Today I had loads of fun chasing a couple of annoying adolescent boys around the pool with a water bazooka. Great leg workout running in water as well as working the arms with the pumping of the gun. I also got the maintenance guy and a couple of grackles.

I'm brain damaged from all the running you see...

So far the only exercise I've found that is fun at 375# is really good sex.

Unfortunately I only get that once a year when my boyfriend, who lives on Maui, flies out to the Ozarks where I am. It's like the gag in that movie 'Zorro, the Gay Blade' where the Alcade will only sleep with his wife once a year (but 12 times in one night LOL).

So that leaves a whole lot of exercise-isn't-fun time.

I feel better after I get some exercise in, but the process of getting it is not usually very much fun. Generally the better the exercise, the less fun... exponentially.

On the bright side, it's way better than it used to be, so I suppose as I get smaller it will improve. :-)

Well, on the way up it was about 200lbs, but that was ~20 years ago.

I realize that you probably know this, but exercise can be fun in the same way that anything else can be fun. Keep a variety, with progressive challenges that you are able to overcome in a reasonable time. Like a video game, you want it to be a little harder than you thought, but not so hard that you can't learn to do it.

That's why the various martial arts have always appealed to me. I haven't needed to fight since I became an adult, it's the challenge of learning a new physical skill and the personal disipline that goes with it - along with an intellectual thrill of learning new techniques complete with their history and development. There is some of that with even the simplest of exercises like running and biking, but few have the depth and width of the Martial Arts.

Ack, ack, ack! Don't let her move! It will stop weight loss. Do her a favour, make her go to bed as soon as she gets home from school! For the love of all that is holy, PLEASE DON'T LET HER EXERCISE! She balloon up to a million pounds!

There is quite a difference between wanting to move and attempting rigorous exercise to facilitate weightloss. One is natural and good, the other is futile and dangerous in the worst cases, and only of moderate effect in the best cases.

It may not be as bad on a LC diet because when I come home from a vigorous hour long, 300 calorie walk I might feel like 300 calories of devilled eggs and water instead of 600 calories of soda and cookies. The eggs won't make me gain weight, but the cookies will. But both will negate the caloric effect of the walk.

That doesn't mean I didn't get other benefits, but the calories are compensated for...

Also known as being born on third base and thinking you've hit a triple.

There is too much research which shows how excercise improves insuline sensitivity. May be the results arent apparent but excercise does help with weight loss in the long run.

But note that it isnt the only thing that imporves insuline sensitivity. But when you are talking about lifestyle changes you need to do everything you can to have healthy life. That includes excercise and eating right. There are so much more benefits of doing excercise bone density,joint mobility, improved cardio vascular system, mood improvements, fight depression, fight pain....... that one should feel guilty they arent doing excercise if they can and not doing it just because you can loose weight without it.

Noone is asking you to do excercise if you are not physically able to for whatever reason and noone is saying that you need to do the most intensive excercise possible but you need to do excercise doesnt matter what you define that as. Moving around the house is also excercising staying in bed is NOT.

Except that some people do, by quoting the phrase "Exercise is non-negotiable" from Dr. Atkins. "Non-negotiable" means "You must either exercise to lose weight on Atkins".

Exercise is good if you can do it, for many reasons, but it is not necessary to lose weight. In most people it is only a small help if not a detriment to that goal.

I dont think Dr Atkin's states that you NEED to excercise even if you have a physical condition that prevents you from doing it. He merely emphasises that excercise should be an important part of a healthy lifestyle which it is and that everyone who can excercise should do it.


So do all the people who quote "Exercise is non-negotiable" agree that it is so when only physically able to?

