
Thoughts On a Year of Exercise - MaysonL
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2019/12/26/thoughts-on-a-year-of-exercise/
======
geophile
I am 62, and have been exercising pretty regularly for 18 years. I hate it. At
its worst, it is painful and unpleasant. At its best, it is boring. I am
fortunate to be able to eat anything I want and not gain weight (even when I
don't exercise). It seems to be the case that I can eat any amount of carbs
and not gain weight. But I don't eat crap, and I gave up soft drinks
completely a long time ago (before I started exercising).

The secret for me was to recognize a few things:

\- I do hate exercise. I don't have the willpower to exercise hard for an hour
a day. It works best for me if I have someone telling me what to do. So over
the years, I have tried various forms of group exercise. I am currently doing
crossfit, (minus the cult aspects, thanks but no thanks) 3 days a week, and
working with a personal trainer 2 days a week (basically an exhausting form of
physical therapy to address problems with the ways that I move, and my lack of
mobility).

\- Making exercise a priority doesn't work for someone like me, because I hate
it so much. No, I made it a habit, which is different. It's a regular thing on
my schedule.

\- It does make me feel better. Not when I do it. Immediately after
exercising, all I feel is relief that it's over for the day. But if I stick to
my 5x/week schedule, 1 hour/day, then my aches and pains -- charateristic for
my age -- disappear. No more aching knees or frequent upper back pain. If I
stop for a couple of weeks, these problems return and I generally feel less
energetic.

\- The battle is psychological. The worst thing is getting myself to the gym.
I wait until the very last minute, and dread it for the whole short drive. The
anticipation before the workout sucks. The warmup is the absolute worst,
because I am transitioning from my normal lazy, comfortable mode, to a far
more active mode, doing completely unnatural (for me) things. Doing the
workout is mostly boring, often exhausting, but mentally easier that the
buildup.

Figure out what works for you and make it a habit.

~~~
collyw
What sort of exercise do you do? I hate the gym and find it mind numbingly
boring.

I cycle most places - its the fastest way for me to get around my city.
Cycling saves me time and money. And I love white water kayaking, skiing and
mountain biking. Kayaking especially has made me travel to some amazing places
and brought m wonderful experiences. I have kayaked for years and I can
understand that they would be difficult for someone older to get into. I
imagine that there must be some form of exercise that you could find
interesting.

~~~
geophile
Cycling is terrifying to me. I'm sure this is a function of age, as I used to
bike everywhere. But I keep finding out about people who are maimed or killed
cycling. Someone I worked with had a really bad broken arm. People in my town
have been killed. (There are bike lanes, but they are just painted. Too easy
for cars to ignore.) My neighbor is quadriplegic after a cycling accident.

------
exabrial
I used to not enjoy it too until I found something I genuinely was good at and
was competitive: an indoor rowing studio. I now _enthusiastically_ workout 5
days a week. And rowing is a very efficient use of my time, I burn roughly a
calorie per row stroke. A 20 minute rowing session means very little dietary
restrictions.

The big thing that worked for me was data. I weighed myself every day no
matter what and even if I knew I was going over the calorie count for the day
I logged it anyway.

For me that was when this vast mystery of diet was cleared. Once I saw how
directly linked they were it became very easy to say no to things and it
continues to do so.

~~~
joegahona
Do you have your rowing studio at home, or do you use it in a gym? And what's
the name/brand? I have been running for a really long time and am hitting an
age where it's getting hard on my body. Looking for what's next.

~~~
mikemac
Indoor cycling might be a good fit too. I really love the metric driven rides;
the competitive aspect is a nice replacement for running faster races.

~~~
collyw
As an outdoor cyclist I find the concept of indoor cycling crazy. Cycling is
the fastest way to get around my city for me.

------
flexd
I find that the hardest thing about logging what I eat is knowing what I eat,
and what calories those things contain. Often I eat lunch at work where they
serve a ton of different dishes, and I dont have the opportunity to weigh what
I eat, and I have no idea what exactly they put in that said that day. If I
try to err on the side of caution, I'll be super hungry because the number of
calories I ate does not add up to the number logged. Unless I have the time to
make all my food and measure it or only eat processed/pre-made food that is
labeled it's hard to keep accurate track.

Do any of you feel the same way? I have used Myfitnesspal and similar before,
but have never stuck with it. Before I have stayed reasonably fit because I
usually ride mountain bikes a lot,but the past few years there has been less
riding and I'm now +10kg my normal weight at least.

