My daily exercise routine consists of an early morning 5 mile walk followed by a 10 mile bike ride and ending with an hour of Qigong. All somewhat between decent pace and strolling. This really sets me up for the day with decent vitality and energy. However, and I hate blaming it all on the meds, but gut and boobs are getting the better of me. Today I’m looking for your suggestions on exercises you’ve found to help reduce these symptoms. As always, thanks in advance for your suggestions and consideration.
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3putt
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Are you getting any resistance (weight) training? The walking and biking are great, but maybe you need some stuff focused on your trouble areas?
I’m on similar meds, and besides walking, have added going to the gym and using resistance exercises to try to regain some muscle tone in my arms, back, abs, and legs. I feel like these meds literally liquify muscles, and I wasn’t exactly fit before all this.
Have recently started using weights to try and work specific muscle groups. Thinking of engaging a personal trainer to assist in targeting. Started a vegan lifestyle too. Hopefully, a combination will help. Thanks for your suggestions and really enjoyed your comic! Laughter is still the best medicine.
I lift heavy in the morning and do cardio in the afternoon. I eat tons of protein and limit carbs. Losing weight at about 2 lbs a month and building muscle. No man boobs and much smaller beer gut
Yes and A1C down to 5.6, really helps with carb cravings. Intermittent fasting worked well for me as well in the past, Man boobs were eliminated a few years ago
I think you should let others know what assistance your using to maintain the weight. Otherwise, it seems you're just hitting the gym twice a day 6 days a week which is unrealistic for probably 99% on this site. I'm an extremely active man with prostate cancer on doublet treatment still working full time. Leading a happy life and recognizing I need some assistance getting the weight down. We'll see what the Wegovy does. BTW, not diabetic....A1C is 5.1 and Glucose runs between 83-93 on quarterly fasting blood tests.
previous to using Ozempic I did intermittent fasting and lost 80 lbs in conjunction with the gym however A1C was still problematic. Weight loss has not been static or one thing but a combination of things to get me here. The one thing that has been constant is gym 5 to 6 days a week even while working, tried all kinds of workouts from HIIT to resistance bands and settled on weight lifting at encouragement of a trainer My days start at 4 AM even though I am retired, I have made it part of my life. Getting old is not for the faint of heart
intermittent fasting (6-18) and HIIT swimming works for me. Both shake and wake your immune system and tell it to do some heavy lifting. While in the pool, add some bouncing and bounding to strengthen legs and move lymph, which is highly underrated for immune system
I’d love to do 6:18 fasting but am on daralutomide/nubeqa which need to be taken 12 hours apart (morning/evening) with/after food. Does anyone have any suggestions of how to navigate this? Thanks
I had to go back to 12:12 fasting (well, if you check data on darolutamide half life you can see that you could stretch to a 14:10). But in the evening I eat a very small portion of something with vegetable oil (e.g. a thin slice of bread with a teaspoon of peanut butter) to have my digestion started and to better absorb Nubeqa. If you check Valter Longo work, he is also promoting 12:12 as a positive habit anyway. 🤷
Many thanks, Maxone. And thanks for also for doing much of the heavy lifting for the group when it comes to surfacing the latest relevant research. Hugely appreciated. Big debt of gratitude. 😎
In my experience it would be very difficult to be fat doing a 5mile walk and a 10 mile ride per day. If you are eating < 2000 calories I would suggest you should be very skinny as you would burn more than this exercising.
Not necessarily…..these meds lower metabolic rate…..I gained 20 lbs within the first two months on my ADT,pred and Abi changing nothing about my exercise regime…..with my arthritis I don’t think I COULD exercise enough to keep up……hoping against hope that my upcoming proton sbrt is curative. Would love to get off these meds.
There in lies the heart of the problem. I just spent 10 days with a buddy in France. The first 7 days we spent in Paris attending various Olympic games. The second week we spent hiking in the Pyrenees. 6 miles, 12 miles, 6 miles and finally 4 miles. He lost 5 lbs and I lost zero. He commented that he was eating more than me, which surprised him because he thought I ate to much and that was the reason I was heavier than him. I typically eat 1600 calories a day.
Pretty good excercise also. Im only going to make a comment on your 'Food for Thought'. I read it a week ago and thought to myself 'delicious food, but not really that healthy' as its low in protein and high in carbohydrate (good fibre in the beans though). I would consider that food as a 'treat' for special occasion's only.
I read another post here about 'bragging' from London441. I dont want to preach or brag.
Life is all about choices. Make your choice and accept the consequences.
If you want an idea, eat more like a body builder. There is a good channel on youtube run by @scooby1961. Super informative in terms of eating and exercise from an elite 63 year old man from 'merica. He is an inspiration and a pioneer in youtube fitness, eating and body building. Highly recommended.
