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Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

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Re: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

#71

Post by ars »

gaius wrote: post #47
JanezStupar wrote: post #43

A lot of bad logic in this article. The main point being - that author feels like she's exercising a lot. 30 minutes cardio a day is not a lot (the biggest exercise being an 1 hour intensive interval training), otherwise the author runs 5.5 miles (1 hour?). That is not a lot of training. Lets assume that this is mostly all exercise the author is doing (she's probably sitting through most of her day). That is barely m…

I downvoted you as your last meal of the day should be high protein, low GI. Fruit is the opposite.

You've been here long enough to know that this is not how HN does things.

You do NOT express disagreement with downmods.

Re: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

#72

Post by bootload »

kscaldef wrote: post #37
dkarl wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Running an hour a day is a dicey proposition because of the possibility of injury. I would say it's impossible for the vast majority of people who are overweight, no matter how carefully they worked up to it. You'd have to be skinny, have excellent form, and not have any unfixable pre-existing injuries or weaknesses.

running an hour at a 10 minute mile (6 mph) is unlikely to lead to injury.

"... running an hour at a 10 minute mile (6 mph) is unlikely to lead to injury. ..."

Over short distances maybe, but longer distances? Your modern western person isn't even setting enough time to do 20 minutes of exercise per day let alone moving a 10 minute mile. To move this speed for periods of time requires serious effort. As for injury well it depends how far, how long. I know, I've been doing 10Km on a regular basis for 770Km this year across a cross-country course and I'll tell you now, moving at the speed you suggest will cause damage unless you're conditioned, fit and motivated.

Re: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

#73

Post by ghshephard »

kreneskyp wrote: post #54
jzdziarski wrote: post #35

Hmm I exercise daily and have been more tempted to eat healthier foods, rather than undo all the work my body has put in exercising. I'm down 30LB in the past 45 days. Time can suck it.

agreed. The title is misleading. Of course, just exercise, or just diet, is not going to get you very far. It has to be both together.

The premise of the article is the exact opposite - it suggests (and quotes numerous studies and observations) that exercising not only doesn't help in weight reduction, it can result in weight gain. This is a counter intuitive conclusion, which is what makes the article so interesting.

Re: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

#74

Post by ghshephard »

dkarl wrote: post #51
ghshephard wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not really able to comprehend what you are trying to get at here, though I recognize you are putting a lot of effort into trying to explain your worldview. By "improving Self-Restraint" I mean "Making changes so one is not motivated to eat". o Stomach Stapling o Avoiding High Glycemic/Carb Rich foods o Not going out to the Gym for 60 minute work outs. Trying to rely on some moral-superiority is pretty much going…

You frame it as an opposition between two opposing forces, a person's appetite for immediate reward and his self-restraint. The strength of one's restraint is measured against the strength's of one's desires. You improve results by strengthening restraint and weakening appetite. I see self-restraint as a limited amount of discretion that a person has to override his natural tendency to maximize emotional reward. As t…

Actually, what I'm saying is that you strengthen restraint _by_ weakening appetite. Not to say there isn't some small percentage of people who can rise about their stomachs desire for food, I'm just saying that for 85% plus of the (mostly sedentary) human population in the west, the key to success is to eliminate that basic need for food in the first place.

I'd be interested in reading about successful diets/studies that tackle this from the angle you are talking about - rewiring the brain/emotions so that they are able to overcome the hunger reflex over the long term.

Re: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

#75

Post by zmimon »

kreneskyp wrote: post #54
jzdziarski wrote: post #35

Hmm I exercise daily and have been more tempted to eat healthier foods, rather than undo all the work my body has put in exercising. I'm down 30LB in the past 45 days. Time can suck it.

agreed. The title is misleading. Of course, just exercise, or just diet, is not going to get you very far. It has to be both together.

Actually, I lost a lot of weight just by cutting 10% from my calories. I did no additional exercise and no extravagant changes to diet ... just identified a few places where there was a big calorie win and knocked it out. Then, I just waited. It takes a long time, but I hardly modified my life at all. I think half the problem with the struggle people have to lose weight is just that they are impatient - if they don't see results within a week or two they just give up. The key ingredients to me are moderation and time.