~~~
silviogutierrez
Honestly, as someone who values efficiency, I found MyFitnessPal way too slow
and clunky. A food tracker should get _out of the way_. Otherwise you'll - in
the heat of the moment - decide not to log things. It also lacked flexibility
for those times you dine out, skip meals, or skip logging.

Which leads nicely to the shameless plug for
[https://www.joyapp.com](https://www.joyapp.com) . Built it for myself, then
it spread through forums and has quite a few users.

Benefits:

\- Once you learn the ropes, it's an order of magnitude faster to add entries.
It was designed to be opened for as little as possible each day.

\- If you make it hard to log your food, you won't do it. This makes it
trivial.

\- Also, there are no community-entered foods. This is a feature in most
cases. All the food is either from a professionally curated database
(Nutritionix) or custom foods you enter.

\- No ads whatsoever. And we don't sell your data. Privacy is very important
to us.

~~~
moneywoes
Way too pricy for what you offer.

~~~
cadwag
I understand that $2 / month is not trivial for everyone, but this criticism
alone is simply not helpful. If a person, such as yourself, does not value the
benefits the service provides as greater than the price, they are simply not
his/her target market.

Your argument could be that the price asked would limit his/her market
needlessly by simply being too high, but at this price point I doubt that to
be the case.

He / she built a service with a clear value prop (fastest food logging
possible, backed by high quality / custom data, with a privacy focus). For
those interested in food logging without having their eating and nutrition
habits / data sold off, I doubt the price would be a deterrent.

Maybe you can say the service is not meeting expectations in some way. That’s
fair, but then please provide more specific feedback.

Given the nature of this forum, let’s try to be either more supportive or at
least more clear about what could be improved. Drive-by negativity is just not
helpful to anyone.

I, for one, applaud his/her efforts, find the offering enticing and the price
to be very reasonable (Probably too low, in reality) given the attention to
detail, data provided, and problem being solved.

Disclaimer: I have not used the service and have no association, only browsed
the site. I rarely comment, but wanted to balance out this low-effort
negativity.

~~~
silviogutierrez
Thanks for the reasonable take! I think payment ensures a few things:

\- Makes the business sustainable. You know we'll be around because we have a
"revenue > costs" model.

\- It switches the incentives from "the customer is the product" to "the
product is the product". You know how we make money.

------
josephwegner
I guess I'll post this here, on the off chance that someone shares my plight
and has found success.

I, like the author, have found that most traditional excercise is just...
boring. And exhausting. And not enjoyable. I did biking for awhile, and it was
fine until life happened and I fell off the wagon. Same with lifting. Same
with running. The only thing I've truly enjoyed was rock climbing, but the
nearest gym is 45mim away in low traffic - it's a 3 hour commitment to get a
good session.

I've seen the advice from this thread before, to find excercise you enjoy or
excercise you can integrate into your life (ie: run to work). I work from
home. Everything out of the house is inconvenient, and everything in the house
is boring.

I make plenty of money and would be exceptionally happy if I could just throw
money at this problem. There's not really a price I wouldn't pay for a more
durable and comfortable body.

Mostly in the past Ive been told I need to... just do it. Have the willpower
to do it. But that's crappy advice and doesn't work. Has anyone had success
with particular workouts or strategies to keep motivated?

~~~
warp
If you want to throw money at it, try hiring a personal trainer for 2 or 3
days a week.

(I had a personal trainer for a while who trained me and a friend, just having
the commitment to trainer at least made me show up, and it was his job to keep
things fresh. Having a friend there also helped make it less boring).

~~~
mingabunga
Totally agree. I did this after a few years off being a competitive track
athlete, and trying different sports. I got a personal trainer to come to my
house 3 times a week at 6am. It works because you don't have to think about
what to do, you're just told to do it. You can't get out of it because they're
coming knocking on your door at 6am, and you end up having some fun and
interesting conversations. That got me back in to track athletics with a coach
and it's something I look forward to every day.

