Walking vs Running
 

A thoughtful analysis by Dr John Brifffa. If you are currently overweight, a number of issues to consider before doing a "couch to 5K" type program.

http://www.drbriffa.com/2014/08/29/...versus-running/

Links to the study and editorial on Dr Briffa's blog.

I've read in many different places that the reason knee and hip replacements are skyrocketing is because of running. I'm at the age where a lot of people I know are having to get joint replacements. Most of them are or were runners.

I will NEVER be a runner....I will NEVER be in a running marathon....and I am TOTALLY ok with that ^_^

I started a walking routine last May as a 375 pound, 51 year old guy with achy feet, lower back issues and sciatic nerve pain. Before that, I was a fully committed couch potato. I started out at doing 3 or 4 half mile walks per week -- and at a snails pace, I might add. That was about all I could do. But it didn't take long before I could do more. It didn't take long before I started feeling the benefits all day long. I started having more stamina, more energy, and less aches & pains. To make a long story short, I now walk 2 or 3 miles a day 4 to 6 times a week. I'm walking about 3 mph, and at my weight -- that is good enough to get my blood pumping. I still have lower back pains and sciatic nerve issues with from time to time -- but they have not gotten worse -- they've gotten better. I've lost weight at a steady clip over the summer, too (35 pounds or so). I can't say that I love doing my walking routine. I don't think I will ever "love" exercise. But I do love how it has greatly improved my quality of life and in such a short period of time, too. Living the LC WOE gives me plenty of energy and walking is a nice way to burn some of it off. If an old tub like me can do it, then most anyone else can as well.

I've always known that walking is good for you. Nice to see from the studies that it is as beneficial as running but w/o the additional risk of injury. I was a committed jogger back in my early 20's -- but I think my running days are behind me. A good walk a couple of times a week is all I need.

Ken, I'm with you on just walking...nothing better. I use to listen to music, now I listen to a long list of low carb and Paleo podcasts :) I can really get wrapped up in those interviews that reinforce this lifestyle :idea:

Mandalay, completely agree!!! I'm in an area with many retirees and seem to be in the minority not to have at least one new hip or knee to brag about. And Medicare pays for them all, what a racket for the orthopedic surgeons. Most former runners..oh, and one cheerleader. :lol:

I just did a couch to 5k program. Started training on August 18 and ran my first 5k on October 4. I managed to run the whole way. It took me 45 minutes, but I did it.

I've found that I love running. I hope all joints hold up, so I can keep on doing it. :)

My body never liked running. Even in Elementary school I was the slowest runner, although I didn't hate it like I did a few years later.

Swimming though, I love. So much easier on the joints. Nowadays I do water aerobics. Classes or else just on my own. I can get my heart rate up well beyond walking, do sprints, and do resistance training all in the water.

Getting harder to get in the pool since it is (finally) beginning to cool off in S. CA.

I'm really enjoying the running. I've never visited the exercise section of these forums before. I'm disappointed not to find more info on running while in ketosis. I'm not running to lose weight, but I'd like to maintain my diet while running. I'm finding that challenging. Maybe that's because everyone seems to say you need to eat more carbs to run, so I have no good role models to look to. Maybe I've just psyched myself out.

I've gained about 6 pounds since I started running a few months ago. I'd like to be under 180 again by my birthday (Nov. 24). I weighed in at 186.4 this morning. I also have a 5k scheduled for Nov. 22 that I'd like to be able to function for. I hope those aren't contradictory goals, because I know I'm going to have to dive back into deep ketosis to lose that weight. ;)

This made me remember that I was a very fast runner in elementary school. You know when I started hating it? When I was told I needed to exercise and cut calories simultaneously in order to lose weight. Talk about a recipe to make someone hate exercise. Delete their energy by starving them, then tell them to exercise. Boo! :mad:

Could your weight gain be cortisol related? I know hard training can raise cortisol.

I do have memories of running in elementary school and pretending I was flying. LOL!

I was a fat little elementary schoolkid who was always last in school races, couldn't climb a rope ladder or vault over a gym horse. And I was terrified of doing that thing where you tuck your head in and roll your body over on the ground (somersault?). Not surprisingly I learned to hate running and all forms of exercise. Then came the teens and 20s years - not fat any more but lazy. Exercise was still completely out of the question unless it was dancing in a discotheque.

