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Biohacking Lite

karpathy.github.io

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171–180 of 370 posts

Re: Biohacking Lite

#171

Post by fudged71 »

gandreani wrote: post #9

> As a result I’ve improved a number of biomarkers (e.g. resting heart rate, resting blood glucose, strength, endurance, nutritional deficiencies, etc). I wish I could say I feel significantly better or sharper, but honestly I feel about the same. But the numbers tell me I’m supposed to be on a better path and I think I am content with that . I appreciate this honesty

What I notice personally is that whenever my health improves, I only feel it a small amount incrementally.

When I stop training, I quickly feel sluggish, with brain fog, muscle knots, difficulty sleeping, etc.

This is mostly a reminder to myself that my body wants movement and good nutrition, and that lapses are not worth it.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#172

Post by metrokoi »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #152
gdebel wrote: post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

I live near a college town, with food from dozens of nations. I can have crepes for breakfast, Vietnamese for lunch, good Italian for dinner. Tomorrow: steak and eggs at a diner for breakfast, sushi for lunch then dinner at a nice Czech place with cabbage and sausage. All cooked by immigrants or descendants of those heritages. But no, not typical. Most Americans buy all their food at the Dollar Store, and its everyth…

Most Americans buy their food at the grocery store, and there's nothing in them that wouldn't be found in any other country. Most Americans make their own meals with their families, which usually consist of meat, pasta, potatoes, and/or vegetables.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#173

Post by david_shaw »

groby_b wrote: post #130
txcwpalpha wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name literally any fast food place and you can get a plain salad with tomatoes, lettuce, sometimes spinach, carrots, broccoli, etc, as well as various types of plain grilled meat if you want protein. It won't be delicious, but vegetables certainly are not hard to get, even at fast food places. And that's before considering places that actually make a concerted effort to provide healthier options like Panera Bread, wh…

This is really interesting - I'd love to sit down and compare notes how we arrived at two completely different views of the food world. (It even holds for the "plain nuts" comment - I find it incredibly hard to get nuts that aren't roasted and/or salted)

> I find it incredibly hard to get nuts that aren't roasted and/or salted

I don't see plain nuts as often as I'd like in stores, but they are super easy to find online: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=raw+almonds

Re: Biohacking Lite

#174

Post by fudged71 »

fizixer wrote: post #25
curiousgal wrote: post #2

As someone struggling to gain weight it always bugs me how "being healthy" is only associated with weight loss.

Do a Mark Rippetoe program for 1 year. Thank me later. edit : Caution: don't start on squats without coaching.

As a trainer, squats can be self-learned fairly easily, it's a pretty natural movement. Some guidance will help of course, but the general movement is usually there.

That said, I recommend against people teaching themselves deadlift, because it's not nearly as intuitive, has more potential for injury, etc.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#175

Post by fudged71 »

julianeon wrote: post #133

I was a little bit disappointed that the title promised an introduction to biohacking, but in practice, by the end, it amounted to how to lose weight. The "hacking" part is in understanding how the body processes energy and how eating affects that, I guess. Still, from that title, I think it was fair to expect a different article.

Yes, I would have liked to hear more about his experiences with the other types of biohacking he mentioned!

Re: Biohacking Lite

#176

Post by dpoochieni »

systemvoltage wrote: post #122
shawxe wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a distinction between processed and ultra-processed (or highly processed). For example, canned fish is processed (added salt and oil), while a frozen TV dinner is ultra-processed (many ingredients added, some of which you probably don't have in your kitchen). Sure, but OP said ban all processed food. That's what I'm responding to, not "ban all ultra-processed food." That said, I do find your categorization…

I resonate with the way you think. A lot of non-technical people get hung up on the marketing terms than actually thinking through the fundamentals. For e.g. "Handspun ice-cream! OMG!". Uhh..what difference does it make if it is hand-spun or machine-spun? It is not tool of spinning ice-cream, but what the process is. To majority of non-techy people, processed or machined or anything to do with automating a method is…

But then there are things that do make a difference. Take for instance homogenized vs non-homogenized milk. This processing destroys lactoferrin which is a molecule that strongly binds iron and reduces its absorption. Before someone argues this is actually bad, understand first why milk has lactoferrin and how this apparently only cosmetic process of homogenization has nutritional and health consequences.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#177

Post by fudged71 »

JamesBarney wrote: post #87
an_opabinia wrote: post #4

> Clearly, my actual weight loss (red) turned out to be slower than expected one based on our simple deficit math (blue). So this is where things get interesting... so we don’t get to fully resolve the mystery of the slower-than-expected weight loss. Weight loss is difficult and I think everyone, no matter how smart, dumb, famous or obscure they are, has trouble with it. It's always a surprise how difficult it is.

