Health, Food and Exercise thread

[DuckThor Evil]

But I'll be back to the 'bells starting thursday, I hear we're doing snatch VO2max training again so I expect to drop the surpluss reasonably quickly. Then it'll be time to get stronger again - I'd like to do push presses with 32kg and turkish getups with 40kg some day, like within a year...

Are you in a kettlebell group class thingy? I've been speculating whether I should go to a class that my gym has, but so far I've liked to keep my schedule flexiple. My weight is about 96.5kg at the moment. I've been taking it easier with calories during the last 2-3 weeks or so to let my body and mind reset a bit. I'm gathering strenght and soon within a week or so, I'll start my final attack maneuver to lose ten more and see where I'm at then.

I had a body composition scan done to me on August 5th, back then my weight was 98.3kg with 22.0% bodyfat. I'm probably close to 20% right now. I have a new scan on october 14th. I should have pushed it back a bit, but hell I'll just go again

http://www.e-inbody.com/Product/ib720.html

 

[liolio]

Looks like old demons have taken me down again, after years of somehow force inactivity as well as my usal appetite and attraction to good and too much "saturday parties gone wrong" I will have to join the club soon: I've 15 kilo to lose :|

 

[Laa-Yosh]

You've got to have a professional instructor and constant supervision with kettlebells, it's not really safe otherwise. The exercises can be dangerous if you do them the wrong way and for extended periods of time, this isn't something you can learn from youtube.

The RKC sessions are extremely efficient, 2x1 hours per week were enough for me to advance almost constantly. Training for the half marathon took far more time per week and wasn't nearly as efficient.

 

[Grall]

This falls under food, and yummy food is needed to maintain (mental) health, and afterwards you will need exercise, so appropriate for all three categories of this topic!

Without further ado, my Father's recipe (he'll turn 73 this upcoming Halloween, bless his soul) for Swedish Berry Pie:
(I'm making it myself right now, so that's why I'm posting this.)

Ingredients:
4 dl wheat flour
1 dl sugar
175 grams of butter
1 egg yolk

Berries of your choice (I like blueberries).

Sugar for sweetening the filling (to taste)
Potato flour if preferred, to absorb excess berry liquid (optional)

Preparation:
Mix flour, butter and sugar in a bowl into a coarse consistency using a suitable implement, like a wooden ladel or similar. It helps immensely at this stage if you let the butter warm up a bit first, but you people are smart guys and understand such things without it needing to be stated...

Add the egg yolk, and turn the mixture over a couple times to distribute the egg evenly-ish. Knead the dough well using your hands. When ready it will have reached a firm consistency and will be yellowish in color. (You could also use a food processor I guess, but this recipe is older than such modern contraptions, and I don't have one anyway.)

Place the bowl in the fridge to let the dough set and cool off. Meanwhile, get out your best pie pan and coat it with butter, to prevent the pie from sticking. Start heating up the oven to 225 degrees C.

Split off a major part of the dough and form the bottom crust, by rolling or any means you prefer. Place in the pie pan, and add berries. Frozen is fine, I use frozen blueberries that I picked...up at the supermarket. Sprinkle on some sugar, to taste, and a light dusting of potato flour if preferred. Not too much, or it'll congeal into nasty lumps during the baking process.

Take remainder of dough and roll into multiple finger-thin lengths and form a grid covering the pie. Slather the exposed pie dough with the leftover eggwhite, to give it a nice color during baking.

Bake for 30 mins in the middle of the oven, or until done.

Consumption:
Enjoy hot out of the oven with a nice vanilla custard, or possibly vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I had a body composition scan done to me on August 5th, back then my weight was 98.3kg with 22.0% bodyfat. I'm probably close to 20% right now. I have a new scan on october 14th. I should have pushed it back a bit, but hell I'll just go again

I took the second body composition scan today exactly ten weeks after the first one. I basically took 3 weeks off from cutting weight at the end of August-early September. I didn't go berserk or anything like that, but ate maintenace calories.

I'm fairly happy with the progress. Weight came down from 98.3kg to 91.8kg. Fat mass reduced from 21.6kg to 16.0kg and fat percentage is now 17.4 % down from 22 %. March 1st when I was 120kg, the fat percentage was about 36 %.

My visceral fat area went down 152.8cm2 to 119.9cm2, I'm particularly happy about that, because excess visceral fat is real nasty and unhealthy. It's still a bit high thanks to my yoyo-dieting in the past, but I'm getting it under control.

Last time I was this skinny was on my high school graduation in 2000. Muscle and power levels are also low for me, but I don't care that much. I have managed to maintain the muscle mass adequately and once I get to turn up the calories a bit, I'm sure I'll get good results. In any case my fat free mass was now at 75.8kg, in around 2007 I had a fat free mass of 81.4kg and that was after I had dropped weight from 137 to 110kg.

