

Start Up Life Lesson #9: You Will Get Fat - debtkid
http://blog.lendingclub.com/2008/08/29/social-lending-and-push-ups/

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esessoms
I realize this is just having fun, but I'm often reading this-or-that to the
effect that startups are bad for your health. And, I just don't get it. Or
rather, I suppose, I expect that anyone who thinks startups are bad for your
health has never worked for corporate america.

Working a _job_ was the worst thing I ever did for my health. Now that I'm at
a startup, I get plenty of sleep and exercise and eat healthy, home-cooked
vegetarian meals. And the stress involved in working for myself is so much
less that that of working for a PHB... I could never go back.

In the last two years, I've lost 50 pounds. I recently completed my first
century. I'm in the best shape of my adult life. I sincerely attribute all
this to being my own boss and setting my own schedule. Am I really the only
one who finds the startup life superior???

~~~
SwellJoe
It's a balance thing. A lot of startup founders get into bad habits--all-
nighters because they've just _gotta_ launch that new feature (which they rush
into production, it breaks everything, and then they have to stay up even
longer to roll it back, or fix the problems), eating nothing but ramen and
cheap takeout, because they imagine cooking takes too long (though I've found
making simple meals at home is more time-effective, generally), etc.
Everything takes a back seat to working, which I think is counter-productive.
You can't sustain that kind of thing, and when you burn out, you'll burn out
hard. If you don't sell the company within the "candle at both ends" phase
(however long you can maintain that), you'll hit a brick wall and slow to a
crawl for a while (you'll also probably look back on your code and wonder WTF
you were thinking).

In short, I agree. You probably should view having your own company as an
opportunity to live right, rather than an excuse to live terribly. Maximizing
health and happiness is probably not a bad way to work towards success, as
long as "happiness" does not involve lots of vacations and living beyond your
(probably very limited) means.

~~~
mattmaroon
Those bad habits would probably exist for most of those people no matter where
they worked. Startup founders are a tiny portion of the overall population and
in my relatively small, unscientifically counter sample don't appear to suffer
any more from obesity than the rest of the population.

Obesity comes from people allowing themselves excuses. "I'm not going to work
out today because I have to get this code shipped" would just as easily become
"I'm going to just eat at McDonalds today because I have to get home to take
the kids to baseball practice" if they switched professions/lifestyles.

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SwellJoe
I gained a few pounds when I moved from Austin to the valley and was getting a
little soft in the middle. I stopped playing tennis and stopped cycling
because I haven't met anyone out here who enjoys such things. But I recently
took up running, as I already walk my dog every day and she doesn't mind going
a little faster for a mile or two. And I've gone somewhat paleo in my eating
habits: mostly raw vegetables and fruits, almost no processed grains and
simple carbohydrates like breads and pastas, and lots of protein (I'm a
vegetarian, so I've been eating more eggs and beans and nuts). I also got a
Wii Fit, which didn't seem to have much impact on my weight, but I _am_
getting more exercise (and my pushup and situp count has increased under the
kind tutelage of Miyamoto). Anyway, my pants are fitting nicely again. I've
gotta fix the buttons on a couple of pair, as they suffered under the cruel
tyranny of the Fat Joe regime.

I'd read about the hundred pushup challenge on reddit (and the many other "I
bet I could X 100 Y" challenges, which are equally inspiring), but I figured
since I don't actually like doing pushups I'd content myself with the 20 or so
that I can do now, and do a bit more balanced workouts a few times a week.

~~~
bootload
_"... but I figured since I don't actually like doing pushups I'd content
myself with the 20 or so that I can do now, and do a bit more balanced
workouts a few times a week. ..."_

Sounds pretty reasonable.

The one reason these 100PU's have against them is the amount of work required
to get to 100. Muscles take a long time to harden. A long time. To get to 100
a lot of people will give up. I notice this looks like a group activity.
Nothing like group pressure to keep up. But a lot of hackers are in smaller
teams or individual. It's also hard work. 20 a day no problems. It's not hard
then to do another REP when the arms & shoulders are conditioned.

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johnyzee
I'm no fitness buff but doing push-ups doesn't strike me as the thing for
losing weight.

Push-ups are also horribly unergonomic - just see how guys in the video are
arching their backs. Better to go to the gym and use a machine that isolates
the excercise to the exact muscles you want while not straining unrelated
muscles and joints in evil ways.

~~~
oostevo
I'm sorry, I try very hard to avoid being the typical arrogant internet
jackass, but I just can't not respond to that.

I'm an athlete first, and a technology worker second. And what you just said
("better to ... use a machine that isolates ... while not straining unrelated
muscles") is the fitness equivalent of something that would be a top post on
The Daily WTF.

That is almost exactly the wrong idea. I mean, so precisely opposite of
correct information that I hope you didn't write that as a joke and I'm not
getting it.

The only time isolation movements make sense is if you're already a very
competitive bodybuilder who walks around with hundreds of pounds of lean
muscle mass. Otherwise, isolation movements (especially when performed on
machines rather than with free weights) are a genuinely terrible idea. At
absolute _best_ they will make you gain muscle and lose weight vastly more
slowly than you could. Most likely, they'll make you wind up with a chronic
injury.

Please, please, please don't go to the gym and work on machines. Do compound
movements instead. If you're interested in making physical improvements, go
pick up Starting Strength. It's $30 and the author is an absolute genius.

