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

Obesity and Fitness Are Revolutionized By Reddit, Not Doctors

greatist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 207 posts

Re: Obesity and Fitness Are Revolutionized By Reddit, Not Doctors

#21

Post by dicktalens »

xiaoma wrote: post #19

From reading the article I get the impression that the author isn't that familiar with the scientific literature at all. The evidence he presents against the usefulness of cardio for weight loss compares a group of weightlifters against a group of runners who ran only 20km per week and they still lost marginally more weight than the weightlifters! Cardio really should be a minimum of an hour per day, at least 5 days…

This is a joke right? I almost stopped at the first sentence.

There are many studies detailing the inefficacy of cardio for weight loss for various reasons -- from Friedenreich (2010) which actually compares cardio vs. non-cardio groups... to Willbond et. al (2010) which talks about the overestimation of caloric expenditure.

Not to mention the meta-analysis from last year: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21787904

But I guess you prefer observational, correlational studies instead. Of course people who run marathons are likely more fit. Derp.

Guess what, those who drink diet sodas are more likely to be overweight. I guess diet sodas make you fat?

Re: Obesity and Fitness Are Revolutionized By Reddit, Not Doctors

#23

Post by StavrosK »

xiaoma wrote: post #19

From reading the article I get the impression that the author isn't that familiar with the scientific literature at all. The evidence he presents against the usefulness of cardio for weight loss compares a group of weightlifters against a group of runners who ran only 20km per week and they still lost marginally more weight than the weightlifters! Cardio really should be a minimum of an hour per day, at least 5 days…

> Why is it that both Atkins and Taubes got so fat on very low carb diets while Japanese people traditionally ate (and many still do eat) rice at every single mean, lunch, breakfast and dinner?

Because eating a lot will make you fat, and eating a little will make you thin. Whether you eat proteins, fat or carbs, you can gain or lose weight depending on how much you eat.

I haven't studied it very much, but just eating less works for me.

Re: Obesity and Fitness Are Revolutionized By Reddit, Not Doctors

#24

Post by kyro »

zone411 wrote: post #11

I'm sorry but the content on Reddit is very shallow compared to popular fitness and nutrition forums that have been existing and going strong for many years. There is nothing in this poor article that shows Reddit to be superior in any way. It is very questionable that Reddit's weak voting system improves the quality in any way (and reputation and other voting systems are available on many forums anyway).

The average person and the population in general doesn't need advice any deeper than the "shallow" content found on Reddit in order to live a healthy lifestyle, and because the information is often so easy to swallow, it makes new members feel infinitely more comfortable.

Sally next door doesn't need to know about carb-loading and iso-whey protein shakes. Forums all about that stuff are incredibly intimidating and geared towards individuals who typically want to go above and beyond what is considered a normal healthy state.

Reddit offers easily digestible information with support from a huge community. I'd argue that's all you really need to fight obesity.

Re: Obesity and Fitness Are Revolutionized By Reddit, Not Doctors

#25

Post by caycep »

there are 2 different purposes here. the high saturated fat diets - yeah that will drop weight. No one really knows what the long term effect on cardivascular disease (i.e. damage to arteries) will be, since they haven't been practiced for the several decades it takes to find that out.

Re: Obesity and Fitness Are Revolutionized By Reddit, Not Doctors

#26

Post by earnon »

dicktalens wrote: post #21
xiaoma wrote: post #19

From reading the article I get the impression that the author isn't that familiar with the scientific literature at all. The evidence he presents against the usefulness of cardio for weight loss compares a group of weightlifters against a group of runners who ran only 20km per week and they still lost marginally more weight than the weightlifters! Cardio really should be a minimum of an hour per day, at least 5 days…

This is a joke right? I almost stopped at the first sentence. There are many studies detailing the inefficacy of cardio for weight loss for various reasons -- from Friedenreich (2010) which actually compares cardio vs. non-cardio groups... to Willbond et. al (2010) which talks about the overestimation of caloric expenditure. Not to mention the meta-analysis from last year: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21787904…

Correlation does not imply causation. People who play basketball are tall. Therefore playing basketball makes you taller.

Re: Obesity and Fitness Are Revolutionized By Reddit, Not Doctors

#27

Post by dicktalens »

earnon wrote: post #26
dicktalens wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a joke right? I almost stopped at the first sentence. There are many studies detailing the inefficacy of cardio for weight loss for various reasons -- from Friedenreich (2010) which actually compares cardio vs. non-cardio groups... to Willbond et. al (2010) which talks about the overestimation of caloric expenditure. Not to mention the meta-analysis from last year: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21787904…

Correlation does not imply causation. People who play basketball are tall. Therefore playing basketball makes you taller.

^ this is exactly what I am saying.

Re: Obesity and Fitness Are Revolutionized By Reddit, Not Doctors

#28

Post by subsystem »

xiaoma wrote: post #19

From reading the article I get the impression that the author isn't that familiar with the scientific literature at all. The evidence he presents against the usefulness of cardio for weight loss compares a group of weightlifters against a group of runners who ran only 20km per week and they still lost marginally more weight than the weightlifters! Cardio really should be a minimum of an hour per day, at least 5 days…

I just have to mention that while doing what is "optimal" might seem like hacking health, it really isn't in terms of total gain. A strict diet and gym workouts are almost the opposite of appreciating food and sports. Learning to cook, socializing over dinners, playing sports in teams, learning new things that you can actually use, living a sustainable life etc. is what's going to give you the most value in the long run, not living like a "sober food alcoholic".

I don't mind people trying to hack weight loss, but don't forget that the science behind it should be for your situation, that there's a huge survivor bias and you'll need a long term plan as well.

Re: Obesity and Fitness Are Revolutionized By Reddit, Not Doctors

#29

Post by xiaoma »

dicktalens wrote: post #21
xiaoma wrote: post #19

From reading the article I get the impression that the author isn't that familiar with the scientific literature at all. The evidence he presents against the usefulness of cardio for weight loss compares a group of weightlifters against a group of runners who ran only 20km per week and they still lost marginally more weight than the weightlifters! Cardio really should be a minimum of an hour per day, at least 5 days…

This is a joke right? I almost stopped at the first sentence. There are many studies detailing the inefficacy of cardio for weight loss for various reasons -- from Friedenreich (2010) which actually compares cardio vs. non-cardio groups... to Willbond et. al (2010) which talks about the overestimation of caloric expenditure. Not to mention the meta-analysis from last year: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21787904…

It is not a joke.

Firstly, meta-analysis are generally amongst the worst things to go off (study selection makes it very difficult to control for a researcher's expectations). The link you provided doesn't even say how much cardio the subjects were doing.

Secondly, the studies I cited were massive and far better controlled than most. Feel free to offer a link to a larger and better controlled on if you can.

Thirdly your link, despite its problems, supports my argument. Participants reduced their waist circumferences by 2cm in 6 months!

Interestingly the first search result for "Friedenreich (2010)" is your own tweet, but looking further I found that he recommends exercise for cancer prevention. In fact, this presentation I found in the first page of results recommended more cario than any other type of exercise: http://wellspring.ca/Wellspring/media/common/documents/wells...

Post reply on HN