I attached the scanned image from the body composition report. It's mostly in Finnish but here it is anyway.



If you look at the body composition history at the bottom, you'll see that my weight was 100.9kg in August 2010 and 98.3kg in August 2011. That actually sounds pretty good effort of maintaining weight, but I was 120kg from December 2010 to end of February 2011. I think I'm ready to post a very unflattering picture from december once I get home from work

edit: I'm going to hold on to that fatty evil picture a little longer.

 

[Simon F]

If you look at the body composition history at the bottom

If it's all the same with you, I'd rather not!

 

[DuckThor Evil]

If it's all the same with you, I'd rather not!

It's pointless to resist, you know you want to.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I Thought I'll make one more update before the end of my diet. The last day of fat burning will be December 15th, so only 20 days to go. I had another body composition scan done yesterday.



Also I made a table from the three previous scans I've had. Sadly I didn't took them before August during this diet. It would be awesome if I had them at regular intervals since the beginning.

	             August 5th.       October 14th.    November 24th.
			
Weight (kg)	         98.3	          91.8	          85.0
Muscle mass (kg)	 44.2	          43.6	          42.8
Protein mass (kg)	 15.3	          15.1	          14.8
Fat mass (kg)	         21.6	          16.0	          10.6
Fat percentage	         22.0	          17.4	          12.4
Waist to hip ratio	 0.97	          0.94	          0.84
Visceral fat (cm2)	 152.8	         119.9	          78.1

I'm really happy about the waist to hip ratio and the lowered visceral fat amount. Also I find the muscle loss to be well within acceptable boundaries. Waist to hip ratio really turned for the better during the last six weeks, when the change in prior ten weeks was much smaller. I bought two new pants and belts around the time I took the second scan and they are already too big. WHR should be under 0.90 and visceral fat under 100cm2, so that's great.

Three weeks from now my diet is over and my 9 1/2 month fat burning "mirror pregnancy" final over. I'll try to burn about 2.5kgs of fat and then I start to moderately increase my calories, reduce aerobic exercises, increase weight training and I'll try to do once a week a sprinting type running for few short explosive bursts. I'll try to keep my fat percentage between 10-15% from now on, closer to 10 ideally and gain few Kgs of muscle that I have lost during the last few years.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Congratulations, this is really impressive!

It's also starting to look pretty similar to my data if I'd ever get it in such detail. I'm a bit over 80 kg now with a 10+ body fat percentage - a little too much stress made me puton some weight in the recent months. I fear the christmas holydays won't help my case either but then again it's still a good condition compared to the vast majority of the population so I don't get too upset about it.

I'm a little more worried about lost strength though, still haven't gotten back to my summer levels despite the similar muscle mass. Sure, we've mostly done endurance training in september and october (VO2max) but the setback still worries me. Will have to work harder, apparently and also focus more on protein intake and sleep.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Congratulations, this is really impressive!

It's also starting to look pretty similar to my data if I'd ever get it in such detail. I'm a bit over 80 kg now with a 10+ body fat percentage - a little too much stress made me puton some weight in the recent months. I fear the christmas holydays won't help my case either but then again it's still a good condition compared to the vast majority of the population so I don't get too upset about it.

I'm a little more worried about lost strength though, still haven't gotten back to my summer levels despite the similar muscle mass. Sure, we've mostly done endurance training in september and october (VO2max) but the setback still worries me. Will have to work harder, apparently and also focus more on protein intake and sleep.

Thanks!

Yeah Christmas is a good time not to worry about eating that much
I've also noticed that during the period I've done more aerobic training that my strength has gone down somewhat for a shortish period, but usually it bounces back in a reasonable time. I'm sure you'll get your strength back
I haven't really worried about my lifts during the diet as I knew I can't really do much about it until I get more calories. I've been training during the whole time, but lifts are quite low at the moment. Before this diet I laid on my ass for six months straight literally zero working out and before that I had my previous diet, the effect of those haven't been kind to my lifts but hey new year, new tricks and new lifts!

 

[Laa-Yosh]

The interesting thing about maximal strength is that it has a very strong neurological component. You literally have to teach your body how to utilize the existing resources (muscles mostly) and so it is not just a question of performance but also of skill. This is especially true with more complex strength exercises and lifts, like deadlifts and overhead squats.
Kettlebell stuff also tends to be of this kind, as you always work with free weights, you usually have no support, and there's a lot of asymmetry (like the turkish get-up). So I really have to get things right in my head, too

 

[V3]

That's really an impressive progress, Dr Evil.

I hardly weigh myself anymore, but just did, 98 kg @ 178 cm. Did pinch test too got just under 10% BF. How do you measure waist to hip ratio properly ? I got 32" for waist and 42" for hip, that give 0.762 Is that right ?

