This forum is dedicated to discussions on how to grow the sport of hang gliding. We will take a methodical approach to collect data and come up with implementable ideas on how to increase our numbers. This includes effective marketing, lead generation, site access issues, improving regulations, lack of instructors, lack of sites, etc

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By Lucky_Chevy
#392680
For those of you that don't know Lostgriz is the proud father of two boys that are very talented wrestlers. I've had a chance to hang out with them on a couple of occasions and they never cease to inspire me. I don't know much about their sport other than it is a combination of technique and strength/weight ratio.

They were talking about cutting weight one day. These boys are in great shape but they have to meet the weight of their bracket. His oldest was saying he couldn't understand why adults couldn't just "stop whining and do it". Those could be the motto of the Christensen household for all I know because they seem to apply them to everything they do.

At 6'-2" and 225lbs I am not "optimized" for hang gliding. I also sit at a desk all day and am not in particularly great shape so I've decided to cut weight in the off season. I'm going to make it to 190 lb by Spring. It won't be easy but I wont whine.

Any fellow big boned pilots out there that want to join me?
By blindrodie
#392683
I'm just at 6' and as winter approaches I too can see the weight creep up on me. I also sit a lot during the day. If I'm not careful I'll easily go over the weight limit of my U2 145 as a pilot with the gear I carry (210 pounds).

Best of luck to you.

8)
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By Helix3
#392688
Count me in. Targeting jettisoning 20 pounds by February.

PMing both you + J my contact info.

We can help keep each other accountable + encouraged.

Great post, Lucky.
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By kukailimoku
#392696
You need a strategy that includes a lifestyle change, something simple and repeatable. Mine revolved around lunch (that big pile of carbs and salt that I ate sitting at my desk). Two changes:

- Switch to raw fruits and vegetables and a small dose of protein (boiled egg, some chicken, etc)
- Get outside and walk. I started slowly and sped up as a I got in better shape.

I still eat "real" food at dinner and on the weekends but I don't have seconds.

One of the dangers is to overdo it and get frustrated, listen to your body and let it pace you. The changes will come slowly but they will come. Patience is your friend. The walk started out as a stroll around the block and as I got healthier I sped things up. In two years time I went from 215 pounds of blob person to 165 pounds of not so blob. I still walk at lunch every day and eat my rabbit food and have maintained the weight within 5 pounds or so for 3 years. I didn't have a "target" weight, I just made the changes and let my body decide.

A couple of nice side effects are more energy in the afternoon at work and more energy on the weekends to go out and do something active. Another is to say bye-bye to blood pressure and cholesterol meds.

So the message is 1) yes you can do it but you have to think of the long term, 2) don't stop when you get thin, you'll get fat again and may even overshoot where you started and 3) there's ALWAYS an excuse to skip the exercise, ignore it and get outside.

Track your progress, I use MapMyWalk. The app tracks your workouts and there's a web site to review.

Now the caveat: talk to your doctor before you start. I didn't and got into some trouble when my blood pressure came down and I was still taking the medication. The combination of the two dropped my BP hard and I got to take a nice little ride in an ambulance.

Good luck!
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By Helix3
#392698
An incredible accomplishment, kuk! Very inspiring.

Food-wise only eating whole foods, nothing processed. Tried cutting out all sugar but like Virgil's root beer + ketchup too much.

Exercise-wise the obstacle was mental. Naturally wake up early but had a mental hangup of needing to wear "running clothes."
Got over that by saying f*ck it, rolling out of bed right when I wake up without giving myself time to think + running in my pjs.

Sometimes it's good to shut the brain up to get sh!t done.
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By Darbbb
#392716
I'm onboard, Dan. After a tough year of little flying, lots of stress dealing with various ailing family members, and eating out for a month because of a torn-up kitchen, mine has crept up again. Let's do it!

Brad
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By Helix3
#392717
Dan/Lucky Chevy - make a Facebook group page! Of course make it private so we can post our fatty photos without censure :wink:
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By kukailimoku
#392722
I think it's important to have a motivator and refer back to it often. For me it was that "before" photo that my brother-in-law took. I knew I was a little overweight but your own body image is seldom accurate. When I saw that pic (and a few more from the same visit) my first thought was "who's that fat bastard with my head on top of his neck?". I printed a couple of the most horrific ones and referred to them often.

