[HN Gopher] How fit can you get from just walking?
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How fit can you get from just walking?
Author : ingve
Score : 230 points
Date : 2021-04-18 08:27 UTC (14 hours ago)
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| fortran77 wrote:
| He went down to a strict 2000 kcal/day. Strictly and honestly
| counting calories always works for weight loss.
| markbnj wrote:
| Guess I'll share my own story: close to seven years ago now I was
| nudging up against 270 pounds and had a 44 inch waist. I decided
| to make some changes and started walking 2 miles a night. This is
| less than half the distance spoken of in the OP, but in
| compensation the route involved several decent hills and I walked
| it briskly. I also did a couple of other things that I think were
| important: I stopped adding sugar to coffee and I stopped
| drinking soda and having desert every night after dinner. Over a
| period of around a year I dropped from 265-ish to 215-ish and
| shrank my waist to 36 inches. I'm still walking the two miles
| every night, seven nights a week. Coming out of the covid-19 year
| of sloth I've put about 15 pounds back on, so I am considering
| adding another mile or two to the routine and perhaps doing a few
| other exercises, but just walking those two miles a night worked
| wonders for me.
| GeekyBear wrote:
| I gained a ton of weight after I stopped smoking. To take it
| off and keep it off, I made several similar changes.
|
| I stopped drinking sweetened drinks, cut out refined carbs, and
| took up learning to cook everything from scratch as my new
| hobby. (It's hard to really get the sugar in your diet under
| control unless you cook everything from scratch.)
|
| I didn't change my level of physical activity.
|
| This has worked to keep the weight off for more than a decade.
| ravenstine wrote:
| Your story sounds a lot like mine. I didn't get to 270, but I
| was getting around 230 before I decided to change things.
| Fortunately, I didn't have a job at that point, so I got to
| shed about 1/3 of that weight in ~6 months by doing lots of
| walking, hiking, and improving my macros (i.e. cutting out
| sugar and high carbs). Today I'm at 150.
|
| In my opinion, it really doesn't help to tell people what kind
| of exercise they should be doing. _Just sweat._ Do whatever it
| is that you can do consistently. No matter what, you are almost
| certainly burning more calories than you did sitting around.
| Combine that with better macronutrients, and you 'll almost
| certainly lose weight.
|
| Once you get slimmer, this can get more difficult because
| people with more body weight have a greater basal metabolic
| rate. What I do now when I need to shed some weight (sometimes
| I get up to 160) is do those things you did before but also eat
| less. I calculate my BMR, divide it by half, and only eat that
| many calories. This is a short term strategy, not a long term
| one.
| thinkharderdev wrote:
| People argue endlessly about which exercise is "best" but the
| fact is that the difference between forms of exercise is a
| rounding error compared to the difference between ANY
| exercise and being completely sedentary. The most important
| thing is just to find something that you personally enjoy and
| don't get inured doing. The constraint for the vast majority
| of people is just motivation.
| chillacy wrote:
| Cutting the sugar might have been the bulk of the effect, it's
| very difficult to burn calories over the base metabolic rate,
| but it's very easy to consume an extra 200 calories a day in
| sugar.
| akira2501 wrote:
| > it's very difficult to burn calories over the base
| metabolic rate
|
| You can run _flat out_ for an hour, or you can just skip the
| french fries with lunch. I found the latter to be orders of
| magnitude easier to accomplish on a day-to-day basis.
| magicalhippo wrote:
| Reducing calories on the plate was way easier for me too.
|
| It was both important to control portion size as well as
| content though.
|
| So for me, the key point was adjusting my meals to make me
| feel fuller, so I could reduce portion sizes without
| feeling hungry.
|
| I primarily did this by increasing the relative amount of
| protein and fiber, and trying to reduce fat or carbs.
|
| For my saturday steak I swapped french fries with peas, and
| cut the butter for the bearnaise in half.
|
| For my "tacos" I limited the number of tortillas,
| increasing the amount of salad and also swapping out
| regular iceberg lettuce with romaine (more fiber). I also
| stopped using additional oil or fat for cooking the mince
| meat.
|
| For breakfast I swapped butter for mustard or similar, and
| tricks like using more mature cheeses so I could use less
| cheese while still enjoying a lot of flavor.