~~~
iandanforth
Could you comment on the cost of this?

~~~
zaroth
Depending on your location and the experience level of the trainer for someone
to come to your house and use equipment at your house plus/minus some small
stuff they carry in, I think it could be anywhere from $60-$200 an hour.

------
tacon
I like the general thrust of this article that some calorie deficit is the key
to weight loss. Alas, he is still suffering under the misconception that
cardio works for weight loss/fat loss. All the published research shows this
never happens. Here is a summary of that research[0]. The research always
shows that humans who expend extra calories during one activity will, over the
course of the rest of the day, expend fewer calories to, on average, expend
essentially the same amount of energy as those who did not engage in the
strenuous activity. Women who train for their first marathon gain, on average,
2-3 lbs of fat, even though they have expended tens of thousands of extra
calories during their marathon training. Cardio has its uses in fitness, just
not for losing fat.

[0] [https://youtu.be/jHOeoGMiFz8?t=270](https://youtu.be/jHOeoGMiFz8?t=270)

~~~
romaaeterna
You're going too far here. "Never happens" is wrong. If anything, perhaps
cardio doesn't help on average. But I know individuals who have lost huge
amounts of weight through serious cardio activity and no special diet work. I
mean 'serious' cardio though: 2-3 hours/day on a treadmill. I've personally
leaned out a lot through cycling.

~~~
tacon
Sure, I lost a lot of weight when I started running and cycling a lot, _but_ I
wasn't tracking my food at all. I was suddenly "the kind of person" who
doesn't put crap in the temple of their body, etc. When the laboratory
experiment is done, in a controlled environment, same food with exercise
results in same weight without exercise. If you want to change how you eat as
you start a cardio exercise program, great things will happen. Just because
someone loses weight when they start cardio does not imply the cardio led to
weight loss. Though the 50% of floor space in big box gyms devoted to cardio
would make you think that is the most important effect. The gyms just never
get around to presenting any literature to back up that presumption that sells
so many memberships.

~~~
richk449
> Just because someone loses weight when they start cardio does not imply the
> cardio led to weight loss.

I think this is one instance where correlation is good enough for most people
- who cares about causation?

~~~
toolz
I care, a lot. I'm lazy and I very much want an ideal body but I very much
loathe the effort many people put into getting an ideal body. I've had great
success with extended fasts and the more research I do, the more I believe
that is the optimal path to achieving my ideal body, both for losing fat and
gaining muscle.

I'll tl;dr; this comment by saying I'm a longer term fasting fan boy now so I
can stay on topic and say that it very much matters to me what cause and
effect are because I don't want to do cardio.

~~~
tacon
If you want a technical approach to weight loss, you might read The Hacker's
Diet[0], free online. He even has an online weight tracking app that is great
for smoothing out the fluctuations in daily weight measurements[1].

The cardio is not necessary, but, alas, the strength training may be. If you
are losing a large amount of fat by dieting alone, you are saying goodbye to
pounds of muscle, too, unless you are suggesting to your body that you still
need that muscle (strength training). Sarcopenia is taking your muscle mass
fast enough as you age; don't let it speed up because it is a bitch to get it
back once it is gone.

If you just want the simplest diet to lose weight, start eating a lot of
protein[2]. Fats and carbs have raised the energy balance of typical processed
foods, so reverse that trend in what you eat and you will lose weight while
eating ad libitum (at will).

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker%27s_Diet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker%27s_Diet)

[1]
[http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/online/hdo.html](http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/online/hdo.html)

[2] [http://www.thepediet.com/](http://www.thepediet.com/)

~~~
toolz
extended fasts lose far less muscle than any calorie restriction diets. Hence
my poorly worded note about it's the best diet for gaining muscle. What I
really meant is that fasting is the best way to lose fat while preserving as
much muscle as possible.

------
tmarsden
You’re not going to get an endorphin rush from walking for 20 minutes.
Endorphins are essentially painkillers produced in response to physical
discomfort. You’re going to have to run, and probably for more than 2O
minutes, if you want to get a runner’s high.

