Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 145 posts

Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week

#91

Post by lotsofpulp »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #59
lotsofpulp wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only because the purpose of modern life is to work rather than working to live life. There’s no need for people to work 8 to 10 hours a day, and commute 30+ min in an automobile. Rather than use our technological efficiencies to improve quality of life now, we use them to compete with others to increase probability of securing quality of life in the future.

We only use them to compete with others because others use them to compete with us, keep up or starve. The equilibrium is whatever people are willing to do, strangely meaning that nobody has a choice in this thing that we’ve all chosen. No idea how to switch to new dynamics so that defecting (in the sense of working less) is the stable equilibrium.

You have to legislate standards. For example, overtime payrate multipliers after 6 hours of work in a day / 24 hours in a week / 4 days in a week. Minimum PTO accrual such that people get at least 30 days per year.

Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week

#92

Post by bumby »

vsareto wrote: post #87
brodouevencode wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you're getting downvotes, but this is correct. Though I've heard it as "you can't outrun your s----y diet".

You can move furniture 40 hours a week and definitely outrun a shitty diet.

Many of us did so when we were young but I doubt many can do so for any longitudinal period without deleterious health effects.

Try not to take it quite so literally. The point is it’s much more work to overcome a poor diet with exercise than the other way around.

Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week

#93

Post by yuribro »

scns wrote: post #84
mybandisbetter wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it is true that exercise cannot solve excessive calorie consumption (since exercising makes us eat more), it is important for weight management. A lack of exercise screws with the body's feedback loops, undermining its "metabolic flexibility": its ability to handle sugar and fat efficiently. Let's take a look at just one perverse feedback loop. When your body has a glucose spike, it is very important that its b…

John Berardi did his Phd on the optimal post workout drink: 50g of glucose and 30g of whey protein.

This general statement makes no sense. How can it not depend on the size of the person? What about the other food he consumed in that day, or the goal. Does a powerlifter needs the same outcome as a climber? Is it the same for someone which tries to lose weight?

Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week

#94

Post by 0x2d123 »

I think focusing on losing weight is a trap too many people end up falling into. It's just a number. You can lose weight by chopping off a limb or two. Weighing yourself every single day isn't too useful either, because water weight can fluctuate too much from my own experience. On the other hand, gaining muscle weight is something to be happy about for most people, so it's counterintutiive if you're busting your ass training thinking you're going to lose weight and end up gaining or reaching equilibrium by losing fat and also gaining muscle at the same time. A more meaningful goal would be aiming to lower bodyfat percentage, which is what most people are actually after. But most people don't learn to measure bodyfat percentage at home. A scale is just the easiest way. I say, throw away the scale. My mindset is that I'm working out is becuase I'm trying to become stronger, and so that my body can handle more work. This way I can do more things that I enjoy doing. I try to eat healthier because it just feels good. Sometimes I may not eat as healthy, because that felt good at the time. Making skillful use of cheat days is important, because if you burn out and quit training or dieting, it's downhill from there. My philosophy on diet is that, having special days to enjoy not so healthy, delicious food makes that food even more enjoyable compared to eating that way everyday and feeling like crap.

Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week

#95

Post by ogre_codes »

laichzeit0 wrote: post #89
ogre_codes wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever struggled with weight loss? I mean serious 60-80 pounds overweight and done it successfully? I've spent 30 years bouncing between 260 and 185 pounds. Every single time I've successfully lost weight it started with exercise. Diet alone has absolutely never worked for me.

It’s important to separate the mechanism of weight loss from the method you use to achieve it. The mechanism is consuming less calories than you’re expending. How you do that is up to you. For example, I’ve lost weight on a fast-food only diet, because I like eating burgers and pizza. I just make sure I’m consuming less than 2200 calories, which puts me at approximately 15% caloric deficit. If you want to eat more, s…

> It’s important to separate the mechanism of weight loss from the method you use to achieve it.

I think it's far more important knowing what actions work for an individual to achieve weight loss. Most everyone knows that X calories in and X calories is the end target. Knowing how you can reach that balance is the hard part.

Every time I see some kind of forum about weight loss there are a million people popping in talking about "Putting the fork down" or "Calories In < Calories Out". But this is worthless because in the end, having a solution that a person is capable of doing is far more important than theory.

Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week

#96

Post by p1esk »

supernova87a wrote: post #27

I wanted to not have to wonder why my weight was suddenly 30 pounds more than in college, without me remembering how that ever happened. I started exercising with some light running, gym use, breaking a little sweat. Didn't do anything, didn't show any noticeable result over like 4 months. Then I hopped on a rowing machine (above preparation probably helped to be ready for it) because I wanted to see something happen…

+1 for a rowing machine. I started ~3 weeks ago, at first could barely do 5 minutes. Now I do 20. One thing to keep in mind is the weight might not change much because while fat is going away, muscle mass increases.

Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week

#97

Post by CogitoCogito »

ogre_codes wrote: post #53

I see a lot of comments from people I suspect have never struggled with weight loss here. "Put the fork down" is easy advice, but for many it's a lot more challenging than it sounds. For me, and I suspect a lot of people, focusing on exercise first is the key. I can plot the number of miles I post on the bike against my weight. Of course I absolutely do more than 300 minutes a week on the bike. Diet is super importan…

"Eat less" is the correct advice for weight less just like "don't drink" is for alcoholics and "don't think of him" is for someone going through a breakup. It's just basically useless advice totally lacking empathy. People are different. They have different bodies, different psychological dispositions, different experiences, etc. I think more people should ask themselves some basic questions. What would need to happen in my life to put me in the position of being 100 pounds overweight? What type of person would I be? How would it feel to try to fight my way back? How can I gain a bit of perspective?

Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week

#99

Post by wruza »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #91
6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We only use them to compete with others because others use them to compete with us, keep up or starve. The equilibrium is whatever people are willing to do, strangely meaning that nobody has a choice in this thing that we’ve all chosen. No idea how to switch to new dynamics so that defecting (in the sense of working less) is the stable equilibrium.

You have to legislate standards. For example, overtime payrate multipliers after 6 hours of work in a day / 24 hours in a week / 4 days in a week. Minimum PTO accrual such that people get at least 30 days per year.

Then this elevates to international and there are nations that just wouldn’t do that.

Re: To Lose Weight with Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week

#100

Post by reportingsjr »

kwkelly wrote: post #39
cududa wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to your chart and a full size Milky Way being 240 calories, it’s more like 30 minutes

It could be even more wrong. Running burns around 100kcal/mile[1], so assuming a fairly pedestrian 8min/mile, that's only 20 minutes. [1]: https://apnews.com/article/51de4cba6ffe48b0886cf9b2c7a6ba8a

An 8 minute mile is definitely not fairly pedestrian. Someone who is out of shape and trying to lose weight is probably going to be doing 13-18 minute miles typically.
Post reply on HN