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Regular moderate exercise log


Hi @mekalu2k4
A year ago when diagnosed I could hardly walk at all. It took me half an hour to walk home from the station and that was less than half a mile. I started trying to walk for half an hour a day. As my foot (which was why I went to the doctor) started to improve I was then able to do my half hour walking most days. As this seemed to help my blood sugar readings I very slowly increased the walking. My walking speed is still slow but has improved - the best is about 3 miles an hour. I do my walking normally in about 3 walks and use things like shopping and visiting as an excuse to walk. I don't consider myself that fit but must be improving. At 66 I don't really want to try running but do want to keep up the walking which is why I post on this thread. My children gave me a fitbit and as I was trying to control my diabetics with diet and exercise found that I could eat more food if I upped the walking. I like my food. I don't need to lose any more weight BMI just under 20 now from about 25.
 
Gym yesterday. Rowing followed by kettlebells.
 
started my day @ 5.30am, at work by 6.15am. Not a step outside my office, breakfast, lunch and snacks - all came to my desk. No workout either, just came home, now it is 6.50pm. Downed a glass of protein shake - ready to go to bed. What a day, cannot help much.
 

1. I did not realize you are 66? I am ashamed about myself being young and not able to push myself further and farther. So, please accept my compliments and respects!

2. Fitbit does a good job in motivating. Keep breaking your own records. Benefits are plenty; have seen many folks improving, cutting down on their medication.

3. Brisk walking vs running: there is no much difference in calories. To get a difference of 100 calories over one hour, you really need to jog at higher pace. I measured calories both ways, both are more or less same, if you do not push your heart to limits.

4. Brisk walking (around 60% of peak heart rate) mostly burns your fat - good for T2D folks. High intensity running (at 80%-90% peak HR) mostly burns your muscle - which is not good for T2D folks.

6. However, HIIT workouts at least twice a week is good for improving insulin sensitivity (which is different from improving insulin resistance).

For me, if it is slow walk - I do it for 60 mins. if it is HIIT (high speed running twice a week) I do it for 30min only - it is more than sufficient. when I do resistance workouts (bodyweight exercises) I take my time and do slowly for 40mins; heart rate will not be high, no extensive sweating either; but I still feel the burn (DOMS) later to a little extent.

Your BMI being 20, that is a good news? which means you don't have bigger frame. May be you can try slow jogging [do not ever try to run fast - it is simply useless, does not serve any good]; better to get a HR monitor to see how your heart doing.
 
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I was diagnosed T2 in 2003 ,may be earlier or bit later. From then I had been very careless. Had stress full working life and a home life. Had been exercising off and on. Only at very low levels. If I go to the Gym one day won't go for another two or three days, or sometimes for weeks.
I am overweight. height 160cm. weight was 82Kgs. waist 40inches. I am trying LCHF with some success for about 3 months with a break in chrismas time. My thanks to members of that forum. I have managed to bring down my average bg to between 6-7.5. Weight to 77KG. After about 8 days break i went to the Gym yesterday for 30minute session and my blood sugar was 4.7 this morning. As usual did not go today.
I live in England and it is very cold and windy here at present. Even though I like walking it is difficult for me in this weather. Whether I go or not I have to pay for the gym. I am logging my activity here hoping that it will encourage me to exercise more.

stopped atrovastatin and glicazide two months back on my own.

T2 since 2003.
Drugs metformin 1000mg twice a day.
Victozia 1.2 mg/day
bp controlled with losartan 50mg, amilodopine 5mgs and bisoprolol2.5mgs
Amitriptalline 25mg ang pregablin 150mg for chorinic pain and sleep problems.
 

@Mekula2k4 I have always loved walking and when my children were young I used to walk everywhere. In the past I have done various forms of exercise and although I would like to try something different I am currently at a standstill as I tore my Achilles tendon last year and it healed wrong so although it hurts to even walk I just persevere and carry on as Im not too sure where to go from here on in. I walk not for weight loss but to make sure I stay active and I usually walk between 1-3 hrs on average 2-4 times a week. I must admit that I know I should really be doing more along the lines of what you are doing as that is a good all round workout in my opinion. Maybe it would be a good idea to throw in a couple of walks a week to see if it is beneficial to your weight loss efforts.
 

I do the same sort of thing, doing a lot of my walking as part of whatever I'm doing that means I'm out and going from one place to another. I realise now that I actually plan shopping trips to go the longer route rather than the shorter!
 

This thread has helped me, so I hope it's as good for you. Despite the awful weather, I'm still doing more walking than I used to, even on bad weather days. I realise people take their dogs out regardless of the weather, and am starting to realise I need to think like them - only it's me that needs to be taken out!
 

