The wife and I try to stay healthy.

[Eagle]

I have come to accept that many people are much more fussy eaters than I am. I have not accepted how some (not the OP) portray their fussiness as a form of superiority.

I feel for people who struggle to lose weight. I'm fortunate that I can always turn the activity and eating knobs and get back to the weight that works for me in a reasonable amount of time.

It’s not fussy eating. It’s not eating shit and understand that you are what you eat. Taking control over the things you can because you want to be ready for the things that are beyond your control . It’s just about living your best life to the best of your ability that’s all . The people sharing their methods are just trying help .

 

[JiveTurkey]

Being skinny fat sucks

 

[the swede]

Being skinny fat sucks

Same problem here. Can’t complain though. I have always been skinny, no matter what I eat or how I train. My body refuse to gain muscle mass. I get stronger with training and I have one hell of a condition not even being a “runner”. Strong heart, big lungs, low weight, resilient muscles that can work long without feeling the burn.

But yeah… passing 40, the old fart skinny dude fat is showing up. It’s only around the waist and a little on the stomach. Doesn’t show, but I see that shit!

Definitely shouldn’t complain though… I’m 183 cm and 62 kg. Skinny fat!

 

[Jarick]

I was fat in high school and had to work my ass off to get my weight down in college. Many of my friends were super skinny no matter what they ate. For most of them as they got older they got skinny fat because they never had to develop any self control. However once they cleaned up their food and got a little active they got skinny again pretty easily. Sucks because I've been on a diet for the last 25 years and still 50 pounds overweight.

 

[HotRats]

Definitely shouldn’t complain though… I’m 183 cm and 62 kg. Skinny fat!

Wow. 62kg and 183cm is seriously skinny.

I'm 180cm and was 66 when I was in my 20s and I thought I was too skinny.

I'm 52 and I've not been able to remove stomach and waist fat completely in the last 10 years.

 

[the swede]

Wow. 62kg and 183cm is seriously skinny.

I'm 180cm and was 66 when I was in my 20s and I thought I was too skinny.

I'm 52 and I've not been able to remove stomach and waist fat completely in the last 10 years.

Yeah… I basically lock exactly the same as I did when I was 15 But I’m an old fart with a little cute layer of waist and belly fat. It’s a small 1 cm layer I guess… if I laugh to hard a couple of times it probably goes poof.

 

[Jazz Padd]

This is a fascinating thread, thanks to our willingness to share and to listen to stories.

The Mrs. and I live in Japan and we just had our annual one day thorough medical exam, including full blood work and various scans. For our ages we are in good health, no serious issues. Having had these exams annually since we moved here has been instructive. For example, it’s interesting to track our results year to year, and compare that to our lifestyle choices. But we’re also learning to accept the inevitability of aging.

For example, neither of us needed glasses but our eyesight is slowly deteriorating. Not quite bad enough for getting prescription glasses, although we both now use readers and I have a special set for reading music.

We are both careful about eating habits and avoid certain foods, sometimes together, at other times divergent. For example, she’s not into uncooked fish, whereas I do enjoy sushi; she prefers meat, but less so for me. Neither of us smoke nor do we drink. We care enough about health to be attentive,

We have moderate activity, but neither of us go to the gym or do systematic training. We do try to get in 5000 steps a day minimum and 10,000 on some days. Two years ago we went on a pilgrimage that involved up to 20,000 steps a day. We are planning to go on another one next year, and get in a little more daily walking to prep. I find that things like walking are more appealing if there is a reason other than getting exercise. So, for example, I park as far away as possible on workdays to walk back and forth to the car, and prefer walking to driving for shopping.

In the end, I think sharing beyond this can be highly personal, and there are so many variables in health, including genetics. It’s probably best to leave some things unsaid.

 

[Mooselake]

One thing to beware of is not understanding the state of your metabolic health. I would argue that is the thing to key on more so than weight loss or counting calories. If you've been eating the SAD or a typical western diet, the odds that your metabolic health is suboptimal is very high. A disordered metabolism can do things like block your body from metabolizing fat, meaning a calorie deficit will eat into your lean tissue. One of the better predictors of healthy aging is both having higher muscle mass, and having good muscle strength from that mass.

I won't bore everyone with my whole saga, but not so many years ago I found myself on the cusp of type-2 diabetes, having moderate hypertension, moderately overweight with a lot of visceral fat, indications of fatty liver, and along with those come higher risks of CVD, a number of cancers, and dementia. I decided to decline the pharmaceuticals and go for the lifestyle overhaul. What I learned that worked for me (I improved every one of my symptoms) is the following:

Eat only real human food, jettison all the highly processed food-like substances that are manufactured in what amounts to chemical factories. If you'd started to accrue insulin resistance (I had), severely restrict high glycemic carbohydrates, but otherwise eat the rainbow as they say. If you have a lot of gut issues, beware of plant foods with a lot of lectins. I didn't have major gut issues but I did this to be on the safe side. The last thing is to get up and move. How to move is a whole other topic that like nutrition often takes on religious significance for people. For my part I do strength training regularly, and an amount of HIIT work. I'm not a big believer in doing hours of "cardio" per week. Too much cortisol in my system works against some of my other fitness goals. I walk a fair bit too.

Don't forget about your brain. One of the things in my overhaul I'm most pleased with is that I made very conscious efforts to learning more on guitar the hard way--by ear. I also made a new intellectual pursuit out of diving into the topic of healthy aging. Closely related, I've also turned myself into a sleep nerd. My evening routine is almost ritualistic in nature. I still get less sleep than is supposedly ideal, but I put a lot of effort into getting the most out of it.

One thing I've noticed is that when I'm doing a good job sticking to a real human diet, my body begins to innately regulate caloric intake.

I also take a lot of nutritional supplements. It's a choice I make but it's not something I see as essential. I'd say overall ~70% of my success has come from the overhauled dietary regimen, 20-25% from activity/exercise, and the rest from nutritional supplements (they do help some people).

 

[ChordInversion]

Also, I just eat food (not stuff with mile long ingredient lists) and move around a lot. No gimmicks, no formulaic diets, no hyper-intense workouts. It's been working for me, and I'm in my 50s. I did stop drinking alcohol or caffeine a good while back as well, but mostly because I didn't want them any more, not any health-related reasons.

 

[ChordInversion]

MINOR CORRECTION: I've had something like a beer once every six months and a caffeinated soda around as often. So I'm not 100% off, nor am I going for purity.