I can't remember what motivated me, but I started walking at age 34 and the first walk lasted a whopping 5 minutes (2.5 minutes each way :)). But like khrussva, it didn't take long to build up mileage and timing. I am so grateful I started walking - it's one of the 3 best things I ever did for my health. The other two were quitting smoking and going lc. In my 30s I did a bit of running too but never enjoyed it. Just for the sheer pleasure of it, I still walk miles every day to and from work, at lunchtime, and long hikes at weekends. I will also, once a year, jog around the local high school track, just to see if I've still got it - and so far I have, at age 65.

I'd urge anyone who is ambulatory to take up walking as a hobby. The first outing doesn't even have to be as long as 2.5 minutes ;)

It may or may not be cortisol; I don't know. I do know I'm eating lots more carbs. Lots more. Teasing out how much of that is driven by hormones and how much self-talk or whatever would be difficult. Well, maybe we'll know soon, because I'm going to try to force the issue. Lower carbs, lower protein, keep running. We'll see what happens. Wish me luck! ;)

Come to think of it, when I was a little girl, I loved to run. Only I called it trotting, cantering, and galloping because I was pretending to be a horse. :lol:

Fast forward to my 30s, I came to love running again. It was a great combo of solitude (those dawn runs through the neighborhood) and social life (meeting running friends at 10k races--they were mostly 10k then--and being in a club).

Now I love walking for fitness, and also for sightseeing. The changing seasons. The storefronts you never see driving by in a car. The architecture of houses and churches. The nature stuff you come across, like birds' nests and caterpillars. I live in the neighborhood of a museum, so I get outdoor art, too.

I sometimes wear light wrist weights, and often use my walking music tapes with the great beat. A couple of them were produced by Dr. Ken Cooper, the guy who coined the word "aerobics." I never get tired of the little pep talks at the beginning and end of the 30-minute segments.

I'm a big fan of Dr. Briffa, by the way.

Hey Costello! You may have recently gained six, but aren't you many pounds lighter than when you started the "Dairy" thread? Celebrate the lost weight and your desire to ramp up exercise. How's the dairy-free life going? I recently added back yogurt, doesn't seem to affect me, but always have lingering doubts.

There are more endurance athletes who now compete while in Ketosis, but for the science and how to formulate a diet, Phinney and Volek are the most inspiring and they have helpful information on YouTube interviews. A good overview and short 'how to' covering ketogenic diet composition on this LC tour: http://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=...jUpuwO7TLslIGpJ Dr. Noakes talk also good.

Yep. Much lighter. Dairy had crept back into my diet, unfortunately, but in much smaller quantity than before. As of Oct. 27, it's out again. I want to be under 180 again by my birthday, Nov. 24. :)

I've been pretty proud of my weight loss - until I met with a new doctor on Tuesday. I told her my high weight was 250, and I really wasn't expecting to lose much more. I think a bariatric specialist would have been impressed. She was just like "well, you'd have to cut calories even more or exercise more." I just groaned internally and thought, "Oh, you're one of those!" I guess it was too much to hope for another Mary Vernon.

I left the appointment feeling depressed and like a failure.

No, no... Costello, don't let a stupid doctor make you feel like that. Just keep in mind they've got a very narrow mindset. Concentrate on how you feel and how far you've come. You've lost something like 28% of your old body weight. Woo hoo!

Thanks, Nancy. At least the people here understand that that's amazing.

They took my blood pressure three times. Each time was higher than the last. The final one was like 190/98 or something. I kept saying it wasn't normally that high. It's usually in the 130/80 range. It was dealing with them that was making it go high.

This morning at home it was 121/77.

Same here. When I go to the doctor's office or the dentist, my BP is higher than normal and if they take it again, it is usually higher still. My current doctor understands this phenomenon and said she has seen it in a number of patients. She has me do my own BP 2 times a day for a week and send the results in to her prior to my appointment. She says BP is about what it is most of the time -- not about what it is when you are sitting tall on a doctor's office table.

I love this doctor. She is 10x better than any other that I have had in the past 30 years. I would not say that she is "Pro LC" -- but she is seeing the results and likes what she is seeing. She opted to let me manage my Diabetes with diet rather than put me on meds. She seems to 'get it'. Who knows, I might turn her into a LCHF advocate yet. I just have to finish the job and maintain it.

