Tree farmer seeking advice on how to not fall apart

[chibimaddy]

I grow trees. Third career.

I'm overweight. (190, M 66yr)

A fair amount of my day is walking, moving potted trees, stoop, bend, lift. (A typical day my step counter says anywhere from 11 to 16 thousand steps. )

I should lose weight, and thanks to the advice I've gotten over on /r/losit I am. 4 pounds down in 3 weeks, bit fast, but within the 'noise' levels. From my use of sun3's TDEE calcuator (still early with only 3 weeks data) I probably should increase my cals by about 150-200. But holidays are coming.

I felt my best when I was between 150 and 160, so my target is 150 -- 45 pounds (started at 195) in a year.

Anyway, why post here instead of at /r/loseit? I need to stay strong while losing weight. My year is very cyclic, with activites in bursts. I just finished two weeks of inventory shuffling -- where larger trees are regrouped into appropriate water zones. Lift up 40-60 lb container, walk 2-10 steps, put it on the trailer. Repeat 27 more times. Move the tractor. Lift up container place where it goes. Adjust permission. Repeat 27 more times. That is my 'set' Takes maybe 25 minutes. Repeat for 3 hours.

But this isn't all year. That's done for this year. Two days ago it was burying 300 trees in compost using a grain scoop.

Now I'm taking inventory. Stand. Count. Measure. Freeze. Museum pace 10 feet to the next block. Next week is the start of firewood season. I cut with a chainsaw, but haul with a sled (woods too tight for the tractor) and I split with a maul. Firewood season is about half time 3-4 hours a day for a month. 9 cords. Much of the rest is working on my web page, orders for spring, other desk work.

January and Feb are house reno months. Outside it's colder than an iron seated outhouse on the north side of a glacier. March I'm out for a few days on snowshowes taking cuttings for trees that start from sticks.

August is a serious backpack trip with my 19 yr old nephew. We typically spend a week in Willmore Wilderness doing about 120-140 km and a half dozen passes. This year he cleaned my clock on the uphill grades. But there was 50 extra pounds of me compared to him.

Anyway, as I get older I find that I'm hurting more. It's a lot easier to throw my back into spasm. A bad session will leave me in serious pain after an hour of sitting for weeks. (standing or moving isn't too bad). Whenever I change tasks -- move from tree moving to wood cutting, I'm sore for more days as I adjust.

Yeah, yeah, I'm becoming an old fart. Most of this is just old age. "Make it move, old timer, what do you want?"

A: Advice on how to cope with a yearly cycle of wildly variant activities. I suspect that this will be a routine of both stretches and exercises. Nearest gym is an hour's drive away, so something that can be done on the farm or in the home. Probably I need 'meta advice' links to articles or books about this sort of thing.

B: Losing weight without losing strength or endurance. During an active season, actions are repeated hundreds to thousands of times a day. (Pots are filled with a scoop. I go through 90 cubic meters of compost a year. 65 tons. Two walking trailer loads or 6 dump truck loads. With a 3 quart scoop.) Reading here and on loseit I've found out:

• Log everything.
• Don't try to lose more than a pound a week.
• Keep protein on the order of 1 g / lb target weight or .7 g/lb current weight

But 190 to 150 is a fairly major change.

I've seen mention of "Neurological adaptation" to increase the strength of a muscle without increasing its mass. How do you train for this? I see skin and bones high school kids that can do chin-ups until they run out of numbers, but appear to be your typical 140 pound 5'10 grade 10, with muscles that look like they were sprayed onto bones. I have a high school kid working for me that weighs 110 pounds dripping wet, is 5'6" He can't handle a 60 lb tree as well as I can yet, but watching him, he's still learning technique. (The kids do admit they are sore the next day -- and they are only doing it for 2 hours after school)

 

[snippy]

@chibimaddy Do not overthink things right now. r/loseit is great and losing weight is responsible for a lot of health "gains" It will be ok to lose more than 1lb a week of actual tissue at first but do not do anything crazy as slow and steady wins the race. Especially since you need to have energy to work. I have cut many times though the holidays. A good goal is to just eat at maintenance or even a little over on the big dinner days. It is still enjoyable at first and you will likely see a big drop from water weight in the first few weeks. The reason you can handle trees is because it is a skill as much as strength although I bet your are strong in ways it takes to handle trees. Join r/homegym Many of us have the Titan T3 Rack $380 delivered. A starter bar and weight plates is around $200 at dicks. A bench maybe another $150. No room for a rack? Sportblock Adjusable Dumbells although a rack better. You probably want to do a simple 3 day full body at first. Start light and work up slowly over a few months. Then keep it up and work up very slowly over years. Consistency for years is what is going to keep you strong, retain muscle and bone density. It is very important you not get hurt training as you need to run your business. Instead of the typical linear program I would consider just working in the 6-12 rep range on lifts and getting stronger in the range. At first keep things 2-3 from failure.