|
| I think the important thing is being honest with yourself
| about your goals and limitations, and use that to find
| something you can live with.
|
| I just had to have that saturday steak, but I identified
| what about it that was important and as such managed to
| tweak the dish. I knew I couldn't cut chocolate entirely so
| instead I found ways to get the chocolate I needed while
| having far less of it in total.
| EMM_386 wrote:
| Calories in, calories out (CICO) will certainly work for
| weight gain or loss.
|
| But cardiovascular exercise, muscle strengthening, etc do
| confer other whole-body benefits that going for the french
| fries won't convey.
| adinisom wrote:
| Absolutely true.
|
| At the same time I've noticed I'm much hungrier if I don't
| exercise. And exercise displaces time I could be eating.
| So, at least for me, it seems to have an indirect impact on
| weight loss.
| thinkharderdev wrote:
| I can't the exact details but IIRC there is a canonical
| study which tracked physical activity, calorie intake and
| obesity in large cohort. There was a high correlation
| between calorie intake and level of activity in the
| sample and likewise only a weak correlation between level
| of activity and obesity (or lack thereof). Basically,
| people were good at calibrating their calorie intake to
| their level of physical activity. EXCEPT for the
| sedentary people, who tended to consume calories way
| outside of their needs based on little or no physical
| activity and (not surprisingly) tended to be obese at
| high rates.
|
| Our bodies seem to be good at calibrating hunger and
| calorie intake to maintain balance between calories in
| and calories out, but there is something about being
| completely sedentary which causes that mechanism to
| malfunction.
| watwut wrote:
| It depends whether your goal is health or aesthetics. If
| you are after health, moderate about of sport is working
| intervention. It actually works to make you healthier.
|
| If you go only diet route, you may or may not become
| healthier.
| daenz wrote:
| Great job on your progress. I have a question for people who
| drink a lot of soda: is this something that started in your
| household growing up and was carried into adulthood?
| floren wrote:
| I drank very little soda as a kid. Once I got to college,
| though, I felt like I needed to be a cool hacker dude, and
| that included lots and lots of Mountain Dew. I'm on to Coke
| Zero these days, and cutting that out too, but I've got no
| one to blame but myself for my soda habit.
| thinkharderdev wrote:
| I drank a lot of soda as a child/adolescent but somewhere in
| my early twenties I mostly just stopped. Not for any
| particular health reason either. I just stopped liking it.
| And now I actually find it pretty disgusting and don't quite
| understand how anyone actually enjoys it.
| vram22 wrote:
| Worth remembering that almost all processed foods have added
| sugar, salt or fat these days - apart from other additives like
| preservatives, stabilizers, emulsifiers, and the list of -ers
| goes on.
|
| Read product labels closely, and/or don't buy ones without
| labels. For unprocessed products, to know their natural
| composition, use Wikipedia and sites like USDA nutrition data
| site.
| satysin wrote:
| I have a similar story. Many friends asked me how I lost
| weight. Did I join a gym? Start running? Keto? The answer is
| boring but I cut out sugar.
|
| I stopped adding it to drinks. I stopped drinking soda and
| fruit juices and smoothies (fruit juices/smoothies are as bad
| as soda imho as they all try and _pretend_ they are healthy).
| Stopped having dessert (unless out for a meal for a special
| occasion), no biscuits, chocolate, crisps and snacks.
|
| Plus I started viewing my calorie intake over a 7 day period
| rather than daily. This way I didn't 'feel bad' if I went out
| for a meal or had a movie and pizza night with the family. I
| found that 'feed bad' mindset made me quit many times as I felt
| I had 'failed'. So by removing it and viewing intake over a
| whole week I could easily reduce a bit over 3 or 4 days and
| still break even. A simple change of perspective really worked
| for me.
|
| It took a while but now I don't like how sweet many things are.
| Like a mars bar is _disgusting_ to me now. Two bites and I feel
| kind of sick from how much sugar is in it. It shocks me how
| desensitised I was to sugar as it is added to literally
| everything.
|
| Also an added bonus to the weight loss was that I also saved a
| lot as my appetite changed and I was naturally less hungry than
| I used to be. Smaller meals and less processed crap meant my
| shopping bill was much lower than before.
