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

31–40 of 207 posts

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

#31

Post by xiaoma »

subsystem wrote: post #28
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…

I agree completely. There's also a mountain of evidence to support the health benefits of good social connections and a low stress life. Dancing is one form of cardio that I've seen come up again and again in papers about warding off lifestyle-related ailments.

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

#32

Post by frou_dh »

david_shaw wrote: post #8

Disclaimer: this post is going to go into some of my personal experiences with weight loss, fitness, and reddit. In March 2012, not all that long ago, I was considered obese. Living a life primarily behind the computer screen while leading an engineering team at a rapidly growing startup (over 100% growth in the last year alone) left little time for me to consider my fitness. I'd eat trash -- burritos four or five ti…

Well done on your results. I enjoy VLC myself, but must say that I don't find the keto subreddit very worthwhile. The community support aspect is undoubtedly beneficial for those in peaks and troughs, but aside from that, what remains seems to mostly be "off-limits-imitation" recipes, and chest-beating about eating a bucket of low-quality bacon or whatever.

I guess what I'm saying is that the fundamentals of this type of diet are self-contained enough that just getting on with it once up and running is worth considering rather than staying hooked in to the ebb and flow of a community.

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

#33

Post by dicktalens »

xiaoma wrote: post #29
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…

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 y…

Friedenreich found that the test group lost more weight than the control group as well via. cardio. Yet I posted it in support of my argument anyway. Why?

It took an average of 35 hours of cardio to lose 1 lb of fat.

I'm not saying that it does not cause weight loss. I am saying that it's ineffective. Of course cardio will cause some weight loss vs. doing absolutely nothing. Of course it's good for your health. No one is arguing that.

Then again if you're saying that someone should run 1 hour/day for 5 days a week... which is unrealistic for 99% of the population, and unnecessarily complicates weight loss (not to mention makes it unsustainable)... then you probably don't have a problem with 35 hours to lose a pound.

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

#34

Post by petercooper »

kmfrk wrote: post #16

I think the main appeal of communities like this is that there is a central place to cheer on people who are trying to get into improving their health. You see something similar going on at Pinterest, which, for all its scientifically debunked advice, tries to encourage and inspire people to work out. It doesn't matter how good your workout and diet regimen looks on paper, if you have to multiply that result with an…

I was thinking this. That is, even if a lot of the advice is bunk, as long as it's not harmful, anything that gets people actually thinking "Yeah, I can do this!" and giving it a go has to be valuable.

For example, if my prime goal in life were to get as many people coding as possible, I'd rather have an eager but bad VBScript developer I could train up than someone who doesn't really care about programming either way. Ditto for fitness, perhaps.

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

#35

Post by abalone »

Not surprising that this is an unscientific article.

What evidence is presented that "ignoring the fitness advice of doctors" achieves "better results"?

Anecdotal evidence, that's what. 1 dude. The author even cites a "completely unscientific, but accurate chart." That says it all.

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

#36

Post by Xcelerate »

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 don't know about studies on cardio or what not, but I'll say that as a D1 runner, I have never seen an overweight person who runs more than 50 miles per week (and I have met thousands of runners in my life).

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

#37

Post by Nicole060 »

jmduke wrote: post #6
Professoroak wrote: post #4

I firmly believe that for most things, fitness and health included, the internet will always be lightyears ahead of what is published in peer-reviewed journals. Now, new ideas get thrown on a blog for millions to (potentially) see, the ideas are read and analyzed by a portion of the general population, and then they're either rejected or expanded upon. It's the perfect meritocracy of ideas, and the slow peer review p…

> the internet will always be lightyears ahead of what is published in peer-reviewed journals The thing is, its not as if r/fitness or /fit/ invented the low-carb diet or the paleo diet. They just spread it to people who'd otherwise never engage in debate/discourse about nutrition (which is of course commendable.) > It's the perfect meritocracy of ideas, and the slow peer review process can't keep up. I think Reddit…

All the things you said are true but remember, not all doctors are up to date with research and even if you can find a lot of false information on the internet, you're more likely to also find the truth than you are with an outdated physician.

The general practitioner that has followed me since I was born whenever I was ill or hurt is someone who has nearly stopped reading anything about medicine since he finished his study and got his job. On his own admission he doesn't even use computers much and doesn't read the research you can find on places like pubmed. He's nearing retirement and I'm going to change my physician (in France you have to declare one to prevent people from hopping to one place from the other whenever they're ill and "paranoid" and save costs to our health care) once I get done with the paperwork, since I am very lazy when it comes to anything that has to do with paperwork. Btw I know all this about him because he's rather talkative and love to waste time once he's done with the check up. One thing that enforced my laziness in looking for another one is the fact that it can be good to have a physician who knows all your health history from the start, even if he's somewhat incompetent.

When you end up with that kind of "doctor" the internet doesn't look so bad.

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

#38

Post by fingerprinter »

StavrosK wrote: post #23
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…

No way. Try getting fat eating just protein. It is so incredibly hard. Just try it.

Now, try getting fat eating nothing but fat+protein. Hard, but much easier than just protein.

Now, try getting fat eating just carbs. Easy.

Now, try getting fat eating carbs+anything. Easy.

A "calorie is a calorie" isn't true now and never has been. It was a very simple model. Our understanding has changed and we now know much more.

For instance, there are hormonal changes that come from eating the above (re: hgh secretion, testosterone production (both up and down) and insulin (which we knew all along)).

Eating little does help you lose weight, but the key is the word 'weight'. If you are beyond trying to just be a certain number on a scale and care about things like muscle, performance, body fat percentage or how you look, there are other things to consider.

For instance, trying to build muscle? Eat protein+carbs post working out heavy with weights. Do not eat carbs before you workout. Which means, fat+protein only before a workout.

Trying to lose fat? Have a long way to go? (say upper teens+ in body fat). Do very low carb (protein+fat+veggies like broccoli) for 6.5 days a week. The evening of the 7th day, eat protein+carbs (the carb refeed). do this until you like what you see in the mirror. (this is a muscle sparring approach).

Just trying to live a normal life and don't care about the two above (and you don't exercise much)? Generally restrict carbs to around 100g a day MAX. You aren't using them, so your body doesn't need them. If you keep giving your body carbs it doesn't need, overtime you'll get fatter. Play with the number of carbs a day, but know this is the one dial you have.

You'll have much better results with this than lowering the total calories.

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

#39

Post by fingerprinter »

Xcelerate wrote: post #36
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 don't know about studies on cardio or what not, but I'll say that as a D1 runner, I have never seen an overweight person who runs more than 50 miles per week (and I have met thousands of runners in my life).

Ever see a local marathon? There are tons of people who are overweight that run them. I'm sure some of those overweight people are running high mile numbers.

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

#40

Post by vacri »

WalterSear wrote: post #2

As a developer I bristle at the idea that 'if it's not in the curriculum, what can you do?' The doctors are at fault here for not reaearching and advocating for the research needed.

You don't seem to have any idea about how complex medicine is. You wouldn't say the same thing about a specialist in IT ("This DBA doesn't know enough Java!").
Post reply on HN