What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise • Hacker News Board

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#41

Post by noja » Sat, Oct 07, 2017, 6:36 PM UTC

jedrek wrote: post #21

I think it's amazing the way we've completely sidelined physical activity - not exercise per se, but any physical activity - in our western lives. Unless you live without a car, there is no requirement for you to walk more than 1000 steps during the day. Wake up, drive to work, sit at your desk, drive to a restaurant for dinner, drive home, plop down on your couch. Rinse, repeat. Even if you do decide to work out, it…

> in our western lives

Which western lives?

> Unless you live without a car, there is no requirement

Requirement? Choice. That's what counts.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#42

Post by jasonwelk » Sat, Oct 07, 2017, 6:43 PM UTC

throwaway0255 wrote: post #38

jcousins wrote: post #16

I reversed diabetes with diet alone by doing my own research[1], taking charge of my health. I lost 180lbs in the process. No exercise (disabled). Very much a work in progress. I'm not rejecting the importance of exercise for health - I follow the general principal of eating to get healthy, exercising to get fit - but I think we skip over the absolute tragedy that is the Standard American Diet at our peril. Recoverin…

I'm on the same track as you, I've lost about 80lbs so far and I've done zero exercise. I've found that when I tell people this, they worry about my health even more than they did when I was 80lbs heavier. It's bizarre. Never mind the fact that my blood pressure is now a pristine 110 over 70, all my pre-diabetic symptoms have disappeared, my sleep apnea is cured, my gastroesophageal reflux disease is completely gone,…

> An hour spent being extremely bored and uncomfortable

In the beginning, this is often true. But exercise is addictive! When your body gets used to it, you really want it and it is not uncomfortable. That "runners high" is also not a myth.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#43

Post by dyarosla » Sat, Oct 07, 2017, 6:44 PM UTC

throwaway0255 wrote: post #38

jcousins wrote: post #16

I reversed diabetes with diet alone by doing my own research[1], taking charge of my health. I lost 180lbs in the process. No exercise (disabled). Very much a work in progress. I'm not rejecting the importance of exercise for health - I follow the general principal of eating to get healthy, exercising to get fit - but I think we skip over the absolute tragedy that is the Standard American Diet at our peril. Recoverin…

I'm on the same track as you, I've lost about 80lbs so far and I've done zero exercise. I've found that when I tell people this, they worry about my health even more than they did when I was 80lbs heavier. It's bizarre. Never mind the fact that my blood pressure is now a pristine 110 over 70, all my pre-diabetic symptoms have disappeared, my sleep apnea is cured, my gastroesophageal reflux disease is completely gone,…

Just wanted to point out- 350 cal/hour is inaccurately low for even light exercise, and exceptionally low if you are overweight.

Properly doing exercise and keeping at it won't result in joint pains or aches, and may also uplift your mood due to endorphins+more.

IMO your reasoning for avoiding exercise should be revisited.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#44

Post by jdc » Sat, Oct 07, 2017, 6:44 PM UTC

dennis_jeeves wrote: post #40

jcousins wrote: post #16

I reversed diabetes with diet alone by doing my own research[1], taking charge of my health. I lost 180lbs in the process. No exercise (disabled). Very much a work in progress. I'm not rejecting the importance of exercise for health - I follow the general principal of eating to get healthy, exercising to get fit - but I think we skip over the absolute tragedy that is the Standard American Diet at our peril. Recoverin…

Exercise is probably over rated is my opinion. Moderate activity like not being a couch potato, and walking around is probably good enough for most people rather than vigorous exercise. Also correlation is confused with causation. The person who is is not active is not necessarily lazy. It the the probably obesity and ill health that makes him/her inactive. Personally I'm on a ketogenic ( about 60 %to 90% calories fr…

Would you say it's just a matter of calories in minus calories out?

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#45

Post by musage » Sat, Oct 07, 2017, 6:45 PM UTC

frankzander wrote: post #34

DoodleBuggy wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this. If you like animals and are responsible enough to have what amounts to a light version of a child, then dogs are excellent for encouraging activity since they require daily walks.

"light version of a child" is funny :) It's like a child but without the stress ;)

I agree and disagree. A well-treated animal does require attention and some effort, but I agree it causes no stress, to the contrary. But they're like children who never grow up and will always need you or someone who loves them from the bottom of their heart when you're gone (maybe not so much with, say, lizards, but certainly with dogs and to a lesser degree cats). I don't mean this as a negative per se, I just needed to say that as soon as I saw "light version of a child". When my cats died, I thought what it might be like to have children, and I nearly swooned. But then I thought how much better it is for them to have lived a full life and die on me, than the other way around, and that's certainly not how it would feel with children.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#46

Post by sonthonax » Sat, Oct 07, 2017, 6:48 PM UTC

throwaway0255 wrote: post #38

jcousins wrote: post #16

I reversed diabetes with diet alone by doing my own research[1], taking charge of my health. I lost 180lbs in the process. No exercise (disabled). Very much a work in progress. I'm not rejecting the importance of exercise for health - I follow the general principal of eating to get healthy, exercising to get fit - but I think we skip over the absolute tragedy that is the Standard American Diet at our peril. Recoverin…

