

"Healthy lifestyle.." - baha_man
http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2008/11/healthy-lifestyle.html

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a-priori
For weight maintainence, healthy eating is definitely more important than
exercise. It takes a hell of a lot more effort to burn 500 calories than to
cut 500 calories from your diet.

I'm no exercise nut, but I do a lot of cycling (70-75km/week this summer). I
don't find it relaxing; if anything, it's the most stressful part of my day.
But, it wakes me up in the mornings and forces me back into the real world at
the end of the day. More than the exercise, I really do it for the cognitive
benefits.

But exercise has to be something you like doing. Cycling is the most enjoyable
exercise I've found so far that I can easily integrate into my daily routine
(that's how I commute to school and work).

~~~
ardit33
as somebody that watches what I eat, just healthy eating is not good enough.

If you don't exercise, you loose muscle, replaced by fat. Even if your weight
stays the same, your fat/muscle ratio will change, and you wont look good, or
feel healthy.

Exercise is a must. Gym, running outside, playing co-ed sports (soccer,
volleyball, whatever) are a must. If you don't at least one of them, your body
will suffer.

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iigs
_Sure, some people apparently get a runners high and really enjoy exercise,
and they'll say how much people like me are "missing". My dad is apparently
one of those freaks, as is my wife. I'm not. I have never in my life felt like
exercise has made me feel that way._

The diet and exercise comment isn't like the Amazon suggestions of the type
"If you love being healthy you'll also enjoy good diet and regular exercise",
it's more about reminding you that, as far as weight is concerned, it's more
or less simple accounting: deposits without caloric withdrawls = increased
balance.

I understand that it's frustrating to hear this message all of the time
(especially if you are unsuccessful at meeting your weight goals or don't like
exercise), but nobody's implying that it's going to be fun, just that it's how
the numbers work.

Furthermore, there's more benefit to exercise than burning excess calories,
which is why credible dietitians and doctors don't just say to eat less: there
are innumerable cardiovascular and muscular benefits; maybe not so important
at 25, but definitely something that can make a difference between a youthful
and a pre-elderly 50 year old.

Disclosure: I don't do any of this stuff. I do not live a healthy lifestyle
and am not chiding anyone for doing (or not doing) anything. I'm just saying
the math is what it is and that getting frustrated about it doesn't accomplish
anything.

~~~
gaius
As my Crossfit coach once said, if you squat when you're young, when you're 80
you'll be able to go to the bathroom without someone to hold your hand.

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charlesju
I have lost 20 lbs in the last 6 months, so I have just recently gotten into
the exercise craze. I run 10 miles a week, and do 30 minutes of ellipticals on
my off days. It sounds painful as heck but there are really 3 major reasons
for exercising on a daily basis.

1\. You'll look better.

2\. You'll feel better.

3\. You'll think better.

Ultimately, it's about making a conscious choice in life, do you want to sit
around waiting for magic pills to get you in shape, or do you want to take
control of your life. I've taken the latter, and I highly recommend it.

As a side note, I recently became a vegetarian too, that has really helped me
maintain my weight, and I can still eat all the good stuff (Chocolate, Ice
Cream, etc.)

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wumi
[http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/09/inactivity-
and...](http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/09/inactivity-and-weight-
gain.html)

 _overweight predicts inactivity but inactivity does not predict overweight.
With the usual caveat that these are just associations, this is not consistent
with the idea that inactivity causes overweight. It is consistent with the
idea that overweight causes inactivity, or they are both caused by something
else._

