Ask HN: How do you stay active while working from home?
Since the pandemic started and we've all been working from home, I've put on a lot of weight. I was wondering how can I keep myself active without having to go to the gym?
I lost 40 pounds since the pandemic, by fixing my diet to eat 1500 calories of salad and vegetables instead of delivery and takeout fast food. This was with less activity, an hour or two per week of walking/biking as opposed to bike commuting every day.
Weight loss isn't about the morality of punishing yourself with exercise. It's just about the math of calories in vs out, and it's a lot easier to make big changes to the intake side.
I'm almost constantly hungry. I like to joke that I need to file a bug report on the human body because my logs are constantly filling with warnings about food input being required despite plenty of calories available in storage.
I've tried everything. I went keto, dumping the non-satisfying carbs and sugars in favor of fat, protein, and fiber which are supposed to satiate better and longer. I ensured I was drinking plenty of water. But I can put down a 20 oz ribeye with a large serving of broccoli on the side and wash it down with two ~12-oz glasses of water, and I'll still be back to the fridge in only an hour or two.
I tried adding more caffeine (I've heard it can be a slight appetite suppressant). I tried getting off of it (The crashes supposedly stimulate hunger). I tried getting more sleep.
At this point, I'm more and more considering asking my doctor for a prescription appetite suppressant, but those can have some pretty awful side effects.
Pre-COVID, I was going to the gym at work and very slowly losing weight while gaining significant endurance. I once did 103 flights of stairs on the stair machine, despite my decidedly-obese 32.5 BMI. I haven't been to the gym since ~April 2019, and I've gone from 215 lbs to 240 lbs. :-\
Stopped traveling. Now house is full of snacks for kids. So yea…
Bad combo
This is my experience, anyway. YMMV.
Another thing I do in the evening is skip dinner and just eat a bowl of popcorn or a bowl of yogurt. Both seem to help me achieve satiety.
Half an avocado with olive oil and salt is also good.
Keto helped a lot with not feeling hungry and the weight but it was too much effort to sustain.
With the weight just spiraling up and myself starting to feel a bit disgusted with myself I decided to try and stick to 3 meals a day and portion control my meals. I have been doing that for about 6 months now and it has helped tons with losing weight. Yes, I'm still hungry most of the day. I look forward to breakfast after having had dinner. I look forward to lunch from 10am. But, the irritation and restlessness coming with being hungry has faded into the background somewhat. Somehow telling myself "tough luck, you are not getting any more food until tomorrow" and sticking with it has really changed how I perceive it. It affects me a lot less and it doesn't stop me from being able to sleep anymore for example. Whereas before it defined me in some way, I couldn't function when I was too hungry. And I still eat shitty fatass meals, but it has become a once or twice a week on the weekend thing.
Just some food for thought. Hah.
I go browse the fridge every hour or two as well... and what works is to keep absolutely no junk food in the house or fridge. What's in the fridge is carrots and celery. If I'm not hungry enough to eat that, I'm not hungry enough to eat.
Tea also helps; I make three or four cups a day of various (mostly low/non caffeine) teas, and it works well to give some flavor that's a distraction from food.
What works for me is large volumes of calorie-not-dense food. My salads are a whole romaine of lettuce, half a bag of spinach, half a pound of baby carrots, half a cucumber, some sliced onion and pepper for flavor. It fills up a huge bowl and comes to like 300 calories (to which I do add a reasonable amount of light dressing.) The bulk and fiber results in a feeling that I could eat a couple hours later but I don't have to, and I've trained myself to realize that.
I don't find that big hunks of protein help. It's too calorie dense. A 20 ounce ribeye will get to satiation... but it's going to be around a thousand calories, which would need to account for like 12 hours of satiation, but nothing does that. I get protein from one protein bar per day (mostly soy protein), plus some from vegetables like chickpeas and black beans.
I have a very hard time getting work done when I'm hungry.
> and nothing tastes as good as skinny feels
Have you ever had a Cheesecake Factory Cinnabon Cheesecake? You might change your tune.
> and what works is to keep absolutely no junk food in the house or fridge
I don't eat junk food. It's been years since I bought a package of cookies or chips outside of hosting a party, which only happens twice a year. The cheesecake mentioned above is only on the anniversary of my wife and I's first date.
> Tea also helps;
I drink Coke Zero, but keep it to two cans per day, max. The rest is water.
> My salads are a whole romaine of lettuce, half a bag of spinach...
O_o I don't think I could eat that much greens in a single sitting. I did do a week where 4 lunches were salad. I split a bag of spinach into 4, added carrots, mushrooms, cucumber, grape tomatoes, ~6 oz of chicken each, and of course just a little dressing to give some extra moisture to the spinach. Felt good to be eating something healthy, but was still hungry.
I just think...there are people who seem to have a perfectly calibrated sense of hunger. If they eat a large breakfast, they won't even get hungry for lunch, and will probably have a light dinner. If they eat something really shitty like a Cinnabon Cheesecake, they eat two bites and then acknowledge that's enough, while I could probably pound two entire slices at 1370 calories and 120g of sugar EACH.
Am I defective?
1.) I bought and elliptical trainer machine and put it on my balcony, and do 30 minutes on that most mornings (often while watching some computer conference talk or something on a tablet — something mildly interesting but ok if i don’t pay it full attention)
2.) stopped ordering lunch and dedicated a whole hour to cooking and eating lunch
I’m not even a good cook, at all; but home-cooked food is just so much healthier, generally, that it is hard to go wrong. I find easy recipes for simple dishes on the web.