 

[jasminesolis]

@chibimaddy I hope I don’t sound like I’m oversimplifying it but it really just sounds like a caloric intake change may be the answer. You sound really active, with it and capable or at least open to change. My brother and I lost the majority of our weight at the same time, I lifted a lot to prevent muscle loss and he didn’t. We lost about the same amount of weight and I just looked better. He found as he got lighter he just felt better and wasn’t losing nearly as much muscle as people said he would because while he wasn’t lifting weights a lot he was still active. I would just count calories and stay as active as you can until you hit the weight you desire

 

[williejdyson]

@chibimaddy

But 190 to 150 is a fairly major change.

Yes it is. Just do it. I recently did a 65 lb drop, and I'm just a few years younger than you. You will feel much better. You haven't given height, so I will assume that 150 is a good weight for you. Sounds a bit light to me to be schlepping maples, but your call.

The biggest problem for most people I know is getting enough exercise. That does not seem to be a problem for you. Perhaps it is some parts of the year. But part of your write up sounds positively like bragging. A 19 year old beats you up a long hill with packs? You move 65 tones of compost? 60 pound trees? Here's what I have to say: If you are just giving clinical information, thank you. If you are not bragging, you should be. Dude, we were both born during the Eisenhower administration! That's not too bad.

But I share your concern. How much longer can you do this? (that's a question to you, not a rhetorical). I feel I would love to have your problems, but here's what I have learned to share with you:

• Injury is your kryptonite. Avoid at all cost. Be careful out there and in whatever workout.
• Add a stretch and flexibility component to your day. Just stretching, yoga, whatever you like, but big movements with all body parts. I like Tai Chi.
• You sound concerned about losing the weight. Don't be. I suspect it will be easy for you. You will identify the problems in your diet and fix them. You activity level is fine and it sounds like you want to increase it on average.
• Diet is key. Sounds like you have macro balancing down. I would skew a little toward more protein if I were you (or me). Protein uptake decreases with age. Unless you are in danger of kidney problems, high protein diet (1+ g/lb/day) won't hurt.
• Resistance exercise is what you want on a regular basis. With no nearby gym you will have to get creative. You can do it while cutting weight and it will help spare strength. (This is something a BCAA supplement can help with)
• I've never messaged anyone who sounded less like they needed the advice.

 

[chibimaddy]

@williejdyson Thanks.

 

[schwarz123]

@chibimaddy Counting calories accurately is difficult. Look at it as more of an approximation. Don’t try to fine tune it by 100-200 calories here or there. As long as you’re losing at a pound a week or so, it’s close enough and it’s working.

 

[andrewm12]

@chibimaddy

I've seen mention of "Neurological adaptation" to increase the strength of a muscle without increasing its mass. How do you train for this?

This is just strength training. Most of the strength gains at first for anyone novice to strength training is all in your neuromuscular connections and learning to use your muscles more effectively. After your novice gains start wearing out then it becomes more about gaining muscle mass. Oh and the reason that skin bones kids can do tons of chin ups is because they weigh next to nothing.

Best thing you can do for your overall health (besides the diet improvements) as you age is probably start a strength training routine. Since your closest gym is a whiles away you'll either want to do bodyweight exercises (check the wiki over at r/bodyweightfitness for routines) or pick up some kettlebells ( r/kettlebell ) or build yourself a home gym ( r/homegym ).

 

[doorkeeper78]

@chibimaddy I've done farm work too, it's beats crossfit any day, because you grow a crop too. My dream is to start a crossfit type gym called ShovelFit. No better whole body workout than shovel work.

If your diet macros are protein oriented, the gut will shrink while the muscles develop. You don't want to lose weight as much as convert it to muscle. You can't starve to do that.

Tree farm had always been a dream of mine, even if it is dangerously similar to working for a living...

 

[me11]

@chibimaddy I've personally found that the ketogenic diet (or at least fairly low carb intake, like 60g a day max) has helped me keep up daily energy as well as strength (measured pretty quantitatively by weights at the gym) while in a weight loss state in the past. I've done a bunch of "lose 10 pounds when I get pudgy" over the years (41 now) and even in my 20s I was typically pretty exhausted when doing weight loss on a more standard diet.