Mental and Physical health hacks, resources and advice

IndustryStandard

On a slightly different note, any advice/hacks on losing a bit of weight/body fat ?

Had my yearly medical and wasn’t pretty reading. Im around a stone overweight and my body fat% has increased from the last one I had in 2022. Obviously diet / exercise are the essentials, but anything else people have used in conjunction to aid progress? A few of my mates have opted for “the pen” too, but want to keep away from that option as i’m sure with a little will power and hard work I can shift the weight.

NasserAlazzawi

IndustryStandard

Fasting sorted me out this year. I’m a convert.

Between 2022 and 2024 I added 12kg for seemingly no reason (same diet etc) and I was already a little overweight.

I saw found a video Diary of a CEO’s Most Replayed Moments of 2023 Roundup and the fasting discoveries piece came on by Dr. Mindy Pelz.

I didn’t know about the other systems in our bodies that fasting activates / reinvigorates - I just thought it was about weight loss. I also didn’t realise there were ways to make it easy (what you eat going into a fast / taking electrolytes, adding MCT oil to coffee in the morning all makes it easy)

The list of fasting benefits vary on the length of the fast but always start with at least 3 × 16 hour fasts if you haven’t done it before.

i.e.

Eat by 8pm
Miss breakfast
Drink lots of water or black coffee or green tea, eat after 12pm next day)
Anything flavoured with artificial sweeteners etc accidentally kills your fast (your pancreas gets tricked into releasing insulin which is what we stop to get the benefit) - stick to boring unflavoured drinks and elecrolytes.

Once you have done a few 16h fasts you can move onto the longer fasts depending on which benefits you want to explore.

Some people just do 16 hour fasts for months and get good results - but eventually you will need to vary the lengths as your body gets used to them (the benefit reduces).

Many people fast Monday to Friday and eat what they want on weekends. Don’t fall into the trap of ‘making up the food you missed’ as that negates the benefits - when you eat again to break your fast, have a drink with it and just eat a “normal sized meal”.

Here are the fasting benefits depending on the length you do.

The videos helped me get an understanding - and I would watch one or two of these before trying it so you don’t go in blind.

I thought I would hate it but having started on a Friday/Saturday/Sunday to avoid doing it during work, I now comfortably do it at work (as do a bunch of us) and I genuinely love fasting!

6 Types of Fasting for different Health Goals.

If you don’t like the style of Dr. Mindy Pelz, you can try Dr. Jason Fung his approach is preferred by a doctor we know (but they ultimately say the same thing).

Hope thats useful 🙂

Millsy

Intermittent fasting. Cheers.

IndustryStandard

Millsy …. so I eat dinner say 6pm the night before. When can I next eat to count as intermittent fasting ? Plus how many “sessions” per month you reckon to make a difference? Your body starts burning fat right, because there’s nothing in your derby to use?

Millsy

IndustryStandard so I finish eating around 8pm. Then I usually don’t eat until 2pm next day. But I’ve got used to that so you need to work up to it. Yes the basic concept is, by reducing he reliance on glucose in your blood for fuel, and insulin spikes through the eating response, your body turns to fat stores for fuel instead. It honestly works an absolute charm mate.. but it’s hard work at first but I barely notice I’m doing it nowadays. Plus you can eat for England during the non fasting part.

303abuser

IndustryStandard The fastest way to lose weight for me is a combination of keto, intermittent fasting, and fasted cardio in the morning. I can’t keep weight on with that routine, no matter how much I eat.

gcw

Millsy do you stick to this religiously? Just thinking about the temptation for a kebab/chicken and chips after a few evening beers which seems to be my issue at the moment!

Dan

Millsy I ended up getting gout for a few days, but lost about half a stone very quickly. I’ve whacked that right back on as I haven’t stopped munching pieces in the office!

