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Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

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201–210 of 376 posts

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#201
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, don't eat boxed foods or foods that went through multiple stages of processing. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan spells it out very well, but I'll just give you my simple definition: Eating healthy is as close to eating dirt without actually eating dirt. Produce, grain, cheese, 1/2 pound to a pound of meat a week[1], and whatever else Marion Nestle recommends[1.5]. Just imagine what primitive man would eat.…

Just imagine what primitive man would eat. He would spend most of his days eating what grew from the ground and when they finally hunted down meat, they would eat their catch as a group Ugh, I hate this concept. Primitive man also died in their 20s and 30s. No thanks.

Exactly, I'm advocating everyone to add produce into their diet so that they can die early.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#202
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5 mile run on the treadmill at an x minute pace is the same as a 5 mile run outside at an x minute pace. LOL. Go run outside. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Depends on where you live. A hilly area can kick your ass a lot harder than a treadmill, but my current neighborhood is flat and it compares pretty evenly to a treadmill run.

It does not.

Running on the ground you push yourself forward. On a treadmill the amount of work you are doing can vary quite a bit by technique (ie. how much contact you are making with the treadmill) because you are not actually propelling yourself.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, don't eat boxed foods or foods that went through multiple stages of processing. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan spells it out very well, but I'll just give you my simple definition: Eating healthy is as close to eating dirt without actually eating dirt. Produce, grain, cheese, 1/2 pound to a pound of meat a week[1], and whatever else Marion Nestle recommends[1.5]. Just imagine what primitive man would eat.…

> don't eat boxed foods or foods that went through multiple stages of processing What's wrong with cheese, or butter? Or sauerkraut and pickles? All processed food. Also, powdered mashed potatoes and puffed rice are just conveniently preserved starch. They're perfectly healthy. The "processed food" and "mostly plants" stuff is just marketing psychology that taps into SWPLs' inner hippie. The real diet rules aren't my…

A couple years ago I worked on a market research contract for a food grower that tried to answer the opposite, "what does all natural mean" (or some set of synonyms)?

Turns out it's virtually impossible to define it.

Here was one of the exercises we went through:

1) Take an orange, grown in the wild without being touched in any way by the hand of man.

2) If you eat that orange, are you eating something that's "all natural"?

3) If you squeeze that orange, and drink its juice, is it still "all natural"?

4) If you strain the juice to eliminate pulp, through a handwoven cloth (or a mat of grass or some other "all natural straining device") is it still "all natural"?

5) If you heat the juice and drink it, ie cook it, is it still "all natural"?

6) How about if you heat it long enough to boil off some of the water?

7) How about long enough to boil off all of the water?

8a) What if instead of boiling you simply dry out the juice in the sun?

8b) What if in addition to boiling it, you dry the remains in the sun?

9) What about drying it in an oven?

10) Suppose I take the dry particles left and through any conceivable natural operation sort them by density? Say, putting the particles into an all natural basket and shake it vigorously until my arms are tired?

11) Now how about I remove particles of a certain density? Is the remaining product natural?

12) Now suppose I add water to the remaining sorted particles, fresh from a mountain spring.

13) Suppose I do the same (#1-12) with other plant sources?

14) Suppose I mix the results into either a mix of powders or a mix of reconstituted liquids?

This is an actual replication of a process for producing an artificial sweetener (not with fruit, but a different plant source). That sweetener is generally not called "all natural" but the process is more or less the above.

At every point in the process we haven't done anything that's not natural. There's some analogy to every step that you probably have to do with any food source to make it edible. Nobody thinks squeezing, chopping, cutting, cutting plants creates a processed food. Or straining liquids or really any of the above. We've been doing all of the above as a species since before writing.

But many people think the result of the specific combination of the above, #14, is a "processed food".

How about cheese? Most cheese, even modern cheese is just milk and bacteria in a controlled spoilage environment. As natural as dirt. And in general the result of very few steps.

Defining "processed food" from "natural food" ultimately ends up trying to set some kind of arbitrary definition delineating the two -- "processed food is any food that has undergone more than 3 processing steps" I have news, chopping and peeling fresh picked garlic takes more than 3 steps.

1) Wash the dirt from the bulb

2) Dry the bulb

3) Remove the outer layers of onion skin

4) Separate the cloves out of the bulb

5) Cut the hard connective bits

6) Peel the layers of onion skin from the cloves

7) Chop to size

Now if I include it in a recipe I'm including it in even more processing steps. I may boil it, grill it, bake it, or some other cooking process.

I may strain it from a broth if all I care about is the flavor.

Before I can actually get the garlic into my mouth, through even an elementary recipe, I've had to process it at least 8 times, likely a dozen.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#204
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Squats, dead lifts, bench presses, those are the Big Three. That's what you absolutely need to do, and if you do them it is where 90% of your results will come from. It's also the only exercises you need to ever do. Having said that, if you "like" some other exercise, like cable chest presses, dumbbell flyes, standing barbell bicep curls, crunches, or whatever, then fine do them (I do), but do so knowing that the Big…

What about pullups? The big three you mention don't seem to hit your upper back, biceps or shoulders much. (I'm a novice, genuinely curious.)

