Older Bolder Life

Stronger | Leaner | Sharper | Longer - From Older Bolder Fitness

exercise

Question of the Week 23 July: Walk vs Jog

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A friend forwarded this question on from an acquaintance of hers, and I thought it worth running through some of the thinking on walking vs. jogging, particularly for someone over 40, above their ideal weight, and not as active as they perhaps think they are…

From Carol –

…My daughter is home from college and has been nagging me for weeks now to get out and run with her in the mornings. She’s of course 20, a life-long runner, and extremely fit, putting in 27-30 mile weeks on average. I’ve had a very stressful year (death of a parent after an ugly cancer battle) and put on another 30 pounds, making me about 55 pounds over what I feel is my best weight.

I’ve been a walker in years past (about 3 miles five days per week) but not in the past year, though I’m playing golf (out of a cart) once every 10 days or so so getting a fair bit of exercise there. Otherwise I guess I’m considered sedentary given my desk job. My daughter is convinced that walking is basically of no benefit for weight loss or general health and that I have to run at some every day to regain my form, and it’s beginning to stress our relationship. I’m ready to get started but she’s rattled my confidence in my old walking routine…

Kudos, and Let’s Agree That Simply Getting Moving is Good

Carol, kudos to you for making the decision to get back in the walking game, and kudos to your daughter for wanting to help you along the way (even though she’s overlooking some of the proven benefits of walking).

And I’d bet the farm that your daughter would agree that, without even delving too far into the science, that simply getting moving (more than you are now) will be a very helpful action for you to take – whether that be walking, jogging, or actually running. And sorry, though I’m not currently an active golfer, having played a number of rounds out of a cart in years past, I don’t think that’s providing much at all in terms of true exercise benefit, though the sun exposure (with appropriate high-exposure skin precautions) is probably boosting your vitamin D!

Walking is Great Exercise and Has a Number of Health Benefits

Please reassure your daughter that walking has a number of proven health benefits demonstrated across widely varying age bands, and in fact, particularly for those of us in our fifth decades and beyond, offers these benefits without the baggage of running-induced injuries that often increase with age.

In addition, as you’re “getting back in the exercise groove” after a tough year and with a (recently) sedentary lifestyle, walking allows you to ramp up your exercise volumes with relative ease, with a reasonable goal of walking five of seven days per week (or more); thirty minutes per outing is good, an hour is even better.

What Does some Representative Research Suggest About Walking vs Running?

In this study, equivalent energy expenditures by moderate walking and running invoked similar risk reductions for hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hypercholesterolemia; perhaps lesser so for coronary heart disease.

This study of men 64-65 looked the effects on health of walking (more than 2 hours/day, 1-2 hours/day, and < 30 min/day); the more they walked, the greater benefit (decreased mortality) was noted.

This study showed that moderate walking (8.6 miles/week) was very effective at improving glucose tolerance and nearly as effective as a much more aggressive (diet, moderate exercise, weight loss) approach in those at risk for T2DM.

This editorial in the American Journal of Cardiology made some interesting observations about the efficacy of running vs. walking, though appropriately discussed the much higher injury rates associated with running.

There’s a hoard of research supporting the premise that injury rates are higher among runners of all skill level levels and mileage/volume; for example see this, this, and this. And finally, some studies, such as this one, suggest that more aggressive (strenuous) jogging provides no all-cause mortality benefit over sedentary controls. (A topic for another day.)

Bottom Line: Lace Up Those Walking Shoes

Bottom line, resuming your walking program is a great idea, and will benefit you in a multitude of ways. (I’ve resumed a vigorous walking program myself this spring and summer, and have come to treasure my early morning/sunrise adventures in the countryside; I’d forgotten with what gusto birds sing as the sun comes up.) Perhaps your daughter might accompany you some days, as a complement to her running program, and allow some genuine ‘social networking’ before she heads back to school.

Don’t forget that your body composition is 80% or more what you eat, with exercise contributing 10% (more or less) to the equation.

Older Bolder Life Foundations: Can You Simply Exercise Your Way to the Body You Want? Probably Not.

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One of the most pervasive myths about health and fitness that I personally encountered growing up and later in medical training and practice was that exercise, of all types, was the principle key to attaining a “fit and trim” body composition. To be sure, what one consumed in terms of diet was deemed important, but for example playing high school sports in the mid-70’s, we were taught and trained to be carb-dependent, protein-guzzling machines.

Wait Just a Danged Minute, This Story Doesn’t Add Up

We experienced, yet didn’t really understand, the simple reality that repetitive, glucose-fueled / glucose-burning workouts trained our bodies to prefer or reach for glucose preferentially 24/7.

