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

nytimes.com

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

#131

Post by Zancarius »

ogre_codes wrote: post #102
silicon2401 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. None of what you described changes the example solutions you gave. An alcoholic does ne…

> empathy doesn't cure being overweight or addiction No, but it would prevent a lot of insensitive, boneheaded forum posts. EDIT: Wasn't trying to suggest your post was insensitive or boneheaded.

> EDIT: Wasn't trying to suggest your post was insensitive or boneheaded.

Maybe it wasn't, but I think your original sentiment wasn't far off from my reaction to the same OP.

While I haven't struggled all that much with my weight, I know people who have. One of the most important things for weight loss (and anything else for that matter, up to and including break ups, as was in the original example) is support networks. I learned that lesson rather harshly when I went through a really ugly break up earlier this year.

Humans are social creatures, after all, and I can't fault you for your original response.

We need others around us who are a positive influence.

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

#132

Post by brodouevencode »

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.

Taking your extreme, low population example into account, then yes you are correct.

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

#133

Post by brodouevencode »

plorkyeran wrote: post #103
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".

My personal experience was that it was entirely incorrect. I was gradually gaining weight due to being sedentary and not paying attention to my calorie intake. Once I started exercising regularly I started having to pay attention to my calorie intake because otherwise I didn't eat enough. I significantly outrode my mouth without that even being an explicit goal. I dislike it as an expression because while fixing your…

It comes down to CICO. Burning a 1000 calories on a five mile run will help, and there are lasting metabolic effects from it, but if you have a SAD and consuming 4000 calories per day on fast food then you're not going to outrun it. I daresay my example is more the case than yours.

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

#134

Post by bumby »

brodouevencode wrote: post #133
plorkyeran wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My personal experience was that it was entirely incorrect. I was gradually gaining weight due to being sedentary and not paying attention to my calorie intake. Once I started exercising regularly I started having to pay attention to my calorie intake because otherwise I didn't eat enough. I significantly outrode my mouth without that even being an explicit goal. I dislike it as an expression because while fixing your…

It comes down to CICO. Burning a 1000 calories on a five mile run will help, and there are lasting metabolic effects from it, but if you have a SAD and consuming 4000 calories per day on fast food then you're not going to outrun it. I daresay my example is more the case than yours.

I’ve seen studies that looked at the same calories but different macro profiles that showed different results.

While CICO is a useful generalization, there’s other factors at play like hormones and how our diet affects those other systems

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

#135

Post by fredleblanc »

mxcrossb wrote: post #29
fredleblanc wrote: post #9

A few years ago I decided I was sick of being overweight and decided to make a change. My approach was two-pronged: 1) eat better, 2) exercise. For eating, I cut out as much sugar as I reasonably could. For exercise, I made sure I "moved vigorously" for 30 minutes per day, every day. I was never a runner. And in my early shape, that 30 minutes was just me walking. Eventually, though, I stopped sweating and being out…

I’m jealous, I’ve been jogging since May this year and 5 miles in 35 minutes is way faster than I can go. You could easily break a 20 minute 5k at that pace!

I did one sub-20 5k and know I will never get back to that again. It was pushing it then, and I’m happy I did it, but it crushed me for a week or two. Also, that was treadmill time. I’ve come to learn that outdoor running is much more challenging for me. My best 5k outdoors is 22:46, and that’s good enough for me. :)

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

#136

Post by fredleblanc »

jfengel wrote: post #122
mxcrossb wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m jealous, I’ve been jogging since May this year and 5 miles in 35 minutes is way faster than I can go. You could easily break a 20 minute 5k at that pace!

I've been running for 30 years, and 5 miles in 35 minutes was barely possible at the very peak of my training. There's no chance of pulling it off now, even though I'm in ultramarathon shape. The point being, you run your pace. Congrats on starting and keeping up your running. It's a really good form of exercise -- inexpensive, readily available, and low-overhead. There will always be faster people, and there will al…

Agreed. My note on times wasn’t to brag, but to say that I never thought I’d run that far or that fast. Before this whole ordeal, my fastest mile was in fourth grade and it was 9:12.