Gaining or maintaining lean muscle mass is essential. That takes some amount of heavy loading of your big muscle groups especially leg and hip and but muscles. If you dont know how to do this, consult someone who do. Your not so hard activities are good for you but will not do it for your really, really important muscle mass.
I use weight machines at fitness facility. Nine exercises selected by a trainer to load muscles and bones. Leg press, chest press, lateral row, shoulder press, biceps curl, triceps press, back extension, abdominal curl, sit and stand. Thirty times each except ten for the sit-stand, usually daily. It seems to be a necessary medicine like the pills, boring but invigorating afterward and an antidote to fatigue. Since starting 3 months ago, the exercises take more weight to cause the little burn at the end.
“Exercise … transmits signaling molecules generated by muscles to various organs, known as myokines… studies have demonstrated the potential of myokines to suppress cancer progression, such as decreasing cancer cell proliferation, promoting apoptosis, limiting migration and metastasis.”sciencedirect.com/science/a...
Im guessing none of you super jocks are at the stage of having painful bone metastasis. I read stories on here of guys that walk 10 miles before hitting the weights for 3 hours, followed by a 2 mile swim and think “holly shit, I have to be careful just trying to bend over to pick something up”
It has little to do with time spent, it’s what we’re doing. The illusion that we are walking 10 miles followed by ‘hitting the weights for 3 hours’ may be intended hyperbole, but the truth should be clear: it’s not about heavy weights, 10 mile walks or any of that per se.
Intensity-not duration or load-is where great progress can be made by anyone.
Perhaps, but often the workout stories on here just come across as a bunch of old guys bragging about what studs they are . It can be a little off putting to those that are much farther along in PC progression.
Joe I would be curious what you thought of my comments below. It was not my intent to boost but to perhaps motivate and offer suggestions. I agree that just stating what you do can be misleading or come across as boastful. For example saying you run or bike or swim everyday without the details of how long, how far and how fast leaves a person with your analysis. We do need more specifics on how to begin the journey but then again most of us are not professional trainers.
Many of the “jocks” have been that way all their lives so it is difficult for them to remember what baby steps that are necessary to build a life style change.
So they mean well in supporting diet and exercise but perhaps just lack the prospective of a older person just beginning or rekindling the life style change. On the other side we have guys who believe that it is not doable or make excuses for not starting a life style change so the concept of diet and exercise comes across as “preaching to the choir”.
Sorry you feel the way you do and I recognize that both the sender and receiver maybe taking the easy way out.
I could not agree more. Old men strutting their physical prowess is as ridiculous as it sounds. This is why whenever I reply about exercise (which is most of what I reply to) I strive to lean hard on the encouragement only. You can look back through the scores of my replies and posts about exercise and see zero mention of what I actually do. Though I hadn't previously considered it, I now admit to bragging about THAT😀
Most older men are not fit, not strong, but often have a good deal of guilt, shame, denial etc about it. I think those of us who are fit and strong describing what we do in detail is tantamount to bragging, whether we intend it or not.
thank you London. I wasn’t responding to anything you had posted, or even 3putts original post. I was reading through some other threads where guys were carrying on about their almost unbelievable fitness routines, and it just hit me the wrong way. I’m sure it’s probably because I’m at a point where the cancer is taking over my skeleton, and I’m only able to physically do a fraction of what I did before PC.
when I started the meds I started weight training and exercises aiming to burn at least 500 calories a day through exercise. Despite this I gained 5 lbs over 2 years. My hemoglobin A1c also increased. Since coming off the meds I have started charting calories. I think charting calories is huge. It is hard to have a beer or a cookie when you know you are going to have to chart it later and have a day with positive calorie balance. The weight came off within 3 months when the meds were stopped. My A1c is normal.
I'm in a similar situation, exercise my ass off and little weight loss. I'm gonna try the new weight loss med Wegovy. I have my yearly physical this week and already contacted the PCP to discuss.
Same. Have always exercised but no matter what I do I put on weight. I was 200 lbs of solid muscle 12 years ago now 265. I work out 3 times a week, with cardio, as much as my wore out hormone ridden body can take and still manage to live life.
Was wondering the same, Wegovy. I have heard the docs won't prescribe it unless there is certain heart or cardio issues.
I'll let you know after my appointment if I'm approved or not. I got the impression I would be but until the meds are in my possession... it's just a plan
If you’re only consuming 1800 calories a day-especially if you are on Wegovy-you need to lift. Otherwise your moobs and the rest of you will still be the same, just a bit smaller. You are not looking to achieve a thinner version of the same body.
I’ve been doing strictly incline bench press 3 times a week, 2 sets of around 10. I’m noticing my upper chest is developing more, with the hope of making the moons less noticeable.