~~~
askafriend
Yeah this is the bare minimum for what qualifies as exercise. I’m really
surprised the author took the liberty to opine on all of exercise based on
this...

~~~
sundvor
It's nonetheless a good story if viewed from the perspective of a complete
couch potato. As a way of getting started, doing 20 minute walks is great! As
long as it leads to higher intensity after adaptation, which it should allow.

------
molodec
I can't imagine not being grumpy walking on a treadmill in the basement and
thinking about an extra slice of pizza. I go to gym sometimes to lift weights,
and I have never seen a happy face on a person walking on a treadmill. I don't
understand why not to go for a walk and enjoy the nature, people, birds, ...
whatever you have in your neighborhood.

~~~
groby_b
So many points. The major ones for me, in order of importance:

1) Running on a treadmill is much friendlier to my joints than concrete or
asphalt. For us city dwellers, that adds up over time.

2) I can quit the treadmill at any time. If you're outside on a 6 mile run and
you have a muscle cramp up at mile 3, limping back 3 miles is the result.
That's surprisingly little fun ;)

3) Can't speak for other people, but usually the treadmill is a warm-up,
that's it.

4) It's cold and rainy outside. I'm soft and coddled and like being in a warm
place :)

(OK, realistically, the first two are the ones that really matter, the rest
you can get over)

~~~
nradov
A dedicated running track is a good middle option between street running and a
treadmill. Usually the surface is a little softer. If there's a public high
school or community college in your area you can probably run on their track
for free as long as it's not in use.

~~~
theli0nheart
Tracks are great texture-wise, but they come with their own problems since
you’re only turning left or right. Body movement will compensate for this and
it can lead to injuries if you’re not careful. My PT told me he’s sees a lot
of this at his practice.

------
romaaeterna
I've found that calories-in/calories-out logic only gets you so far. It's
foundationally true, of course, because energy is conserved, and we use all of
the calories that we eat, with few exceptions, either for energy or for fat
storage.

But exercise really helps. It changes what you want to eat first of all. Fat
loss can be grueling or easy, depending on where your body wants to be, and
exercise pushes it to the easier side.

Some of the non-calorie burning exercises have the biggest effects here.
Weightlifting is almost pointless from a calorie perspective, but it really
energizes weight loss. I assume that the hormonal effects are king.

Biking colossal distances is another thing that seems to lead to leaning out.
In theory it should be possible just to eat through the calories burned
biking, but in practice, it seems to shift the bias towards losing.

Also, the biggest problem with calories-in calories-out is that weight regain
after a calorie deficit period -- even a long one -- seems to be almost a law
of nature. The body seems to push extremely hard for regaining everything that
has been starved off.

~~~
taneq
> Weightlifting is almost pointless from a calorie perspective

Maybe in terms of the energy you burn directly by lifting weights, but it
raises your base metabolic rate significantly for quite some time after a
workout. The extra muscle mass you built also raises your BMR in a longer
lasting way. Especially when combined with interval training, weights are very
effective.

~~~
romaaeterna
Does it raise your BMR that much? What is that energy doing exactly? Does your
body temperature increase? Do you move around more? You can't have energy
going nowhere, of course. What other activities can drive the same? And what
is the magnitude?

"The extra muscle mass you built also raises your BMR in a longer lasting
way."

Unless you are talking about fantastic amounts of muscle mass here -- 10
pounds of muscle will only burn an extra 60-70 calories a day -- this oft
mentioned factoid is unnoticeable in daily calorie expenditure.

~~~
taneq
It's hard to find good data on what the effects are in amongst all the bro-
science articles, but I believe the raise in energy usage is due to the body
repairing the muscles after the weights workout, so you'd see an increase in
body heat generation (although the core temperature would stay the same,
peripheral circulation would go up and skin temperature would rise a bit).
HIIT is just good at hitting a lot of different muscle groups hard enough in a
short amount of time to maximize the effect. It's not huge but several hours
of increased passive energy burn does make a difference.

Also, 10 pounds of muscle isn't a fantastic amount to put on (depending on
body size), especially if it's muscle that you're re-gaining rather than
building for the first time. A few months of regular moderate weights work
would build that much without pushing too hard. And again, passive energy burn
is "free" and helps with gradual long-term weight loss.

------
bot1
Start lifting weights. There’s nothing more motivating than actually seeing
gains. Also it’s fun in general imo.