And my favorite part of running is waving to other runners running the opposite way. I assume it’s the same way motorcycle people feel when they wave to each other.

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

#137

Post by silicon2401 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #120
silicon2401 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real issue is that sometimes in life you need to have discipline and willpower, and people are very resistant to that idea. I would counter that the advice is helpful, it's just not what people want to hear because it requires more effort than they want to put in.

Look at film reels or images from, say, the 1950s. Better yet find one of relatively rural parts of the US. You'll be hard pressed to find an obese person, yet if you took the same picture today in many of those places you'd see a majority of obese people, many grotesquely so. So what, did people magically lose all willpower and discipline in the past 60 years? Of course not, but we have instead build up a society, b…

> Of course not, but we have instead build up a society, both around industrialized food and sedentary lifestyles, that is basically geared to make people fat.

This is why I said you need willpower and discipline. These are some of the reasons that make them needed for the average person to stay fit.

> "discipline and willpower" may work for any one individual, it is completely useless as societal-wide advice

This is why I address individual readers on HN. I'm not interested in fixing society, but I'm happy to offer my personal experiences if it can help one person out there. There are plenty of people nowadays who combat the idea of accountability, and if that helps others, then great. I believe in accountability, discipline, willpower, etc, and I offer my perspective for others who believe the same

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

#138

Post by brodouevencode »

bumby wrote: post #134
brodouevencode wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It comes down to CICO. Burning a 1000 calories on a five mile run will help, and there are lasting metabolic effects from it, but if you have a SAD and consuming 4000 calories per day on fast food then you're not going to outrun it. I daresay my example is more the case than yours.

I’ve seen studies that looked at the same calories but different macro profiles that showed different results. While CICO is a useful generalization, there’s other factors at play like hormones and how our diet affects those other systems

Yeah this floats around a lot in the bodybuilding/powerlifting/fitness community. The general rule is CICO works for everyone. Because it does.

There are some "cheats" that you can do with macro profiles, especially with no or low carb diets (carnivore/keto), however these solutions rarely work long term, especially in athletic circles. For non-athletes it _might_ work a little longer term but if you look at those studies (with non-athletes) they are very short lived and typically on a very specific cohort. Hormonal levels adapt over time and the initial "gainz" you see are relatively short lived - this is most evident in the studies done on athletes. That and you have to stay on top of your bloodwork. In my personal experience it's about six months. I've tried keto, paleo, and carnivore for fairly long periods of time (paleo is much more forgiving long term for a variety of reasons). There are most certainly diminishing returns. Unfortunately, as I said, there's no long term studies here with large cohorts so it's all anecdotal.

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

#139

Post by silicon2401 »

CogitoCogito wrote: post #119
silicon2401 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. None of what you described changes the example solutions you gave. An alcoholic does ne…

> Only when you know the solution can you work backwards to find the steps to get you there from where you are today I specifically said that the advice was _correct_. My point is that fact isn't that useful. Knowing the solution (i.e. eat less, drink less, think less) is the _easy_ part. It's the part these people have usually been told many times. It's rarely a lack of advice that is missing. It's true that empathy…

> My point is that fact isn't that useful.

Do you think the fact isn't useful to the people who don't know it yet?

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

#140

Post by bumby »

brodouevencode wrote: post #138
bumby wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve seen studies that looked at the same calories but different macro profiles that showed different results. While CICO is a useful generalization, there’s other factors at play like hormones and how our diet affects those other systems

Yeah this floats around a lot in the bodybuilding/powerlifting/fitness community. The general rule is CICO works for everyone. Because it does. There are some "cheats" that you can do with macro profiles, especially with no or low carb diets (carnivore/keto), however these solutions rarely work long term, especially in athletic circles. For non-athletes it _might_ work a little longer term but if you look at those st…

Curious if you've ever heard of any scenarios that could cause long-term hormonal changes? I'm thinking of a Peter Attia podcast where he (anecdotally) noticed that after women have their third child (or so), there's a marked change in their ability for their body to bounce back.
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