now I'm actually worried about my mom, too, for that reason. She's always sick, and feeling miserable.

That's why the main point of this thread is to make sure we stay healthy and in shape, as far as our mental and physical selves go. And before you start thinking that "it can't be done" rest assured - I guarantee you, it CAN be done - if you can only convince yourself and if you build up enough determination. There's been plenty of success stories out there that prove this! Mike Huckabee, Jared Fogle, etc.

Anyway, back to this thread. I'm 27 going on 28 now, and I've never considered myself to be very out of shape - the most weight I've gained has been 240 pounds (109 kg) and I'm usually around 210-220 pounds (95 kg-100 kg) - though I was 200 pounds (91 kg) when we started MH, oh well - because I've played sports and worked out and used to exercise routinely in my life. However since age 25, I'm finding that my body has been starting to change for the worse, as in, I think, feeling older, muscles not as responsive, having less energy, weight starting to be much tougher to lose, and I've never been as sick and depressed as much as I have been the last two years.

So I've been trying to change the way I think about food, too, and I've been dieting and trying to change my lifestyle for the last two years, but I've never been able to stay with any particular plan. I'm too spontaneous, I think, and I become too bored with any one routine if I stay with it too long. So I'll admit it: I'm making this thread for a purely selfish reason but I think it could help other people as well. I'd like suggestions as far as:

1) What healthy, good food could help. Throw all the suggestions you can in here!
2) More suggestions for exercise routines (preferably without having to order exercise equipment, I can't really afford the expensive kind, and I doubt most of us here can)
3) Different ways to stay healthy
4) How you stay in shape if you don't mind revealing your secrets. (As long as it's not sex-related =P )

And if you're also somebody who has a problem staying in shape nowadays, feel free to talk a little about yourself and what you think you're going to have to do, and to come here to ask for help, of course.

 

[thegreatest08]

Try to eat healthy stuff, ie Banana, sugar (just joking), apple (apple a day keeps a man healthy....something like tat). DONT EAT FATTY STUFF!!!

Not sure if this helps: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/754357/how_to_be_ripped_like_brad_pitt_from_fight_club_in_12_weeks_we/

Try to have a Jog in the morning.
Try to play sum soccer or sumthing.

 

[baboysai]

well... i think you've encountered some of my posts about that particular topic, GK. all over MH, at random moments. I have reduced the stuff I eat, surprisingly realizing that if I pay attention to what my stomach is telling me, it gets full easily, I just don't like to listen before.

to answer your first concern, should anyone be thin, not necessarily, but there are health concerns. Being overweight causes trouble physically. And it feels better (not just mentally and emotionally) to be fit, breathing healthy, being able to move about more efficiently, etc.

I for one, don't really care about how people should see me. Except the fact that when I grow fat i don't fit into my clothes anymore, and that's a problem economically Especially when it gets harder to shop for clothes. But, I want to work out because 1) I need the cardiovascular training for my singing. That's really my no. 1 reason. 2) I had been having breathing problems lately, that I understood to be because of my inactivity, 3) I am very weak and easily tire which I know is a sign that I'm not healthy, 4) i don't wanna look like some of my aunts and uncles when I grow old. -_-

 

[Emily00]

Before I head out to my class I'll throw some things of mine in here.. make sure you eat lots of small meals throughout the day rather than 2-3 big meals, try to do about 4-6 small to medium meals. Also if you're not very healthy or pretty overweight and you're just starting to do exercise or cardio, rather than going straight to the treadmill you should start with a spin bike or a recumbent bike because in the end you'll just hurt yourself starting out with walking/running on a treadmill.

 

[Leen]

I asked my brother, who is a medicine student about this too.

This is his answer, the best way to avoid gaining weight is to not eat any carbohydrate late at night. Preferably no carbs after 7 or 8pm

Reason for this is that carbs take a long time to process. So unprocessed carbs will just go to your fat. That's a big no no.

So next time for dinner, eat some fish, chicken, nuts (they don't have lots of carbs but they are filling), and drink lots of water.

Water has ZERO calories and it is one of the best appetite suppressant. Drink lots of water before taking any meal. That way, you will not be able to eat a lot. Plus, water helps clean up the toxic in your body, keeping you healthy and slim.

 

[kadoman]

OK, I'll share my story, as I learned a very important lesson from it: we don't need as much food as we think we do, even if we're exercising and we don’t need to spend money or do anything extraordinary to lose weight.

* at this point I’d just like to say this is just my opinion based on what happened to me; I’m no doctor and I’m not preaching.