We burned through glucose in the too-long, too-intense HIIT and chronic cardio-focused training that dominated the day, gorged on carbs and too much protein (leading to gluconeogenesis when glycogen stores refilled quickly) afterward, generating spikes of insulin, with a resultant ‘sugar crash’ leading to even stronger carb cravings.

Some of my very athletic compadres began in high school to pack on a few extra pounds around the middle, a body composition change that became even more prevalent on through college and graduate school years.

Yet the conventional wisdom taught back then (and even in some circles now) was based on the calories-in / calories-out model, and could be ‘fixed’ by simply reducing your total calories per day, usually by restricting fats, and continuing to fuel with carbs as we implored ourselves and patients to just ‘work those calories off in the gym or on the road’.

Yet over the past three decades we (as a Nation) have seen fitness levels plummet as we dutifully pursued the Food Pyramid and chased the current fad diets across the fruited plain, and pounded hours away in the gym hoping to return to the bodies and fitness of our youth.

Body Composition and Exercise: So How Much Does Exercise Truly Matter?

Ironically, looking back on more than twenty-five years in the study and practice of medicine (rehabilitative and musculoskeletally focused), I don’t remember reading or hearing detailed discussion of what we know today to truly drive body composition. Lip service was paid to obtaining “nutritional balance, eating well, and getting lots of exercise”, though nutritional recommendations were seeming directed more by USDA policy than by evidence-based science back in the day.

Sure, medical investigators have long acknowledged that exercise plays a role in body weight and composition (here’s a decent example from the Journal of Obesity back in 2011), though multiple agencies, for example including the American Heart Association, still cling to out-dated and frankly harmful dietary recommendations (see the nitty gritty details here; we’ll have a detailed discussion about these at a later date) and chronic cardio inducing exercise recommendations.

The encouraging reality is this: what you eat will determine 80% of your body composition, with exercise contributing roughly 10%. The other 10% is likely composed of your skills in managing stress (and life can be damned stressful these days) and resting well (sleep matters).

These are of course rough divisions, and will vary in their relative contribution somewhat among individuals pending details such as how far above their ideal body weight they might be, how metabolically impaired they are, how long they’ve been metabolically impaired, if they suffer from other medical issues (comorbidities), how they manage stress, and how they manage sleep – which most of us these day do quite poorly.

Exercise – particularly the right types and in appropriate volumes – is a critical, absolutely necessary, and often fun part of the equation, but what you eat is far, far more important to your overall health, wellness, function, and body composition.

As we progress through our Foundation Series we’ll be digging into each of these areas in much greater detail.

Intro to My Personal Keto Journey

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My Primal, Pre-Ketosis World (and a Weight Loss Stall)

Like many of you, I’ve been intrigued for several years by what I’ve read and heard about the benefits of spending time in a true state of nutritional ketosis.

My wife and I, both in our late 50s, have been for the most part eating been eating a Primal aligned diet since mid-2016, and since July of 2017 have been diligently compliant, with daily carb intake for her ranging in the 60-80 gm/day range, and me running in the 40-60 gm/day range.

We’d both noted significant weight loss, improved mental clarity, much more consistent energy throughout the day, better sleep (including resolution of nighttime heartburn), and a host of other “hey, this is really working” benefits along the way.

Personally I’d lost 100 pounds during the 15 months leading up to January 2018 (somewhat ironically exactly that amount on 31 December), though found further weight loss stalled for the first quarter of 2018, something I found incredibly frustrating.

Reflexly reaching back into my conventional wisdom / traditional medicine bag of tricks, I assumed that I just needed to up my workouts to burn more calories, no doubt entering into a pattern of chronic cardio, generating more stress (read cortisol release), in fact furthering hampering weight loss efforts, and self-inflicting a workout related back injury along the way (dammit).

A mentor suggested taking a step back, honestly and objectively taking stock of where I was with my food plan and activity approach to things; he at one point suggested taking a realistic look at my macronutrients and tweaking things a bit to enter a legitimate nutritional ketosis for at least 6 weeks, and probably longer pending my results.

Nutritional Ketosis, Where Have You Been All My Life?

I’ll share more of the nitty-gritty details next week, but the past six weeks in nutritional ketosis have been nothing short of astounding.

I’ve noted profound improvements in mental acuity and endurance, creativity, overall energy, workout performance (HIT resistance 2-3 days per week, extended walking/hikes 5-6 days per week, limited sprint sessions every 7-10 days), virtual absence of hunger, increased satiety, and perhaps most astoundingly, my weight loss stall has been overcome with an effortless 14 lb drop in these 6 weeks.

This N=1 account is anecdotal to be sure, but yet another account that supports the claims that we’re designed to be fat burning machines. I’ll share more details about my personal keto journey now and then, with another post next week detailing a closer look at my macros, using a compressed eating window/ intermittent fasting, and more.