ArtVandelay wrote:why should she cook different meals for your father and herself? a diabetic should eat HEALTHY unprocessed low glycemic foods and have no added sugar. that is the ideal diet for anyone, so she should just eat what he eats.

Hehe, read again what I wrote. He has a seriously kickass metabolism, my moms metabolism is like a lot of forty-ish womens, slowing down.

To keep up with his metabolism, he actually has to eat quite a lot of complex carbohydrates AND starch, such as pasta, potatoes, rice, despite his diabetes (I might add here that he is well regulated for the 22nd year running, with no complications, so he is eating as he should be, just to weed out any misconceptions on that point). Precisely the foods my mom really need to cut back on, together with of course the "country-style" gravies and stuff. It's not all bad, it's just not optimal. And part of the problem is my dads diabetes.

So yes, they eat HEALTHY food. But no, if she need to lose weight, she cannot eat the same diets as him, simply because of metabolic differences. Increasing her activity level would help, but she cannot increase that activity enough to compensate for the difference, especially because she has a desk-job, while he has a very physical job.

So, been there, done that, didn't work. That's why we know she cannot lose weight eating what he does.

bird wrote:

John Duffield wrote:My experience says they can't do it. It's hard to imagine for a people "of a certain age" going through the kind of major lifestyle transformation necessary to do all of this.

You 20 and 30 somethings have a relatively simple life and enjoy the carry over of youthful conditioning.

Friends going crazy because Birthday dinners and whatnot they've been attending for years, they don't attend this year because they've got to hit the gym. The pressure can be horrendous. People don't try to understand, they just crank the pressure up higher. They'll have to actually dump some of their friends to get this done. Believe me, I know.

That kind of weight reduction in middle age? You're talking about training three hours a day. I did Kili at the age of 56 training with Yoga and staircase running. Some cycling. That was it. Spent about 3 months training. But I was coming off other training regimens. No weight reduction.

Booo...
I'd have to say this is one of the worst posts I've ever seen on SP. In two years the OP's mom can transform her life. I say go for it!
1st improve diet. No amount of exercise will let you lose weight if you eat too much.
2nd, start getting fit. If the OP's mom is totally out of shape, just start with walking and go from there.
People can transform their bodies and their lives even at a later age. Climbing Kili would be a great goal and accomplishment.

Ha Ha. Worst?

The night I wrote that, my training schedule called for a 5 mile run but I had to go to a Birthday.

John Duffield wrote:That kind of weight reduction in middle age? You're talking about training three hours a day.

Change in diet. Walk 1/2 hour to an hour a day. Lose that much weight in under a year. (My wife did that much with walking 1-2 hours a week, but she was in her mid-30's)

Without any change in diet, 3 hours workout a day equals about a pound every 2-3 days.

Maybe we should define workout.

I'm 60 and hang around with a lot of people who try and have tried at different ages to get in some sort of shape.

Kilimanjaro isn't that easy. You're not going to knock yourself into shape on the mountain.
But it's a fantastic adventure and one of the Seven Summits of the Earth.

I would suppose there are workouts that would lose a pound every 2 - 3 days. Not the kind of workout that would be safe for a previously sedetary middle aged (we have to assume this from the fact they have an adult child) couple. If there was something a half an hour a day lose a pound every 2 - 3 days we could market it. Make a fortune. As noted above, we don't have a lot of info but I'm baselining that we're talking 45 - 50 years of age. At that age, there's no carryover from youth. Everything you have, you have to earn.

For these people, they'd have to start with something to loosen them up. Yoga. Water aerobics. These classes are like an hour and a half each. This would be months. Do you have any idea the crap that builds up in your body when you overeat and do only a little exercise? So an hour and a half class of something stretchy a day. Some endurance stuff. Also, Powerwalking or cycling to start. Force that crap out of your joints, muscles and organs. A year like this and then start to mix in some other stuff. Pilates. Running. Stairs. Weights. Etc Nice and slow. In fact, a case could be made it should almost take them as long to get out of this hole as it took to get into it. The road to Kilimanjaro and other big objectives is littered with people who tried to train too fast and ended up at the doctors.

A lb every 2-3 days with a 3 hour a day workout would mean burning about 500 calories an hour. I agree that that might be a stretch for someone just getting off the couch, but it really isn't much more than a fast walk.

Anyway, my point was that there is no way it takes 3 hours a day to burn off 15-20kg in a "few years". Besides, burning the weight has little to do with getting in shape which is the real issue.

BTW - I didn't say a lb every 2-3 days with 1/2 hour a day. I was talking 3 hours a day without increasing eating.

The OP's mom has about 30-40lbs to lose. At a pound a week, she'd be in fighting shape within a year. Plus she has some fitness base thanks to the yoga and dancing. If she did a 5 hour hike (even on flat terrain), upping it a bit and working on diet should not be to stressful.
Kili 2011 !!!!

mconnell wrote:A lb every 2-3 days with a 3 hour a day workout would mean burning about 500 calories an hour. I agree that that might be a stretch for someone just getting off the couch, but it really isn't much more than a fast walk.