As you know GK, I'm from Australia and, like America, we're a fast food car culture. To give you an idea of how much I *didn't* exercise, I wouldn't even venture down my front steps to go check the mail. What would I do instead? I'd pull my car into the driveway, stop the car past the letter box, wind down the window and check it from the driver's seat! How lazy is that?

I was overweight from about the age of 23 to 27. Yet I didn't live off junk food, or guzzle take-away, or eat whole tubs of ice-cream and the like. I ate a variety of food that you'd deem nutritious. My problem was that I

• ate too much
• too often
• and did very little physical activity

When I eventually moved to the UK to live, initial poverty and lack of a car forced me into a very different lifestyle and adopting a very different attitude to food, which I retain today.

I walked absolutely everywhere, and covered considerable distances (say, up to 1 hour a day), whilst pretty much surviving off essentials such as bread and basic fruit and veg.

I ate no meat, deserts or pre-prepared food because those were expensive.

I literally ate:

• bread (white, although these days I prefer wholegrain just for taste)
• pasta (white)
• milk (full fat)
• cheese (full fat)
• tinned tuna
• tinned kidney beans
• apples and pears
• carrots, zucchini and broccoli

Those were the cheapest items on offer and that was my weekly food budget gone right there.

Because I had so little money, I had to ration my weekly shop, so of course, the portion sizes were teeny (well, to my mind they were teeny since I was going to bed hungry; I have since come to realise those portion sizes were actually appropriate and it was just my body adjusting).

Eating those foods and walking up to 1 hour a day, I lost a whopping 15kg in just 2 months without even thinking about it. One cold day I put on my Aussie-sized-jeans and they fell to my ankles. I couldn’t believe it.

How ironic too, that there I was doing more physical activity then I had in years, yet I was eating less then I had in years. But I felt great! I had loads of energy, my skin and hair improved and hey, I lost a truckload of weight! And what had I done for it?

Nothing extraordinary.

I hadn’t spent hours at the gym, or gone on a celebrity diet, or consumed copious diet shakes, or bought a plethora of exotic superfoods, or avoided carbs in favour of protein, or cut out fat altogether (in fact I still don't buy anything low fat, or diet). All I’d done was eat some healthy essentials three times a day and walked. A lot. At this point, I did invest in some reference books on the subject of health and tried to educate myself.

That brings me to the lesson I’ve learned resulting from my personal experience: as human beings, we don’t require that much fuel to function.

Our bodies are actually really bloody efficient, to my surprise. Unless you’re an athlete or a laborer, or exercising excessively, we really don’t require as much food as we think we do to function on an ordinary level (by ordinary, I mean our usual fairly sedentary lifestyle and yes, I count my 1 hour of walking a day as fairly sedentary. After all, our bodies are designed to endure much more than that). I still am genuinely surprised at how little I need to eat and still have tons of energy to get around and do things. **

Even during my pregnancy, the doctor told me I wouldn’t need to increase my overall food intake – only to continue eating healthily – and that I needed to increase my calorie intake in the third trimester by 300, which sounds like a lot, but is actually the equivalent to a piece of cheese and a glass of milk.

Obviously, I’m not as povo as I was back then and, I do indulge in the odd take-away and junk food now and then, and I now incorporate more in my daily diet, but you know what? Not that much more.

Anyway, I haven’t looked back. I never have put the weight back on, not in 7 years. Er...except for right now, being nine months pregnant.

So, what worked for me:

• 3 square meals of ordinary food a day
• smaller portion sizes
• red meat kept to a minimum (instead I ate chicken and fish)
• walking briskly up to an hour a day every day (weekends we used to travel and sight-see)

I found that the exercise really does have to be daily and it really does have to be up to an hour. Anything less never seemed to do much, for me anyway. But it was just walking. Nothing special.


** When I say 'little' I don't mean an apple and carrot stick a day. I just mean 3 sensible meals a day. Oh, and I don't have desert, unless it's honey on a piece of bread or a piece of fruit. I'd probably have desert once in a blue moon.

Well, I don't mean to preach, just saying what my personal experience has been.

 

[hatsuharupeace]

All I would recommend is to eat well, but exercise a lot too.

Eating well contributes to you actually having motivation to keep slim, because you know what you like, and know what is healthy and good for you, and also because you don't have to make yourself go on diets that restrict you to one certain thing or make you eat only one type of food, like the 'no carbohydates diet'.