[That was officially my first flame. I feel so hollow inside ...]

~~~
johnyzee
Push-ups give me a headache. I don't know if its the blood rushing to the head
or the neck tension, but they are uncomfortable for me for reasons that have
nothing to do with the actual excercise. Same thing for pull-ups, sit-ups or
whatchamacallit.

Machines are comfortable while still maxing out my muscle capacity. They are
the sole reason that I am now, after many years of repeatedly failing to start
a weight regimen, enjoying gym excercise.

You are probably right in everything you said, since I know fuck all about
fitness, but I know what I like.

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tdavis
Jobs don't make you fat, not exercising makes you fat.

When I was overseas I went to the gym twice a day; when I got back to the
states and started working on our Startup, I went a couple times a week. When
we moved to Boston to take part in YC I stopped entirely. My decline was
accelerated by all-nighters, a poor diet and stress, but the root cause of
gaining weight is... not exercising!

Changing jobs can, in some cases, cause a fluctuation in weight, but if you
exercise regularly and take measures to have a good diet, then it really
shouldn't matter. Just because there's an abundance of food doesn't mean you
need to eat it! We're moving next week and since I am thoroughly disgusted
with myself now, it's time to start hitting the gym promptly after that.

Final note: Push-ups aren't conducive to weight loss. And somebody tell all
the people in that video to _stop looking down while they do them_! Ugh.

~~~
dbrush
A caloric surplus is the root cause of weight gain...

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bcater
Start-ups are great for your health, or at least mine has been for me. I don't
have enough money to go out to bars all the time, so I don't drink much, and I
would really rather pay rent than buy cookies at the grocery store every week.
On top of that, I don't have a car, and since it's generally just about as
fast to walk as to take public transportation, I might as well get some fresh
air, I tell myself.

But maybe it's the stress that has so positively impacted my health. Yes, you
read that correctly: stress has made me healthier. Work can be frustrating,
leaving me feeling like a caged wild animal, ready to run 100 miles, wanting
nothing more than to get away and to get away fast!

To be fair, it takes me a full week to run that far, but I'm still at a start-
up, so I'm sure it will go by faster in the future. In the meantime, I
probably won't be getting too fat. You don't have to, either.

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jamiequint
I'm a huge fan of CrossFit. Short high intensity workouts, if you do them
right they will kick your ass and get you in shape, and they dont take much
time.

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ardit33
As somebody that used to be gym rat, i can say that the 100 pushups challenge
is a bad bad idea.

You will just exercise only some parts of the body, and forget the rest. At
some point, when I was working out a lot, i was obsesed with bench-pressing,
and trained a lot of them. The result was an onverdeveloped chest, and
triceps, while the rest was just more regular looking. It just made me look
more bulky, but I don't think it made me anymore healthy.

I ignored my legs, and biceps, and at some point ended up injuring my knees,
playing soccer, mainly b/c I just didn't exercise my legs as the rest of my
body.

Lesson learned. You have to go to the gym, and do all the range of excercises,
and not just one kind.

~~~
kylec
I got chills reading your comment - there's a relatively new "100 pushups"
meme on Reddit that was precipitated by a comment very similar to yours:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/6nz1k/got_six_weeks...](http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/6nz1k/got_six_weeks_try_the_hundred_push_ups_training/c04ehte)

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modoc
For me it really goes with stress. When things are running smoothly and I have
a decent amount of free time, I sleep well, eat healthily, and work out
regularly. When things are busy, and I have a huge to-do list, my stress level
is way up, and there's tons of stuff demanding my time, I sleep less and
poorly, I crave carb and fat rich foods when I'm stressed, and I have a much
harder time taking breaks to workout, etc...

Right now I'm dealing with my first house purchase and a cross-country move on
top of my normal work, and my health has taken a big dive. Hopefully once I
move and things settle down, I'll get back on track.

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lux
Sweet, I just joined giveme27.com after reading this. Haven't done push-ups
for a few weeks, but I saw that the site's high scorers were only at 60 and
40. Couldn't quite hit the #1 myself, but seeing others' numbers certainly
motivated me to try harder too!

Really, it's all about balance if you're running a startup, a regular
business, or working a 9-5. We all need something to create/maintain/release
some energy besides sitting in front of a computer, and it definitely gives
you more energy overall.

My personal fave is mountain biking, and I'm looking to get back into
kickboxing in the fall (maybe now that I've said so publicly I'll be more
motivated not to poop out on that statement ;)

Joining a recreational sports team is another good option, plus you get out
and meet/hang out with people that way, which can be tough when you're in
startup mode.

Here's an idea: YC ought to try a sports night where the startup founders all
get together and play a bit...

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iuguy
I've probably put on about 60 pounds since starting up years ago. The
ridiculous hours take it out of you and mean that you don't get to do the
things you want to do.

I was very successful with the hacker diet years back, but even now I don't
have the right combination of time and energy to successfully pull it off.

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tom_rath
The old 5BX plan worked wonders for me: <http://www.oakengates.com/5bx/>

Rather than get me fat, starting a company pushed me to build the body I'd
always wanted.

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vaksel
you know whats funny? I am actually now in better shape than what I was in
when I started. Part of it is that, thanks to doing the startup I learned to
multitask. And its fairly easy to get in shape if you multitask, we all need a
break, so during the 1 hour I spend watching TV I also work out.

And I actually recommended that 100 push ups challenge(I'm up to 65 full
fledged pushups, by which I mean you go all the way down hold, then go all the
way up and hold), it really helps to get you into shape by getting you into
the whole mindset towards working out. + its a huge confidence builder

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silentbicycle
There's a good chance of gaining (or losing) weight in any situation where
your whole daily routine is shaken up, really.

