Health risk assessment

[DOk1ng]

My program made us do health risk assessment which asked questions like how many times a week you do high intensity and moderate intensity activities that last at least 10 min at a time.

We walk all day at work building up lot of miles per day. We walk sometimes fast but mainly at normal pace.
too tired to go to gym after coming from work.

Thinking about doing some 10min of weight lifting once to twice a week.

As a resident, do we really need to hit gym to be fit? Ours is not a sedentary job at all.

.
Any thoughts ?

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[Winged Scapula]

My program made us do health risk assessment which asked questions like how many times a week you do high intensity and moderate intensity activities that last at least 10 min at a time.

We walk all day at work building up lot of miles per day. We walk sometimes fast but mainly at normal pace.
too tired to go to gym after coming from work.

Thinking about doing some 10min of weight lifting once to twice a week.

As a resident, do we really need to hit gym to be fit? Ours is not a sedentary job at all.

.
Any thoughts ?

My thoughts and experiences are that if you think that the walking around all day, eating hospital food, will allow you to be fit, then you are mistaken.

Every resident I knew who stopped working out gained weight; in some cases, a lot of weight.

Now things may be different with shorter shifts and more sleep but IMHO the "physical activity" of residency is not enough to keep *most* people in shape as they age. Most people need something more aerobic than rounds.

 

[Law2Doc]

Many residents get out of shape or put on weight due to late night eating, free unhealthy foods, and poor sleep hygiene. So yeah, going to a gym once in a while isn't a bad idea. Many people try to rationalize away the need, but once you start justifying not going to the gym it's just as easy to rationalize that pizza and bag of chips as a 2 am dinner.

 

[O2Doc]

Whether you remain "in shape" or not is debatable, but whether you gain weight will mostly depend on how much you're eating. Hospital food, especially the quick kind, is often very calorie-dense.
I brown-bagged boring food that needed no refrigeration throughout many rotations, and actually ended up losing some weight. In my first year I never went within spitting distance of any "real" exercise, and in the second it was mostly occasional horseback riding (which is exercise, sure, but it ain't exactly running).

 

[DOk1ng]

i'm eggetarian ( vegetarian who eats egg ) so not much for me to eat at the hospital.
i eat scrambled egg and grits for breakfast along with soymilk or coffee.
For lunch, if i get one, i eat subway flat bread pizza with il bit of cheese on it.

if i don't get lunch time, then i eat subway flat bread pizza with lil bit of cheese on it for dinner or something i have cooked on off day for dinner or boost drink.

salad bar at my hospital is the worse that i have seen so far because they don't keep beans in the menu.

somedays i just drink milk or eat cereal and milk for lunch because not much for me to eat from the cafeteria and other fastfood menu
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[Winged Scapula]

i'm eggetarian ( vegetarian who eats egg )

So you're a ovo-vegetarian.

salad bar at my hospital is the worse that i have seen so far because they don't keep beans in the menu.

Lack of beans makes a salad bar crap? Hmmm....to each his own I guess; for me, its only having iceberg.

At any rate, time will tell if you put on weight without doing any exercise. There are too many factors (personal metabolic rate, age, tendency to eat just a "little bit" of the constant snacks and free meals around the hospital).

 

[Mattchiavelli]

The walking isn't enough really, unless you came into residency pretty fir with a high resting metabolism. It has less to do with the time spent exercising and more to do with level of exertion- if your heart rate isn't getting up you're really not doing that much exercise. You can get in extra activity by doing things like parking in the far part of the parking lot, taking stairs instead of elevators etc.

Increased calories come from unhealthy free food, poor choices in the cafeteria (check out some basic nutrition stuff that can cut calories from stuff available like a hamburger with no mayo vs a cheeseburger with mayo), stress eating (IVE BEEN ON 6 HOURS AND NOT HAD TIME TO STOP I DESERVE THIS COOKIE!!! type stuff). Not having rep sponsored meals is better too because 9 times out of 10 it was something unhealthy they were bringing in (pizza anyone?)

I kept up my 3-4x a week routing in my preclinical years, clinicals a little less, but once my intern year came around I decided I was too pooped to go very frequently and I gained 10lbs, though I wasn't very judicious with my diet.

 

[jilliumm]

I think it depends on you and your program. I've continued running in residency, but my total mileage is down compared to med school. Our program never has free food or free lunches and we don't have a good meal benefit for residents. I've lost about 6 pounds in the first few months of residency. I find that I'm often too busy to have a proper lunch so I end up eating healthy snack food that I keep at my desk (nuts, fruit, granola bars) and then coming home famished at the end of the day. I'm not the type to over-eat when I'm hungry, so I definitely have a net calorie deficit. My BMI is about 19 now, so I'm trying to work on packing a lunch so that I don't waste away!