To this doctor's credit, she did say that she didn't want to treat the high blood pressure based on one visit. She gave me a card and asked me to record my readings for a while.



Hmmm... Maybe I can win a convert if I stay with this one. There were some good things about her. No waiting before the appointment. She spent a lot of time with me, and I didn't feel rushed.

I didn't like that she really pushed the mammogram and the colonoscopy. I've never had either and never intend to. I told her that one reason I didn't like the mammogram is that I believe it catches cancers that might go away on their own. She said that cancer never goes away on its own. That made me not trust her. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3320224/

Then she said there was a kind of breast cancer you would never be able to feel in a breast exam. Ductal?

She just pushed the mammography thing too much for my taste.

They all seem to have the same playbook as far as preventative healthcare is concerned. I wouldn't fault her for that. I've had a colonoscopy recommended (but not pushed) since the day I turned 50. I will probably have it done eventually -- but I didn't want it done while I was a 400 pounder. I can't 'observe' it myself (obviously), but I would not be surprised if this WOE turns out to be great for colon health. It just might turn out that I was smart to wait.

Maybe I haven't hit the right video, but so far I haven't learned anything new here. I'd like to hear about how long it will take to adjust to running while in ketosis. Maybe I'll adjust more easily, because I've been there before?

I'd also like to know what to do about insomnia while in heavy ketosis, but that's another issue.

ETA: Never mind. Now he's getting into it.

I know this is off topic from walking-v-running, but it's so important I'm jumping in anyway. I've had decades of mammograms because I thought I felt a lump when I was 34. Turned out to be fibrocystic breasts but they convinced me I needed yearly follow-ups to see if anything changed. A few years ago they stopped referring to fibrocystic breasts and started saying I had calcium deposits. Honestly, I don't know if that is the same thing or not. But this year I've finally decided NO MORE MAMMOGRAMS. I've heard enough to convince me that they can do more harm than good:

(A) Radiation causes cancer - duh! Each time you get a mammogram you increase your chance of getting cancer by 2%.
(B) Squashing a breast, that does indeed have cancerous cells, in a vice will spread the cancer!
(C) Mammograms do not detect cancer until a lump has formed, whereas thermography detects whether extra blood is being fed to a particular part of the breast, and that would indicate the presence of cancerous cells at the earliest stage because they need extra blood to grow and form into a lump.

I do believe in preventative care but in my case, an ultrasound exam is probably more helpful, as I do already have something in my breast that needs watching for changes - without being flattened in a vice. But I dread the back and forth of convincing insurance to pay for it.

I've had a couple of colonoscopies. They are a breeze compared to mammograms. The worst part is the night before when you have to empty your colon with a diarrhea-inducing drink. The drink tastes fine, but the constant running to the bathroom is a drag. Next day they put you out for the procedure, you don't feel a thing, and wake up in a recovery room. The whole thing doesn't take long and you can go home right away if you are not woozy, especially if you have someone to pick you up.

I've always been faithful to the "game plan" of preventive medicine: annual mammograms, colonoscopies (three since I was about 50), pelvics and Pap smears. Now...I'm done. Last time I had a "routine" Pap test, they found something "suspicious" which led to diagnostic surgery, which led to nothing. I think the doc had a boat payment to make. And even if that's not the case, docs these days will always, it seems, opt for the expensive investigation just to cover their a$$es. And who can blame them?

Now Medicare notifies me when I can get these tests "free." All you taxpayers can thank me for saving the government some money. More money than it should be, thanks to the soaring costs of medical care in the good ol' USA. End of rant.

Oh, I have to disagree on the comparative discomfort of a mam and a colonoscopy. That cleansing procedure is icky, and I'm not happy undergoing sedation, even if it's just the twilight kind. (You're unconscious, but not paralyzed.)

I believe sugar starvation stands in the way of cancer formation and growth. However, I'm amazed that cancer in its endless variety is still such a mystery. In the past month, I've seen cancer afflict three people I know, all of them young and two of them quickly dead. Somehow healthy habits are not always the answer. But avoiding unhealthy habits seems like the right thing to do.

As for the tests? Meh. I'm taking my chances without them.