~~~
Ididntdothis
Just remember that the gains will stop after a while if you don’t start taking
steroids or something. People seem to have difficulty finding a stable workout
routine they enjoy without improvements. Otherwise lifting is good but watch
for form and don’t ignore nagging injuries.

~~~
fearingreprisal
Huh? What part of that is supported by any kind of evidence? You can lift for
many years and keep improving consistently if you stick to a good regimen. I
also have a great routine that I stick to consistently and enjoy immensely,
you're speaking for yourself.

~~~
garmaine
How old are you?

------
ck425
Personally I'd try two things to make the process easier:

1) Fit physical activity into your day to day life. I run to work but there
are far less extreme ways to do this. Walk or cycle places, find a hobby that
burns some calories etc. Leading a life that involves movement is far more
sustainable than trying to start an exercise habit.

2) Try lots of different exercise routines. After a lot of trial and effort
I've found running and swimming work best for me, with maybe 5/10 min weights
after a swim. I've previously tried cycling, dumbbells, thai boxing and many
many body weight/calisthenic/ natural movement type systems. Everyone's
different so it's worth trying out a load of things to find which you'll
actually enjoy.

~~~
kccqzy
I wholeheartedly support (1). Earlier this year I lived closer to work and
biking to work every day is extremely natural, and I easily close every ring
on my Apple Watch with basically no effort. Now that I live farther away from
work and my commute involves a car, it is a struggle everyday to close the
rings.

------
WalterBright
> at no point in my year of exercising has it been much other than an annoying
> thing that I’ve had to do

I was jogging for well over a year before I started to enjoy it and look
forward to my runs. Before then it took a fair amount of willpower to do it,
afterwards I wanted to run and it was no effort.

~~~
RandomBacon
It took me about 3 months (two different times a bit over a year apart). Each
instance only lasted for about 4 months when I'd just lose motivation. Maybe
it was because I made an accomplishment each time (being able to jog half an
hour without stopping for the first time in my life was the last one), and
that feeling of satisfaction meant I no longer had a drive to accomplish
something anymore.

I still have my goal of being able to run indefinitely, but I'm just not
motivated to start back up again.

~~~
WalterBright
I made a conscious decision not to run for time or distance, nor do I concern
myself if I stop to chat with a neighbor. If another jogger speeds by me, I
yell at them to stop making me look bad. If I pass one, I chide them for being
lazy :-)

------
oarabbus_
I found the article a little... well, I'm not sure what adjective to use, but
a little "off".

>People told me that the first few weeks of exercising would be the hardest,
and after that point all the endorphins would kick in (or whatever) and then I
would really start to enjoy that.

Yes, it's the most difficult to start a new habit when you start it. It's
certainly not a common claim that endorphins "kick in after a few weeks"
though.

>It turns out that in actual practice, I don’t exercise to lose weight, I
exercise so that I can eat more calories and still lose weight.

I'm the same way, but it has nothing to do with exercise, and it's certainly
not "exercise's fault" (personifiying a bit) that I have poor willpower (or
very good rationalization).

>It also meant that honestly speaking the real key to losing weight was the
calorie counting, not the exercising.

This is not a revelation. Literally every gym, fitness club, personal trainer,
pro or amateur athlete, etc... they will all say it's an 80/20 split between
diet an exercise. "Abs are made in the kitchen" is a very common phrase
amongst bodybuilders/those who want abs/athletes.

>Also key for me was understanding that the exercise and calorie counting was
going to be a permanent thing now, and not just something I was going to do
until I hit a goal.

I mean... if you diet and exercise and lose 10lbs, then stop dieting and
exercising... you will gain the 10lbs back.

>I felt better when I started exercising, and I feel better now than I did a
year ago, both physically and mentally. But it’s important to note that
exercising and bringing my body closer to something that corresponded to my
own internal self-image of myself did not, in fact, solve all my problems.

This is a great point and really the only part of the article with any
insight. I think it's very important to realize that going from unfit to fit
actually doesn't solve a lot of the problems one may think it does.

------
ehnto
One option: if you live near some mountain bike trails, get a mountain bike.
All the nature of hiking with as much or as little roller coaster like
excitement as you want.

There are so many options, even indoor ones, that there is no need for being
active to be boring.

~~~
bobsil1
I run hill trails, and they’re so much more interesting than gyms and tracks.

