OT: Weight loss strongly correlates with death in men > 70

It may well not be your sort of thing regardless of the merits of the information contained but I notice re-reading it that it contained a hyperlink to Inigo San Millan. Looking at the date of this article, I fancy it was the very one that tempted me to part with a modest sum to subscribe to his podcasts…initially for just a month to listen to the exercise science stuff. After I could access the whole site, I pretty quickly changed my subscription to the whole year…renewing it ever since.

Interesting stuff. I am struggling less with it now that spring is here. I get to rearrange things. I rejoined the gym. The food I am buying is much better quality these days. I stopped my pandemic shopping at Costco. That might have been a factor. I have gained 9 lb total. At least five or six of that is allergy related water gain.

I have relaxed. Meaning I do not know what tomorrow holds with weight control or weight loss but I will wear my decisions to get there like a loose garment.

This is not the easy way out.

These drugs only work if you diet. Everyone has to stop eating so many calories to make this work. Yes the hunger is gone but no the habits are not.

I do not want another pill when all I have to do is rework my habits. Going from bulk food buying to daily shopping for a few odds and ends is my plan.

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I’ve done various forms of weightlifting my entire life but quit doing heavy lifting about 20 years ago, i.e., 1 rep max lift. Yesterday my workout program called for a “heavy weight” session but heavy for 5 reps. No problem. Stacked on the weight, did the reps, then had an “oh crap” moment. The weight I was lifting used to be my warm up weight 40 years ago. Still strong but not as strong as I once was. Father Time is gaining ground.

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I managed to fight muscle loss and bone density for several years with regular dumbbell workouts. Now I am trying to accommodate a budding hernia not yet in need of repair. No matter what I do, my ‘check engine’ light keeps coming on.

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@iampops5 why not get the hernia fixed ASAP? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure – why wait until it’s broken? You aren’t getting any younger and recovery from surgery gets harder as we age.

Wendy

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@WendyBG …You beat me to it! Was going to blether yet again about the surprise I got with the speedy loss of function after my lapiplasty…from a relatively short period off my feet. Adding on a bit more about the slow return and accommodation of the surrounding structures (ligaments and tendons) to what on first blush might be considered minor. Hey, it’s only bunion surgery, right? My body didn’t think so. To my body it was orthopedic surgery and all that entails PLUS the demands of a rapid response to a dramatically altered anatomy.

Thing is, these “check engine” lights oftentimes don’t come on until we’re Real Grown Ups…and then seem to crop up with greater frequency. Optimal time for me to have had this procedure was in my 20s…when I didn’t have bunions and more to the point didn’t expect them …but I guess the one thing to be thankful for is that, between my 20s and now, the work I’ve put into future proofing my body (sometimes inadvertently) has paid of in that I’m at least in the best shape reasonably possible to deal with whatever else my genetic profile wants to taunt me with.

Or maybe you just peaked too soon :wink::joy:

One of the frequent “discussions” I have with my husband on this topic (where he gets to find out all the reasons he’s wrong) is on the notion of “I just want to maintain what I’ve got” Sounds reasonable until you realise just how much effort and basic smarts you have to invest in doing just that…and as I mentioned upstream…this effort is going to become greater with the passage of time.

A 20 year old could probably afford to do no more than they’re already doing if they want to be in that same shape in 5 years time. A 30 year old needs to do a bit more…and so it goes with each passing decade. In one of the hyperlinks in the Attia article I posted he repeats a common mantra of his…“If you want to be kick-azzin your 80s, you can’t afford to be mediocre in your 50s”. Of course, by the time one gets there (whichever age the marginal decade is) it’s a bit late to be doing the shouldda, couldda thing but still not too late to build on the foundation.

