Running is not good for joints especially if you are say 40+. Also someone of this size will find running really hard.
Biking is excellent and also great for thinking time. And you can join a group (although most cycling groups are quite hard going – I see them all day and would never be able to keep up).
Walking is excellent and there are organised walks.
I have never known anyone taking up flying because it can be done alone.
But the biggest thing by far is to eat differently. No activity will soak up whatever is producing that 16st (101kg) weight. Start with just eating less, and drop out the junk. Then cutting out meat and dairy does a lot of good.
We are back to the Health thread. The ECG treadmill issue is just a sideshow 
And failing it was probably really useful in the long run.
Well… It’s certainly true that exercise improves your fitness and has other health advantages but it actually does very little for your BMI. To lose weight you have to change what and how much you eat.
I recently read about new research where this has been studied in detail. It seems that there is a limit to how much you can increase energy consumption by exercise or heavy labour. (And this limit is lower that you might think.) If you need still more energy output, the body will make energy available by reducing the activity of other systems such as the immune system or reproductive system.
I’m sorry I can’t find a reference to this. I read it in a news article this summer and can’t easily find it again.
I agree on the effectiveness of food versus exercise, but there is a huge amount of denial going on around this topic.
It depends what you mean by ‘exercise’. In the context of people who are significantly overweight we often talk of a little walking or cycling because that is all such folks are capable of so early on in the journey to getting fit. To those who are fit, that does not really count as exercise.
For instance in about an hour we will walk (with the dog) five miles through undulating terrain, have lunch, and then walk home. To us, that is not really exercise, it’s just stuff that we do.
With sustained 120bpm+ exercise you can lose a lot of weight. When my ex was training for a marathon and running 10-15 miles several times a week, the weight kept dropping off her despite eating the most enormous plates of meat and carbs you’ve ever seen. The favourite was a big dish of potatoes roasted in goose fat with melted cheese on top.
All the general health advice is good. What you do isn’t critical, as long as you do something and keep at it. Eat less, eat better, do more.
Good job stopping the booze. It depends how your mind works, but stopping completely is black-and-white, and easier than the grey area of trying to reduce consumption. If the rule is clear, it’s easy to apply, e.g. I only eat cakes that are home made.
To start doing exercise, if you’re self-employed it might seem you don’t have time. They’re clichés, but small things will make a difference, e.g. take the stairs not the lift, walk or cycle instead of driving, treadmill in front of the tv, a minute of callisthenics before breakfast or shower. Do make time for whatever activity you choose, though. If you find you really don’t like it, persevere for a bit anyway, then try something else.
Take it as an opportunity to do productive stuff. You can lift all the rubbish out of the garage your wife has been complaining about, or cut down that shady tree by hand, or dig the vegetable patch you’ve always been meaning to do. Manual labour uses all kinds of muscles and is rewarding.
For the white coat syndrome, it might help to practise at home, e.g. get someone to regularly take your blood pressure. When it happens for real in the medical, it’s just a routine occurrence and nothing to worry about.
On the anxiety, think laterally. Try something like a chiropractor, or massage, or meditation. I had a migraine two years ago, and afterwards got stressed thinking it would happen again. I went to an osteopath on the off-chance it might help, and he got rid of a lot of tension in my neck muscles. It might have been unrelated, but I felt better after, and by taking action I felt in control of the situation (even if only illusory) and psychologically this helped a lot. It hasn’t reoccurred (so far).
There are 2 energy stores in your body – glycogen and fat. According to exercise physiology textbook, you use glycogen for the first 40 minutes. No fat is burned. The glycogen is replaced at the first meal. To lose fat you must exercise for more than 40 minutes without food. As you need some other source when burning fat, for very long exercise times some food should be eaten
Several hours gentle walking will use up fat. A short period of arm and body exercise will prevent these muscles being used as food.
Any comments from the medically qualified people?
Had the ECG, flagged up Incomplete RBBB. Which the AME can sign off, but he’s referred to a cardiologist – and that’ll be another £60, even though CAA say AME can sign it off for Class 1/Class 2.
I had a friend look at it too who works in A&E, and the “Assistant” at the AME who did my ECG has put one of the leads upside down. Seriously – £80 ecg, and the thing wasn’t even done correctly.
Anyway, more hoops to jump through… (I am just getting the sense of this money train from what I’ve heard from others recently on Class 1/Class 2s)
From here
An ECG treadmill is about £300, plus the cardiologist report at maybe £200.
IIRC you are required to complete Bruce stages 1 2 3 and then you immediately report fatigue e.g. by saying your legs are sore. In theory you are supposed to continue until you collapse but it would be daft to do that, especially since – according to a retired AME I spoke to recently – the ECG will be crap by then and then a whole new can of worms opens with further (and very expensive) tests required.
There was a proposal years ago to do the ECG treadmill for all working ATPs but it was scrapped after – according to a CAA insider and a former AME I spoke to – it was determined 3.5% of them would have a heart attack on the treadmill.
Quoted £500 exercise ECG, £250 letter, travel overnight hotel 250 so £1000 + medical
You also need to go to someone who understands the CAA quirks!
Peter wrote:
IIRC you are required to complete Bruce stages 1 2 3 and then you immediately report fatigue e.g. by saying your legs are sore. In theory you are supposed to continue until you collapse but it would be daft to do that, especially since – according to a retired AME I spoke to recently – the ECG will be crap by then and then a whole new can of worms opens with further (and very expensive) tests required.
Interesting. I had to do a stress test for my medical the other year (on an exercise bike) but there a target power output was determined in advance and the test was run for a fixed time.
According to Wikipedia, the Bruce test is done on a treadmill with increasing incline. I’ve never tried a treadmill but how can you simulate an incline? The effort of running up an actual slope is because you are increasing your potential energy by moving the body upwards – but that doesn’t happen on a treadmill.