1. if your Achilles tendon is not good; then it is better to 'use' it carefully. Hope you are not on any medication for this alone. You should not walk extensively like more than 2 hours etc. Also, you should not avoid walking completely. Do not ever run in this condition. Weekly 2 walks [each 1hr+] is actually great.

2. "I should really be doing more along the lines of what you are doing as that is a good all round workout..." - as long as you are experiencing weight loss- you are on the right track; no need to change. T2D is mostly related to weight and fat. But if your BMI is above 25 and weight is not going down, then you have to think. Your signature shows 29kg loss - this is significant. The questions: are you able to manage your new avatar? do you still have excess weight that you want to shed?

3. There are millions of exercises, not just walking alone. Get resistance bands, they are cheap; and do wonders. Youtube has countless exercises, pick a few that you like. Download them to your smartphone, keep it in front of you; when you try those. bodyweight exercises are normally of short duration, but have to repeated [eg push ups]. T2D folks need to keep the repetitions around 10-12 repetitions. Usually after 8 repetitions, fat in that muscle group gets heated and slowly moves or burns. Caution: body weight workouts may look, but people experience DOMS after a day or so. So, you need to watch yourself. It is fun, no need to overdo.

If you want to experiment like this, you need to get a HR monitor. You can actually control yourself when your HR is peaking. To improve insulin sensitivity, HIIT is most effective way. But without HR monitor, folks can go overboard.

if you do not mind me asking, wht is your body fat percentage? If it is too low - like 16% or so, you are very good and can ignore everything what I wrote.
 
swarnag said:
I live in England and it is very cold and windy here at present. Even though I like walking it is difficult for me in this weather.
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actually it is great for weight loss. If you walk briskly in cold weather for more than 30 minutes, your body burns more calories, especially fat. Just before Xmas I had to work in France for 15 days, I jogged in cold weather [see location and temp on the image attached] everyday. Could not get my type of food [LCLF] on time and had to starve on most nights; Never complained to my French bosses, kept my calm throughout. The result is simply amazing after 15days.

But again, when I got back home, it is Xmas, eating time; put all those pounds back!
 
Just out of the gym. An hour and a quarter of warm up, weights, cool down/stretches. Finding I can lift more these days, (but still a wimp compared to some).
 
mekalu2k4 said:
1. if your Achilles tendon is not good; ...
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And why not ask for some specialist advice? Think of all the paralympic sports people, who have exercise routines designed to suit them regardless of their physical variations. You'd benefit from a version of that, wouldn't you? Could the NHS give you one session with a physio, for example? You could also look around your area for private physios - especially sports ones, who're used to dealing with injury damage. I'm 68, and not at all fit, and have had ankle injuries in the past which sometimes give me problems on longer walks, and I'm wondering whether to do this for myself.
 
JenniferW said:
And why not ask for some specialist advice?
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Yes, specialist advise is always helpful, provided you have resources and means. This is the most recommended and the best approach.

But for me; I would be very careful to visit doctors and down any sort of medication. Such things usually linked to medical insurance and money; then down the road such info will be used to hike the insurance premiums. Frankly, I am paying insurance [whether I like it or not] through my nose and do not get any return from it. Then the way insurance premiums went up is really insane; just based on my family history of T2D - no escape for me. It does not matter whether I have T2D or not. This is the note I got when my premium went up on two occasions: 'According to our senior GPs and certified professionals based on your medical records determined that you are belong to high risk group of T2D and Hypertension. You are advised to go through further tests...' bla bla... -

I am now going on to 47; no big worries. My daughter changed her mind about her own career; she got admission into a medical school, now living with me. Hopefully she will take care when I really need something. So I have a budding doctor in home. Strange thing is I am her 'doctor' now, working on her obesity.

I suffered from plantar fasciitis ; had issues with circulation over 2 years, when I was obese. But that is past. Did not see any doctor during last 6 years (except for job related routine medical checks), I have been lucky. One thing I did is - I never strained my system beyond limits. Lucky to get a nice, matured trainer in FL, who is actually my neighbour - free advices based on experiences; then saw many of his clients progressing this way or that way.

It is important to measure everything, and listen to your body. Exercise should be more of hobby and should be pleasant so that we make it part of lives to keep fit.
 
I think that is the main point of this thread, we all do what we can, when we can. Some walk, some run, some gym, some swim, and we all try to improve...
 
@mekalu2k4 I have definately learnt not to jar it or knock it in any way, very painful. I still have at least another 14kgs to go, my BMI used to be 40 and it is down to 29 now so I am getting there but I know that I need to do more than just walking to help it along. Thank you for all the tips I will start doing some research and get my butt into gear.
 
@JenniferW I am due for my next Hb test in Feb so I will be asking the Dr about physio ect, might as well while Im there. You should get onto it for yourself as well, you may be 68 but that makes no difference. Luckily in NZ we can get most things like.phsio ect for free as long as we dont mind waiting.
 
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