------
ph2082
Surprised, nobody mentioned Bodyweight exercises. They build basic foundation
on which you can add others like running, cycling, swimming, whatever etc.

When I tried 10 burpees first time heart rate shot to 170-180. Made me
question my existence along with all poor life style choices.

Good thing is, you need not to waste to time traveling to gym, other places to
pursue other activities. Can be done at home, hotel, park wherever you are.

------
xallace
it's my personal preference but bike-commuting seems like the optimum for
people who are overweight, don't have time and lack motivation. you lose
weight, learn more about your local area, learn more about human psychology,
you can listen to your favourite podcast/audiobook, don't have to pay for gym
membership/gas to drive to te gym, and it's better for your knees

~~~
rapht
I second that.

I can very much relate to the author's thoughts about the whole exercise
routine, including a lack of general enjoyment of it, and when I set out to
improve my body in the gym, I lasted a few months or so and gave up: too much
time and effort and motivation and money needed at the same time for something
so dull - and that was e few years ago and I stopped doing much exercise
except for some week end walks and the like.

Now for a few months I have been commuting to work by bike, driven by the time
gain vs car or subway, and I have to say even though it's a bit of an effort
on rainy days, it's really a very good combination of low cost, low friction,
useful in its own right, means of doing exercise.

------
macintux
This is exactly the blog post I would have written this year. In April I got
sick of being nearly 50 and 220 pounds; after 8 months of calorie counting and
exercise I’m nearly 50 and 170ish pounds.

And while I’ve gotten at least a little enjoyment out of running, that’s as
much as I can say about appreciating exercise. Such an incredibly tedious
chore.

------
tlbsofware
I highly recommend anyone who wants to learn more about exercising for
aesthetic or performance goals to check out Eric Helms, he is a huge name in
the science based fitness community along with Greg Nuckols, Brad Schoenfeld,
and Bret Contreras to name a few (there are plenty and luckily all these guys
mention each other so you can find great info all over). His Muscle and
Strength Pyramid videos (and books that I have both bought) provide a great
amount of detail into the fundamentals of nutrition and training as well as
understanding the hierarchy of importance.

Muscle and Strength Pyramid series: Training:
[https://youtu.be/OWmchPCyDvw](https://youtu.be/OWmchPCyDvw) Nutrition:
[https://youtu.be/GAvW6xBZjSk](https://youtu.be/GAvW6xBZjSk)

------
RickJWagner
Exercise is the best! Physical and mental gains, guards your health, keeps you
young.

I had a gym close to my office, and used to take the lunch hour to exercise.
Really made the day go quickly! (Sadly, that gym moved and now I have to work
out after work. But the upside is that I now go with my wife, son and
daughter.)

------
kalyantm
I completely agree with point 1. Everyone said the first month would be the
hardest, but halfway through my 9th month, I still think it's the hardest
thing to do. The thing is, now it's become such an integral part of my daily
routine that I cannot move forward without it. That consistency has programmed
my brain to cling on to it, and it being hard does not matter anymore.
Something no trainer/exercise junkie will tell you

------
nickbauman
The misery from the work expressed makes me think this will not be a very
long-lived habit.

I think in order to get the endorphin rush (or, more accurately, a general
increase in a well-being feeling over time), you need to have a level of
intensity higher than just walking.

So if you run instead of walk your calorie burn is 4-5x more so you can play
this calorie game with even less time investment and you'll get the endorphins
that will help reinforce the behavior better.

------
brentis
Try squash. Amazing amount of exercise and for those of us who are competitive
it never gets boring. Sheds weight like crazy and has cardio demands like few
other sports.

Alternatively, just walk with 5lb dumbbells. No shortage of studies on
mental/physical benefits of walking and lugging around weights help core and
upper body. I usually add 20lb weight vest.

------
inamberclad
I'll throw in my vote for actually liking the exercise I do, which is mostly
sprints and weightlifting. During school it was my meditation. After working
on other, uncertain things for long enough I need to be able to hone my own
will, struggle for my own sake, and yes, I do get the endorphins.

------
peter303
I have bern doing vigorous exercise for 51 years and still love it. Outdoor
running up to 70 miles a week for the first 46 years, high speed walking 25
miles a week the last 5 years. The secret is doing something that is fun so
you look forward to it every day.

------
Havoc
I suspect the weight 170 might have something to do with lack of enjoyment.

Run for example becomes tangibly harder if I weigh just 10% more

------
blackflame
Another thing is that you should view calories from simple sugars as calorie
multipliers in terms of weight loss. Too much sugar causes insulin to stop
opening the cell gates for glycogen to be consumed, similar to a lock getting
worn out so the key(insulin) stops working. The net effect is no matter what
you do you're not going to be able to consume as many calories causing fatigue
and glycogen that stays in the bloodstream stores as fat.

