Kelrax Lorcken wrote: I need more exercise in my life, perhaps this will be something good to incorporate?
It'd be especially nice if I could credit my practice as Jedi for some necessary weight loss ^_^U
Im studying to take the ACE Personal Trainer Exam and ive been seriously deeicated to fitness and learning about fitness for a few years, now. Im definitely not expert level but i definitely AM a few years ahead of someone who is just beginning. I was not going to reply to you about this because i usually assume people dont want advice or help that they didnt ask for.... but i see you mention this in a couple of places, now. I believe its important to you. I dont know how much youve learned on the topic so please forgive me if i tell you things you already know.
Weight management is about diet relative to physical activity. This means its effectively all about diet. You can work out regularly and still get fat and you can lose weight while being relatively sedentary. Regular exercise definitely helps in several ways but for weight management, it is far and away a secondary factor.
The main things to understand about diet FOR WEIGHT MANAGEMENT are: macro nutrients (proteins, fats, carbs) and calories. Theres more for overall health but weight is a practical and manageable place to begin.
If you know nothing else about nutrition for weight management then you have to understand calorie intake. This is probably the best calorie tracker i have found, online: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/bwp
But be advised there is no perfect online calorie tracker: use the tool for a week and note your results. Use that information to make the appropriate adjustments.
For weight loss, the diet should favor proteins and fats over carbs. One of the common recommendations i see from serious trainers is 70% protein and 30% fats for about six of every seven days of the week. This is a ketogenic diet and while it definitely works, its pretty extreme and most wont be willing or able to adhere to it. Anyway its entirely possible to lose weight while eating carbs as long as you understand what they are are and that they should be kept low, relative to the other macros. Its especially important to stay away from highly processed carbs.
I personally prefer intermittent fasting as a “diet” but the bigger picture reality is that “diets” are temporary things people do in hopes of getting quick results; weight management and fitness are lifestyle choices. We make a personal commitment to live according to guidelines that we know will benefit us in these areas and we keep coming back to those guidelines until they are fully engrained into us as habits.
There are a few common measures of fitness id like to point out: cardiovascular endurance and cardiovascular intensity, muscular strength and muscular explosiveness, joint mobility aka flexibility. Cardiovascular endurance is the most important measure, followed by cardio intensity. Cardiovascular performance gives a direct indication of heart health and is more important to survival than the other factors. A good general rule for people under 50 is to run three miles without stopping on a fairly regular basis. Once a week or even twice a month, is probably enough. People with knee pain should do some equivalent of this but on a machine such as ellipticals, bikes, rowing machine, etc.
A proper fitness regiment will address those areas, specifically and individually. Lightsaber training can be useful, (especially as a first step towards improved cardiovascular and muscular endurance) but id really like to encourage you to consider finding a formal training protocol that was developed by actual trainers and athletes for the purposes of improving fitness. I wont badger you about it, though. All this is meant in the spirit of being helpful and I hope it comes across that way.
A bit about fats
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-truth-about-fats-bad-and-good
A post i made a while back that is more in-depth
https://www.templeofthejediorder.org/forum/Health-physical-fitness-and-wellbeing/118935-is-being-overweight-and-being-a-jedi-a-good-thing?start=60#302675