Re: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

#76

Post by xiaoma »

ghshephard wrote: post #48
xiaoma wrote: post #10

Here's my experience: Running was extraordinarily effective in helping me lose weight. However, it took quite a bit to do it. I was on a cross-country team in high school. That took me from slightly chubby to rail-thin. Every single person on the team who started out over-weight made great progress. One fat kid lost at least 30 pounds in just three months. Nobody I knew who kept running stayed fat. Still, I have to s…

"cross-country team in high school" - I presume that means you were exercising more than 3 times a week at 30 minutes? The premise of the article isn't about athletes (which you were) won't lose weight by engaging in their activity. Of course people who _regularly and continuously_ exercise are going to lose weight. Anybody who works with a bicycle rider who commutes more than 10-15 miles into work knows that there a…

Yes. As I said, the turning point for me seems to be at about 50km/week. I probably did double that in high school. That came out to about 10 hours of running per week.

I agree completely about "cube rats" not being able to lose much weight from 30 minutes 3 times a week. The research mentioned in the first part of the article seemed pretty much in line with my experience. It really does take about an hour to an hour and a half a day to make a big difference in terms of weight loss.

I still think that it makes sense for cube rats to do cardio, though. Even if it's only 30 minutes a day, they'll still be quite a bit healthier, lower their risk of heart disease more than losing weight would, and even promote neurogenesis.

The human body just isn't well adapted to being a cube rat.

Re: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

#77

Post by christofd »

Actually, intense thinking, as I recall, burns a lot of calories.

The trick is diet, as mentioned on here (next to moderate levels of exercise). Eat mostly veggies, rice, pasta, avocados, fruit. Drink water and no pop.

The other thing: look up glycemic index of foods. The easier it is for the body to turn something into sugar (processed foods, e.g. white bread), the more likely the body will create an insulin rush, which wrecks havoc by flipping a switch to make your body store fat. Many people don't know about this fact.

Re: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

#78

Post by [deleted] »

codahale wrote: post #26
mr_luc wrote: post #16

The article itself it insightful. But, brother hackers, can we allow an article whose title is a blatant lie to be voted to the top of Hacker News? Running is exercise. Running 1600 meters, on average, burns 124 calories for a man. ("Energy Expenditure of Walking and Running", Syracuse Uni study). This only takes a few minutes. Even if a person is taking in massively more calories than their body needs -- let's say,…

1,000 calories, considering the modern possibilities, isn't that much. I mean, that's a bit less than two slices of toast with Nutella. Weight loss programs have to focus on preempting and managing appetite. There's a wealth of studies connecting exercise to increased appetite (c.f. OP), especially focused, running-at-the-gym, doing-penance-for-those-donuts exercise. (Low-level activity—walking around, say—doesn't se…

[deleted]

Re: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

#79

Post by bokonist »

mr_luc wrote: post #16

The article itself it insightful. But, brother hackers, can we allow an article whose title is a blatant lie to be voted to the top of Hacker News? Running is exercise. Running 1600 meters, on average, burns 124 calories for a man. ("Energy Expenditure of Walking and Running", Syracuse Uni study). This only takes a few minutes. Even if a person is taking in massively more calories than their body needs -- let's say,…

Or how do you think that cross-country runners got so skinny?

My guess is that the causation is reversed. Skinny people find running more enjoyable. I used to enjoy running cross-country when I was younger. As I've gotten older, I've filled out. I'm not fat, but I'm no longer thin and scrawny. As a result, I find running much more straining. I can feel it pound away on my knees, and I tend to get shin splints pretty quickly. So now I no longer run. I enjoy exercise - biking, soccer, etc. - but pounding pavement for 3 miles a day is no longer enjoyable.

Exercise CAN make you thin; thus, the statement that it won't is incorrect.

The article does not claim exercise can't make you thin. It claims it won't make you thin. No matter how many calories you burn, your body will send you overwhelming urges to eat more, to compensate for the lost calories. These urges - known as hunger - are incredibly difficult to resist, and thus you will not get any thinner.

Re: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

#80

Post by redcap »

nico wrote: post #55
dkarl wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Running an hour a day is a dicey proposition because of the possibility of injury. I would say it's impossible for the vast majority of people who are overweight, no matter how carefully they worked up to it. You'd have to be skinny, have excellent form, and not have any unfixable pre-existing injuries or weaknesses.

You can ride a bike instead of running.

Or go for a swim. In fact I'd suggest either of those over pounding your feet against the concrete.
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