Welcome to Thunderdome

You fat bastards!

I bought a fancy scale that tells me % body fat, Heart Rate, and Pule Wave Velocity (an indicator of cardiovascular health).

Two weeks ago they recalled it. I have to send it back, but they're giving me a full refund. Which is nice, cuz it felt kinda over-priced. But it was nice in that it was wifi and automagically uploaded data to the web, and synched with some other apps, etc. Oh well

TheCatt wrote:

TheCatt wrote: Same.

down 8 pounds since that post.

2 weeks, 10.2 lbs.

The abs are the first thing to go.

So I took about 5 weeks off at the beginning of the year. First the kid was on xmas break, and that screws up the daily schedule enough to make going to the gym inconvenient. Then I had that cold/flu that was going around, and was sick another couple weeks.

But after 5 or 6 weeks i went back, and really, there wasn't much change... the muscles were a little rubbery, but I didn't drop any weight from the dumbbells and barbells, I just did 2 sets instead of 3 that first day, as to not be sore.

Except for sit-ups. Before the break, I was doing 3 sets on a decline bench, 50/40/30 reps. That was pretty much to failure, but I did my best to stop on a round number. But after that 6 weeks break.... fuck. That first day, just doing 20 sit-ups was a fucking struggle.

Weird.

Had a bunch of blood tests done at the VA, the other day. My shit is all available online... except for my "bad" cholesterol being 5% higher than the high end of the range. 136 out of 0-130. Not sure if I want to reduce my red meat intake for that.

And apparently my hemoglobin is also in overdrive, transferring O2 to/from my platelets, prolly because I swim so much.

Sodium was slightly low. I actively avoid salt, though, so I don't retain water/weight.

My protein was actually a little low in the range. Time to increase the protein powder intake.

But besides that, about 50 tests all within range. Sweet.

That was my first comprehensive testing in over a decade.

Many sources online will tell you that LDL isn't worth worrying about. Triglycerides and HDL are more important.

Yeah it was the HDL. Other cholesterols were right in the middle of the range.

GORDON wrote: Yeah it was the HDL. Other cholesterols were right in the middle of the range.

Bad Cholesterol = LDL; Good cholesterol = HDL

You're going to make me open the page and verify, aren't you.

Fine.

My bad, was LDL. I googled it, and learned it was the "bad" cholesterol.

LDL CHOLESTEROL,calc 136 (High) mg/dl 0-130

ALso I'm not diabetic. Yay.

This thread says Fitbit a lot, so I’m posting here.

I have a Fitbit Charge 2. Not waterproof, it “splashproof”. But I wore it in the pool and oceans , going down up to 12 feet, without issue. Was in the water at least a couple of hours

GORDON wrote: You're going to make me open the page and verify, aren't you.

Fine.

My bad, was LDL. I googled it, and learned it was the "bad" cholesterol.

LDL CHOLESTEROL,calc 136 (High) mg/dl 0-130

Doctor didn't like my cholesterol and wants me on statins. I asked him to give me 6 more months. Ugh.

All.meat/low.carb diet good for weight loss... Bad for cholesterol.

Ignore it, it's bullshit anyway.

Also, statins are poison.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statin#Adverse_effects

thibodeaux wrote: Also, statins are poison.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statin#Adverse_effects

That's how I feel. My doctor felt otherwise. Also, there's almost no evidence it helps people like me, other than to lower cholesterol.

Fasting/Caloric restriction may help vascular system.

A molecule produced during fasting or calorie restriction has anti-aging effects on the vascular system, which could reduce the occurrence and severity of human diseases related to blood vessels, such as cardiovascular disease, according to a study led by Georgia State University.

The molecule also appears to be associated with ketogenic diets

The researchers identified an important, small molecule that is produced during fasting or calorie restriction conditions. The molecule, β-Hydroxybutyrate, is one type of a ketone body, or a water-soluble molecule that contains a ketone group and is produced by the liver from fatty acids during periods of low food intake, carbohydrate restrictive diets, starvation and prolonged intense exercise.
...
Senescent cells can no longer multiple and divide. The researchers found β-Hydroxybutyrate can promote cell division and prevent these cells from becoming old. Because this molecule is produced during calorie restriction or fasting, when people overeat or become obese this molecule is possibly suppressed, which would accelerate aging.

So my eyesight's been failing in one of my eyes lately (yay!). Makes looking at a computer sceen (aka doing my job) pretty awful. Finally made it to an optometrist today, and I've been referred to an ophthalmologist now.

Optometrist thinks it's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_s ... etinopathy

Which people typically recover from, so that's good news.

Fuck getting old. Who has some young blood I can drink?

TheCatt wrote:

thibodeaux wrote: Also, statins are poison.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statin#Adverse_effects

That's how I feel. My doctor felt otherwise. Also, there's almost no evidence it helps people like me, other than to lower cholesterol.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/upsh ... of-us.html

We know it can be hard to persuade physicians to do some things that have proven benefits, such as monitor blood pressure or keep patients on anticoagulants. But it might be even harder to get them to stop doing things.

I think a contributing factor is that "what's good for you" keeps changing. IOW, there's a problem upstream from medical practice. A lot of what we think we know is wrong.