Weight and body composition close to ideal as factors.

I am not sure whether to raise the subject again as I got close to no comments that I can recall when I have mentioned it in the past.

Its more taboo than sex

Weight, body composition and very good diet as factors.

I agree about with supplementing as a general activity and practise it strongly personally.

However depending on your definition most of the population are overweight to obese so no reason to think people on this forum are so different
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Even those who are not over overweight or obese have a large proportion who don't eat well and their body composition shows it.

Nearly all the people I know who think they eat well really mean they eat less bad or low value foods than other people they know.

I was at a social activity which included well known racing identities.

One of them explained to me the care they take in feeding the racehorses. However he had a huge appetite for ice cream and rich cakes and was very overweight. His horses eat with more care.

I practise what I call a zero diet. A wide variety of foods, individually none in large quantities ,each highly recommended by nutritional people of one different philosophy or another.

No days off.

Sound stringent? Not really it's just a question of habit and is very simple. The only downsides are food excitement may be a bit less. I love my fruit and look forward to my oatmeal mixed with cocoa .Yum yum!. My partner and I wouldn't be ideal people to ask to a rich dinner but we still have friends despite our eating habits. We can talk without food being part of the background .

I would be sure that if people on the forum also listed their weight, what it should be ideally, and their diet it would fill me with sorrow apart from the damage done to the individuals.

If you are not close to a ideal weight and not eating really well (zero diet) you are causing your existing problems to be worse to far worse.

Alex

Hi Alexi, I don't know about the weight issue because it seems to me that many af's are lean and inclined to be athletic.However I do think that even the most careful among us are too lax with our diets. I am considered a disciplined eater by famiily and friends but I know i could do much better. Perfection is an elusive target. Dennis

Alex,

LONE afibbers generally have a significantly lower body mass index (BMI) than do members of the general population so I don't really think that obesity and overweight are a major concern for LONE afibbers. Of course, if you have non-lone afib (underlying heart disease) then overweight and obesity are probably common and can only add to the patients' problems. See Patrick Chamber's research report LAF vs. AF: Shape Matters for more on this [www.afibbers.org]

Hans

Hans,

BMI is a very rough figure in any case . The gym I go to has a majority of fit muscular people who would have poor BMI’s.

So it is also possible to have lower BMI but mediocre to poor body composition which is a complex subject in itself.

I am not specifically referring to LONE afibbers, just afibbers.

In any case we are not protected by some hypothetical average.

We are all as Jackie says experiments of one.

If you did a survey of people who answered honestly I am sure you would find most don't have good body composition, eat close to ideally and are not near their most appropriate weight.

I find most people are not analytical and honest about these matters except when they honestly say they can't follow the necessary steps to get where they should be.

To Dennis perfection is elusive and what is perfection as it is a moving target? But getting reasonably close is not so difficult if that's what you wish to do.

I have external discipline apart from internal.

I have been in many older age body building and fitness competitions[commenced training at the age of 66,now 78] and train at a gym with many young competitors, mainly women.I can't reduce my age but I can avoid putting on weight.

I enjoy being complimented on strength and body.

Vanity is a powerful motivator so a good friendly gym can be used for strength, ego enhancement and dietary discipline.

My simple tests. Could you make a really good case for the food you eat with a crank like me? Would you feel good about your body[bearing in mind your age of course] at a gym which has mainly fit people?

People with atrial fibrillation have less margin for making mistakes in their lifestyles

Alex

Alex,

My BMI is 23.7, the skinfold thickness 1" above my right hip bone is 5mm. My waist to height ratio is 0.44.

For training, I routinely use a bodyweight program developed by an ex-US Navy SEAL to train men for the SEAL selection program. I perform his program at the highest level, but follow the principles of continuous exercise done super slow till failure with time under load generally between 45 and 90 seconds. This is designed to activate all muscle fiber types including Type I, IIa and IIb. As I'm sure you are aware the Type IIb anabolic glycolic are the strongest but recover the slowest. To allow muscle building of Type IIb fibers I perform the training infrequently, generally once per week.

As for diet, I never eat more than twice/day. I routinely fast for 24-36 hours. The caloric content is usually 80% fat, almost all saturated, about 15% protein and 5% carbohydrate. This allows me to remain ketoadapted.

For a performance metric, I routinely alpine ski with a 26-year old ski-patroller in excellent condition (I'm 57). He tells me I'm the only one of his friends that can keep up, skiing the extreme steeps hard without stopping or taking any breaks all day, except to ride the lift up again. He tells me his age peers cannot do what I do.

I was skiing with people nearer my age yesterday and they asked if I was human.

My 25 year old son and I were recently swapping stories about doing inverted pushups. He is ex-military and trains 4x a week at a CrossFit Gym. Our ability to do these pushups is about the same.

George

George

I admire your program. I don't know your age but would imagine it's a lot younger than 78.

We can't expect many people to devote that effort and dedication but to eat well which I call a zero diet meaning no not really good foods and a very wide variety [with extremely rare breakouts] is quite achievable.

I am sometimes asked in the gym what is the best exercise. My answer is pushing away the plate when you are getting anywhere near close to full and especially if it doesn't have really healthy food on it.

This plus simple exercises done consistently with goodwill will go a long way. A person can do good training in a couple of half hours per week if he/she put in the effort during that time.

Of course they can do better with more time but go with what is achievable in their lifestyle

Alex