| systemvoltage wrote:
| To be fair, I eat sugary foods regularly and I too find Mars
| bar disgustingly sweet. Same with Snickers bar. They're just
| too sweet, regardless of who is eating them.
| fredleblanc wrote:
| I have a similar story I've posted about before. Cut sugar,
| made myself do 30 minutes of brisk activity each day, lost
| about 70 pounds.
|
| Mind you, it got harder to do brisk activity as it went. What
| started as walking for 2 miles ended up being running for 5
| miles. (5 miles became the target after a while so I stopped
| with 30 minutes. It would take 38-40 minutes at my best.)
|
| Also got hit with COVID gain, so I'm back at it. Bought me a
| treadmill and am doing at least a 5k every day, training back
| up to at least 4 miles.
|
| I found a lot of it was consistency. It felt like weight loss
| had an inertia to it. Took a while to really start losing, but
| once it started it was easy to keep dropping a pound per week.
| Even after stopping running for a bit, the weight stayed off
| for quite a while.
|
| Anyway, good on you (us!) for regular exercise! It really can
| make all the difference.
| lisper wrote:
| > Cut sugar
|
| This is a much bigger factor than most people realize. I've
| kept track of my weight for almost ten years and found that
| the thing it correlates most with is my sugar intake. More
| sugar, more weight. The time matters too. Late-night sugar
| packs on the pounds more than mid-day sugar.
|
| What makes it really insidious is that there's a latency of a
| week or more. The problem is not so much that sugar itself
| causes you to gain weight. The problem is that over time
| sugar actually changes your metabolism so that your body
| stores more fat. And even that does not happen directly. What
| sugar intake does is make you feel hungrier, so you eat more
| in general. It also lowers your baseline metabolism so you
| feel more tired in between sugar rushes. The net effect of
| all this is weight gain over a long period of time, and it
| takes a long time to undo the damage. Quitting sugar really
| is a lot like quitting smoking.
|
| Another thing many people don't realize is that alcohol has
| much the same effect as sugar.
| bluedino wrote:
| I drink a soft drink every afternoon at work, and when I
| fill the recycling bin after 3 months I think about how
| many calories are in that bin, actually inside me. 12
| 240-260 calorie drinks is nearly a pound of body weight.
| mikestew wrote:
| _Another thing many people don 't realize is that alcohol
| has much the same effect as sugar._
|
| A bit of an oversimplification, but for the purposes of
| diet, alcohol effectively is liquid sugar. The top ten list
| of caloric density starts with fat and alcohol pulls up
| second place.
| bumby wrote:
| Is the implication that the real issue is calories or
| that alcohol and sugar have similar metabolic mechanisms?
| E.g., similar effects on insulin, blood glucose etc.?
| lisper wrote:
| Yes, that's true, but it misses the point. Caloric
| density is not what matters. What matters is _how hungry
| you feel_. Fat provides (vastly!) more filled-up-feeling
| per calorie than sugar. So eating fat will help you lose
| weight despite the fact that fat has more than twice as
| many calories per gram. You 'll feel fuller faster, so
| you'll eat less.
|
| Sugar actually has the perverse effect of making you feel
| _more_ hungry after you 've eaten it. This is one of the
| things that makes junk food so addictive.
| bumby wrote:
| Is this context, wouldn't lean protein be the smarter
| choice over carbs or fat? It has lower caloric density
| than fat but doesn't increase ghrelin like carbs
| lisper wrote:
| All of this is subject to Ron's First Law: all extreme
| positions are wrong. Eating too much sugar is bad. So is
| eating too much far or too much protein. Carbs are
| generally bad, but simple carbs (and alcohol) are worse
| than complex carbs. Fiber and vitamins matter too. Just
| about the _only_ hard-and-fast rule is that sugar and
| alcohol are bad for you and the less you eat of them the
| better, at least in terms of your _physical_ health.
| Personally, I choose to trade off some physical health
| risks in exchange for some boosts to my mental health
| because I do love me a margarita now and again. All
| things in moderation, including moderation :-)
| raunak wrote:
| Is this a real law? can't find anything online about
| either the law or its actual text
| lisper wrote:
| Do you mean Ron's First Law? I don't what you mean by
| "real law" in this context. It's obviously not a "real
| law" in the sense of being a law of physics or anything
| like that. It's a real aphorism, like Murphy's law, but
| obviously nowhere near as well know.