Millsy

gcw nah, not religiously. The kebabs, nights on the bevvy etc still a part of life’s rich tapestry. If I start to feel I’m getting out of shape, I just make more of an effort with it, but the weekends I tend to fall into bad habits.

gcw

Millsy cheers. Might give it a go. Have seen the beginnings of a middle age paunch and need to remedy!

SM001

The key to all this (diet, exercise etc.) is consistency and discipline. Finding a healthy diet and doing exercises you enjoy is important in the long run otherwise it’s to easy to quit and fall into old habits. Depending on your age, current weight and genetics simply cutting down on processed fats and sugars will see your weight drop off within a couple of months. And no matter what your age is do resistance training to maintain muscle and strength. Keep in mind that for most men the majority off fat is stored around the belly area so you won’t see major results in that area until later.

Dubman

Would love to know when I’ll start remembering all the good times I had with my mum instead of those last few weeks of her life. I keep getting these flashbacks of her with tears in her eyes and being so frightened

vinnyt77

Dubman Everyone’s experience will be different, but it took me around a year to start being able to think back with happiness after my mum died…

Dubman

vinnyt77
It’s been so hard the last few weeks with Christmas on its way. Just hoping after the New year the dark days will be less frequent

vinnyt77

Dubman I bet. I found the first of everything tough. First Christmas, birthday etc etc. I promise it gets better, but I don’t think there’s really anything you can do to accelerate grief.

I also don’t really buy into the idea that there’s 5 distinct stages to grief. I found I was feeling all sorts of shit all the time…

I realise that’s not a great pep talk. 😆

Millsy

303abuser sounds about right. Fasted exercise definitely supercharges things.

IndustryStandard

Millsy ….but how do you keep energy levels up if you are fasting and exercising? Your body just taps into your fat stores and your body just gets used to doing that rather than relying on instant carbs?

303abuser

Millsy Yeah a year ago eating what I would call moderate amounts of carbs (probably between 50-100 grams/day, not sure as I wasn’t measuring), I got down to a weight I have’s seen since I was 17. As my training volume increased last year, I had to quit intermittent fasting, started fueling all of my runs, and upped my carbs a lot. At 100 km or more a week, I was drinking chocolate milk just to get calories in.

NasserAlazzawi

IndustryStandard .but how do you keep energy levels up if you are fasting and exercising? Your body just taps into your fat stores and your body just gets used to doing that rather than relying on instant carbs?

When you have a few fasts behind you, you can easily exercise with as much / more energy as you are burning from Fat Stores instead of sugar which is actually very potent!

303abuser

IndustryStandard If you’ve never tried a low carb or keto (<30 grams of carbs/day), it’ll take 90 days to get fat adapted (the point where your body has really adjusted to burning fat over carbs) and 6 months to really start to optimize fat burning.

The key is to start slow, it’ll feel like you’re dying for a couple of weeks if you cut carbs cold turkey (which I did), and ease into exercise. Keep everything in zone ½ (top of zone 2 is equal to your fat max state), which means you can hold a conversation while running/biking. It should feel easy. The benefits start at 30-40 minutes of continuous exercise and personally, I found it goes into overdrive at 90 minutes.

Initially it can be a difficult transition, but I’ve never felt better physically (reduced inflammation) and mentally (clarity of thought, better memory, improved motivation) than when I was strict keto.

Millsy

[unknown] correct. It takes a few weeks for your body to get used to using the stored fat instead of blood sugar as primary energy source while exercising, but once through that you’ll find higher energy levels during exercise and it has scientifically proven increases to cognition too. It’s hard to get going though, takes discipline and you have to tell yourself it’s perfectly natural for your stomach to rumble and to feel hungry. And breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. That was a Kelloggs slogan back in the 50s. I wonder why?

Smallman1

Two meals a day and run 4 times a week.

That’s the OLB way.

You’re welcome!

Millsy

Good summary that mate! I agree on mixing it up too as our bodies are great at adapting and then going fat storage mode, especially north of 40 years old. Fasted exercise really helps to keep the wolf from the door with that too.

« Previous Page Next Page »