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

Metabolic and cellular differences between sedentary and active individuals

howardluksmd.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 159 posts

Re: Metabolic and cellular differences between sedentary and active individuals

#111

Post by IanCal »

tom_alexander wrote: post #45
dooglius wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't 12k steps like 6 miles? I could plausibly jog that much, but to walk it every day seems like a huge time commitment.

Wikipedia puts the "preferred walking speed" around 3 miles per hour, so that would be 2 hours of walking per day. So with 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work, 2 hours of walking, 1 hour of hygiene, 1 hour of commuting, and 2 hours for meals, you'd still be left with 2 hours of personal time to do all your extracurriculars like cleaning, parenting, spousing, hobbying, shopping, repairing things, etc.

Yes, it’s going to be harder to hit if you live an extremely sedentary lifestyle and do absolutely no walking at any other point in the day.

Frame it differently - it’s two hours of your day spent moving around at a walking pace.

Re: Metabolic and cellular differences between sedentary and active individuals

#112

Post by dachris »

domenicd wrote: post #22

A lot of people in the comments are expressing curiosity about "ideal" amounts of exercise to avoid these sorts of problems. I have a real-life friend whose hobby is studying this stuff. His recommendations boil down to: - 1/week 20 minutes HIIT: 5 minutes warmup, 3x(2 minutes high intensity + 3 minutes low intensity) blocks. - 1/week strength training focused on large muscle groups. - 12,000 steps per day walking (H…

The manual for a human body says several hours of exercise per day.

Children try to follow it, but it's being made hard for them, and by the time you're an adult most have learned to forget the natural instincts for movement and how much fun you can have doing physical exercise.

Re: Metabolic and cellular differences between sedentary and active individuals

#113

Post by jaggederest »

trjordan wrote: post #74
jaggederest wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't feel bad about your VO2 max, the baseline and ceiling are largely genetic. Most people can only bump VO2 max by about 10-15% even with absurd training regimens. Same goes with many of the markers people track - you can control them to an extent, but some people just have high blood pressure or poor lipid profiles and thus need intervention.

Appreciate it. The Apple-Watch-measured version came up to 44 since I’ve started running. I’ve been pleased. None of my markers are high enough to trigger a doctor to care.

44 is nothing to sneeze at, that's a solid upper end of average range.

Re: Metabolic and cellular differences between sedentary and active individuals

#114

Post by laszlojamf »

abraxas wrote: post #77

I dislike most forms of exercise for one reason or another. I'm likely on the autism spectrum and have all the clumsiness that comes with the package so ball sports or dance are particularly hard and turned me off of sports for decades. I also dislike walking and hiking as nature loves to make me miserable - I'm a pale mosquito magnet. Meanwhile walking in my city is a miserable experience as the urban environment is…

I've been trying to get into swimming for years, but being on the ADHD-side instead, I just find it intolerably boring >.<

Re: Metabolic and cellular differences between sedentary and active individuals

#115

Post by rzk »

There's a quote in that blog that I quite liked:

We’ve engineered movement out of our lives. We sit in chairs, stare at screens, and outsource physical effort to machines. Then we try to cram all our movement into 45-minute bursts a few times a week.

This is like eating only once a week and calling it a balanced diet. Most people are malnourished, not from lack of food, but from a lack of diverse, nutrient-dense movement.

Re: Metabolic and cellular differences between sedentary and active individuals

#116

Post by lm28469 »

burnt-resistor wrote: post #79
domenicd wrote: post #22

A lot of people in the comments are expressing curiosity about "ideal" amounts of exercise to avoid these sorts of problems. I have a real-life friend whose hobby is studying this stuff. His recommendations boil down to: - 1/week 20 minutes HIIT: 5 minutes warmup, 3x(2 minutes high intensity + 3 minutes low intensity) blocks. - 1/week strength training focused on large muscle groups. - 12,000 steps per day walking (H…

Walking 2 hours per day is a completely impractical fantasy. A better resource: Body By Science a book containing recommendations based on research and data. The overall goal is proper volume of effective effort of cardio and strength exercise that doesn't take too long and reduces risks of wear/tear and injury.

> Walking 2 hours per day is a completely impractical fantasy.

Tell people you spend 12 hours a day starring at a screen and they won't bat an eye, tell them you walk 10k step a day and they'll try to convince your it's unpractical, unhealthy, "10k is a made up number anyways", "I don't have time", "isn't it too hard?"

Re: Metabolic and cellular differences between sedentary and active individuals

#117

Post by beingfit »

stephen_g wrote: post #91
abraxas wrote: post #77

I dislike most forms of exercise for one reason or another. I'm likely on the autism spectrum and have all the clumsiness that comes with the package so ball sports or dance are particularly hard and turned me off of sports for decades. I also dislike walking and hiking as nature loves to make me miserable - I'm a pale mosquito magnet. Meanwhile walking in my city is a miserable experience as the urban environment is…

I quite literally was thinking as I was reading your second paragraph, "hey, they should try swimming" - turns out you're well ahead of me! I started about four years ago, and it's been awesome for me too. For me I tried it because I just never liked how running makes me feel in my chest, whereas the aerobic intensity of swimming (slower burn in zones 2 and 3) feels way better to me. For anyone starting out, there is…

> For anyone starting out, there is a bit of a hump to get over as you get some technique (I just used YouTube videos and feel).

Are you saying you learned to swim from YouTube videos and applying those lessons? Any recommendations on videos or playlists?

Re: Metabolic and cellular differences between sedentary and active individuals

#118

Post by madaxe_again »

tom_alexander wrote: post #45
dooglius wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't 12k steps like 6 miles? I could plausibly jog that much, but to walk it every day seems like a huge time commitment.

Wikipedia puts the "preferred walking speed" around 3 miles per hour, so that would be 2 hours of walking per day. So with 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work, 2 hours of walking, 1 hour of hygiene, 1 hour of commuting, and 2 hours for meals, you'd still be left with 2 hours of personal time to do all your extracurriculars like cleaning, parenting, spousing, hobbying, shopping, repairing things, etc.

3mph is a pretty slow stroll - 5 or 6mph is more normal for purposeful walking on the flat - so it’s more like 1:10 of walking, which could take the form of a 35 minute walk somewhere, and a 35 minute walk back.

As for cleaning, repairing things, parenting, shopping - those are all things which can readily incorporate walking and physical activity.

Re: Metabolic and cellular differences between sedentary and active individuals

#119

Post by hn_throw2025 »

dooglius wrote: post #27
domenicd wrote: post #22

A lot of people in the comments are expressing curiosity about "ideal" amounts of exercise to avoid these sorts of problems. I have a real-life friend whose hobby is studying this stuff. His recommendations boil down to: - 1/week 20 minutes HIIT: 5 minutes warmup, 3x(2 minutes high intensity + 3 minutes low intensity) blocks. - 1/week strength training focused on large muscle groups. - 12,000 steps per day walking (H…

Isn't 12k steps like 6 miles? I could plausibly jog that much, but to walk it every day seems like a huge time commitment.

[Loads up Fitbit] Yesterday, I did 15,686 steps which it reports as 6.5 miles. I always aim to get above 10K.

Due to an illness I currently have digestive problems, so I walk (stroll, rather) after eating as it provides relief.

I allow an hour after breakfast and also after the evening meal to do somewhere between 3K and 5K steps. This is at home. It’s not tedious as I listen to podcasts, audiobooks, talk radio, or music. As someone else mentioned, if you do it on a walking pad you could watch video. The rest of the steps stack up naturally as you go about your daily business.

Post reply on HN