I'm on the same track as you, I've lost about 80lbs so far and I've done zero exercise. I've found that when I tell people this, they worry about my health even more than they did when I was 80lbs heavier. It's bizarre. Never mind the fact that my blood pressure is now a pristine 110 over 70, all my pre-diabetic symptoms have disappeared, my sleep apnea is cured, my gastroesophageal reflux disease is completely gone,…

An hour of intense exercise will burn roughly a thousand calories.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#47

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 07, 2017, 6:48 PM UTC

throwaway0255 wrote: post #38

jcousins wrote: post #16

I reversed diabetes with diet alone by doing my own research[1], taking charge of my health. I lost 180lbs in the process. No exercise (disabled). Very much a work in progress. I'm not rejecting the importance of exercise for health - I follow the general principal of eating to get healthy, exercising to get fit - but I think we skip over the absolute tragedy that is the Standard American Diet at our peril. Recoverin…

I'm on the same track as you, I've lost about 80lbs so far and I've done zero exercise. I've found that when I tell people this, they worry about my health even more than they did when I was 80lbs heavier. It's bizarre. Never mind the fact that my blood pressure is now a pristine 110 over 70, all my pre-diabetic symptoms have disappeared, my sleep apnea is cured, my gastroesophageal reflux disease is completely gone,…

[deleted]

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#48

Post by hellofunk » Sat, Oct 07, 2017, 6:50 PM UTC

throwaway0255 wrote: post #38

jcousins wrote: post #16

I reversed diabetes with diet alone by doing my own research[1], taking charge of my health. I lost 180lbs in the process. No exercise (disabled). Very much a work in progress. I'm not rejecting the importance of exercise for health - I follow the general principal of eating to get healthy, exercising to get fit - but I think we skip over the absolute tragedy that is the Standard American Diet at our peril. Recoverin…

I'm on the same track as you, I've lost about 80lbs so far and I've done zero exercise. I've found that when I tell people this, they worry about my health even more than they did when I was 80lbs heavier. It's bizarre. Never mind the fact that my blood pressure is now a pristine 110 over 70, all my pre-diabetic symptoms have disappeared, my sleep apnea is cured, my gastroesophageal reflux disease is completely gone,…

> I want to start doing some physical activities soon, but that's not going to cause me to be less depressed

How do you know?

I think you are being unfair to yourself to so easily dismiss what exercise can do for your moods. When I'm feeling down, getting my heart rate up for 45 minutes totally turns around the day. I don't know the exact reason, maybe all the rapid blood flow or found energy, whatever it is, it is not a reaction I get from anything else.

An article was shared here recently how so many great artists and scientists in the past were slaves to a ritual of long stretches of physical activity every day. It really changes how your brain works.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#49

Post by randallsquared » Sat, Oct 07, 2017, 6:53 PM UTC

jasonwelk wrote: post #42

throwaway0255 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm on the same track as you, I've lost about 80lbs so far and I've done zero exercise. I've found that when I tell people this, they worry about my health even more than they did when I was 80lbs heavier. It's bizarre. Never mind the fact that my blood pressure is now a pristine 110 over 70, all my pre-diabetic symptoms have disappeared, my sleep apnea is cured, my gastroesophageal reflux disease is completely gone,…

> An hour spent being extremely bored and uncomfortable In the beginning, this is often true. But exercise is addictive! When your body gets used to it, you really want it and it is not uncomfortable. That "runners high" is also not a myth.

I'm willing to grant that this must be true for some people. However, I don't think it's true for everyone, or maybe even most people. In the early 90s I was in the US Army for a couple years, and exercise never got better: it was always a struggle: boring, painful, and stressful. I suppose one good thing about it was that it was very rare that anything worse happened to me later in the day... :)

Looking around at the PT groups I was in during that time, I do not think most of them were looking forward to it.

Re: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise

#50

Post by dennis_jeeves » Sat, Oct 07, 2017, 6:53 PM UTC

jdc wrote: post #44

dennis_jeeves wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exercise is probably over rated is my opinion. Moderate activity like not being a couch potato, and walking around is probably good enough for most people rather than vigorous exercise. Also correlation is confused with causation. The person who is is not active is not necessarily lazy. It the the probably obesity and ill health that makes him/her inactive. Personally I'm on a ketogenic ( about 60 %to 90% calories fr…

Would you say it's just a matter of calories in minus calories out?

>Would you say it's just a matter of calories in minus calories out?

Strictly speaking , yes, Otherwise, no it is not. If one were to really calculate calories in/out that would be really complicated: you have to consider many factors for example energy required to digest food, energy extracted from the food, energy lost as body heat etc. as far as I vaguely recollect, even something like body heat burns more calories that vigorous exercise.

In general the calorie obsession is nonsense. Just because some scientific sounding jargon is thrown in does not make it well thought off. On a 'good' diet most people will never have to count the calories. Again the takeaway should be that you can fool most people, most of the time. Treat any subject that has popular endorsement with skepticism.