Middle-aged climbers with extra weight peer group

You know who you are - 30's - 50's, some extra pounds, pining for the days when you were so lean that even your poop had muscles in it.

I'm in that boat, looking for some other folks to check in with on a regular basis. I can diet for a while, but after a few months, tend to flounder on my own.

We could even incorporate some climbing goals.

Thoughts?

Mike
I'm like that, but I've started working out regularly again--
I was in school/work for an extended period and that allowed
the weight to increase.
But hiking, cycling, and doing exercises has been helping get
some of it off. By the end of summer, I'm hoping to be
'svelte' again. . . hee hee hee. . .

Now if my hair weren't gray!

I'm in that boat too, every summer I tell myself I'm going to get active enough to get "svelte" by the end of the summer. Maybe this summer?

Hey I'll be 40 this year and aside from some pains from surgeries I don't feel old! Tell you though you can't diet. You have to make a lifestyle change. Diets don't work for permanent change. Try eliminatinggluten from your diet. Yes that means beer to. Although New Planet has some good gluten free beers. Not the dark beers or IPA's I love but decent substitute. Good luck

I would rather start running every night than dieting, really. (Ugh) But cutting down on the beer intake is also doable.

I'm in. Lost 20 this winter but still 20 over my 'fighting' weight. Downgrades of my climbing is now exponential.

In that boat as well. injuries have kept me from being active... that lead to laziness, then life got wicked busy. I have been riding my bike to work and everywhere else. Also been getting my dog out. What works for me is being active and thinking about what i'm eating. Not dieting, just making conscience choices about food. Also if you say Going for a run or bike ride is the last thing you want to do, its the thing you should do. Good luck and stay moving.

ps. as far as the beer thing, just move an extra 30 minutes

Riding bike to work doesn't burn enough calories for me. Bikes are too efficient and have all those gears! Doing the Incline instead. You all must have some steep trails you can jaunt up after work, right?

Great Idea! Let's get together every month for a beer! Oops, I guess that would be counter-productive!

I have been biking to work and the rock gym, but it does not compare to the running I used to do. I think we all need fewer cals as we age, but we do not want to throttle back the eating.

I eat (weigh) too much. May I join your club? Do I get extra points for arthritis?

Cant run. in 15 minutes my knees hurt. I have a four mile ride to work. I do a little interval kinda stuff on my way to work. As for the inclines, I live in SLC. On my way home I ride up one hill, over a street, down, over one street and up a hill a few time before I head straight home. I participated in a Tour de Brewtha, a bike tour around SLC's local breweries. It was awesome. My girlfriend and I do it once a month. Bike 15 miles to a brewery and have a beer then head back home. Way better then just heading out for a ride.

Your right, bikes are effcient but if you hammer its great. Especially if your knees can't handle the pounding of running

Fewer calories is right, our metabolism is slowing. Up th output and lower the input

You don't need to add a ton of exercise, or really high intensity exercise, necessarily. You can get great weight loss benefit just by doing light activity frequently. I.e., say you have some lazy cubicle job, set an alarm for every hour to get out of your chair and walk up and down the stairs for 5-10 minutes. This keeps your metabolism higher and helps you burn calories without much effort. Also, try not to eat out. The bastards in the restaurant industry don't seem to care much how long we live. Know what is in the food you eat and chose wisely, and you won't have to starve yourself.

Also, once you lose a few pounds, you may find activities like running to be more manageable.

Mike McHugh wrote:You know who you are - 30's - 50's

I'm 36, not really in the extra pounds group, but surprised to find myself in the middle-aged group. Say it ain't so!

I've said it before, Bikram Yoga. I swear by it.

From the Livestrong website:

Calories Burned
According to the calories burned calculator created by QuickFit Yoga, an individual weighing 150 lbs. can expect to burn about 1,000 calories during each session of Bikram yoga, which is roughly the equivalent of running 6 mph for 90 minutes. While this is a general number, individuals weighing 120 to 160 lbs. can expect to burn at least 350 to 700 calories per hour doing Bikram yoga.