Oh, and Costello, you're clearly taking charge of you. Don't let some doc who makes diagnoses by statistics and populations contradict your experience or make you doubt yourself.

Thanks, Barbara.

Just thinking about that doctor some more. She asked me if I kept a food diary. I said that I do sometimes. She said that would make me more accountable.

I don't know. That just rubbed me the wrong way. I've lost an amazing amount of weight (she pointed out that I was still obese), and she's telling me what I need to do to be accountable?

I wonder if she just has a script for various situations. Fat person gets the "eat less, move more, be accountable" talk. The "be accountable" part is tacked on, because most people who follow the "eat less, move more" part of the lecture don't lose any weight. Normally you give the "eat less, move more" part at the first appointment. Then at the second appointment you give the "be accountable" part of the lecture, so you can imply they're not, and they can hang their head and look sheepish and confess to eating mindless - or even while they're asleep.

To me, when you have a new patient in front of you who's lost a lot of weight, you should say, "Holy cow! How did you do that?" Then shut your mouth and listen. Because I'm willing to bet she doesn't have a lot of patients losing weight successfully.

I absolutely agree! I've been dreaming about my next dental appt. when the hygienist will say: "My goodness, you have been a very conscientious flosser, haven't you! I can tell!" :lol:

I was hoping to show an impressive weight loss by my next doctor appt. later this month, but I don't think it's going to happen in spite of my best efforts. I will have a moderate weight loss--which is still better than the 2-3 lbs. I might have piled on since April had I not recovered my LC self.

To you, I say, "Holy cow! You are doing GREAT!!"

Ok, so I just started walking. I decided to walk instead of jog because at my weight I could foresee injury if I jog.

I started walking a mile a day 3-4 times a week 2 weeks ago. So basically I'm just a beginner. My walking path has a good amount of uphill to it. It takes me about 20 minutes to walk the mile.

My shins usually start to stiffen and burn at the 1/2 mile point. I figure that's probably normal and will pass once my body gets used to moving that much without rest in between.

I plan to add some exercises to my routine once I get used to walking (meaning no pain while walking).

Does anybody have advise or tips?

walking IS exercise. My advice is to keep walking. if you want to affect your weight tho, start LCarbing. In my opinion doing both is beneficial for a broken metabolism.

I started walking at 375 pounds. I had back issues, diabetic nerve pain in my feet, and I was certainly out of shape. The diet resulted in weight loss. The walking rejuvenated me. I could only do a 1/2 mile to start. I walked 3 or 4 times a week. My back pain actually got worse before it got better. The walking was limbering things up and my sciatic nerve would get pinched. I'd end the walk when my leg got numb.

Within a few weeks it started getting better. I could walk farther. I could walk faster. I could walk more days per week. Within a few months I could walk 3 miles easily and with less pain. I've been walking regularly ever since. It took several months for my back issues to clear up completely, but eventually that sciatic nerve pain was a thing of the past. Walking is good stuff.

I use a phone app to track my walking start and stop time. With the GPS it gives me my average speed, too. But I don't always have my phone on me and I wanted my step count each day. I bought a Garmin Vivofit for that. I never take it off. It also has a cool feature to track your sleep movement. Anyway - I try to get 10,000 steps in each day and I try to get a walk or two in daily. My TV time suffers - but I sure don't. I love my walks.

SKOL, just keep walking. You'll notice improvements in your speed and distance as you put in the time. Good thought. I think jogging is unnecessary pounding. As your fitness improves, bump up your walking speed to just past "comfortable" but not into heavy breathing. I like to walk with a beat in my ears--fitness music re-recorded from my favorites. You haven't lived until you've heard "Clair de Lune" played at speed. :lol:

Best wishes.

SKol, agree with the others, just keep walking. Outside. Appreciate the nature around you, relieves stress. Get the morning sun in your eyes if possible...it's suppose to help re-set circadian rythms for better sleep.
Another idea to add to Barbara's to make the time walking useful, is listen to Health and Nutrition podcasts. Here's a list, Ask the LC experts archives is good because each show was on a basic topic. Current show episode's are interviewing Gary Taubes about his new book.Livin La Vida is the mother of all podcasts. Has over 1200 shows to choose from. http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...89&page=1&pp=15