|
| BTW, I'm Ron, the coiner of Ron's First Law, if that
| helps you put it in context :-)
| vram22 wrote:
| >BTW, I'm Ron, the coiner of Ron's First Law, if that
| helps you put it in context :-)
|
| I somehow guessed it, the moment I read it, though I
| didn't know your full name earlier, despite having read
| your comments on HN before.
|
| Maybe because I've mulled making up such laws myself :)
|
| Un bella domani, fratello!
|
| (One fine day, brother. - From a Morris West novel. I
| think it is The Shoes of The Fisherman. Great read.)
| bumby wrote:
| You're absolutely right, but I think the moderation
| extends to sugar as well. Sugar can be used prudently and
| beneficially. E.g., eating sugar (or other fast digesting
| carbs) immediately after a hard workout will actually
| enhance recovery.
| adgjlsfhk1 wrote:
| The key is that soda and juice both contain way more
| sugar than you should be consuming regularly. 1 can of
| Coke contains roughly 140 calories of sugar which is
| roughly 100% of your daily recommended sugar according to
| the American Heart Association. (a can of orange juice is
| 160, though some weird regulation means they don't have
| to count it as sugar). As such it is pretty much
| impossible to have a healthy diet that involves regular
| consumption of soft drinks. Once a week or so is OK, but
| more than that is probably bad. (unless you are
| exercising for more than 3 hours a day)
| bumby wrote:
| If we're constraining it the average semi-sedentary
| lifestyle, I agree. My point was more to the "only hard-
| and-fast rule is that sugar and alcohol are bad for you
| and the less you eat of them the better, at least in
| terms of your physical health" bit.
|
| To the original point, I don't agree that hard absolute
| statements are really good guidelines as they tend to
| oversimplify. For example, I believe the best recovery
| was found with 3:1 carb:protein post workout consumption.
| The typical protein supplement is around 25g, meaning it
| would be combined with more sugar than is in a can of
| soda (usually dextrose because it has a higher glycemic
| response). Some athletes consume sugar regularly
| (notably, Floyd Mayweather). Point being, I don't believe
| it's a good hard rule to say you should limit sugar as
| much as possible, but rather the appropriate (and less
| satisfying answer) is "it depends on your goal"
| cameronh90 wrote:
| As a brief counterpoint, for the last few years, I walk at
| least 5 miles a day (just writing this on the way home from a
| 15 mile hike), 12 mile cycle commute in normal times, don't
| drink any sugar, eat one meal a day, caffeine/alcohol free and
| vegan, resting heart rate is 45-50 bpm.
|
| I'm 270lbs/5'11" with a bunch of weight related health issues.
| I do have an appetite, for sure. But careful calorie tracking
| says I should be at a 1000kcal/day deficit, but my weight is
| stable. Go figure.
| qrbLPHiKpiux wrote:
| If your weight is stable with what you're eating, your
| calories in = calories out. If nothing changing, you need to
| change something. You need to do something that burns more
| calories.
| tuatoru wrote:
| Yes, we know next to nothing about nutrition/metabolism,
| except that people are different. But...
|
| Have you tried varying your eating regime?
|
| 1000 Cal is a very large deficit. AIUI large Calorie deficits
| will cause your basal metabolic rate to slow down, and so
| will long intervals between meals. Your low resting heart
| rate may be related to a slow basal metabolic rate - one
| normally only sees 45 bpm in dedicated athletes. Low BMR
| might mean your deficit is not actually a deficit. (But this
| is a very weakly reasearched area.)
|
| If I were you and wanting to lose weight, I'd try for a daily
| deficit no greater than 200 Cal (averaged over a week), and
| eating your daily allotted Calories in four or five small
| meals spaced a few hours apart. (But, of course, this regime
| might not work for you either.)
|
| I haven't _deliberately_ tried this regime, but I have seen
| it repeatedly recommended on bodybuilding fora. (And thinking
| about it, it 's approximately what I am doing.)
