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

theguardian.com

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

#51

Post by WalterBright »

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've been jogging for a long time. For the first year, I had to force myself to do it. After that, I was surprised to find I started enjoying it, looking forward it, and missing it if I didn't do it.

I don't try very hard at it, I'm not running against time, I just jog and don't worry about it.

As for boredom, the opposite happens to me. I find I think better while jogging. I work on programming bugs while jogging, and often find solutions that eluded me while sitting at my desk. I write articles and compose presentations while jogging. It's often my most intellectually productive time of the day.

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

#53

Post by jasonwelk »

randallsquared wrote: post #49
jasonwelk wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 th…

Just guessing, but maybe a difference between recreational exercise by choice vs duty or imposed regimen. Or perhaps just having choice over the kind of exercise makes a difference.

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

#54

Post by WalterBright »

randallsquared wrote: post #49
jasonwelk wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 th…

I've never been able to reach a point where weight training is anything but boring and painful. The trouble is it requires mental focus, and I cannot think about other things while lifting.

I try to mitigate the boredom by watching a movie while doing it.

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

#55

Post by reese_john »

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?

Being on a caloric deficit is a sufficient condition for weight loss[0]. The composition of your diet will determine what ratio of it is actually fat/lean body mass, ie diets higher in protein will usually yield higher fat loss and keep more LBM. Exercise/resistance training is also a factor.

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1734671

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

#56

Post by Waterluvian »

I've moved from an apartment to a house, which means I have two staircases I traverse daily, a small lawn to mow, and a few other things like that.

It's amazing to me what even a slight bit of regular activity can do. It just feels good to be even a little active on a regular basis. I feel so much more ready to move.

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

#57

Post by Boothroid »

pjc50 wrote: post #29
mendelsd wrote: post #9

This is a UK article, and I'm going to post a UK-centric, male-centric comment (as a UK-based man), but I suspect my comment applies to both genders, and to many health systems around the world. I don't doubt exercise is extremely valuable, and that everyone should be following the advice in TFA. However, I am starting to think that lifestyle recommendations are a way for a public health system to wash its hands of i…

I've heard that the UK sets its hypothyroidism threshold lower than other countries, so it's harder to get treated. But I don't have the stats to hand. > When it comes to chronic conditions and diseases of old age, you (or nobody) are the principal investigator. Well put. This is very important no matter what system you're in. It's a real problem when mental health conditions impair your judgement and ability to make…

Indeed, I used to have a non-British girlfriend and there seemed to be many cases like this where they will happily treat you outside the UK, but the NHS stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that perhaps the rest of the world has it right, and perhaps the NHS has it wrong. I suspect some important prof somewhere made a call at some point and now cannot go back on it case of losing face..

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

#59

Post by throwaway0255 »

sonthonax wrote: post #46
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 of intense exercise will burn roughly a thousand calories.

> People have a tendency to dramatically overestimate the calories they're burning

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

#60

Post by uoaei »

tu7001 wrote: post #6

Exposure to weather conditions, hot and cold is also critical.

Anecdote time here, but spending some time in a steam room and then entering a cold bath, and doing this 3 times or so, feels like a great cardio workout without the muscle soreness. There's definitely a lot of energy expended, particularly by the circulatory system, in keeping one's core temperature more or less stable.
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