Help me understand when "activity" becomes "exercise" and when I...

Hi!

I'm an exercise newb. About five years ago I trained for a mini-tri, so I've exercised before, but I don't know a lot about the physical impact of exercise on nutritional needs. In my prior life (pre-WLS) I was probably averaging between 3500 and 5500 steps a day with a sedimentary day job and an active home life. The year prior to my WLS I was having some funky health issues (falling a lot) that dramatically reduced the amount of walking I was doing to around 2000 to 3000 steps most days. Now I'm at a new job, 9 weeks post RNY, and I've worked up to about 12,000 steps a day mostly through long walks in the evening, and I'm starting the C25K program.

My new job is also in a new city, so I'm still getting the hang of my new routine, but starting next week I am going to bike to work which will be a city street commute of about five miles. Part of it could be on a bike path but I am giving myself (not having been on a bike in a few years) an hour of time to go just five miles, so I won't be exactly huffing and puffing (although my heart rate will be up from shear terror I'm sure!). In mid to late June I'm planning to stop at a fitness center twice a week on my evening commute to swim laps. I suck at swimming and now I won't even have my body-fat flotation advantage! But I figure if I allocate 30 minutes twice a week, it will fill in some upper body fitness gaps and also help my cardio which as always been pathetic.

Here is the daily averages from my past two weeks:

• 12,000 daily steps (total, including below activities)
• 15 flights of stairs (3 or 4 at a time as work breaks)
• 15 minutes SLOW jog
• 30 minutes or more at a "brisk" walk
• Additional moderate walking, literally walking the dog until I meet my step goal.

Going forward it will look more like this:

• 13,000 daily steps (more weekdays less weekend)
• 20 flights of stairs (a few flights at a time, week day only)
• 30 minutes jogging (3-5 times a week)
• 30 minutes brisk walking (7 days a week)
• 12 miles (round trip) biking (4 days a week)

By late June it should be this:

• 14,000 daily steps (more weekdays less weekends)
• 30 flights of stairs (a few flights at a time week day only)
• 30 minutes of jogging/running (3 nights a week)
• 30 minutes of swimming (2 nights a week)
• 30 minutes of brisk walking (7 days a week)
• 12 miles (round trip) biking commute 4 days a week
• Weekend hikes, kayaking, other activities (more for fun than for calories burned)

QUESTION: I know I shouldn't "count" exercise calories in my daily calorie intake, ie I shouldn't think I can eat more just because I'm more active... but what about protein and other macros? Should I add the thirty minutes of jogging and the 12 miles of biking into my MFP as "exercise" and then adjust my diet up to the protein levels that are recommended? Or is the jogging/walking/biking all just general "activity" unless I'm really putting a ton of effort into it? By ton of effort I mean pushing to exhaustion.

I know I HAVE GOT to get this exercise going because my actual goal is much more about being physically fit and strong than it is a number on the scale. Also, my scale isn't moving anywhere near the rate I'd expected :( so hopefully seriously ramping up the activity level will help that too!

My big goals are to finish a mini-tri late fall of this year, to be able to mount a horse from the ground (this summer), and to be able to run an entire 5K (next spring).

I won't touch on the food needs, except to say you may want to carry some dried fruit (if your pouch can handle the sugar), Cheerios, mixed plain nuts on your runs and rides. Just a small amount. I wouldn't go with GU (or sports gels) till you know how your pouch can handle them. I was a PE major in college...Graduated in 1979, so this may be old information. But, here goes.

To increase your total lung capacity over a period of time, a person will need to have their heart rate at 120 beats per minute. They would need to have this 120 BPM for at least 12 minutes to improve over time, with their total lung capacity (build endurance)...I was going to say improve health and heart, but that is wrong. You can improve your health and heart by walking and exercising in your own ways. But to build endurance and improve your endurance, you'll need to do the minimum from above. Brian

Thanks for the info! According to my heart rate monitor, I'm doing some serious "work" when I jog right now (I'm new to it) even though I'm slow. I've been able to easily keep my pulse up over 120 for the 20 minutes I'm jogging every couple of days. I am also maintaining a good bpm rate when I'm walking the uphill portion of my nightly walks with the dog. The long hill keeps me over 120bpm for almost 20 minutes. At some point both will reduce as I become more fit, but for now it feels pretty good :)

Assuming you're already getting the recommended 60-80 grams of protein daily, you don't need to add any protein or other calories to your diet. You might find that you want to change the timing of your meals (or split them up into more meals with the same daily totals) because you're getting hungry at different times, but assuming you're still trying to lose weight, you should not change anything about your intake.

You might need to increase your water, depending on what your current fluid intake is like.

You can log these things however you like - but ignore MFP's recommendations and focus on solid post-WLS suggestions instead.

In reference to the suggestion above - you do not need to have portable carb sources for your exercise plan. Your body will do just fine at using stored fat for energy.

If you start doing endurance training (over an hour of sustained exertion), that would be the time to look into portable energy sources.

I'm having such a challenge getting in my water and my protein that I'll only be taking water on workouts as long as I have all these amazing fat stores available right here on my hips!

My half hour cool down post exercise lets me phase out the water then have a nice protein drink when I get back to the house. I've been trying to decrease the volume of water that I mix with the protein to better portion in the max amount of protein that will fit into my pouch to make sure it doesn't slide right through... I am at about 8 oz. of liquid to a full scope of protein, which I sip over 30 minutes, then set my timer for another 30 minutes before I continue with hydration.

Really good and very valuable information

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