Exercising is the best way to lose weight, in my opinion, but too much exercise, I think, would be bad for you. I would say a maximum of up to 2 hours flat out of pure exercise a day, probably a couple of days a week, anymore then that would be too much.

Water has ZERO calories and it is one of the best appetite suppressant. Drink lots of water before taking any meal. That way, you will not be able to eat a lot. Plus, water helps clean up the toxic in your body, keeping you healthy and slim.

Agree with you there Leen, water is probably the most essential thing to anyone who wants to keep in shape. It's also good for keeping your body hydrated, especially when you're doing a lot of exercise.

(About the diet thing, I actually haven't done any myself, I just know from watching TV. xD)

 

[Hollow Kurono]

Ok coach HK is here:

Do as i say,dont be lazy.You can eat,as long as you dont lay on you bed after that,every morning do some workouts,or go run in the park for an hour.The key to loose weight its not to be lazy.Not beeing lazy its what helping,i eat lots of stuff,but i workout everyday,cause i dont wanna be fat and other reasons.But the biggest key is not to be lazy.Get up at 8 in the morning,strech out.Run in the park,do some push ups,sit ups,lift some dumbells.Eat healthy,drink lots of milk to help your muscles,eat some curd in the morning for your bones.Or go watch "Rocky" that should motivate you.

 

[Nami]

Whoa...i just realise Kado's post is really inspirational.

Personally, as much as i believe that exercising does help to keep in shape, i don't do it due to lack of time and a otaku busy lifestyle. I basically eat normally, but watch my diet when i'm a bit over my normal weight. Once that happens, no oily food at night if possible.
- Drink lots of chinese tea or tea without sugar and milk after any oily food intake to wash away excess oil.
- No whipped cream with coffee or on cakes
- Strictly no snacking.
- Eat proper meals and no heavy dinner/supper after 10 p.m. (that will be when you put on weight the most)

Of course, there were certain periods in my life where i'll treat food as enemies and fussed that they taste horrible, and don't eat at all. That is quite efficient in losing weight, but i'll feel tired and listless throughout the day.

As for exercising, I know a lot of people believe in exercising to keep trim and build up muscles, but I have seem them putting on weight once they stop. Somehow, the muscles turn to fats and they look more 'meatier' than ever.

Besides this, appanrantly, running isn't a good exercise as many of us believe. If you are a regular runner, in the long run, when you grow old, running tends to give joints problems, the gum at your knee caps are worn out, and you'll suffer from pain. Doctors actually recommend swimming as the best way to keep fit and trim.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts..though i have to admit, the lack of exercise makes even climbing a flight of steps tedious for me

 

[weixiaobao]

well, i kinda have some attention disorder so i didn't read the whole post .. but i have some pretty good idea what you want to know..

Healthy food..... hmmm interesting.. you should try variety of food
fruits---- if you afraid of them then when you thirsty instead of drinking water eat fruit instead like oranges, tangerines, watermelons, grapes, honeydew, etc...
vegetables- you know sometimes food can be very dry and stuff.. if you not a big vegetables-fan then you should eat them as side disk along with really heavy flavor food (mainly salty) , try cucumber, tomatoes,... sometimes you could replace vegetables with fruit...

Don't eat too many heavy meals, eat many many more meals but much smaller...

take vitamins ...

if you a person who like to chew something all the time.. gums work just fine..

As for exercise...

well when i read eyeshield 21 .. i got a strange kind of energy .. .. use this with your favorite manga... like do simple 20 sit ups or push up or dumbbells or what ever you think of before reading a chapter.. you know..

I usually exercise before going to sleep and in the dark for relaxing reason... or when you wake up to wake you up... .. swimming really help in the summer..

DONT DIET... i sometimes eat like 2 days of food in one day.. and sometimes just forgot to eat in 2 days straight..

Eat slowly to enjoy your food but not too slow that the food got boring and warm...
Boneless stuff is way too boring ... .. asian people like me have habit of gnawing on bone and finishing everything on their plate...

Anyway playing sport is good... but some athletes eat like no tomorrow for they have to maintain a certain weight or get big.. it crazy and i'm sure that ain't healthy...

 

[Gold Knight]

I realized my first post was rather too long so I decided to spoiler tag most of it. I didn't really want to come off as all preachy lol, but somehow I did.

Thanks all for the posts so far. I've been actively jogging lately and ... I haven't been able to knock off eating so much (usually I have two helpings at breakfast and dinner both, and I'm trying not to eat three big meals every day) but I've taken to eating more oatmeal and drinking more water lately. But I know I'll get sick of that eventually, so keep the suggestions coming

We might get a treadmill too in May. It gets kinda tedious having to walk/run on the same concrete roads every day.

