Is this active and fit?

[lycheetothestar]

I’m aware that this might be like asking how long is a piece of string…but im
wondering if i do enough exercise and if not what else I should be doing?

no one would look at me and think “gosh she’s fit/toned/slim”. I’m 39 and about 2 stone overweight.

I walk a lot everywhere, have just started running (couch to 5k) and am on week 6, do weights twice a week and swim about 3-4 times a week (very slowly breaststroke)

I do eat A LOT of sugar though - chocolates, cakes, ice cream which I’m trying to cut down on.

does this sound like an active lifestyle? I’d really like to be fitter and healthier.

Sounds like plenty exercise, with food being the area you could improve, healthwise.

A personal trainer friend of mine once explained to me that you need cardio, strength training and flexibility each week. It sounds like you have an active lifestyle but are just missing the flexibility bit. I'm a similar age to you and I think this part gets more important as you get older (and stiffer!). Maybe swap one of your swims for a yoga class (or similar)? Otherwise I think you're doing great (better than me!).

Thank you both! That’s great advice. I will add on yoga but also really get a handle on my diet.

Can you improve your swimming technique / stamina to make that more effective. Very slow breaststroke could be less strenuous than walking I’d have thought? Any reason you can’t do front crawl? Or at least some lengths of energetic breaststroke? Else swap 1 swim per week for weights or something flexibility based as PP said

Agree with yoga for flexibility but I find I need to do two classes a week pretty regularly for it to start making a difference. What are your plans for running once you have finished the C25K?

You need to be raising your heart rate and be a bit out of breath while exercising for it to be having an improving effect. If you are lifting weights they need to be reasonably heavy, if you can do 10 reps but struggle a bit on the last 2 or 3 reps then that is about right.

However, you can't out train a bad diet so that is what I would concentrate on.

NHS says 150 mins of moderate intensity exercise a week- things like brisk walking and swimming. So it sounds like you’re there. Also strength twice a week ✅. As pp says adding in yoga/pilates.stretching would also help.

I wouldn’t necessarily consider you fit, but definitely leading an active lifestyle

I still have cake once a week after my Saturday cardio class, but I now only eat 100% cocoa chocolate. It takes some working up to (70%, then 90%) but any other chocolate now tastes odd, and one piece of the 100% goes a long way.

I’m the same age as you and have built up my exercise over the last could have years. I now run 15-25 miles a week and do a race about once a month. I go to the gym for some strength training 2-3 times a week and do ballet for flexibility and fun once a week.

I lost weight by reducing my calorie intake when I first started doing more exercise (I lost about 2.5 stone) but have maintained it through exercise and just being a bit more mindful about portion sizes, not snacking too much etc, but not restricting my diet in any real way.

you sound more active than the average but hard to say how fit you are.

I was also concerned about my sugar intake so went cold turkey at new year, continued until Easter and now only have 70% dark chocolate which I can just have a small square of and then leave. The first 24 hours is the hardest. Sounds like you want to do it.

I'd say active but not terribly fit. For me, fit is comfortably able to run 5k and swim 1k in under 30mins. Obviously swimming requires more skill, but it should be possible to do 1k in 30 mins with breast stroke, but with crawl it's easier.

I’d say you are moderately active. Fit? That’s relative but I’d say anyone at your age who can run 5k (say in 30 minutes) is fit enough.
But exercise cannot outrun a bad diet.

Lifestyle sounds reasonably active. As to whether you are doing things at the optimal intensity, that would depend on how briskly you walk, how much effort you put into your swim (slow is fine if even that gets you a bit out of breath) and what you mean by "do weights".

Some of these fitness measures are surely age related too. Extreme example I know but I'd consider an 18 year old running 5k in 30 minutes fairly unremarkable but an 80 year old keeping up with them would be an outlier to say the least. A middle aged, perimenopausal and un sporty specimen like myself should probably be somewhere in between.

It's a good level of activity for functional living into the future.

It’s difficult to comment as you don’t say anything about how long you swim for example, so difficult to judge the effectiveness of what you do. I am on paper active. I go to the gym 3-4 times a week and swim 6 times a week, so often do a double session. However, I don’t like pushing myself so although I have a decent fitness level, I probably don’t do anything very effectively.

Adding yoga has really improved my strength, mental health and flexibility. I'm a bit addicted now and do at least 4 classes a week.Need to do weights too, though, so do squats, lunges, curls, etc. at home. I think in your case, it's your diet op.I'm also a sugar addict - no point being flexible if your blood sugars are out of control though as this is what will really affect your physical health

It's not an inactive lifestyle, but if you want to get fitter and healthier than you might want to change some aspects. I see you have just started running, but how long have you been swimming and doing weights? If it's for a while and you're not seeing any improvements in performance and how fit you feel then I'd say you're not working hard enough (increasing heart rate, getting proper sweaty).

I don't need to say anything about the sugar that you don't already know!

First step: cut out the sugar and your life will change. Read Dr Mark Hyman’s The Blood Sugar Solution if you want to know how and why.

‘Doing weights’ can mean a lot of things……. I’d suggest you look at Caroline Girvan - her workouts are hard but super effective.

Incorporate focused cardio/HIIT with Growingannanas. She also has some workouts using weights that are more cardio based and not as tough as Caroline Girvan.

For yoga and flexibility I love Livinleggings. In fact she is a great starting point for upping one’s exercise regime.

Thank you everyone. Yes, this is what I think: I'm active but nowhere near fit.

I do weights twice a week with a personal trainer and I think I'm ok.

As I said, I've started running, doing couch to 5k although I am doing certain weeks a bit differently. Today I ran for 18 minutes straight which is the longest I've ever run for. I tracked it and did 2.67km in 18minutes exactly.

I do swim - I do 1200m in about an hour, not sure if that is good or not.

Definitely my diet is the thing that's really poor. Yesterday, I ate a large bar of chocolate and two magnum ice. creams and today I've eaten a pastel del nata, half a scone with jam and half a large slice of carrot cake.

@lycheetothestar- you sound active but I wouldn’t count your swimming as cardio or exercise. Breast stroke is quite easy and when done medium/slow is more relaxing than exercise.
I love breast stroke but when I started with a swim coach to improve technique he totally discounted any lengths done as breast stroke and said I could only do it as the last 50m cool down. I swim once a week with him and he’s pushing me to 2000m in 1 hour (front crawl), I’m currently at 1500m so have some work to do there. I’m no athlete, just trying to improve swimming as it helps me so much.

could you swap your length to alternate front crawl and breast stroke and slowly tilt the balance in favour of front crawl?

the rest of it (minus sugar) sounds good. I can’t even look at sugar without adding on weight 😞

Breaststroke is one hell of a full body work out when done properly at speed, much more so than freestyle! You need good technique and the ability to push yourself though. It works more different muscles and is less efficient so more tiring.