|
| Getting a job in which I stand for nine hours per day (with
| mild upper body exercise) and am more or less forced to
| follow that eating regime has resulted in me losing about
| 7.5% of my body mass over three months. Fat loss will be
| higher since I have put on some muscle mass in that time.
|
| I now consume a little more sugar (in diluted electrolyte
| drinks) than I did before I started.
|
| I'd also note that cycling seems to be ~ 20x lower energy
| cost per mile than walking. You'd be better off driving to
| work and adding a mile to your daily walk in the time saved.
| smichel17 wrote:
| > Coming out of the covid-19 year of sloth I've put about 15
| pounds back on
|
| My mom calls these "the covid 19".
| ezrast wrote:
| Also "the 2020 20".
| hannofcart wrote:
| I long to be able to go out and walk but my SI joint pain flares
| up within 2 days.
|
| The only exercise I have found that doesn't aggravate my problem
| is swimming. But thanks to the lockdowns in effect because of
| Covid that's off too.
| aembleton wrote:
| Can you go wild swimming?
| gryn wrote:
| As someone who had to walk 10km daily in the past for years, if
| you live somewhere with a hot weather be careful sweaty clothes
| are the perfect environment for fungus to grow on your skin.
| readonthegoapp wrote:
| I am actually trying this right now.
|
| I'm skeptical that it will work because I only ever seem to lose
| weight when really trying
|
| By definition this will take at least several weeks to see if it
| is working
|
| I'll follow up next time someone re/posts this article or similar
| ec109685 wrote:
| The article talks about coupling it with sticking to 2k
| calories a day, which will be important to the transformation.
| Jtsummers wrote:
| Just my recommendation because this mindset has worked well for
| me over the years:
|
| Don't think too much about losing weight when picking up a new
| fitness/exercise habit. Think about other fitness and health
| goals more specifically, the weight will usually follow. If you
| focus on weight, the initial lag or a change in your body
| composition (I was exercising regularly for nearly 2 months
| before I lost more than 5 lbs, and then I lost another 25 in
| the next few months) can be sufficiently demotivating to cause
| you to quit even though you are getting something beneficial
| from the activity.
|
| What's worked for me and for my friends I've worked with is a
| focus on what kind of activity you can do, for how long, and to
| what level of exertion. If it's walking, on a non-exercise day
| try going for a much longer than normal walk or a much faster
| than normal walk, it's a kind of test. Is that 5 mile hiking
| trail now easier for you than at the start? If so, then does it
| matter that your weight has plateaued or is the fact that you
| can do something you couldn't before more important? Focusing
| on the improved capability and then trying to focus on
| sustaining that has helped me a _lot_ more than thinking of
| weight itself as a goal or primary goal. (That said, it _was_ a
| goal for me, just a secondary or tertiary goal.)
| siliconc0w wrote:
| Lost a lot of weight (near 300->180, now 200) and diet really
| matters a lot more than exercise. Fasting, eliminating sugar (and
| fake sugar), and eliminating processed/high glycemic carbs -
| especially late at night. Exercise has a lot of other benefits
| and can start to feel good and give you something else to look
| forward to than food but it can also be a bit counterproductive
| in that you are hungrier. Understanding what drives cravings and
| hunger is key, i.e a nice steak (usually split w/ partner) + a
| large salad or roasted veg for me is the perfect meal -
| delicious, incredibly filling and I'm full for the night and even
| until midday the next day.
| pc86 wrote:
| I'm not trying to shit on walking for walking's sake, but if your
| goal is performance, health, or changing your body composition, I
| see no reason to prefer walking over running. You cover more
| distance. You get a better cardiovascular workout. Your lung
| capacity will increase more. Same for cycling if you have some
| injury or disability that prevents running.
| ravenstine wrote:
| Others here have already brought up the wear and tear running
| can have on the human body, but there's a psychological factor
| as well.
|
| For many, walking is more enjoyable than most other exercise.
| Some people can do strenuous, repetitive exercise and not get
| bored or feel miserable, which is why a certain number of
| people can manage to go to the gym regularly and stare at a
| wall for an hour as they run on a treadmill and lift dumbbells.
| Others give up more easily in reaction to stimuli that isn't
| highly dopamine driven for them. For those people, if they can
| instead keep up walking on a regular basis, it makes more sense
| they stick with that rather than effectively punish themselves
| by running.