Anyway, my point was that there is no way it takes 3 hours a day to burn off 15-20kg in a "few years". Besides, burning the weight has little to do with getting in shape which is the real issue.

BTW - I didn't say a lb every 2-3 days with 1/2 hour a day. I was talking 3 hours a day without increasing eating.

Ok

I'm not an expert. She did say she was going to show this to them. So I'm talking to them. I never let myself go that much but I'm no spring chicken and I have summited Kilimanjaro at 56. Training 3 hours a day at least. I'm just pointing out that this is total commitment. You're correct that with no other life, it can be done in less than 2 years. I don't think that's realistic. They'll break training here and there and have to work back up.

I thought of that the other day. Someone in my age group said they were going to train for something big. Triathalon or something. I almost said "Yeah, go home dump your wife, tell your kids you don't know them, quit your job and have no friends". Then you can do it.

Three hours a day out of a life is huge. that said, you'll be doing much more than that - at altitude - on Kili. So it makes sense to actually train even more.

Kilimanjaro is a great adventure. I highly recommend you add a 5 or more day Safari. With a 5 day Safari you could see the Ngorongoro crater and spend a couple of days on the Serengeti . This is really like a once in a lifetime adventure to take.

With regard to your mother I think it would be wise for you to consider more days on the Kilimanjaro climb. All the guide companies say that you can climb any of the routes in 5 or 6 days. However the success rate is much lower. An 8 day trip would dramatically improve your chances of reaching the summit. On a six day trip you typically drive from your hotel at maybe 3,000 feet, start up the trailhead at 6,000 feet and in less than 96 hours from leaving your hotel you are trying to get to 19,340 feet.

This is really tough on the body no matter how good of shape you are in. It will cost more to extend to 7 or 8 days but compared to the overall trip costs with the added success rate I think it’s well worth it.

On the site below this guide service has a really nice FAQ section including more information on how many days to take.
http://7summits.com/kilimanjaro/trips_faq.php?list=subcategory&catnr=5&nr=3
I don’t know anything about their service so I would not recommend them either way.

Depending on what service you go through you may be able to have private trip. When my wife and I climbed in 2001 there were no other clients in our group. For just the two of us we had 3 porters, 1 cook, 1 assistant guide and 1 guide. Never have I felt so pampered in the wilderness.

Good luck

bodyresults wrote:Kilimanjaro is a great adventure. I highly recommend you add a 5 or more day Safari. With a 5 day Safari you could see the Ngorongoro crater and spend a couple of days on the Serengeti . This is really like a once in a lifetime adventure to take.

With regard to your mother I think it would be wise for you to consider more days on the Kilimanjaro climb. All the guide companies say that you can climb any of the routes in 5 or 6 days. However the success rate is much lower. An 8 day trip would dramatically improve your chances of reaching the summit. On a six day trip you typically drive from your hotel at maybe 3,000 feet, start up the trailhead at 6,000 feet and in less than 96 hours from leaving your hotel you are trying to get to 19,340 feet.

This is really tough on the body no matter how good of shape you are in. It will cost more to extend to 7 or 8 days but compared to the overall trip costs with the added success rate I think it’s well worth it.

On the site below this guide service has a really nice FAQ section including more information on how many days to take.
http://7summits.com/kilimanjaro/trips_faq.php?list=subcategory&catnr=5&nr=3
I don’t know anything about their service so I would not recommend them either way.

Depending on what service you go through you may be able to have private trip. When my wife and I climbed in 2001 there were no other clients in our group. For just the two of us we had 3 porters, 1 cook, 1 assistant guide and 1 guide. Never have I felt so pampered in the wilderness.

Good luck

All good advice.

+1

Just wanted to reply to this topic one last time (I'm doing surgery classes at the moment, so time is not something I have oceans of right now, hence the late reply).


Again thank you to all the people giving advice on how to progress from a pretty sedentary life to a much more active lifestyle in preparation for Kili. I'm confident we'll make it to the top some time, but as somebody mentioned, it's not something we're gonna do as fast as possible, simply because we've all got fulltime jobs or education, and simply cannot devote a year solely to training. So it will be a gradual step-up.

About the duration of the Kili attempt, I have already decided to make it at least 8 days, maybe 9, to increase our summit probability, and also to increase our enjoyment, give us time to actually percieve where we are

So, once again, thank you for all the tips, they will come in handy I'm sure

Now, back to surgery

Lots of people on here with very busy schedules. You just need to find something you can do consistently without burning out. I only bike once a week and hike on weekends; that's enough to stay in decent shape for me.

I am type 1 and have never had any exacerbated altitude effects. My wife who is non diabetic somehow is much more sensitive than I and for that reason 12k is the highest I have been able to get, since she is my climbing partner.

I would say that if he is in good shape, used to exercise and the inherent glucose monitoring that go with that, then he should not have any problems. On the other hand, it is different for everyone but he shouldnt experience anything so sudden that he couldn't safely turn around.

What type of insulins is he on? Pump or injections? I take injections but NEVER EVER take fast acting insulin while hiking because my sensitivity increases a lot. Obviously he should talk to his endo about it but the bottom line is to be sensitive and aware. How well he can do that depends on a lot of variables.

Clear as mud, but thats a start.

Steve