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

Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 127 posts

Re: Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

#61

Post by m348e912 »

thret wrote: post #15
DINKDINK wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Normal exercise will not cause weight loss What do you define "normal exercise" as? You cannot break the 2nd law of thermodynamics: if you calories in is less than your calories burned you must lose weight.

Daily hard exercise - the panting, heart-pounding, drenched in sweat kind of exercise - increases your metabolism. You can eat whatever you want, as much as you want, and you won't gain fat. The 2nd law of thermodynamics has little if anything to do with calorie counting.

I wish. Maybe it's my age, but I do a high intensity exercise class 5-6 times a week and I sweat a lot. I didn't see a significant weight loss until I changed my diet. I guess it's true when they say it's 70% diet, and 30% exercise, at least for me.

Re: Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

#62

Post by victorhooi »

ars wrote: post #2

Normal exercise will not cause weight loss - countless studies have shown that. But it will make you healthier, so it's worth it anyway.

I do not agree with your statement.

What do you even mean by "normal exercise"?

I believe that most "normal" people are capable of doing enough exercise (combined with good eating choices) that they can lose weight.

For example, say you have a 1-hour lunch break each day. During that lunch break, you could easily go for a 6km run (30-40 minutes), as well as have time for a shower, and grab food. If you're prepared to have a faster shower, and eat a quick snack, heck, you could even make it a 10km run (50 minutes).

And depending on where you live, you might also be able to jog, or cycle to work - that's probably another 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity, depending on how far. (I have a 15-minute cycle each way).

And maybe some mornings, you could get up early, and go for a swim, or go boxing or something.

Either way, I personally know many ordinary people who manage to get a healthy amount of exercise, and achieve their weight goals.

I also have a friend who quite honestly, eats what seems to be an incredibly unhealthy mix - think large amounts of junk food and deep-fried fast food. However, they manage to stay reasonably slim (think BMI 18) by doing insane amounts of exercise (several hours a day). So it's definitely achievable, assuming you have that sort of willpower.

What studies are you referring to, that show that "normal" exercise will not cause weight loss? I'd be very curious to see them.

Re: Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

#63

Post by awjr »

As somebody touching 20st (127kg) I recently started working on a client site and had a choice, drive by car or catch a train and cycle the 5 miles to the client site. Into my second week and finding the cycling is really making a difference and can get desk to platform in 31 minutes (unlocking of bike etc) down from 35 minutes at the beginning.

I'll weigh myself at some point but honestly feel I'm physically getting into a better place and fantastically alert. There is also the challenge of riding hard on the way home to make sure to catch the train ;)

What is more interesting is that a lot of people in the office are surprised where I catch the train from (Newport,Wales) and that cycling is possible to Cwmbran without riding with traffic. The Monmouth canal is disused and the wildlife down there is amazing as are the views.

I basically go to the gym for an hour a day and I don't have a choice. I have to go no matter what. The weather is a bit crazy at the moment but there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes ;)

I cannot recommend enough the idea of working out a way to cycle to work. Build fitness into your lifestyle and just make it a necessary function of your day. I've lasted at most 3 weeks at a gym. They feel inherently boring to me. My contract is for 6 months.

For those who want to know I'm on the tall side (6'2") so finding a suitable fold-up bike (train friendly) that was 'strong' enough to hold my weight was difficult. I ended up with a Xootr Swift. Beautiful ride and not had a problem on trains ( https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/103836... )

Re: Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

#64

Post by rndn »

stinos wrote: post #54
rndn wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are the recommendations from the Wikipedia page on Paleolithic lifestyle [1]: - Adopt a Paleolithic diet as much as possible: plenty of fruit, fish, vegetables, nuts, and meat while avoiding most forms of food not in existence in paleolithic time. It implies avoiding all processed food, and in particular junk food and food with a high glycemic load, such as sweets and cultivated crops like potatoes and cereal gr…

Nice. First time I hear about this but it certainly contains lots of things which make a lot of sense to me or which I do already myself and/or are backed up by reserach. Except the part of the squatting position :P Not everybody accepts this though. Especially about point 2 and 3 I've had discussions, almost religious fights sometimes. People sometimes get offended when I question if just going to the gym and train…

I agree with everything you say. Unless it is particularily beneficial to do special exercises to counteract deficiencies of our modern life style, it should be sufficient to roughly simulate the movements our ancestors did.

I'm wondering whether our ancestors did stretching exercises. I could imagine that the occasional yawn/stretch and a variety of different movements is sufficient to avoid contracture.

Re: Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

#65

Post by lobsterman »

rollthehard6 wrote: post #24
lobsterman wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and a poor diet can cause diseases that will make your life miserable, e.g. autoimmune.