I would do chinups/pullups/pushups/dumbell-presses instead of bench press. If you have long arms then bench press can lead to shoulder injuries as you approach 1xBW if you dont do it right.

Lots of great info at t-nation.com .

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#205
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing I recommended above and in my initial comment: Find something fun to do that just happens to get you in shape. I suspect they have basketball hoops, raquetball courts, swimming pools and Ironic Kickball leagues in your home town (and probably a climbing gym too). Go have some fun!

[deleted]

Tampa is a vast, flat, suburban wasteland of sprawl; but there's a fantastic climbing gym built into an old warehouse 5 miles from my work, martial arts studios everywhere, public parks with bodyweight exercise stations in circuits, etc.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#206
post #205
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Tampa is a vast, flat, suburban wasteland of sprawl; but there's a fantastic climbing gym built into an old warehouse 5 miles from my work, martial arts studios everywhere, public parks with bodyweight exercise stations in circuits, etc.

[deleted]

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Numerous studies (See the first chapter of "Why we get Fat, by Taubes) have shown that Obesity is a disease of poverty. The food that keeps you lean (protein/fats) is expensive. Carbs are cheap. Poor people eat carbs. Rich people eat steak, chicken, fish. There is no significant research that shows adding exercise to an overweight person's lifestyle will significantly reduce their weight - typically just increases th…

If obesity is a disease of poverty, then how come truly poor people (e.g., the poor in India or China) are skinny? Lack of money for food is not a cause of obesity. If your goal is to obtain 2500 calories (assuming that is what you need to maintain a healthy weight) for a little money as possible, you will consume 2500 calories of carbs. You will not become obese. If you instead consume 3500 calories and become obese…

"and holding consumption constant" is the trick, ain't it? Works great if you want to lose a little weight later more than you want to eat another 500 calories now. Most people don't want that (me included, by revealed preference -- I'm over 300 lbs).

When people say that obesity goes with poverty, they're noting that virtually everyone eats until they are sated, and if you eat until you are sated with high-quality, expensive food, you will be far less likely to be overweight than if you eat until you are sated with low-quality, inexpensive food.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#208
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, don't eat boxed foods or foods that went through multiple stages of processing. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan spells it out very well, but I'll just give you my simple definition: Eating healthy is as close to eating dirt without actually eating dirt. Produce, grain, cheese, 1/2 pound to a pound of meat a week[1], and whatever else Marion Nestle recommends[1.5]. Just imagine what primitive man would eat.…

Just imagine what primitive man would eat. He would spend most of his days eating what grew from the ground and when they finally hunted down meat, they would eat their catch as a group Ugh, I hate this concept. Primitive man also died in their 20s and 30s. No thanks.

I'm pretty sure this is false. As I understand it hunters and gatherers lived about as long as we do. It was only with the invention of agriculture and the kind of societies (and diseases) it enabled, that our average lifespan took a nosedive which we are pulling out of now, thanks to modern medicine.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, don't eat boxed foods or foods that went through multiple stages of processing. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan spells it out very well, but I'll just give you my simple definition: Eating healthy is as close to eating dirt without actually eating dirt. Produce, grain, cheese, 1/2 pound to a pound of meat a week[1], and whatever else Marion Nestle recommends[1.5]. Just imagine what primitive man would eat.…

> don't eat boxed foods or foods that went through multiple stages of processing What's wrong with cheese, or butter? Or sauerkraut and pickles? All processed food. Also, powdered mashed potatoes and puffed rice are just conveniently preserved starch. They're perfectly healthy. The "processed food" and "mostly plants" stuff is just marketing psychology that taps into SWPLs' inner hippie. The real diet rules aren't my…

So, you're telling us that a couple of Slim Jims is no worse for a person than a serving of steak?

I think the poster you replied to was making the point that industrial mangling of our food likely has some detriment to our health. Sure, cheese and kraut are processed (we make both at home, btw), but they're more natural processes than, say, turning corn into corn syrup. In fact, the end products of these natural processes are often argued to be healthier (or at least offer more bioavailble/digestible nutrition) than the original material.

Look at the ingredients list of your average loaf of store-bought wheat bread. All of the continuant ingredients have been refined, had preservatives added, then re-mixed to make "bread". The list is typically a mile long! Take my wife's home-made bread, as a counter example: whole wheat flour (ground minutes before making, from home-grown wheat), salt, maybe a dash of sugar or honey, water, and our sourdough starter.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#210
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flip side to the caveman diet is that 1) it wasn't particularly planned. They eat what they could, when they could, and 2) There was a pretty major exercise component that went along with it, in that if they didn't hunt / fish / forage, they died of starvation. The main issue with obesity is that people can easily afford to be obese and not too significantly impact their lives (aside from all health and social ma…

Numerous studies (See the first chapter of "Why we get Fat, by Taubes) have shown that Obesity is a disease of poverty. The food that keeps you lean (protein/fats) is expensive. Carbs are cheap. Poor people eat carbs. Rich people eat steak, chicken, fish. There is no significant research that shows adding exercise to an overweight person's lifestyle will significantly reduce their weight - typically just increases th…

Poor people eat carbs.

Poor people eat fast food. Good food is cheaper than McDonald's, but you have to be able to cook.

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