'were small and not meaningful' why is this on the front page of HN?
The perennial question.
Well, at least it’s spurred intellectually curious discussion.
Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)
121–130 of 194 posts
Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The fat loss is simple energy expenditure. But it's not, unless there is a calorie deficit. If you do aerobic exercise, almost all the energy comes from burning fat. Because your body will have used very little glucose, you're unlikely to feel particularly hungry after that exercise. If you do anaerobic exercise, almost all the energy comes from glycogen stores. Your body will crave carbohydrates immediately after…
"If you do aerobic exercise, almost all the energy comes from burning fat. " This is directionally incorrect. Your body will burn both concurrently. For low intensity aerobic exercise, fat is used as the dominant energy source. However even at moderate intensity levels like jogging and "zone 2" aerobic you are 50/50. At higher intensity you have crossed the inflection point and are using more glycogen than not. All s…
> This is directionally incorrect. Your body will burn both concurrently.
For aerobic exercise, your body gets around 95% of the energy from burning fat. If you are doing exercise where you are 50/50, then it is by definition no longer aerobic exercise but anaerobic.
Anaerobic exercise starts at the point that your body is forced to use glucose from glycogen to provide energy because you have reached the limit of the energy your body can produce from burning fat, because your body can't provide oxygen at the rate required to do so.
Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
HIIT is a borderline strength training. Consider Tabata protocol. It is supermaximal effort protocol, participants are required to exert maximum effort repeatedly. The duration of active phase of Tabata is 20 seconds, half of approximately 40 seconds after which maximum performance (power output) drops significantly, because body switches to a different energy system. In my experience, Tabata squats are done in range…
So that’s for building muscle, but what about if you wanted to lose a few kilos and increase endurance for long distance running? What would be the way to go to optimise your time?
Overnight hiking. It's not boring, and you get 7 hours of hiking in with a backpack per day.
Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The fat loss is simple energy expenditure. But it's not, unless there is a calorie deficit. If you do aerobic exercise, almost all the energy comes from burning fat. Because your body will have used very little glucose, you're unlikely to feel particularly hungry after that exercise. If you do anaerobic exercise, almost all the energy comes from glycogen stores. Your body will crave carbohydrates immediately after…
Can you clarify your last paragraph, looks like there’s a typo or grammatical error that states the same outcome for both arguments put forward in the preceding paragraphs.
I can't edit it now as it was posted more than 2 hours ago, but good spot.
"anerobic exercise and aerobic exercise" should have read "anerobic exercise compared to anaerobic exercise".
Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, but past recommendations for older adults (note that the average age in the study was 72 years old) were towards "gentle" or moderate exercise. We're seeing a shift now towards recommending real weight lifting and higher intensity as we age. ("Real" -> closer to powerlifting in terms of goals and methods)
It says nothing about weightlifting. The high intensity training is on a treadmill. Also, "changes were small and not clinically meaningful compared with exercise of lower intensity and considering measurement error." The study is really not noteworthy and certainly not a basis for changing any population wide recommendations.
I'm giving context for why a study of higher intensity cardio -in older people- might be interesting to people, and why it's not just "exercise good"
Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Erm that's higher than the healthy BMI range, so not "fairly light". >25 is considered overweight.
My BMI is 28.7 at 181cm and 94kg at 45.25 years old. Am I overweight, not far off obesity? You probably wouldn’t say so if you saw me. BMI is mostly only a useful metric when it is.
I'm with ya at 29.4. I carry a lot more muscle than the average populace, so I'm both high BMI and appear to be "fit" to casual onlookers. But dexa says 26% which is about double what I would like.
Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
So that’s for building muscle, but what about if you wanted to lose a few kilos and increase endurance for long distance running? What would be the way to go to optimise your time?
Overnight hiking. It's not boring, and you get 7 hours of hiking in with a backpack per day.
And if you're Andrew Skurka, in peak form, you'll get 15 hours in per day.
Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, but past recommendations for older adults (note that the average age in the study was 72 years old) were towards "gentle" or moderate exercise. We're seeing a shift now towards recommending real weight lifting and higher intensity as we age. ("Real" -> closer to powerlifting in terms of goals and methods)
read the study more carefully if you think it encourages powerlifting for the elders.
Read my comment more carefully if you think I'm describing the study instead of providing more general context for why people might find this particular study interesting.
Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
why is it powerlifting? general prescription these days for Hypertrophy is 10 sets per muscle group per week 0-3 RIR.
Hypertrophy and strength aren't as strongly linked as we thought. Generally for wellness, injury prevention, you want strength and flexibility.
Your strength comes both from your nervous system and physiology. Training your nervous system without also building a proper physical foundation to handle tension is a fast track to injury.
Re: Exercise intensity influences body composition in healthy older adults (2025)
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And if you're injuring yourself regularly during weight training or other gym activities, I'd suggest you might hire a good coach/trainer for guidance and programming, because that shouldn't happen either. After a certain age, it's difficult to train somewhat intensely without risking injury. You can always find some exercises that work and maintain a physical activity, but this may not be enough to maintain your m…
Sure, thus the "find a trainer" suggestion. :shrug: You aren't wrong, but for somebody who has been active and healthy, intense exercise deep into their 60s should be possible.
> Sure, thus the "find a trainer" suggestion
Not sure a trainer is a silver bullet. After 50, it gets increasingly harder to improve as we become more and more injury-prone and start developing chronic issues. Staying active and fit should be reachable for most, but high-intensity or competitive sports become a privilege for those with good genetics. Most of us switch to low-impact sports such as cycling, swimming, hiking, bodyweight training and so on...