I actually really like Mike Eades recommended approach to exercise, which is based on how we probably biologically evolved to exercise. It is short intense bursts (or moderate bursts until your body can handle intense), good periods of rest in between (which, among other things, allows gluthionine to replenish itself) and quite moderate in that you do it a few times a week for 10-15 minutes - not hours and hours a week. I think this allows you to find the minimum amount of time for the maximum benefit. Moderation is key, in my opinion. As I stated previously - I've been to both extremes (although not bedridden) - freakish exercise amounts and a slug on the couch. I've settled in the middle and I feel great. I think that if one takes a moderate approach, there are benefits in both health and body composition.

There is what people should do, what people can do, what people want to do, and what people will do for a lifetime. Those are rarely the same.

While I'm completely with Valerie on encouraging exercise rather than discouraging it, I just don't see how it is my place to tell people that they "need to do everything they can to lead a healthy life." I doubt there is a single person here who doesn't know that exercise has benefits. I don't think they are going to appreciate me preaching at them about it or insulting their intelligence by indicating they don't know exercise has benefits.

I also think that if statements are made in a way designed to induce guilt -- you must do what I say or you are not doing everything you should do -- that the impact will be discouraging people from getting the support they need, because no one who is trying to improve their lives needs a dose of guilt over not doing it fast enough or the way *I* think they should do it.

I think you are absolutely right, Liz. You can't shame or guilt someone into doing something. Undertaking anything out of shame and guilt is not conducive to making it a lifelong healthy habit.

I have always been of the belief that people are going to do what they do - and it's not up to me to tell them how to live their lives (as a mom, this isn't always easy). Really - when you look at it, you can present someone options and give them facts, but choices for personal behavior are always up to the individual. I can't make my kids do anything - although I certainly can make one choice more attractive than another with my presentation of the outcomes attached to those choices.

Another interesting thing to look at in this discussion our capacity as human beings to justify our positions. I would submit that if you are in the exercise "camp", you have spent quite a long time justifying this position to yourself; therefore, arguments and evidence to the contrary aren't likely to sway your position. Ditto those in the non-exercise and moderate exercise "camps." We will all look for evidence that supports our position, and are much more likely to dismiss evidence to the contrary.

"need to do everything they can to lead a healthy life". I think that is the single reason many people come to low carb since it is one of the healthy things they think they can do in life apart from other things they think is healthy.
What is wrong in encouraging people that they need to do everything they can to be healthy? What is healthy differs from people to people. Low fat low calorie people think that is a healthy lifestyle and we here think low carb is but we are all aspiring for one thing to be healthy.

No one can force someone to do something that is communalism. none is bullying someone to do something either. But we are free to express our thoughts without personally attacking anyone.

What we think is healthy is up for debate .... agreed but not being healthy. If someone said I dont want to be healthy , I would encourage them not to.

That's true.

However, if you had asked me 4 months ago I would have said that exercise is "Non-negotiable" even though I had lost 75lbs without exercise. I believed in exercise, and I even believed in it when I was exercising frantically and gaining weight.

But GCBC broke me out of my mold. I found his arguments convincing. I see how they had already worked in my life, how his theory predicted my results. Then I did that month of steady walking which resulted in zero losses while eating a very low carb diet. At that time I re-evaluated his theory and found ways that it matched much of what I knew on other areas. By this time I was "looking for evidence" that supported my new position. And I found enough of it to completely change my mind, and I stopped doing my walks. Since that time I have lost another 10 lbs in three weeks.

I'm OK with that.

I think they are quite a few people here first and foremost for weight loss with the secondary belief that weight loss will make them healthier. Not everyone, of course. Some people have reported that exercise stalls their weight loss and I believe them. The only thing to do is report your personal success with exercise in a non-judgmental way and encourage people who want to exercise.

I agree with the premise of this thread. Encouraging people not to exercise is not a good thing. Weight loss isn't the only thing that matters.

All diabetics should exercise to the best of their ability because it does increase insulin sensitivity. But in real life I find that many of them don't. It's not my place to tell them that they may be harming themselves because I'm sure their doctors tell them at every visit. The best thing to do is be supportive and make small suggestions when people let you know that they need some advice.