Read more: livestrong.com/article/1154…

Namaste

Just watched this,
fourhourworkweek.com/blog/c…

This guy was on the cover of Outside and seemed to have some good things to say. He has also done some interesting research and has simplified it so us mortals can understand and apply it to our lives.

There are thousands of different diet/training programs out there, aimed at doing different things. Personally, I'm not the kind of person that cares to research and follow a "training program", so I've never tried any of them. Instead, I just stuck to the basics: reduce calorie intake and increase physical activity. I still eat plenty of higher calorie foods, but in moderation. The easiest thing for me was to replace virtually all drinks with water...you'd be surprised how fast a few drinks, especially alcoholic, adds on the calories.

I'm far from "super fit", and I doubt I ever will be, and I still have lots of flab I'd love to get rid of, but I'm much better off than the 270lbs I used to be (weighed in at 178lbs this morning).

Stich wrote:Riding bike to work doesn't burn enough calories for me. Bikes are too efficient and have all those gears! Doing the Incline instead. You all must have some steep trails you can jaunt up after work, right?

Light to moderate cycling burns 400-600 calories per hour. Driving burns somewhere between 50-100. Even if your one-way commute is only 15 minutes on a bike, you're looking at about 200-300 burned calories per day VS less than 50 burned while driving...let's say the difference is 200 calories/day to make things simple. This means you're burning 1000 more calories per 5-day work week by biking instead of driving. It doesn't sound like much, but over the course of a year you're looking at 52,000 calories. At about 3500 calories per pound, that adds up to nearly 15 lbs over the year.

The moral of the story is that just because it doesn't seem hard or it doesn't get you sweating, any physical activity is going to beat no physical activity. It really adds up...

just like sex ...

find a young partner with plenty of energy that will keep you going past the point of exhaustion

youll be surprised at what you can do and how young you feel again

and if you die during the act ... at least its the best way to go ...

;)

Been making excuses for way too long now myself. I'm 47 and need to drop 20-25lbs. Count me in Mike. (as long as you come up with a cool name for us!)
I'm going to have to start off with eating less/better and cutting back on the beers for now. I just had surgery on my shoulder Monday, but I should be good to go in a week or so to start some sort of work outs. To start out, my plan was to jump rope and other simple excersises during my lunch break. I'm open to any other ideas.

I'm up in Oregon, 5'11", 58, and mainly program over the winter and so a lot of years I end up putting on weight. I normally climb at 170 and in the winter can float all the way up to 199 (have never seen 200). I've gotten in and out of shape a bunch of times so it's not that big a deal for me.

It's a pretty simple process:

Decision: I know I'm serious when I can say to myself, "this is the last SuzyQ you're going to eat for a long time."

Behavior: Shut cakehole, move extremities vigorously four to five times a week even if that means walking a block and then resting until you don't feel like puking and then walking another block.

Prayer: Pray that the pain subsides after about six weeks or at least becomes a normal part of life at that point.

One of my old climbing partners who for the past twenty years has done nothing and at 5'10" blew up to 260lbs. for most of that time. Well, damn if he didn't retire last fall and now out of the blue he's a 170lbs and training to qualify for the 2012 Boston Marathon and can kick my ass at the moment.

He's in SF and he said the secret is joining a running club mostly comprised of hot, competitive, twenty-something Asian and Russian women who will pity you for at least six months before realizing you're actually serious. He also said he started walking five minutes at a time on a treadmill set on slow and worked his way up to where now he's doing brutal time-trail hill sprints with the girls and is running the SF Marathon coming up.

Trust me, if he and I can do it anyone can.

Consider me in, again, Mike. Since my HTF do I drop 20 thread, I've dropped about 5-8 simply by trying to eliminate simple carbs, especially at night. I'm really skeptical about taking up running though, as it seems to wreak havoc on the joints if you're older and heavy.

Ever since Anderson's 11 y.o. passed me up (with a little dose of humiliation, I might add), at least the motivation for number pushing has dropped off.

Dude, are you trying to out me?

Ummm, I've got 2 slabs of ribs, my wife's potato salad, a pile of guacamole, Moscow Mules and beer all lined up for the weekend. How about shifting that plan over a few days?