~~~
jiofih
I think you’re right, but your comment is so dense it’s impossible to decipher
unless the person has read specific literature.

TL;DR it’s not all about calories, bodies adapt their energy budget, carbs
have a stronger impact than other food.

~~~
blackflame
I struggled with weight all my life. I constantly would get motivated to
workout only to quit over and over again due to the lack of meaningful
progress after the initial period. Even weight lifting I could only put on
muscle but never lower my body fat below 18. After getting a scale that
measures body composition and studying what I ate and how it affected me I was
finally able to figure out the issue. The issue is metabolic syndrome and I
suspect many people have this condition.

Think of it this way, your body is constantly in either burn or store mode.
When you move, you deplete energy reserves within the cell which must be
replenished from the blood supply. Glucose is the basic energy block on the
cellular level (ignoring intercellular ATP) for the human body. In order for
glucose to pass into the cell and replenish reserves, it must pass through a
gate that blocks out harmful material. The key to this gate is called insulin.
When you eat a sugary diet, this gate mechanism becomes less and less
responsive sort of like a tired security guard after the morning and evening
rush. When the gate fails to open, two things happen: The first is that the
cell becomes fatigued because its energy reserve hasn't been replenished, and
second, the glucose stays in the bloodstream where it eventually is converted
to glycogen and stores as fat.

This is the problem that gets people. When you are in this state, you will
burn less fat during your workouts and they will feel harder too. For the
triple whammy, your body will catabolize energy-burning muscle instead of
using what's already available. The only good time for sugars is after a
workout so as to prevent catabolism. Keto and low carb diets work by reducing
the strain on the insulin receptors allowing them to become resensitized. This
is also why fasting diets work because they reduce insulin sensitivity so that
your body more readily uses the energy it has when it has it.

3 Things Effect Weightloss and a change in any of them could make a "bad" food
good or a "good" food bad in terms of losing or gaining weight.

1 - How much have you moved recently

2 - How much have you eaten recently

3 - What did you eat recently

------
doe88
There is a saying:

    
    
      - Better diet makes you lose weight;
      - More exercise helps you maintain your weigh loss.
    

Also I think it is important to be careful when starting exercising to not
make too much too soon. It is more important to target the long game and avoid
injuries or mental exhaustion which would make you quit in both cases if not
handled correctly.

------
dredmorbius
Fitness is not simply cardio.

There's a great Men's Journal article, featured a few times on HN, "Everything
You Know About Fitness is a Lie".

Read it. Several times.

[https://web.archive.org/web/20110130195636/http://www.mensjo...](https://web.archive.org/web/20110130195636/http://www.mensjournal.com/everything-
you-know-about-fitness-is-a-lie/print/)

(Earlier discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4971196](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4971196)
and
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2287213](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2287213),
particularly.)

Your body is an adaptive system, it responds to stimulus, given nutrition,
rest/recovery, and other parameters (of which stress is a major element).

Cardio works your heart. That's useful, but there's more to your body than
that.

Strength training works your muscles, building strength, endurance, power, and
mass.

There are skills, fine-motor control, coordination, and other exercise
modalities, with their own specific results.

Training is a stimulus which achieves a specific result, preferably one you've
identified as a goal.

All said, 20 minutes of daily walking ... isn't a lot. It's better than
nothing. There are other things you can do. You don't need a lot of equipment
or space (though as with many things, the right tools for the job help).

Understanding _how_ your body responds to _what_ stimulus, under what
circumstances, and roughly how quickly or slowly, helps a lot.

A modest, _consistent_ , balanced, and goal-appropriate programme can be
absolutely life-changing. It's valuable at any age -- what you do when you're
young will deliver returns in your old age (the more so if you keep it up).
Training as an older adult is also a major quality-of-life determinant.

There's no One Perfect Exercise. A balance of modalities (cardio, strength,
flexibility, skills) is generally preferable. Starting out, virtually anything
is better than nothing. As you advance, you'll find you need to make more
specific tweaks to continue progress (should you want to).

And once you've gotten yourself beyond baseline, a small amount of work goes a
long way. Clarence Bass, now well into his 80s, maintains an impressive
physique based on two workouts a week -- one lifting session, one cardio.

[https://www.cbass.com](https://www.cbass.com)

There's a ton of bogus advice, but also quality information readily found. The
basics are _simple_ , though the work isn't always _easy_.

Reddit's /r/fitness (or /r/XXfitness for women) is actually quite good, both
in discussion and its wiki. Strongly recommended:

[https://old.reddit.com/r/fitness](https://old.reddit.com/r/fitness)

[https://old.reddit.com/r/fitness/wiki](https://old.reddit.com/r/fitness/wiki)

[https://old.reddit.com/r/xxfitness](https://old.reddit.com/r/xxfitness)

[https://old.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki](https://old.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki)

------
Gatsky
Some fasting would probably help this guy a lot.

Another under-appreciated point: in the end, aging & chronic disease are due
to metabolic activity, and reducing your metabolism x time AUC probably has a
lot of benefits.

------
krustyburger
I grimaced at “because holidays” and stopped reading at “because physics.”

I guess my distaste for that sort of writing is because English grammar.