| [deleted]
| porb121 wrote:
| Uh, it's much lower impact, much more enjoyable, and has a way
| lower recovery cost. I lift 5-6x a week; I'm not gonna go for a
| hard run when I need my legs to recover for my next squat
| session.
| greedo wrote:
| Running is arguably one of the worst things you can do to your
| body, despite it's efficacy in improving your cardio
| performance. It's bad on your joints, your bones etc. Swimming
| and cycling are much much better.
| thinkharderdev wrote:
| That is decidedly untrue. The big problem with cycling and
| swimming is that they are low impact and don't stress your
| bones an joints enough. Your joints and bones are just like
| any other tissue in your body. They respond to stress by
| getting stronger and when they are not stressed they get
| weaker. As in all things you can of course over do it, but
| the amount of running the average person would do (15-20 mpw
| or less) is very beneficial to bone an joint health.
| athenot wrote:
| Walking allows you to go from point A to point B without
| profuse sweat, eg. to run an errand or go to work. (When
| possible, which is rare in suburbia)
|
| Walking also allows you to better appreciate the environment,
| fauna, flora and scenery, eg. on a hike. Sure you can take
| _some_ of that in as an ultra-cross-trail-marathon runner but
| it 's less contemplative.
| pc86 wrote:
| I agree with all of these 100% which is why I specified the
| fitness aspect.
| analog31 wrote:
| In my view, it's all about what you can persuade yourself to do
| on a regular basis. I hate running, but enjoy cycling and
| walking. My spouse loves running, including marathons and
| ultras. Often she will sign up for a marathon, and I will ride
| my bike to the location of the race and cheer her on. Chasing a
| marathon on a bike is actually a workout if the race is on a
| closed course and you're looking for alternative routes.
|
| Walking and cycling let me mix exercise and utility, e.g.,
| commuting to work or walking to nearby shops. It's also just a
| pleasant lifestyle to go for days if not weeks without needing
| to drive. Truth be told, my love of mechanics and tinkering is
| one of my motivators for cycling.
|
| It probably behooves everybody to at least give a few different
| exercise modalities a try, to see which one you can tolerate,
| with enough intensity to be beneficial. If you find one that's
| addictive, so much the better.
|
| I've gotten myself some little dumbbells that I keep by my
| "work" computer, and I lift weights during online meetings
| because I know that my main modes of exercise don't do much for
| my upper body.
| lightcatcher wrote:
| I'm a runner who never goes on an "exercise walk", but there
| are plenty of (non-injury) reasons someone might prefer
| walking:
|
| - less strenuous
|
| - much less fitness required to walk for an hour than to run
| for 30 minutes
|
| - easier to avoid sweating while walking, which can be useful
| for some commutes
|
| - easier to talk on the phone while walking
|
| - easier to find someone to walk with you than it is to find
| someone who will run with you
|
| The article was about making fitness easy and not about making
| fitness efficient. I 100% agree that running is more efficient,
| but I'd recommend walking to anyone who thinks "bleh/eww" at
| the thought of exertion.
| hanniabu wrote:
| Plus it's great for either recovery days or a supplemental
| activity to get blood flowing to promote healing. For example
| running in the morning and walking in the evening.
| klyrs wrote:
| As a long-distance cyclist, I've gotta say, it sounds like you
| walk slow. I'm a fast walker, and I can get excellent cardio on
| pretty much anything but a downhill route (which, I'll admit,
| my natural pace turns into a light jog down steeper hills).
| But, personal bias, I've never lived anywhere that hills could
| be avoided.
|
| Walking and running are both good for cardio and long term
| health, but running has higher wear and tear on the body.
| Cycling is also great, but comes with its own risks of
| accidental (or malicious) injury or death
|
| https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/walking-vs-running...
| zwkrt wrote:
| Running is very hard on your body. I say this as a runner. I've
| been doing it consistently since high school and I have the
| bones and tendons and form, yet still I hurt myself sometimes.
| Even though I feel great after running I never recommend other
| people do it. It's kind of a crazy-person thing to do if you
| think about it!
