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I've been tracking everything about myself

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Re: I've been tracking everything about myself

#131

Post by VLM »

karlb wrote: post #128
fasteo wrote: post #127

I miss some important stats: - Your height. To calculate your BMI and contrast it with your Body Fat %. To be a runner, your BF% is high, but I cannot see whether it is because lack of muscle ("skinny fat") or excess of body fat. As you are not logging any weight training session, my guess is the former, but I am sure you are not logging all these data to end up guessing :) - Triglycerides: I find this much more impo…

>Do some weight training. If you goal is to be healthy, this is key. Ignorant and sincere question: Why?

I find nothing to disagree with in fasteo's reply other than to add you're going to live a long time (hopefully).

So say you're kinda frail at age 25, and everyone agrees you lose about half your muscle mass by age 75. Half of frail at 75 might be a very big problem. If you want to be healthy at age 75, in contrast to merely being alive, that would have certain implications for your goals at age 25, or 50, or 70 or whatever.

Or the TLDR is many (not all) of the health benefits of weight training show up later in life not in your youth.

Superficially, I never broke any bones in my 20s or 30s so weight training might be seen as a waste of time, but the "real" benefit of weight training is I'm much less likely to break a hip at 75. Better balance, better coordination, more muscle mass so I have to risk less, denser bones, stronger ligaments... Aside from not having a broken hip at 75, just in day to day life I'm likely to feel a heck of a lot better.

Re: I've been tracking everything about myself

#132

Post by onthedole »

hunvreus wrote: post #48
k-mcgrady wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give you one small example. I started using a sleep tracking app on my iPhone because I have bad onset insomnia and don't sleep well. After one weeks use I noticed that the nights I went for a short 20 min walk before bed I had a much better sleep score. I also fell asleep faster. Another thing I noticed was that I feel asleep faster if I didn't listen to music or podcasts. I've listened to them for years thinki…

IMHO, you don't need personalized data for this kind of stuff. More seriously, there's plenty of literature out there about these things; spend 5 minutes on Google and you'll find all of these recommendations. You'll know that exercising will help you sleep. You'll read as well that screens tend to disturb our sleeping patterns. These are becoming common sense and shouldn't require you to run you own little experimen…

Most people don't have such a high degree of intuitiveness to themselves to know what behavioural variations make any difference.

Google does not interpolate those suggestions from your personal data, that's where the fitbit etc. apps shine.

- Having a glass of water - Going for a short walk - Having a glass of wine - Watching a movie/tv show with your partner - Telling a bedtime story to your kids - Washing the dishes while thinking about your day - Talking to your mum/dad/bro/sis - listening to some calming music - having a shower

How would you know what contributed to your good night sleep?

Having an app/tool tracking these for you and telling you that your best sleep is when you do A C and F not E or G is very valuable.

If you are smart enough to track and figure it out, then heck, I think you have too much free time or you are highly intuitive of yourself

Re: I've been tracking everything about myself

#133

Post by VLM »

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #68
gsteinb88 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at all to disagree, but just to clarify: drink less alcohol, drink lots more water. Minor dehydration is amazingly common and you'll be astounded how much better you feel if you force yourself to drink large amounts of water regularly.

There is zero evidence supporting the idea that drinking water beyond thirst is helpful. If anything people tend to have slight electrolyte deficiency, which is exacerbated by fluid over-consumption.

For "people" in general that seems correct in aggregate. For older people we have:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirst#Elderly

You pretty much have to tell old people to drink, after they're too old to know they need to drink.

Its also "semi well known" that cold weather tends to mask thirst symptoms, and the resulting dehydration doesn't help much WRT hypothermia prevention, so this claim is, again, not people in general, but the subset of people in an environment colder than they're used to.

Re: I've been tracking everything about myself

#134

Post by xiaoma »

fasteo wrote: post #129
karlb wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Do some weight training. If you goal is to be healthy, this is key. Ignorant and sincere question: Why?

Muscle mass is a metabolic master regulator: - It allows fast glucose clearance from blood via both insulin and non-insulin glucose transport. - It drives bone density by pure mechanical tension. More muscle = stronger bones/tendons to support them. The usual hip fracture/high mortality we see in elderly people follows the loss of muscle mass->loss of bone strength->bone breaks->fall pathway, not the more intuitive f…

Hmm. I don't find this terribly convincing.

Running is well documented in its role in improving bone density: http://healthfully.org/highinterestmedical/id33.html

Unlike weight-lifting there are actual studies showing running promoting neurogenesis (the increase of brain cells) and improving performance: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...

Finally, muscle mass is far from enough to be an effective metabolic regulator. While I have yet to meet anyone who runs 100 miles a week and is overweight, it's not uncommon to find that someone who benches 500lbs still carries a gut. I myself have gained a great deal of both fat and muscle since my school years when I was a runner.

I think weight-lifting does some great things depending on one's aesthetic goals, and it's probably the most time efficient way to increase bone density. It's hardly the optimal exercise for general health, though. There are many aspects of health, ranging from neurogenesis to heart health to immune system function to maintaining telomere length that cardio most helps.