 _overweight is largely caused by diet composition. If that's the case, then
changing diet composition is obviously going to be a more effective treatment
than exercise, which doesn't address the root cause of the problem. This idea
is supported by numerous diet intervention trials._

challenge your assumptions. I did.

~~~
scott_s
Activity level _does_ predict fitness level, and that is more important for
your health than just your weight.

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shard
He sure is whiny sometimes.

First of all, there are things everyone should do even though they don't like
to do it. Suck it up. Financial planning is boring, but hey it beats outliving
your money. Dental work is painful, but it's certainly better than trying to
chew steak with your gums. Wearing a condom is so not spontaneous, but I
prefer it to having my penis fall off. Writing documentation sucks, but I have
to do it if I want more than 3 people to use my code.

Second, using drugs as opposed to a natural method often gives a suboptimal
result, and not just in a holistic / living closer to the earth kind of way.

Third, if you want to be fat, all the drug is going to do is give you
permission to eat even more, similar to the way people take more risks when
driving as cars became safer.

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sown
Human bodies are not evolved to sit idle in office chairs for exceedingly long
periods of time. All the science points to a reasonable diet and exercise as
being important. It's just that most hew-mahns don't like to.

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gcv
I must be one of those people Linus wants to kick. Too bad for him. I love
taking a break from staring at a screen, and I feel way better, physically and
mentally, after a good run or a good rowing session. My lower back starts to
feel stiff and cramped if I go for more than a day or so without exercise.

Also, I can't imagine life without skiing, and that requires a pretty decent
degree of fitness. Anyone who doesn't ski, or doesn't ski hard enough — you
don't know what you're missing, and I feel sorry for you. :) (<\--- Smiley for
the humor-impaired!)

~~~
PieSquared
I have to agree. Both skiing (and snowboarding, which tends to have a bad
reputation among older folk, sometimes for good reason) are something that
everyone should experience at some point in their life. Going 6 to 8 hours
without seeing a computer screen, just you and the snow, is amazing. Those who
haven't tried it - I strongly suggest you do! If you want fast results, try
snowboarding. Snowboarding tends to be faster to learn initially, and harder
to improve once you're good, while skiing is rather difficult at first but
then is easier once you're past a certain point.

Disclaimer: These are, of course, just my opinions. I've been skiing for 10 or
11 years and snowboarding for 4 or 5 years.

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pavelludiq
I always enjoyed running around in the woods like an 8 year old. That burns
most of my junk food diet, so i don't have any weight problems. Recently i
started some other types of exercises, till now everything i tried, except
running, got boring, but we'll see if i can actually stick to a regime or not.
Apparently Linus has the same problem, but i at least found one thing that
doesn't bore/frustrate me. He could try soccer, that kept my interest for the
whole summer until it got boring last month.

~~~
nicko
Have you tried orienteering? You get the running around in the woods like an 8
year old plus the mental challenge of navigating and route selection. The
community is also generally intelligent and you get to see some awesome places
too.

~~~
pavelludiq
No, not in the woods, but i tried parkour when i was 17 and it was fun for a
while, but then i hurt myself and that was the end of it. I could try
orienting next spring.

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gaius
It's always funny when people who know a lot about computers sound off on
unrelated topics.

~~~
danielh
It's even funnier that they still get votes on HN, if they have a rockstar
status among hackers.

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jcromartie
The only sort of exercise I can tolerate is the type where it's you versus a
landscape or individuals. I hate team sports of all types, and running faster
or lifting more to beat my personal best doesn't keep me interested either. I
think most geeks are this way. The most enjoyable sports for me end up being
hiking, climbing, exploring in general, biking, boating, and racing.

~~~
scott_s
Most geeks feel that way? I think you're generalizing your own feelings onto a
group that you self-identify, assuming that if you have _this_ in common, you
probably have _that_ in common.

If you've ever gotten satisfaction out of improving your skills in a
videogame, or from a team-based multiplayer game, then you have the "enjoys
self-improvement and team based competition" part of the brain. It's just the
physical aspect you don't enjoy.

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biohacker42
And don't like running but I do it it anyway.

P.S.

Linus is a big baby.

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delackner
I would really like to see more research on the relationship between
metabolism and aging (not passage of time, but actual cellular aging, I think
referred to as mitochondrial aging?)

I had thought that low metabolism, meaning a low pace, or clock to the body's
energy consumption, would imply a slower aging action, but a cursory search on
google immediately turned up some research that says it may be just the
opposite: that high energy consumption (not food consumption, energy use by
the body) in mice seems to lead to greater longevity...

Anyone with a more detailed understanding, please?

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brooksbp
cliche... torvald totally would take a pill to boost metabolism...