| EMM_386 wrote:
| If you think about it from an evolutionary standpoint, humans
| likely have the ability to run to either escape from or to
| hunt prey. Long-distance running would not have held much use
| in day-to-day life.
|
| So our bodies are efficient at running, but maybe not meant
| to be running _all the time_.
| lemonberry wrote:
| Many people aren't in good enough shape to run. A bunch of
| extra body weight + poor technique is a recipe for an injury
| that leaves many people in a position where they now can't even
| walk without pain.
|
| Walking and some mobility work are great for the the average
| person. Once they've got a decent baseline and have cleaned up
| their diet they can start adding more intense work.
| jfim wrote:
| Walking is pretty safe compared to running or cycling, though.
| The article points out that no, you won't change body
| composition by walking, but it's a good starting point for
| people whose current activity level is walking between the car,
| couch, fridge, and bed.
| alkonaut wrote:
| The huge difference is that walking isn't excercising, it's
| transport. Slotting 10k or 12k steps into your day likely
| requires changing some of your transport to walking even if you
| also go for "excercise walks".
|
| Running normally requires deliberately going for a run:
| alllocating time, changing clothes and so on. It's not as easy
| to change a lot of would-be drives to walking. It's not as
| convenient to fit a run into a lunch break as it is to fit a
| walk.
|
| I see them as not mutually exclusive though. But for me the
| difference is that the walk actually gets done but the run
| doesn't. The comparison is then: "is walking better than not
| running?" and answering that is much easier than comparing the
| two!
| Jtsummers wrote:
| This is sort of the system versus goal issue applied to
| exercise. If you have to go out of your way (to a gym, to a
| trail) to get the exercise in then it's harder to maintain
| (for most people, and even for people who find it "easy" the
| habit can be broken by one bad week). Whereas if you convert
| a portion of your transportation to walking/cycling, you can
| create a more sustainable system around the activity.
|
| Even doing little things like parking at the back of the
| parking lot and taking the stairs to the third or fourth
| floor office can add a decent chunk of walking to the day
| without creating a major hurdle (unless you're chronically
| late, the extra 5 minutes of walking to and from the parked
| car won't be bothersome).
| indigochill wrote:
| For general health benefits, it's simple: walking is easier to
| do consistently than running is. I walk to work and to get
| groceries, and each of those is ~20 minutes each way, so I'm
| getting in almost an hour and a half of walking most days on
| top of whatever else a given day has (I live in a Nordic city,
| so lots of stuff is walkable).
|
| However, in my current state, I don't think I would be able to
| comfortably run the same distance every day. If I got into the
| habit, though, I expect I'd see more changes to body
| composition, though, yes.
| nednar wrote:
| One thing that fit people (e.g. a trainer or coach) usually
| forget is that the 1-4 hours they spend every day on training,
| prepping their bags, showering after the training, having a chat
| with the other training participants, is that the unfit people
| don't spend this time sitting around doing nothing.
|
| Therefore, a major step in getting a healthier lifestyle is to
| carve out the time for dedicated sports activities, e.g. not
| joining the world of warcraft boss run with Leroy Jenkins, not
| reading that book on your desk, and/or not playing chess with
| your grandpa, as you used to in that time slot.
|
| In one of my first attempts to improve my lifestyle that was a
| major hurdle. But walking is easy. It doesn't need much prep, it
| doesn't take a strain on your resilience as "harder" exercises
| would, and even people who don't believe in your health goals
| will believe that you are capable of taking a walk once in a
| while. So the burden of carving out that time is much lower when
| starting with walking. 10k steps for a beginner also means 2hs of
| walking every day. When you get faster, you can replace parts of
| it with other training. And then the next time when your
| overreading goals fail, you can fall back to walking instead of
| couch potatoing.
|
| "Remember: Slow is smooth, smooth is fast." - Shooter, 2007
| 11235813213455 wrote:
| It's also important to modify your whole lifestyle. For example,
| taking stairs, it's so beneficial, using a bicyle or walking to
| get some food/shopping, see someone, or do any commuting - making
| exercise actually useful
| elric wrote:
| Stairs are radically underappreciated. Great for leg strength
| and general fitness. Walking up stairs (say in at a train
| station) is almost always faster than using an escalator, even
| if you're not particularly fit. Walking up an escalator is even
| faster, of course, but there's a always a couple of muppets
| getting in the way. Stairwells, unlike lifts, haven't been
| implicated in coronavirus transmissions either, so that's an
| extra bonus. And if you're a gym person, the stairmaster seems
| like the least popular piece of equipment, so it's almost
| always available for use.