Re: I've been tracking everything about myself

#135

Post by fasteo »

xiaoma wrote: post #134
fasteo wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Muscle mass is a metabolic master regulator: - It allows fast glucose clearance from blood via both insulin and non-insulin glucose transport. - It drives bone density by pure mechanical tension. More muscle = stronger bones/tendons to support them. The usual hip fracture/high mortality we see in elderly people follows the loss of muscle mass->loss of bone strength->bone breaks->fall pathway, not the more intuitive f…

Hmm. I don't find this terribly convincing. Running is well documented in its role in improving bone density: http://healthfully.org/highinterestmedical/id33.html Unlike weight-lifting there are actual studies showing running promoting neurogenesis (the increase of brain cells) and improving performance: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... Finally, muscle mass is far from enough to be an e…

You are implying something that I didn´t mean.

This is not about weight lifting vs running. Anand is already running and I suggested him to add some weight training to gain some lean mass, as his BF level (19%) is a little high, possibly due to the lack of muscle mass.

For the record, I run - or bike - at least twice per week.

Re: I've been tracking everything about myself

#136

Post by xiaoma »

fasteo wrote: post #135
xiaoma wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm. I don't find this terribly convincing. Running is well documented in its role in improving bone density: http://healthfully.org/highinterestmedical/id33.html Unlike weight-lifting there are actual studies showing running promoting neurogenesis (the increase of brain cells) and improving performance: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... Finally, muscle mass is far from enough to be an e…

You are implying something that I didn´t mean. This is not about weight lifting vs running. Anand is already running and I suggested him to add some weight training to gain some lean mass, as his BF level (19%) is a little high, possibly due to the lack of muscle mass. For the record, I run - or bike - at least twice per week.

That doesn't make much sense. As a competitive runner in school, I was under a 5% body fat percentage without really lifting. Now I do lift and I'm at about a 23% body fat percentage (and nearly 3x the arm strength I once had). Runners tend to have a significant lower body fat percentage than lifters, even at a professional level.

More likely is that the OP just isn't doing enough. Running 25 miles a week is enough to bring about significant benefits in health and fitness along with moderate weight control benefits. 25 miles a month is just a waste. Going up from 1-2x per week to 3-4x makes a huge difference.

Most likely is that it's a dietary issue. While living in Asia, I knew many, many non-exercising people at healthy weight levels just because they didn't overeat like Americans tend to. The OP probably doesn't eat like them.

Re: I've been tracking everything about myself

#137

Post by tertia »

xiaoma wrote: post #134
fasteo wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Muscle mass is a metabolic master regulator: - It allows fast glucose clearance from blood via both insulin and non-insulin glucose transport. - It drives bone density by pure mechanical tension. More muscle = stronger bones/tendons to support them. The usual hip fracture/high mortality we see in elderly people follows the loss of muscle mass->loss of bone strength->bone breaks->fall pathway, not the more intuitive f…

Hmm. I don't find this terribly convincing. Running is well documented in its role in improving bone density: http://healthfully.org/highinterestmedical/id33.html Unlike weight-lifting there are actual studies showing running promoting neurogenesis (the increase of brain cells) and improving performance: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e... Finally, muscle mass is far from enough to be an e…

"Finally, muscle mass is far from enough to be an effective metabolic regulator. While I have yet to meet anyone who runs 100 miles a week and is overweight, it's not uncommon to find that someone who benches 500lbs still carries a gut. I myself have gained a great deal of both fat and muscle since my school years when I was a runner."

1. Take an equal amount of fat vs muscle: which will burn more calories? Muscle, obviously. 2. People who bench 500lbs are not that common, and those that are are probably power-lifters, not body-builders. There's a big difference. Power-lifters are more apt to gain 'dirty weight' (meaning fat included with the muscle) to help them drive ever-higher PRs.

Re: I've been tracking everything about myself

#138

Post by tertia »

xiaoma wrote: post #136
fasteo wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are implying something that I didn´t mean. This is not about weight lifting vs running. Anand is already running and I suggested him to add some weight training to gain some lean mass, as his BF level (19%) is a little high, possibly due to the lack of muscle mass. For the record, I run - or bike - at least twice per week.

That doesn't make much sense. As a competitive runner in school, I was under a 5% body fat percentage without really lifting. Now I do lift and I'm at about a 23% body fat percentage (and nearly 3x the arm strength I once had). Runners tend to have a significant lower body fat percentage than lifters, even at a professional level. More likely is that the OP just isn't doing enough. Running 25 miles a week is enough t…

you were probably under-eating as a runner.

Re: I've been tracking everything about myself

#139

Post by tertia »

hluska wrote: post #97
hunvreus wrote: post #33

Beautiful website indeed; there are a lot of carefully crafted details, especially for navigation. I genuinely wonder though what to do of it. I can't seem to see what people do with all this data; what does one get from knowing how many steps, run, calories, subway stops and hours of sleep were accounted for in a day, every day. I can see how one could be rigorous enough with his training to see value in some of it,…

I have enjoyed lifting weights for years, but in October 2013, I took the plunge, bought a bench, some bars and some plates, and started seriously lifting. When I started seriously lifting, I collected some bench marks. I collected my one rep max, six rep max and ten rep max in four different exercises. Then, I collected data on my pulse rate after doing a ten rep set in various exercises. When I work out, I collect…

I would be neat to see your pre and post workout blood-pressure stats too, and how that has changed over time. I can personally tell that when I squat or deadlift near my max that my BP peaks. I'd like to know how quickly it falls off after, etc. I'm also curious to know if heavy-lifting has positive effects on circulatory system elasticity.
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