Higher BMI, lowering the exercise without lowering the calorie intake ... silly boy!!

[juglansjames]

So I am retired, in my 60s), but drafted into many activities such as assistant gardener and allotmenteer for my lovely wife.. she nurtures .. I hack it out!!

Keen triathlete with swimming coaching twice a week (6-7/10 exertion), cycling once a week (5/10) and running more often than not (6-8/10). But I had a niggling glute so backed off the 2-3 weekly trial runs nearly 10 months ago... BUT NOT the calories!! So call it an overall 50% drop in vigorous exercise (6-8/10).

Mean while my BMI for my Endomorph body form crept up to 27!! and waist expanded. Non smoker, low cholesterol, active and fitness through out life, low stress, sensible diet (vegetables from the allotment), but like my beer and we like our dairy!!.

My wife gets a cholesterol warning and I think I am having reflux (discomfort), so chase up an anti-reflux medicine at the local chemist at the bottom of a very steep hill (which I have run and cycled up!!).

Half way up the hill I realise the significance of breathlessness and crushing pains and a minor heart attack. 3 days later out of Bath RUH with a stent and the programme to full recovery.

[Healthyheart1]

All I can say is you know what's happened, you can recover and change your life you are strong enough. It's a definite shock and wake up call. Good luck with everything. Sheena

[juglansjames in reply to Healthyheart1]

Hi HH1 many thanks for that and always remember the old fly boy adage ‘always fill the bucket of experience well before you empty the bucket of luck’

Despite it probably being outrageous in some eyes I will now prod my peer groups 26+ BMI belly and quote my experience... I am bold enough to say it’s a key marker of visceral fat which doesn’t need to be there.

[Kev12564]

😟 Sorry to hear this, must be doubly frustrating as you want to be training I bet. I’m the other way round, going from overweight slob to wannabe triathlete (in a club but swimming technique needs improving to even do 400m ) so I can sympathise.

It sounds like your little heart attack might have happened anyway unfortunately even if you hadn’t had the enforced break from training?

What’s the plan? Any more triathlons on the cards? Hope all is better soon.

[juglansjames in reply to Kev12564]

Hi CNW thanks for that, the plan is to get back to repeat at ½ iron man (last 2 years ago aged 59) but really I like sprints. Why because it’s 1 hr car drive to venue one and a half hrs of 7/10 perceived exertion and 1 hr home again. That doesn’t write of a day and is also a balanced training routine. As for your swimming I would recommend a little cost towards a swimming coach or Tri club coaching session of just a couple of weeks. That will give you a big up on technique and so really improve your confidence in that element of the event; happier at the start of the event, vastly improves your experience, all contributes to health and well-being... bonus.

[Kev12564 in reply to juglansjames]

It must frustrate the medical staff when someone like yourself gets a problem as opposed to those leading less healthy lives. Was the mini heart attack due to an artery being a bit blocked?

I’ll give half Ironman a miss It’s a surprise to me I can run quite well when 18 months ago I was an overweight heavy drinker. Yes, I am taking swimming lessons as I can swim but my technique is so poor that I’d be a nuisance to others in an event now. If I can get the 40 swim time down to 15 minutes (slow I know) I’ll consider entering sprint triathlons. I’m working on it, though.

Good luck with your recovery and return to competition

[Chappychap]

There are quite a lot of people on this forum who were seriously into fitness training before a heart attack arrived out of the blue. I doubt a few extra pounds put on in under a year was the primary cause of your heart attack. The explanation was probably being laid down decades earlier.

There's a class of person often called a "TOFI", Thin Outside Fat Inside, when your BMI is acceptable but there's still dangerous and damaging visceral fat wrapped around the organs. Or your underlying atherosclerosis might have myriad causes that aren't particularly visible, such as gum disease, exposure to heavy metal pollution, passive smoking, nutrient deficiency, sleep apnea, stress, and probably the biggest one of all, insulin resistance, which is a kind of pre-pre-type 2 diabetes which is rarely tested for in the UK.

In many ways the obese, smoking, coach potato who has a heart attack has a huge advantage over someone like yourself. At least for them there's a clear agenda of lifestyle changes that, if made, stand a good chance of arresting progress of their heart disease!

[juglansjames in reply to Chappychap]

Hi CC thank you for that and yes I like the TOFI concept but now I think my 27 BMI was such for far to long, years to be honest! So why not have it now at 24.5 for years! It’s an aim and given my wives requirement to drop her cholesterol (mine were excellent!!) we have decided to seriously weed out most saturated food stuffs. That and portion control.

I am also confident that the other markers you mention don’t apply to me, but great information thank you

[Kev12564 in reply to juglansjames]

Being harsh on yourself. BMI 27 is overweight in theory, but you’d have (and still have) a lot more muscle mass in there than the average 60+ year old.

These posh weighing scales estimate visceral fat if you wanted to follow up on the TOFI comment above, but I think your case was just bad luck,

I’m on this forum as my dad had a bypass last year. A private 64-slice heart scan showed minimal levels of soft plaque on my LAD but a calcium score of zero (which is good). I discussed the results for an hour with a heart consultant. He said I (and everyone who is healthy enough) must do cardio exercise for heart health. Weights, yoga, walking, etc, are all very well but do little for heart health - his words.

I’m still curious how such a fit person had a heart attack. Was it a little blockage?

[juglansjames in reply to Kev12564]

Hi CNW yes a minor MI which diminished the moment I stopped walking and lent against a wall, noting no pain in arms. So identified as minor blocking, more like flapping lose plaque .. which was effectively pushed back into place by the one stent. No other artery was compromised to any extent. Just updated to a all singing Nokia Withings cardio scale for more detailed information.

[Kev12564 in reply to juglansjames]

Yes, that was my fear after my (routine) heart scan. My LAD has about 10% to 20% stenosis (narrowing) due to soft plaque. The consultant said this is no problem at all, but I should keep up the cardio and eat well - even he eats butter in moderation. There is the chance of that plaque rupturing, which seems to have happened in your case, but there’s not much to do about that. There are YouTube videos saying diets or statins that harden this plaque, but this is unproven. At my age (49) all I need to do is keep healthy and have another scan (I had a private 64-slice scan abroad) in 5 to 7 years.

You must be a bit nervy about training again. What do the doctors say?

[juglansjames in reply to Kev12564]

I was clearly told to stick to the 6 weeks light duties and then pick up the 6-8 week rehab programme including cycling and swimming in zones 5-6/10 which leads to resume training so I see I am now 3 months away from running at 6/10 perceived effort. Real training for getting back up-to a better VO2 max state in month 5 ... entering events by month 6 and especially getting my own back on Whitehill (HA hill) in November. That and competing in a 12 km trail run I normally organise (AVR Over the Hills) in November. Cheers

[Kev12564 in reply to juglansjames]

Yikes! I’m out of breath even reading that! I guess the words “heart attack” are scary, but in your case it really was just a flap of plaque which has now been “stented” in place.

I’m just curious here, but it would be useful for others to know. Do the doctors know how much plaque there is (I guess they define this in terms of percentage stenosis) and was it soft as opposed to hard?

Just some background to explain my curiosity - I’m heart healthy and a recent private scan showed my LAD had 10 to 20% stenosis but elsewhere was clear. I’m 49 and the consultant said I had no worries although the risk of a heart attack was there albeit minimal. I’m also a wannabe triathlete but you’d be way ahead of me