Where is the evidence that diet alone can cause autoimmune disease? As far as I am aware, development of autoimmune disease is a complex process involving many factors such as genetics and the effect of infections on the immune system. Certainly there is anecdotal evidence of people improving their symptoms or possibly eliminating them through diet but this is not the case for every patient.

Yes, there are many factors, but our diet is the biggest (and greatly underestimated by the medical profession). Many people with autoimmune would benefit from eating paleo, not saying 100%. And yes, it's all anecdotal, but there is a great deal of science behind it. I recommend reading [1] for a better understanding.

Again, anecdotal, but my wife has autoimmune that attacks the thyroid, causing her to have 180 bpm heart beat (24/7). Doctors recommended medicine that further attacks the thyroid, but she went with a paleo diet instead, after a recommendation from my bio PhD sister who also has autoimmune. Her symptoms stopped within a week or two, her values are now back to normal. Could be something else, but I doubt it. She had the same thing 6 years ago and it lasted for 6 months, while eating this medication that damaged her liver.

Turns out gluten in particular is linked to many autoimmune diseases. Here are some shorter blog posts by the same author [2] on gluten, autoimmune and AIP.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be many large scale studies on diet and autoimmune, but personally, after understanding the underlying mechanisms better, and having personal as well as overwhelming online anecdotal evidence, I'm fairly convinced. I recommend keeping an open mind about this one and start reading.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Paleo-Approach-Reverse-Autoimmune-Dise... [2] http://www.thepaleomom.com/category/autoimmune-2/the-whys-of...

Re: Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

#66

Post by JosephRedfern »

awjr wrote: post #63

As somebody touching 20st (127kg) I recently started working on a client site and had a choice, drive by car or catch a train and cycle the 5 miles to the client site. Into my second week and finding the cycling is really making a difference and can get desk to platform in 31 minutes (unlocking of bike etc) down from 35 minutes at the beginning. I'll weigh myself at some point but honestly feel I'm physically getting…

Worth mentioning that in the UK, a lot of employers are enrolled on the Cycle to Work scheme.

This allows employees to buy a bike through their company/business (normally worth up to £1,000), and pay it back over a period of time, through a salary sacrifice, i.e. pre-tax.

Re: Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

#67

Post by JosephRedfern »

exodust wrote: post #56

I recall overweight professional cricketers and rugby players. They drank a lot of beer. Alcohol, chicken and sugar. Cut those three for effective weight loss. Activity doesn't need to mean Gladiator training at the gym. It should mean what you want it to. I started learning and messing around with wood-working/craft recently. Good amount of non-mouse and keyboard activity, lots of standing up and moving short distan…

What's wrong with Chicken?

Re: Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

#68

Post by adwn »

kaybe wrote: post #44
stdbrouw wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think our bodies are prepared to that sort of pattern where you stay inactive for 5 hours, while your brain is still very active, and stop to run non stop for 1 hour. Isn't that pretty similar to the lifestyle of a hunter? Short periods of very intense activity separated by long periods of inactivity?

A common method seems to have been to just run after the animals slowly, so they can't rest but don't run yet, until they die from exhaustion. Our heat dissipation system is better than most animals, so it works better when it's hot. It's possible to do it alone, and hunt big animals with only a knife to kill them in the end, if you know what you're doing. However, it means you have to move for a long time.

This is called "persistence hunting" [1], and is still pursued by some hunter-gatherer cultures today.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting

Re: Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

#69

Post by thret »

m348e912 wrote: post #61
thret wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Daily hard exercise - the panting, heart-pounding, drenched in sweat kind of exercise - increases your metabolism. You can eat whatever you want, as much as you want, and you won't gain fat. The 2nd law of thermodynamics has little if anything to do with calorie counting.

I wish. Maybe it's my age, but I do a high intensity exercise class 5-6 times a week and I sweat a lot. I didn't see a significant weight loss until I changed my diet. I guess it's true when they say it's 70% diet, and 30% exercise, at least for me.

How old are you? I've heard my metabolism will slow down as I get older but I don't seem to be there yet in mid my 30s.

Re: Inactivity 'kills more than obesity'

#70

Post by m348e912 »

thret wrote: post #69
m348e912 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish. Maybe it's my age, but I do a high intensity exercise class 5-6 times a week and I sweat a lot. I didn't see a significant weight loss until I changed my diet. I guess it's true when they say it's 70% diet, and 30% exercise, at least for me.

How old are you? I've heard my metabolism will slow down as I get older but I don't seem to be there yet in mid my 30s.

I'm in my mid 30s too.
Post reply on HN