Husband was always thin with flat stomach. Once on the Lupron the little belly was pretty instant and some man boobs. He does work out but it was amazing how fast the meds changed his physique.
I can only give you my experience and it was not a quick fix. It has taken me almost 15 months. I started doing machines and walking. I just looked at my log book of training. My first day I could only do 15 minutes of walking. After a month I was up to 30 minutes.
I bought an Apple Watch to track my steps rather than time. I now do about 12,000 to 15000 steps or around 6 miles. I do 45 minutes at the indoor track in the gym and about a hour walking with my dogs in the forest. I do this every day regardless of the weather.
I started with resistance machines and have graduated to free weights. I no longer have man boobs. For me I have found the bench press rather than dumbbells to work better for my chest. I asked some of the younger guys for pointers on techniques on how to correctly do the weights. I do 30 minutes of weights 6 days a week. I do three sets with minimal time between sets. I DO NOT do squats but do use leg machine.
I will discuss one exercise that I have added which I consider to be a real game changer. It is called a Farmer’s Walk. Look it up on YouTube. I walk with a 35 pound dumbbell in each hand. I do two laps at different times. Each lap is 1/8 mile. So each day I do 1/4 of a mile that way. I started with 20 pounds. I get my steps but work multiple muscles.
For my diet I have cut out wine and other alcoholic beverages and limited my carbs and eat lean protein. I eat salads, fruits and veggies. The big thing that helped me was changing the size of my plates and eating slowly.
I weigh my self at the gym. Over the last year I have lost only 13 pounds. Not a lot really. It came off slowly at about a pound a month.
Now for the really good news. Man boobs are gone and I have a definably chest, waist has done from a 34 to 31.75” and the top 3 rows of my six pack is visible. I still have flab around the waist. My back pain is GONE. Energy is up.
This coming week I am planning to start jogging for 5 minutes each day and hoping to get to 20 minutes buy December. This will replace 5 minutes of walking at the gym.
My blood pressure is great and my sitting pulse rate is 58. I am almost 80 hopefully will see 90 in good shape.
Good for you! Don’t know that 5 minutes of walking or jogging will have any appreciable effect but ,hey,why not. The rest of your regime appears to be helpful.
You have to start somewhere. My lone term goal is to be able to replace my indoor walking with purely jogging. That may take a couple of years but it gives me something to work towards. I find for me setting achieveable short term goals to achieve long term ones allows me to keep my focus and not become discouraged.
Just remember that walking, biking, running all cause you to lose muscle mass. I remember a couple of decades ago when they tracked a HS football team's muscle mass at the beginning of the season, and again at the end of the season. Despite all the drills, games, etc, all the players had lost mass. Obviously, all sports teams have weight training as part of their in season schedule. And so should we. And it is lifting heavy. When you can finish 3 sets of 10 reps, add weigh. There are also 5x5x5 programs you can look up. For us older folk with possible joint issues, use the Time Under Tension concept. Info is out there.
indeed resistance training is critical, and according to the health and wellness and longevity, experts leg strength, gripping, and pulling are the most effective. Of course, do not ignore core training either. As for that belly fat, it’s difficult to spot reduce, but there seems to be some science behind HITT.
its the calories that count to lose fat. Get rid of all carbs and add 3 days of cardio. Hit major muscle groups resistance training. More reps are better than more weight. I feel better than I have in years since I started this regimen 6 months ago.
Your metabolism is probably slowed down, and if you want to lose weight I'm afraid that you probably need to reduce the calories you are currently consuming per day. Little things like avoiding snacks, no bread or rolls at meals, and smaller portions of meat/fish can go a long way to achieve this. That's what I did after ADT, and I lost 30# in about a year's time. Everyone is different in regard to their optimum caloric intake, so blanket statements from others about the amount of calories you are currently consuming are dubious at best. 🦊
Exercising gets you into shape and healthier. But when it comes to losing weight, the best results come from fasting, intermittent or otherwise, as well as following a healthy diet. That could be carnivore, keto or vegan but the most important is to stay away from processed food.
Your bio does not specify what drugs you are on. If you are taking prednisone, that can make you insulin resistant after a while, which in turn can make you gain weight.
If you are growing breast tissue, then no amount of any exercise will help. I start Orgovyx and Abiraterone and intend to ask to do 10mg of Tamoxifen, then if breast tissue still develops I'll do radiation to the chest. Once breast tissue forms, nothing, absolutely nothing short of cosmetic surgery will stop it. And to date, I have not seen one single attractive male breast surgery. E.. No Dolly Parton for me... There are peer-reviewed articles on ART created m'boobs.
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A Different Kind of Man
Are man-boobs inevitable? A "bro" in my future?
Man it HOT!!!
QoLifornia Dreamin. Avoid this post if ur Vegan😁