Edit: Start of 2012 I announced to my crew in my SPIN and group strength classes that I was designating 2012 The Year of The Athlete…to celebrate both the year I’d turn 60 and the 2012 London Olympics. We’d try an experiment of following the original SPINNING program format of 3 month blocks of a periodized training program AND, my personal goal was to deadlift at least my bodyweight plus execute 10 clean pull ups by September (my birthday month) Whole experiment was a rip roaring success. My team loved the idea of training like an athlete…well, most of them. I managed the pull ups…just about. The deadlifts…I crushed 230lbs (I’m 130) Tested my own training with a VO2MAX test…45 ml/kg/min. Not too shabby at all…and not much lower than the one I did 5 years earlier. Now, I couldn’t do that now and have more gumption than to even try but the point is all the training I did in the years/decades prior plus what I added is worth more than the actual numbers because of compounding over the subsequent years. Just like finances. Probably why I’m stent free

I think you’re beating up on your Straw Man a bit too much here. Easy to do if you’ve skim read a post just enough to lift out the least representative phrase. At least you left the quotes.

I totally agree with you about only needing to rework your habits…along with implementing them, of course. Thing is, with T2D of longstanding (your account), I wonder if you’re looking at implementing a strategy that’s on the lines of a bit too little and a bit too late.

If your brother in law the endocrinologist has mentioned one of these medications to you, maybe he’s also suggesting that what you’ve done thus far hasn’t been enough and doing the “same ole, same ole” isn’t likely to be any more effective moving forward.

I’ve been working hard outside the last couple days. Digging up bushes, carrying them around, replanting and hauling bags of dirt. Not completely trivial bushes… 5’-6’ tall tea olives and hollies. Too heavy to carry the transplants, so I end up dragging them… sometimes up hill (can’t seem to keep a functional wheel barrow tire).

Oddly, I’m not sore. Seems weird. Maybe that means none of this is helping me? Not that this project was envisioned primarily as a means of exercise. LOL. Frequent breaks. Lots of water.

Rob
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

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I don’t know. I am 67 and have a golf ball sized bulge in that place where I had surgical repair about 35 years ago. But the ultrasound showed no penetration of something or other and my doctor said I could wait for more symptoms before requesting a CT. So I am.

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I do not know what pops is doing but hernias can be massaged into place and muscles strengthened with PT.

Pops I just read our response…interesting. I had a hernia at age 6. My dad a doctor showed me how to message it out after my operation. Recently I have done core strengthen exercises for my posture to take pressure off my lower back, legs and knees. Core exercises are related.

VeeEnn,

I asked about it. My BIL did not just volunteer it. He is lousy with diet etc…he has never needed to diet etc…

I have lost 42 lb of what was a 50 lb weight loss now for 2 years. Allergies and other things I am up 8 of those lbs. But six are allergies water gain. I am also finding it easier to move the needle again. I have developed the ability to lose more weight on my own. The Noom education is the basis of that.

My A1C is 5.9. My sugar is under 100 fasting. The loss of 42 lb has been great for me.

Noom is the other reason I know it is habit and that a pill is not that important.

Adding some years ago my BIL who is famously pessimistic thought weight loss was impossible. When both my sister/his wife and I lost a lot of weight with Noom he ate his hat. Now he is just saying the drugs for weight loss are powerful and effective. But I expect him to eat his hat again when habits are not maintained long term by most people who take these drugs and they gain the weight back.

For the rest of the year I will be shedding some weight. I will also be going into the gym to do things in a very different way around my core.

Numbers I remember: age 20 college bench press 275, age 30 soon after residency 245 , on my 40th birthday was 300.

From my physiology classes, peak strength was thought to be mid/late 20s. After 30 you loose about 10% muscle mass per decade. Strength loss correlated but not 1:1. So my theoretical peak was when I was in residency and not training nearly as hard or often. Maybe could’ve done 350 during that time if lifting like I was in college.

CrossFit however has surreptitiously changed the muscle mass idea. A couple years ago the largest group to sign up for the CrossFit Online Open was the over 50 age group. They started doing research on these “Masters” athletes, and yes, they do loose muscle mass, but not nearly as fast as thought before. Preliminary results were 2-5%/decade and maybe not starting till 40s, IIRC.

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