So yesterday I cut up about 500g of mushrooms, carrots, cauliflower, and hot peppers, tossed them in 20ml olive oil and 2.5ml “Janes krazy salt” (or something, you know, one of those salt-plus-pepper-and-spices brands).
While that roasted for 15 minutes at 200 C, I dumped a bag of pre washed salad greens into a huge bowl, and cut up some tomatoes and beets to augment it, and threw on a bag of steamed grains and caesar dressing.
That process plus eating takes almost the whole hour. While I think taking an hour off to just like, think or rest your brain is probably good for everybody, I personally have a hard time with feeling like I am wasting time, so I joined Audible and I listen to various nonfiction audio books during my solo lunch prep and eat time.
I also initially gained fat mass weight during 2020, after transitioning from commuting by bike a lot of the time and going out places to being home basically all the time.
But after several months of the above 2 changes, all the extra weight was gone.
I'm in my 40's and have never been able to motivate myself to exersize regularily. Until about three years ago when I tied listening to podcasts to going for walks in the middle of the day. Now I walk for an hour a day and hardly notice I'm doing it.
Swap walk out for something else if you like, but for me the absolute key was getting addicted to a bunch of 45 min to 1 hour podcasts and treating myself once a day.
Weight loss, however, starts and ends in the kitchen.
Also worth internalizing: "diet determines size, exercise determines shape"
Even so, I'm still a big dude because I like food. Controlling your diet is equally important, if not more so.
Basically, when I was at home I planned everything I ate. Porridge for breakfast, homemade soup (a batch lasts four days) and bread for lunch and a proper dinner, such as a big batch of curry, chilli, stew (each lasts a few days ) plus veg.
I also exercised. I dusted down the old exercise bike and did 20 minutes most days followed by some basic calisthenics plank, pushups, airbike and crunches. I started with low numbers, so 60-seconds plank, 10 pushups, 15 airbikes, 20 crunches and then every added a few seconds/reps each day. Excel is your friend.
You'll be amazed at how much improvement you can achieve when it is structured over the space of a couple of weeks.
Now I don't really have to move and I'm next to a fridge full of delicious home-cooked food.
I think when choosing where to live, I'd either want to live adjacent to some good hiking trails, or near any body of water. Living in a city wouldn't be good for me, because I don't like going to the gym either.
Bodyweight fitness is a good alternative to the gym - I have some gymnastic rings set up and it's easy to get in a couple of 5-10 minute workouts at random times.
You still want to restrict your calories, but at least when you're working out regularly you can eat a more normal diet and still lose weight.
2. Buy Get Strong by Al and Danny Kavadlo. Start training 3x per week following their Phase 1/Foundation program. Go for a 10-15 min run on your rest days.
3. If you want better results, then buy Overcoming Gravity by Steven Low. Read a bit everyday while doing 2. Once you get the basics, adjust your routine to match your goals.
FWIW the league I joined that I enjoy the most and remain the most involved in is a sport I'd never played before with people I'd never met before. A good league will facilitate meeting people, and there are usually beginner brackets available.
On the off chance you are in a cold weather area and want an outdoor winter sport, I highly recommend looking into platform tennis.
I think most health guidelines recommend at least 30 minutes of walking at a good pace a day. That’s seven days a week and is an easy place to start. Like someone else here I listen to audiobooks and podcasts.
I've been averaging about 8km/day on work days and apart from associated weight loss I noticed that my back doesn't hurt anymore, I can engage my core better and I don't fatigue as much. Sitting for prolonged periods (ie driving) is now acutely uncomfortable.
There are also a lot of other things on there more specifically fitness oriented or that involve more cardio, such as the boxing thing named Creed.
I am still fat honestly. But the good table tennis players on there will definitely make you move around. I am up over a 1900 rating at the moment (very good for me) and making full use of the living room area in the new apartment which since I have almost no furniture is exclusively dedicated to it.
Also there is a recent update to Golf+/Top Golf or whatever that has full courses. And there is a disc golf thing I forget the name.
I'm not a morning person but I try to find the time for a morning walk and get fresh air.
I take long lunch break to do sports or hike, this is my favorite time of the day for physical activities.
Don't be too comfortable sitting in front of the computer, try standing up or kneeling down. Go take a walk or do some exercise if you feel like it.
I'm amazed at how my brain switches on when I'm taking a break with a little sporty walk.
It's yours to find out what suits you the best.
I've tried a few different things, but running is really good calories / hour. Stuff like hiit, swimming, various work out routines can be better, but running is much less complicated and mostly free. I even do it on vacation, because most cities have iconic runs, which are make things interesting.
I also have a squat rack, bench, barbells and do power lifting at home though that fell off in the last year. Goal is to lose weight, walk more, eat less, and lift moderately since I’m on a cut.
I was unable to keep it up at home despite the equipment I had.
Recently I purchased a roll away treadmill and created a treadmill desk set up. I’m finally at least walking 30 minutes a day during the work week, but that’s obviously still not enough.
It’s tough, but the treadmill helps as I can keep working.
But there's more to health than not getting fat, exercising your muscles is important, else you'll lose them and your cholesterol will go to shit (too little of the good one).
Works well for me, but I’m not super into strength training at this time. If I was would prefer a gym membership.
Honestly you just need to do it. Even without equipment you can run, do push ups, crunches, air squats. No excuses for doing nothing in my opinion.
Actually I find it's easier to be active because I have more time and run longer, and in principle I snack less because there are not snacks at my house like at work. I drink more though.
https://darkhorserowing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/rowin...
no weight loss or gain in the last year so far, but I feel better and can lift heavier things.