The body basically has a bunch of tricks for tricking you into not losing weight. It starts making you subtly lazier, reduces random energy expenditures, slows down basal metabolic rate, it makes you hungrier, it makes you crave more calorie dense food, and it even starts to reduce willpower related to food.

Absolutely this. Our body is constantly trying to maintain homeostasis, so when you make a big lifestyle change your body tries to react in the opposite direction.

Most people don't understand that when you start a new habit it often replaces another. When you start going to the gym you might walk less. When you eat smaller meals you might snack more. etc. I'd love to see a list of all the unconscious decisions your body makes in response to fitness/nutrition interventions.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#178

Post by lumberingjack »

gdebel wrote: post #51

I'm French (and incidentally a doctor,and my post is not judgemental in any way, this is not the point). Everytime I travel to the USA, I'm puzzled by how difficult it is to "eat normally" (= by my own standards). You can find really good junk food everywhere, or pay a really high price to eat in high-level Italian restaurants for example, but it is very difficult to eat standard meat-with-vegetable-without-sugar-add…

As an American that avoids sugar like the toxin it is I agree. The food manufacturers put it in everything. I got an off brand of milk the other day because of the shortage, a local brand it had added sugar, I took two gulps and said "WTF". Bread it's like a staple now in baking white bread fuck it pack it with sugar from corn. Pizza make %50 of the sauce sugar. Drinks, would you like 100MG of liquid sugars in every $5 bottle? Coffee: Have some bean filtered water with that Mocha sugar sludge.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#179

Post by fudged71 »

underdeserver wrote: post #14

This is more evidence that weight loss happens in the kitchen, not the gym.

This is not the proper conclusion. He also started regular resistance training.

I would say one of the biggest problems is seeing weight loss as either being nutrition or fitness, when it should ALWAYS be seen as a combination.

Why? Because the goal is usually to lose fat. Without muscle stimulus, the body will include muscle in the weight loss. Muscle tissue is important long term for metabolism and other health aspects.

Re: Biohacking Lite

#180

Post by systemvoltage »

dpoochieni wrote: post #176
systemvoltage wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I resonate with the way you think. A lot of non-technical people get hung up on the marketing terms than actually thinking through the fundamentals. For e.g. "Handspun ice-cream! OMG!". Uhh..what difference does it make if it is hand-spun or machine-spun? It is not tool of spinning ice-cream, but what the process is. To majority of non-techy people, processed or machined or anything to do with automating a method is…

But then there are things that do make a difference. Take for instance homogenized vs non-homogenized milk. This processing destroys lactoferrin which is a molecule that strongly binds iron and reduces its absorption. Before someone argues this is actually bad, understand first why milk has lactoferrin and how this apparently only cosmetic process of homogenization has nutritional and health consequences.

Definitely, if you want imperfections, artisan value and appreciate craftsmanship, there is nothing wrong with handmade goods.

Just don't tell me that your Japanese knife when hand sharpened cannot be as good as something done by a robotic arm. Otherwise, I have some news - Japanese knife's edge sharpness(not durability) is no match for a surgical scalpel which is made by millions in quantities in fully automated fashion for less than $20. Or even a razor blade that costs $0.10. If scalpels were made from bluesteel (RH 62+), which is a horrible idea for a scalpel but just to make a point, then they would totally match a Japanese knife's durability too.

I could find countless examples where machines can have proper process control (SPC with control charts), high repeatability and can work well given all PMs are done and they're well maintained - totally out perform humans in many handcrafted jobs. Even things that we traditionally associate with artisan such as Guitars can be manufactured better and for cheaper by machines. "Only a master luthier can tell if the wood is good by knocking on it and feeling the resonance" - absolutely not. We can have ultra precision transducers and a whole bunch of DSP to figure that out and actually quantify that bullshit claim of artisanal value.

"But they have no human-like imperfections" - sure, just add random variation in the runtime code and imperfections can be automated.

What bothers me about this artisanal movement is not about craftsmanship, but about the marketing of it - just say it's handmade. Not because it is better but we want to preserve old ways of doing things. Don't say machines are not capable because I will show at your door and automate your job away.

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