Thought it would be good to put some stats here for me to look back next year.

I didn't do much cardio this year if at all. Weights only consisted of standing military press that I pick the barbell off the ground for 5x5@100kg, Plus push-up, chin-up, leg raises and crunches when I get a chance, here and there. Sort of miss going to the gym and have full work out regiment.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Thank you.

Heh you're quite a monster!

http://www.inbody.fi/resources/userfiles/File/InBody720catalog_eng.pdf

That's a PDF-brochure of the machine that does the scan. It also measures the waist to hip ratio. I don't know the exact ins and outs of how it does that particular measurement, but I think you got it right.

Warning the link contains one naked white man ass
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waist–hip_ratio

 

[Npl]

I just got a scale with body analysis function yesterday. Im really surprised (shocked) to see a BF of 23.6%, thats 19kg of fat. I`d have never guessed to be above 15-18%.

80.8 kg 23.6% BF 37.2% Muscle visceral fat level 9 (whatever that means, its the last level thats considered normal)

losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time doesnt quite work out for me.

 

[V3]

Isn't 24% bodyfat still consider healthy ?

 

[DuckThor Evil]

24% is a bit much for males, but if it's one of those home scales then you can't trust its analysis at all. The error margin on those things is HUGE (and that's putting it mildly). I actually trust Npl's own estimate more, even though I haven't seen him

 

[Npl]

24% is a bit much for males, but if it's one of those home scales then you can't trust its analysis at all. The error margin on those things is HUGE (and that's putting it mildly). I actually trust Npl's own estimate more, even though I haven't seen him

The scale I use is a "Omron BF 511", I hope its somewhat accurate (claimed to be by various reviews), you have to hold a handle and its 8 contact points in total, not one of those that just test your legs. I dunno what more accurate and feasible ways of measuring body composition are (feasible as in not using radiation or doin a postum autopsy) - I think doctors will use the BIA Method aswell?
The values go around a bit during the day with (de-)hydration and other stuff, but thats normal with this method? I planned to weight myself regularly in the morning, but I usually just stay in bed until I have to literally jump in my clothes and run out - so I dont have data under similar circumstances

V3: According to my tables, 10-20% BF would be normal for males my age.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I have Omron bf500 myself, which is almost identical to your unit. I stand by what I said

The results it shows are only partially based on it's measurement. It uses equations from a database of measurements to approximate large portions of the results. I personally consider it totally useless.

edit: It also changes the results by the age of the person. Try putting + and -15 in your age and see what it shows then.

 

[UniversalTruth]

A new study which I highly welcome and find helpful for all of us

Change in mental health after smoking cessation: systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective To investigate change in mental health after smoking cessation compared with continuing to smoke

Conclusions Smoking cessation is associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and stress and improved positive mood and quality of life compared with continuing to smoke. The effect size seems as large for those with psychiatric disorders as those without. The effect sizes are equal or larger than those of antidepressant treatment for mood and anxiety disorders

Introduction
Tobacco is the leading global cause of preventable death, estimated to cause more than five million deaths a year, and this is predicted to rise.1 The worldwide cost of healthcare from tobacco use has been estimated within the billion dollar range.2 Smoking is a major risk factor for the development of cancers and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases3; stopping smoking substantially reduces these health risks.4 5 The association between smoking and mental health, however, is less clear cut. Although most smokers report wanting to quit,6 many continue as they report that smoking provides them with mental health benefits. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate that regular smokers report smoking cigarettes to alleviate emotional problems and feelings of depression and anxiety, to stabilise mood, and for relaxation as well as relieving stress.7 8 9 10 11 12 13 This pattern of behaviour occurs in smokers with and without diagnosed mental disorders.9 12 13 Unsurprisingly, views about smoking predict whether or not people attempt to quit14 and whether or not they are successful.15

It could be also for the Quitting smoking thread but since the problem could be considered more global...

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=55646&page=3&highlight=smoking

 

[Babel-17]

Some ex-smokers might be getting the effect Allen Carr describes in his books and elsewhere.

<snip>

The moment of revelation usually takes place about three weeks after a smoker stops. The sky appears
to become brighter, and it is the moment when the brainwashing ends completely, when, instead of
telling yourself you do not need to smoke, you suddenly realize that the last thread is broken and you
can enjoy the rest of your life without ever needing to smoke again. It is also usually from this point
that you start looking at other smokers as objects of pity.
Smokers using the Willpower Method do not normally experience this moment because, although
they are glad to be ex-smokers, they go through life believing they are making a sacrifice.
The more you smoked, the more marvelous this moment is, and it lasts a lifetime.

<end snip>

I'll say it's different from "the pink cloud" though it shares some elements.

I've got lots of links to share for those wanting to stop smoking. I'm on my third year. Yeah!