Live data from Hacker News

Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

npr.org

261–270 of 396 posts

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#261
post #199
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Powerlifting does not take as many calories as you'd think. In fact, lifting in general is surprisingly easy on the calorie requirement, so most powerlifters and bodybuilders incorporate cardio as part of their routine. You will burn a lot more calories by walking 10,000 steps a day for 1 month than you would doing an intense lifting session each day. The reason you're probably thinking as to why lifters eat a huge a…

You’re wrong about that, look up videos of strongmen and bodybuilder meals/eating routines. The 2 hour workouts at the top of these fields are very calorie intensive.

Bodybuilders eat a lot in the offseason because they're on tons of drugs and trying to maximize the amount of lean mass they can put on, and they eat more in general because when you have 100lb+ more muscle than the average person you have a significantly higher base metabolic rate. You can go on a variety of PED related forums and find IFBB pro's posting food logs, etc., and see that these crazy eating routines are limited to certain parts of the year, and even then have been falling out of favor - the 'lean bulk' for pros is more popular than ever.

Very few IFBB pros are working out in 2 hour sessions, either. Coaches understand junk volume way better now and know that a lot of the work being done previously just wasn't providing much muscle growth stimulus after a certain point. Most are spending The top of the bodybuilding field is not eating a ton of food because of their lifting routines burning a bunch of calories.

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't the first study to show that our bodies adjust to fairly set caloric expenditure - the constrained total energy expenditure model isn't new, and Ponztner and his team aren't the first to advocate for it, but we should be clear that he is an advocate for it, and has been for a while. Obviously, energy has to come from somewhere, so enough exercise will overcome any adaptations your body makes, but the curre…

My understanding is that the research shows that a highly active hunter gathering and an inactive office worker burn roughly the same number of calories per day. But I find that hard to believe. What is the office worker's body doing to make up the difference for all the movement and muscle contraction?

Human bodies are highly efficient at certain movements, e.g. walking. There's also a complicated part of hunter gatherer life style where you don't know if you'll find something if you walk another mile, so often the response is to just... not do that.

Being able to have a life style where you're constantly expending energy, like training athletes do, really only works if you're guaranteed food, which is generally not how hunter gathering works.

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The sample dataset explicitly excluded 'athletes', so would exclude people that _are_ outrunning a bad diet. You can't outrun a bad diet. This is such a myth and I have no idea where it's coming from. Perhaps it's a nice lie one can tell himself to continue eating junk and not feel guilty about it. Athletes, especially body builders require a lot of calories but their diet is surprisingly healthy. They eat plenty o…

And then there's Michael Phelps, living proof you can outrun (or at least outswim) just about any diet you can imagine. He's obviously an extreme, but he's not the only example.

The point of the saying is to get most people to understand that the biggest factor in the average person's weight loss is their diet, not their exercise levels.

Pointing out that elite endurance athletes and olympic athletes can have high calorie requirements isn't helpful or the point. Yes, energy must come from somewhere, but even among the generally fit and active portion of the population, only a vanishingly small number of them exercise at the intensity and time requirements to burn so many calories as to not easily have all of that thwarted with a single meal.

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#264
post #7

This is true to an extent and I'm very fond of the saying, but beyond a certain point you can indeed outrun a bad diet. I used to spend ~4 hours a day training martial arts (kickboxing, BJJ, etc) during which time I could eat almost anything I wanted without gaining weight. I'm sure if I had downed a cheesecake a day it would've been bad for me, but I was able to get away with a level of excess back then that I am un…

Yep, at one point in my life I was consistently cycling for 30 hours a week and eating enough became a chore. So it's definitely possible, but it requires enough exercise that's essentially a full time job.

I once trained pretty hard for several months for a martial arts competition. I upped my calorie intake to keep up with the training and put on about ~15lb of muscle. What people don't tell you about this sort of intensive training is just much extra time you spend each week shopping, cooking, eating and taking a shit - on top of all the training!

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The timing makes me lose weight. The mechanism by which it does so is a black box.

But this black box has "you eat less calories" written in whiteout across it.

But it doesn’t matter to me. One method makes me so miserably hungry 24/7 that I quit after a few weeks of agony, the other makes me forget all about food entirely.

This seems to bother people, who always tell me to do it the “right” way, which to them apparently means using willpower to endure endless suffering.

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#266

I thought this is common knowledge. 1 Snickers bar = 30 minutes of running. You can lose 100 pounds without getting up from the couch, but you cannot lose 100 pounds by running, if you keep eating Snickers bars.

You can lose 100 pounds either way.

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most effective exercise for weight loss is fork put-downs.

[citation needed] That is not what any of the studies I have read find, particularly not past the short term: past calorie restriction diets is one of the factors associated with developing obesity.

"Fork put downs" does not mean a crash diet or anything like that.

It means permanently adjusting your caloric intake to levels that allow you to reach and maintain a healthy body weight and body fat makeup.

If you're eating 6000 calories a day there is no way you're out-exercising that diet while working a full time job.

Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds

#270
post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot. But a possible amount.

Clearly a possibly amount since he did it. Would it be possible for someone who was not supporting themselves that way? I.e. for someone with a 40 hr / week job?

I don't know about possible, but I'm sure the Michael Phelps regimen is wildly impractical for everyone, including Michael Phelps.

My personal experience is that "outrunning" a poor diet is absolutely possible, and I kind of did it unintentionally. I started biking to work out of necessity. I wasn't planning to lose weight, but it happened. I had no weight loss ambitions or plans, but it was probably a good thing.

Post reply on HN