As for exercising, I know a lot of people believe in exercising to keep trim and build up muscles, but I have seem them putting on weight once they stop. Somehow, the muscles turn to fats and they look more 'meatier' than ever.

Unfortunately that's the big problem for me, heh. I was very active exercising and working out during my high school and early college years, and I built up a lot of muscle because of it. I never used to gain or lose weight either way no matter how much I ate - but now I do because I don't exercise nearly as much as I did, blah. But I guess it's no use looking back on that, and I'm happy to be a stronger, bigger guy anyway - but because of it, exercise is definitely a must for me.

 

[mrcongojack]

I think this image put things into perspective for me:

My main problem has always been eating. Eating right requires a lot of work. To make a decent "healthy" meal, you've actually got to cook (if you want something palatable) or buy that premade health food crap that tastes like cardboard. Why go through all the work of making a healthy meal when you could just pop a hot pocket in the microwave, grab some fun size milky ways, and dump some Lucky Charms in a bowl with milk and BAM! you've got brunch.

So now what I'm doing is making my sack lunches (I refuse to eat the slop they call food that the mess hall is dishing out!) at the beginning of the week. This way I don't get lazy and pop in the hot pockets instead of eating something (somewhat) nutritious. And since I'm fat, I can eat about 3000 calories a day right now and still lose weight, so I shoot for about 800-1000 calories a meal. I've found it's more important to watch fat than calories anyway.

EDIT:
For a good place to count calories, go here. It's the USDA MyPyramid site, and it helps you count food intake and energy used during exercise. It's kid friendly and government approved!

 

[Koen]

I asked my brother, who is a medicine student about this too.

This is his answer, the best way to avoid gaining weight is to not eat any carbohydrate late at night. Preferably no carbs after 7 or 8pm

Reason for this is that carbs take a long time to process. So unprocessed carbs will just go to your fat. That's a big no no.

Yes, I have heard that elsewhere too. It's better to stop eating carbohydrate after 7 or 8 pm

a question: does beer contain carbohydrate?

I think some sports, even if it's a walk can do great things too together with a healthy and a regular dinners

 

[Punky fish]

Well, I wonder why most of the people who wrote to this thread are Americans.....

When I think about America, I always think of fast food. And fat people. Yay America, this is how we think about you (not everyone in here, but me and my friends).

I would say, the best way to stay thin is eat only as much as you use. I mean, why do people anyway eat more? Huh? I actually never go outside, I just spend all my spare time in internet. And guess what? I'm not fat. Thats only because I don't eat lot. Maybe once or twice in a day.

And there is another way to stay thin too. Eat well, but eat always at the same time of the day.

 

[miyi]

I asked my brother, who is a medicine student about this too.

This is his answer, the best way to avoid gaining weight is to not eat any carbohydrate late at night. Preferably no carbs after 7 or 8pm

Reason for this is that carbs take a long time to process. So unprocessed carbs will just go to your fat. That's a big no no.

so I guess that's bye bye to Italian restaurant dinners

So next time for dinner, eat some fish, chicken, nuts (they don't have lots of carbs but they are filling), and drink lots of water.

Water has ZERO calories and it is one of the best appetite suppressant. Drink lots of water before taking any meal. That way, you will not be able to eat a lot. Plus, water helps clean up the toxic in your body, keeping you healthy and slim.

OMG! that's brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?


oh yeah, I'd like to add that keeping healthy is just as much as a mental challenge, as it is a physical one. The problem for me has always been the mental part, even before I even get to the physical aspect.

Is there any tips of how to mentally commit to staying healthy? and then to stick with it without giving up mentally?

 

[genkizen]

This is something I've actually learned recently, can't believe I havent found this out b4 since I get really Otaku when I get into something.

Most ppl would say that exercising and building muscle is good because muscle (specifically muscle that is active) burns fat... No, muscle doesn't burn fat, muscle burns sugars. Your liver turns the fat in your body into sugar so that your muscles have fuel to stay active. If your liver doesn't work properly then your muscles are going to just burn themselves out and you'll accomplish nothing. So if you don't eat well enough and have to much crap built up in your body, your liver won't work, which means it won't turn that fat into sugars, which means no fuel for your muscles, which means your not gonna accomplish your goals. So the basis of being fit and healthy is eating healthy, if you don't eat healthy enough the whole pyramind falls apart.