For you it might be a great HG shot, one of your wife/kids/whoever you want to stay alive to enjoy, whatever keeps you moving.
By once&future
#392724
Losing weight is a great goal and definitely helps with flying, but sometimes it seems the body sets up roadblocks. I weighed 170 lbs. at age 30 and slowly eased up about a pound a year to the low 190s in my sedentary (and non-flying) 50s.

I set getting back to the weight of my 30's as a goal when I retired at 55, started biking 50 miles a week and got rid of sugary snacks. Within 4 months I was down to 180ish, feeling good and getting back into flying. Then the weight loss just kinda stopped. If I starve myself I can get down to 178 or so and then bounce back up to my stable weight of 180-182. I'm OK at this weight - my harness fits and my glider doesn't feel too small, but my goal of 170 just doesn't feel doable.

All I'm saying is the middle aged body sometimes doesn't comply with all our desires - even if we make a good effort. 25 lbs weight loss would be great for the OP, but if you hit a hard plateau at 15 lbs. (or in my case, 10) don't beat yourself up too hard.
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By Lucky_Chevy
#392725
Ok, I setup a Facebook group called "Cut weight for Hang Gliding - Spring 2017" It's a closed group so we can hide our collective shame. Request to join if you would like. All are welcome.

Spring of 2017 is on March 20th. This is the perfect time of year to lose weight since you will avoid the weight gains that usually come with the eating holidays and can use the gym before the New Year resolution herd.

The first order of business is the toughest. I would like each member to post some photos by next Friday, 10/28/16. Step on the scale and take a picture of the weight and upload it to Facebook. We will upload weight every week to keep each other accountable.

I'm open to ideas for what we can do for exercise and how to verify it.

Also, put on some shorts or swim trunks and have someone take a shirtless full length front, side, and back shot of you. You don't have to post them yet unless you want to but if you lose some big numbers you'll be happy to have some before pictures.


Dan
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By remmoore
#392727
Over this year, I've lost 40 lbs. As someone in my mid-50's I decided I needed to take better care of myself, so I made a simple dietary change.

I now eat no sweets, whatsoever. No candy, cake, ice cream - nothing. I also don't drink soda or alcohol. I eat regular meals, sometimes including foods like pizza, burritos, and burgers. I'm never hungry because I don't skimp on the 3 daily meals, but I generally eat nothing between meals. If I do, its fruits or veggies.

I don't think of it as a temporary diet, but a permanent dietary change. I'm not a particularly sedentary person, but I haven't needed to go on an increased exercise regime to lose weight. After the initial rapid weight loss, it has slowed down to about a pound per month. I know I could tweak my diet further to lose more, or increase my exercise, but I'm doing pretty well right now.

One down side to the weight loss is my harness now has something of an air gap in back, where it didn't before. Maybe I'll need a new one...
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By designbydave
#392728
I've gone from 160-170 range to 130-140 lbs depending on how much bike riding I'm doing at the time. The key really is lifestyle change. Eat less, exercise more. Some tips:

1. Get a calorie counter app and use it. It will be very revealing to see how much energy content there is in the foods you eat. Loosing weight really is just a matter of running a calorie deficit. Burn more energy then you put into your body, loose weight.

2. Find a form of exercise that you truly enjoy. If you love it, it will feel less like a chore. For me, its cycling. I HATE exercising, but love riding my bike. Its a way to trick the body into working out.

3. Fasted cardio in the morning is the best time to burn fat. Wake up. Drink coffee and go ride / run / swim for 1 hour. With no food in your system readily available for energy, your body will be forced to burn fat. This will also train your body to burn a higher percentage of fat versus sugars, which means you'll be able to go harder, and for longer.

4. Get a bike. Forget all this other stuff. Just get a bike. Around the time I started riding and loosing weight a bunch of my friends did the same. They all lost weight. Just get a bike!

5. Throw the scale in the trash (for the first month or so.) Nothing is more demoralizing after a week of eating nothing but grilled chicken and broccoli and seeing that you haven't lost a pound or even gained one. You'll want to say "f*** this, I'm going to Chipotle!" Remember, healthy weight loss is a slow steady process. 1 pound per week or about 5 pounds per month is what you should aim for (unless you are severely overweight or have other weight related health issues.)

