Talk to me about being healthier

Suprf1y said:

I do much the same, except the candy bars and milkshakes   but because we can get away with it doesn't make it OK. The cardio thing I say because most people won't work out more than about an hour a day, 3 days a week on average. That much cardio will do roughly nothing for your weight or conditioning, but 3 hrs a week of HIT, or weight training will. I don't expect him to follow all that stuff, but it's all true.

I'm 10 years older than you and in better shape than 99% of people of any age.

I totally agree with you on the weight training part.  I just roll my eyes at "cardio bunnies". 

But I don't see why it's not OK to do protein shakes or protein bars (they are NOT candy bars) as part of your nutrition.  Tons and tons of health fanatics do it.  And as you said, we're in far better shape than most people.  I wouldn't recommend using them as the basis of all nutrition, but as supplement, it's fine.  I take in about 250-275g of protein/day, roughly.  No way I could get that much from eating solid foods.

I would think that three one-hour cardio sessions spread across a week would have a more positive impact than what's being painted here.  It's not going to be extreme, by any means, but going from basically zero to this should have some positive impacts that over time may be noticeable.  

This is an estimate on my part and also relies on the "everyone is a bit different" aspect of this.  Open for debate.

In reply to Klayfish :

I call them Cardiotards. Feel free to use it.

I've never seen a protein bar that had good numbers.  I believe that tons and tons of health fanatics eat them but everybody I know that eats them do so as a snack and are overweight. You can probably (still) get away with eating like that but I can't anymore and I bet most others can't either. I do have one protein shake for breakfast on my work days. Protein powder, water and a banana. But it's my meal, not a supplement, and I don't eat for about 4 hours after. If I supplemented to that degree I'd be 30 lbs overweight.

As for the smoothies, I guess my choice of words wasn't very good. I didn't say you lose the fiber but in chopping it up and drinking the fruit you remove the fiber's ability to control the release of sugar, and reduce it's satiety at the same time. It's not  a healthy way to get fruit, or eat IMO. If I'm wrong please correct me, but from my understanding, that's the way it works.

Suprf1y said:

In reply to Klayfish :

I call them Cardiotards. Feel free to use it.

I've never seen a protein bar that had good numbers.  I believe that tons and tons of health fanatics eat them but everybody I know that eats them do so as a snack and are overweight. You can probably (still) get away with eating like that but I can't anymore and I bet most others can't either. I do have one protein shake for breakfast on my work days. Protein powder, water and a banana. But it's my meal, not a supplement, and I don't eat for about 4 hours after. If I supplemented to that degree I'd be 30 lbs overweight.

As for the smoothies, I guess my choice of words wasn't very good. I didn't say you lose the fiber but in chopping it up and drinking the fruit you remove the fiber's ability to control the release of sugar, and reduce it's satiety at the same time. It's not  a healthy way to get fruit, or eat IMO. If I'm wrong please correct me, but from my understanding, that's the way it works.

Well, you're not wrong but you're not quite right either. It is a perfectly healthy way to get fruit, and essentially from a nutrition standpoint there is no difference. However, what you're getting at is that it satiate your appetite, so you don't treat it as a meal. 

That being said, my smoothies--which incorporate about a cup of oats, blended into a fine powder prior to adding the fruits and veggies--stick with you. I don't think I could eat anything more than a small piece of toast after having one.

These are the bars I use most.  Again, I typically eat 2 per week, on Saturday and Sunday.  Long story short is that I sleep much, much longer on the weekend then on weekdays, so my nutrition schedule gets a bit messy.  I use them between lunch (12:30pm) and dinner (7:30pm usually).  Check out the macros.  For a protein bar, they're about as good as it gets.

Costco protein bars

pres589 said:

I would think that three one-hour cardio sessions spread across a week would have a more positive impact than what's being painted here.  It's not going to be extreme, by any means, but going from basically zero to this should have some positive impacts that over time may be noticeable.  

This is an estimate on my part and also relies on the "everyone is a bit different" aspect of this.  Open for debate.

There are tons of ways that we can measure health. If you have a family history of heart issues, then more cardio may be a good idea. Generally, decreasing the amount of fat on your body will lead to better overall health, so I think most people in this thread are taking that approach to health/fitness. Cardio is better than nothing for sure. But cardio burns calories while you're doing it, and that's about it. Weight training will burn calories around the clock. Cardio absolutely has it's place, but you'll need to be very patient if you're expecting cardio alone to make changes in your body. Most people give up on exercise or "diets" when they don't see changes soon enough, and weight lifting will allow you to see those changes occur much sooner than cardio alone. That makes it more likely that someone will stick to the routine rather than getting discouraged and giving up. It also means that you can "undo" the damage from falling off the wagon faster.

Yes, no question about it.  Doing cardio is far superior to just being a couch potato and not moving.  But the concept that doing a ton of cardio, especially when not feeding the body properly for it (which 99% of cardio bunnies don't), isn't a great way to get truly healthy.

Remember, muscle burns calories...add muscle and you burn more calories, even at rest.

Klayfish said:

These are the bars I use most. 

You're right, those look really good as long as you're ok with the artificial sweetener, and it wouldn't bother me.

Two per week is nothing. Two per day is another story, and that's often the problem.