Sensitive Topic: Rider Weight/Fitness

[Christmascinnamoncookie]

I think riding helps, plus the associated half a mile to catch in, back up a hill, mucking out, setting fair the muckheap, filling haynets, hauling bales of shavings etc. When I dropped a lot of weight pre-accident, I was playing badminton against someone slightly better than me, so being made to run a lot, swimming 50 lengths and doing epic dog walks. I am currently being really careful with food, stopped drinking and eating treats, I need to get back to exercise, I'm pretty sure I want to have some lessons eventually (faint, never thought I'd say that!)

 

[SOS]

Weight management is simply calories in vs calories out. In theory you can eat roughly 1800-2000 calories a day and then use that just living a normal lifestyle, weight will stay steady. If you eat less calories and burn more calories you will lose weight and visa versa. Obviously hormones etc can affect this.

However I could live off donuts, ice cream and fast food and as long as I ate less calories than what I burnt I would lose weight. So I don’t agree that exercise can’t outweigh a bad diet. However in reality, I’d feel like rubbish, have low energy, as none of it is slow release, and be much more likely to eat in excess.

I think owning horses keeps us in a more active lifestyle - in theory - but it is raising your heart rate that makes your body work faster and burn more calories. As we get fitter to our lifestyle we burn less calories doing the same work. I rarely raise my heart rate riding or doing chores - which is a shame!

What horses do for me is take up a lot of time, which is less time shoving food in my gob. When I was grooming I was very slim and fit, despite my diet being pretty bad, because I had such little time (and money!!) to eat and was consuming less calories than I used. As above, this could have made me feel rubbish and lead me to eat more, and ultimately eat more calories than I burnt. In the end it was going to WFH that ruined me, accessibility to food and ultimately eating in excess for my movement.

I’m pleased to say in the last year I have lost a significant amount of weight using the above theory!

 

[paddy555]

Afraid I can’t help with the science but from personal observation….all my bunch of riding buddies are well over 65, some still compete/hunt but most just hack and school. All are very slim and very fit for age. Apart from riding out most days the common factor is keeping horses at home (or on rented land) so have to do all work ourselves - stable, pasture management, carrying water when pipes frozen, weeding, fixing fences, washing horse box….
Throw in dog walking, gardening and weekly Pilates classes there is very little time in the day to eat much at all. Sounds flippant but actually scarily accurate! I suspect it’s all the ancillary activities that help to not put on weight rather than actual riding.

very much this. I'm well over 65 and have very good muscle strength acquired over the years from stable work plus unloading and throwing up hay, hedgetrimming above my head and all the fetching and carrying involved in keeping horses at home and field maintenance, cutting firewood etc. Unloading bags of feed is 10 bags or so at the time plus shavings. OH is a lot older and has similar muscle strength from doing similar.

I guess this is the equivalent of weight lifting in the gym.

I think it really is a case of "use it or lose it". It is easy to maintain but so hard to get it back once lost.
I don't think you get much from the actual riding as you have built up the muscle/core strength over the years so regular riding just maintains it.

I also get off and walk beside the horse on rides so that is a bit of exercise but that is my lot. I could walk 10 miles easily but no way could I run it.

the ancillary work takes up a lot of "eating time" but I find as long as I eat the most suitable foods I don't get hungry and sometimes even have to remember to come in and eat.. Having suitable snacks available to grab also helps to avoid weight gain and also not having "poor" foods in the house. If we don't have it I can't eat it.

 

[Bob notacob]

One point I would like to raise is that you can be putting on weight and still suffer from malnutrition. The energy content of a foodstuff is just one aspect .If it lacks ,for example ,sufficient protein ,of the correct amino acid constitution especially those essential ones. The same with the vitamins ,mins and other micronutrients we keep discovering. So many vegetables for example ,are bred for weight not nutritional quality. Fast grown ,the equivalent of s23 ryegrass against meadow grasses (dont forget I am an Irish Draught and we know about food!) Back in the day, the old Irish Lumper potato was vastly different nutritionally from the modern supermarket junk. Your body (even humans) will demand that you keep eating to meet the nutritional needs long after the energy need has been met . So you get .......in show condition .!!!!!!!!I have tried so hard to get mike to eat better but (and I cannot believe this) after loosing a stone and a half HE BOUGHT A PACKET OF JAM DOUNUTS!!!!!!! Useless!

 

[HopOnTrot]

I think walking in hand rehab has done more for my fitness than riding BUT when I have a RS lesson I work harder than I do on a lesson with my own horse as it costs so much!

I don’t think general horse ownership is that labour intensive but doing rehab I’ve got my 10,000 step in most days.

 

[HopOnTrot]

Even when in a full rheumatoid arthritis flare I’ve been able to keep on top of yard jobs/poo picking and light hacking.

 

[lynz88]

I'm a fan of diet and nutrition studies. There's plenty of evidence that exercise does very little for long term weight loss. Yes you can starve yourself and exercise loads and it'll come off but it's not sustainable.

People who exercise a lot tend to sleep deeper for longer, fidget less and often eat more. If they exercise to excess their reproductive system will pause and their immune function will diminish. Most of the calories you burn are just to stay alive.

I saw a great study comparing an office worker to an elite athlete to a hunter gatherer and over 6 months they burned the same calories relative to their sizes. (wish I could find this again, leave a link if you know!).

I have seen friends lose weight when they've bought a horse or dog and they put it down to the extra exercise but I think it also stops you snacking and eating from boredom.

Despite having 3 horses on DIY and riding 2 of them regularly I think I am unfit and losing strength as I get older, although I'm a reasonable weight. I know I should do something about this but really don't have the time or energy.

It depends on what you mean by diet and exercise...if you are talking about making a healthy leap into eating properly - i.e. making your own food, plenty of veggies, fruit, protein, etc. and exercising properly - i.e. not going to the gym and mindlessly lifting some weights or doing 100 million useless crunches or a cardio class but barely moving (and not out of breath) like what I see a lot of people doing, then that's completely different. I do see a lot of people going to the gym, doing a workout of some sort, and then going for a McDonalds or some other highly processed terrible food choice thinking they've "earned" it via their workout. Once in a blue moon, fine, but if doing regularly, the body can't actually utilize that food properly and no matter the exercise, you gain weight.

I do tend to agree though and think that a large part of having a horse, dog, etc. and losing weight does come down to being too busy to eat out of bordem.

 

[nikkimariet]

I think a lot of people don’t sweat enough. In general and also in the saddle.