1 pound of fat contains about 3500 calories of energy. A typical, medium to hard effort, 1 hour bike ride for me burns about 800 calories. That's 4.375 rides a week, so round up to 5. 5 days a week on with 2 rest days is good plan.

6. Try to cut back the carbs. [Back, not out completely.] Unspent carbs get turned into and stored as fat in the body. Try to limit yourself to one serving of carbs per day (1 bread or bowl of rice, pasta etc.) Unless you are going out on a century bike ride, then you need the carbs!
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By designbydave
#392730
Helix3 wrote:Tried cutting out all sugar but like Virgil's root beer + ketchup too much.
Absolutely cut out the sugary drinks 100%. That includes beer. So sorry guys.

Beverages with calories are in almost all cases empty calories and will just hamper your efforts. That includes sugary sports drinks. Gatorade, Vitamin water etc. If you are doing cardio over 1 hour or so, then yes, you may benefit from electrolytes depending on the activity. Otherwise just stick with water. When I go out for 1 hour bike rides I do only water no matter the intensity. Over 1 hour and I bring a drink mix.

Switch to diet soda. The transition sucks, but once you get use to it you will prefer it and regular soda becomes WAY too syrupy.

Also, try hard candy like Jolly Ranchers to get your sugar fix. Each one has only 23.3 calories and they last a long time.
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By Lucky_Chevy
#392733
Dave,

I always though you would be bigger, must be the big screen. Some great tips. I struggle with getting enough exercise more than a healthy diet.

I enjoy biking but it's tough for me to find the time. It's 7:00 pm and I just got back from work. My day starts at 7:00 am when I start getting ready for work. So, I suppose there is some time in the morning early. I'll have to explore that option a bit.

I'm heartened to know that others share the same struggle. I think if it weren't for hanggliding I would be a lot heavier.
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By kukailimoku
#392735
My day is long as well which is why I plugged the exercise in at lunch. Since I'm not having a sit-down meal I can munch on fruits and veg before and after the lunch hour. When noon rolls around, a few minutes to change into workout gear, 45-50 minutes to get 4 miles in, towel off and change back into work clothes.
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By Aldpal
#392736
Nice to see a positive and beneficial thread. Being able to get back into hang gliding or prolonging how long one is able to indulge in our shared addiction is a great motivator for getting/staying in shape. Despite ongoing hip and back issues the best workouts for me (at 53) have been swimming and rowing (machine or boat) as well as hitting the gym. One great tip that has helped me over the years to not fall out of a workout routine or regimen is to be nearly religious about allocating the time to do what ever your chosen workout is. There are plenty of days that I don't feel like doing a workout such as the gym but I still go and will literally sit there (maybe stretching or whatever) just to keep the routine and mindset going. Very inspirational to see so many taking this up.... Good luck. I could not find any photos of mine but here is a stock photo of my favorite (workout) toy that does not have wings:



See you in the air, Alan
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By Bouyo
#392739
Here's my two cents, as I skinny 30 something who never had to think about it so probably doesn't know anything;

Don't give up eating things you like. Drink beer, whatever. Just ADD veggies/carbs/fruit. You want to fill up on the healthy things, then you won't end up eating trash.

Excercise is the key. If you excercise then you don't want to eat as much, crazy!

The way to excercise WITHOUT EXCERCISING is to take up a competitive sport like Squash, Rock Climbing, Soccer, Badminton, Volley Ball to name a few. Then you'll work your ass off and enjoy it. Life it too short to be running on a tread mill.

Just my two cents.
By Roadrunner
#392746
Well I for one just can not wait to fly my Predator one fifty eight. For, I have lost over one hundred pounds! I can only imagine how much better my sink-Rate will be.

Yes: The thought of how much fun I will have flying my Predator motivates me to fully recover from my injuries. Hell, who knows? I may need to get a Small Predator? I very well might need to get a One Forty Two Predator.
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By TomGalvin
#392760
I'm in. My downfall was multiple external stresses at the same time a few years ago. I could lose 30, but will be happy with 20. As stated above, the key is lifestyle change. It only takes a few weeks to make it second nature. However you do arrange it, the formula is very, very, simple.
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Calories consumed must be less than calories expended.
I said simple, not easy :wink: