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Obesity and Fitness Are Revolutionized By Reddit, Not Doctors

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

#41

Post by neutronicus »

_delirium wrote: post #10

What's missing in this article is mention of actual scientific evidence. I can believe that traditional nutritional recommendations are on flimsy ground, but replacing them with new cargo-cult ideas isn't necessarily better. Do these newer recommendations have good science behind them? My lurker experiences in /r/fitness are quite mixed; they seem like nice people, but the specific diet plans are very heavy on anecdo…

I'm actually thankful for the focus on near-term goals rather than living to 75 instead of 70.

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

#42

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#43

Post by Xcelerate »

fingerprinter wrote: post #39
Xcelerate wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You would be surprised, but the overweight people doing marathons still do less than 50 mpw. I am meaning a consistent 50 throughout the year -- not "peaking" at it.

If you know some counterexamples personally, I'd be very interested in hearing about them -- it would be an unusual situation.

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

#44

Post by papa_bear »

fingerprinter wrote: post #38
StavrosK wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. F…

The first part of your comment isn't exclusive to "a calorie is a calorie." Protein has been shown to be more satiating than either fat or carbs, and the low blood sugar following an insulin spike from a high glycemic, carb heavy meal will strongly promote hunger. If you can manage to eat a ton of carb and protein calories, you will probably lose some water weight initially, but overall stay the same relative to other macronutrient distributions.

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

#45

Post by saryant »

frou_dh wrote: post #32
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 typ…

I find r/paleo to be a bit better than r/keto but I think the best content for these sorts of diets is found outside reddit. marksdailyapple.com is a good resource.

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

#46

Post by fingerprinter »

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…

There are quite a few things in the above so I won't touch on them all. Though, I must ask...what is your goal?

My belief is that nearly everything in how someone eats, worksout and approaches fitness and health should be decided AFTER they understand what their goal is. Nearly all the studies above seem to have no idea what they are actually testing (the goal).

Right now I am an amateur powerlifter and bodybuilder. I play sports like hockey, basketball and flag football. In the past I did triathlons and ultramarathons with friends. Do you think I approach the different phases in my life EVEN REMOTELY the same in terms of diet and exercise?

So what is your goal? I'll provide a quick handy guide for some I read above.

Trying to maximize your years on this earth? Only known way is to calorie restrict. Like extreme calorie restrict. Say, around 1000-1200 cals a day.

Trying to maximize athletic performance in power sports (hockey, football, basketball, baseball etc)? Sprints+heavy weights for a workout. Carb cycling for food (high carb days post working out, low carb days when you don't work out).

Trying to maximize athletic performance in enduro sports (distance cycling, distance running)? Know your carb maintenance level, eat for that + protein and lower(ish) fat (fat + carbs leads to weight gain almost universally. So, if you NEED to eat carbs as your main source of fuel, you'll need to lower fat if you don't track your carb intake very closely). *

*Note: there are plenty of people that perform enduro sports on VLC (very low carb) and use fat as their fuel. However, I haven't found studies on this yet so I don't recommend it wholesale. If someone wants to try it and can work through the re-acclimation period in their body, give it a shot.

I can go on, but I need to know what people have in terms of goals. I personally wasted too many years middling around without knowing what I actually wanted to achieve. I know others do as well. Know your goals, then you can set your approach to achieving those goals....persist and you'll hit 'em!

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

#47

Post by dicktalens »

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).

Most basketball players are tall. I guess basketball makes you taller.

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

#48

Post by fingerprinter »

papa_bear wrote: post #44
fingerprinter wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. F…

The first part of your comment isn't exclusive to "a calorie is a calorie." Protein has been shown to be more satiating than either fat or carbs, and the low blood sugar following an insulin spike from a high glycemic, carb heavy meal will strongly promote hunger. If you can manage to eat a ton of carb and protein calories, you will probably lose some water weight initially, but overall stay the same relative to othe…

> If you can manage to eat a ton of carb and protein calories, you will probably lose some water weight initially, but overall stay the same relative to other macronutrient distributions.

There is another reply in this thread where I talk about goals, so I won't repeat what I said there here.

In reply to the above, what is lacking in that is what happened right before someone at protein+carbs. If someone worked out with heavy weights, the body is actually primed to use both the protein and the carbs to rebuild the muscle. You are actually going to use them.

If someone is going to eat protein+carbs after sitting on the couch all day, everyday, the body is not primed to use them.

Let's say you at the exact same meals in either case, you'll get very different results? Why is that? Because a calorie is not a calorie. Hormones play a HUGE role in all this. Understanding the role they play, the timing of them and how to manipulate them is vitally important. "a calorie is a calorie" neglects this and we end up with people thinking eating x, y or z is ok b/c someone who else eats them successfully under different circumstances for different goals.

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

#49

Post by BadassFractal »

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…

While I don't literally follow the advice of /r/fitness, a lot of my dietary philosophy is aligned with the general advice there.

It's all about your diet, cardio helps but is totally unnecessary. I don't have more than 3 hours a week to lift very heavy, and don't want to spend more time at the gym. I have better things to do. Yet, I'm down from 185lbs a few years ago to 145lbs and 7% body fat and will likely hit 6% or lower soon. You've all seen Fight Club, you know what that looks like. It's a huge personal satisfaction and you feel healthier than ever.

How? Cut calories and cut carbs to 100g a day or lower. Primal/paleo/IF work wonders, but you still have to count calories very carefully at the end of the day. The whole "eat whatever you want as long as it's fat and protein" works down to maybe 10-12% body fat, but below that you need to start cutting.

Mark Sisson might give you the impression that you can eat all you want, but you got to look at some of his food logs to get an idea of how you can look like him at age 50+. He's got quite a few IF + 800 calorie zig-zag days in there, just to give you an idea. That's not easy, or for the faint of heart. It requires a lot of sacrifice and an iron resolve.

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

#50

Post by [deleted] »

fingerprinter wrote: post #38
StavrosK wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. F…

[deleted]
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