~~~
collyw
[https://www.sciencealert.com/people-who-pick-up-grammar-
mist...](https://www.sciencealert.com/people-who-pick-up-grammar-mistakes-
jerks-scientists-find)

------
subpixel
If you eat the same meal every day you'll wind up unenthusiastic about food as
well.

The key to effective exercise as a means of weight loss is to find something
you really like doing.

~~~
usaar333
I agree that's ideal, but there's plenty of people who won't find any form of
exercise enjoyable. Or perhaps will only find some types of exercise (after
years, I really only like hiking and biking, which doesn't help much with
upper body strength).

The other thing that works is just being motivated. I find I feel like crap if
I go for a long time without exercising, so I will.. even if I don't
particularly enjoy doing it.

~~~
swsieber
Have you tried climbing? It just seems like something that woukd fit in that
group, that and parkur. Unfortunately those both seem like they have a high
barrier to enjoyment.

~~~
usaar333
Used to climb weekly. It's enjoyable as a social activity, though (for me) not
so much individually. Either way, after having a kid, I haven't prioritized it
in.

It's also a lot different from hiking or biking - indoor climbing lacks the
calming nature aspect. Outdoor climbing has a high time/coordination cost.

------
voisin
If you don’t feel subjectively better after exercise than before, the solution
is to add to the intensity and keep trying. I wonder what percentage of max
heart rate he averaged.

~~~
thrower123
This is such a bizarre mindset. It's sort of like "the beatings will continue
until morale improves."

~~~
tacon
Intensity is 80-90% of the determinant of a muscle's adaptive response to
load. If you plan to get somewhere near your genetic potential in strength and
size, you will need to use rather high intensity to deeply fatigue ("inroad")
the muscle. But you also have to _not_ repeat that stimulus for days to a
week, to allow recovery in people like us with middle of the bell curve
genetics. The ideal profile for building strength is exercise that is intense,
brief, and infrequent. Yes, it is unpleasant for a couple of minutes per
muscle group, once or twice a week. So what? Do you enjoy brushing your teeth?
Or do you just do it and get it over with? Note, this is for strength
training. Skill building for sports, or general physical activity, is a
different protocol, depending on the activity.

One of my favorite recent book titles is "If You Like Exercise ... Chances Are
You're Doing It Wrong: Proper Strength Training for Maximum Results"[0], which
is another book about the work of exercise genius Arthur Jones, inventor of
Nautilus and MedX equipment.

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Exercise-Chances-Youre-Doing-
Wrong/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/Exercise-Chances-Youre-Doing-
Wrong/dp/1475974418/)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7GB3h82tcQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7GB3h82tcQ)

[2] [https://www.amazon.com/Body-Science-Research-Strength-
Traini...](https://www.amazon.com/Body-Science-Research-Strength-
Training/dp/0071597174)