And keep in mind I said healthy enough. You don't have to live off of oranges and bananas for the rest of your life. THen again everybody's body is different so some ppl might actually have to live off of oranges and bananas .

 

[rabb]

an interesting topic, and one i think i can cantribute to. i'm sure a few of you have already heard me bragging but when i was in highschool i weighed almost 280 lbs. now, 2 years later, im just under 200 lbs, and still losing weight. now i had two keys, one, i gave up caffine and soda. soda is just bad for you, no matter how you look at it, it kills your teeth, makes them dirty, is full of sugar, it has caffine which retains fat, (and the crash that you get from caffine is not worth the few moments of being more alert). instead i only drink water now. someone else already went over the benefits of that, i beleive. and just for the teens in here, let me just say that after giving up soda, my skin has never been as clear.

the other thng i did, and this will sound weird, im sure, is give up tv for gaming. but im sure you all know the feeling when ou're sitting on the couch, watching w/e, and you decide "hey, i want something to eat!" even though you are not in the least bit hungry. i attribute that to your hands being bored. when i started gaming more, i almost never got up for a snack, so i was eating a lot better.

another thing that played a roll, but will be hard for many people in here to duplicate, was that my day shifted back about 6 hours. once i was out of school, and a closer at mcdonalds, i was able to go to bed and wake up 6 hours later, which made dinner, my biggest meal, right in the middle of my day, so i had plenty of time to burn the calories.

now as many of you know, i'm a DEP recruit in the US Navy, shipping to boot camp tuesday. that being said, i've been running my ass off, doing push-ups, sit-ups, stretches, w/e to get in better shape. and while i can say that im more physically fit now, it made no real impact on my weight, even with a 1200 calorie diet. but the reason for that is that muscle weighs more than fat. if you are excercising, and you don't see any real difference in your weight, don't get discouraged. also, being in the sunlight makes some chemicle that makes yu happier, or something like that, and it makes your body produce more B12 and B6, which makes your body burn fat, or so i'm told.

 

[Azurel]

Lol, burning fats by being under the sun. that's the 1st time I've heard that.. just don't get a heat stroke aite.. But I kinda understand abt the whole tv vs gaming thing. It's no good being a couch potato, becoz you literally turn into a potato. Everytime I wanna watch the telly, I feel like snacking at the same time too but I hard watch the tv so it doesn't happen often. Gaming is good but don't miss your meals like how I do Gamers usually eat right in front of their pc.

Well, for eating habits, I say just eat what you need, never over-eat. I eat about 2-3 times a day and when I feel like snacking, I eat an apple or some fruits. It's also very important to chew your food and eat it slowly, because when you eat too fast, your stomach don't register that its full and you will still feel hungry and will continue to eat more than you need. But when you eat slowly, you will easily feel full. Same goes for drinking water, just drink when you're thirsty. I've read somewhere that drinking too much water isn't good for the body either becoz it might just deteriorate the kidney's function to filter.

 

[TheGenius]

REVIVAL!!!

I know GK is going back to the healthy way of life so I'll give the tip that makes the difference between gaining and losing weight.

Eat slowly.

Your brain is like a sponge. It works tremendously well in specific circumstances.
I'm currently 24 yo, and 5'10. I never went over 165 pounds even when I COMPLETELY stop any kind of physical activities for a year. My childhood friends though gained tons though. While having a "community supper", I noticed that they ate like madmans.They were ingurging the food rather than taste it.
This cause the brain to get the "I'm full!!!" signal too late. Too late means that when you went over your eating limit. This causing an overdose of long and short energy that just end up accumulating in the places we all know of.

Just that and the tip that Kado gave abouut drinking tons of water will make a huge difference.

But Genius, can you prove your theory?

Ever notice that the French people(from France) are thinner? Italians , Arabs and Greek too? It's because they have the slow eating mentality. They eat food that are waayyy fatter than the typical American plate.(Which consist of white bread, wine, foie gras and all sorts of fatty foods)

They also do not eat as much red meat as we do here( Yes, I just threw in Canada along )

So....add 30 min exercise per day + goal setting, you'll get there!

Hope it helped.

EDIT: Meeeeeehh...didn't read the post that was before me.....It took time to write this...

 

[woofcat]

While I am thin as is (130 lbs 6'1") pushups are awesome, and burn calories.

Just recently I decided to take on 100 pushups in 6 weeks. Maybe i'll edit this post in a couple weeks or during the journey and see if I pass or fail.