| schnebbau wrote:
| Conclusion:
|
| > So if you're chasing high-level performance, single-digit body
| fat, or a bodybuilder physique, then relying solely a ton of
| walking isn't the right move. But the reality is that most
| average people are pretty far from those goals, and focusing on
| the routines of really high performers my be doing more harm than
| good. In other words, expecting that you'll accomplish the
| training required for a movie star body when starting out a
| fitness routine is setting yourself up for disappointment.
| Walking a bunch, on the other hand, is something that is
| relatively simple to fit into your everyday life. The best
| fitness routine is always going to be the routine that you follow
| consistently. And I can vouch for the--unscientific, absolutely
| not peer reviewed--results.
| ec109685 wrote:
| This article covers the "super hero" plan well and the pluses
| and minuses: https://www.gq.com/story/fitness-how-to-get-chris-
| pratt-fit
| dehrmann wrote:
| What's going on here?
|
| https://media.gq.com/photos/55a3daafdab0df6312e2710b/master/.
| ..
|
| I'm not a fan of the mixed grip for someone who isn't doing
| this competitively, but that's personal preference. He's set
| up like he's going to squat it up which can be ok, but he's
| gripping it like a traditional deadlift, and the bar is way
| to far forward. If the bar were closer, he squatted a little
| more, and had a wide grip, he could be set up for a snatch.
| jmchuster wrote:
| Perfect is the enemy of good
| rakoo wrote:
| Temporarily embarassed movie stars
| gryn wrote:
| Ah, The cousins of the Temporarily embarrassed
| Billionaires/Entrepreneurs.
| barbazoo wrote:
| Is that some kind of meme that I missed the inception of?
| I've seen that "temporarily embarrassed ..." a couple of
| times in the last week.
| abcanthur wrote:
| Refers to a John Steinbeck quote, "Socialism never took
| root in America because the poor see themselves not as an
| exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed
| millionaires."
| jdminhbg wrote:
| Steinbeck never actually said this. The closest he came
| ("temporarily embarrassed capitalists") is actually in a
| description of the socialist movement itself, not its
| opponents: https://hellyesjohnsteinbeck.tumblr.com/post/2
| 3486952183/com...
| Supermancho wrote:
| > is actually in a description of the socialist movement
| itself,
|
| While, overall, Steinbeck said something different, your
| description of the intent is incorrect. "I guess the
| trouble was that we didn't have any self-admitted
| proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed
| capitalist." - This can only make sense when attributed
| to capitalists (believers in it) regardless of what
| systems they are currently participating in. This is a
| subtle description of human nature at large, which is why
| it's so memorable.
| jdminhbg wrote:
| No, this is wrong. The context for "we" is "most of the
| so-called Communists I met." He is describing the people
| in the movement as temporarily embarrassed capitalists.
| It is the opposite of the apocryphal quote, which has
| Steinbeck positing that the reason the movement is
| unsuccessful as it being opposed by the temporarily
| embarrassed millionaires who should have embraced it.
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| No reason one can't be both at the same time.
| webnrrd2k wrote:
| "Anything worth doing well is worth doing half-assed"
|
| I remind myself of that a lot -- it's easy to overanalyze and
| then architecture astro-not myself into doing nothing
| mauvehaus wrote:
| Or as Patton put it: A good plan violently executed today
| is better than a perfect plan next week.
| mycologos wrote:
| Reminds me of something Terry Crews said it in a Reddit AMA a
| while ago. This is inexact, but somebody asked how a person who
| is new to exercise should start going to the gym. Terry Crews'
| response was that this person should start by spending a week
| going to the gym, reading magazines for 45 minutes, and then
| going back home.
|
| The idea was that this helps you develop the habit of going to
| the gym, having a pleasant time, and not seeing it as a scary
| and foreign place where everybody's better than you (you're
| probably not gonna get insecure about somebody else reading
| more magazines than you are). Once you have that habit and
| familiarity, you can start actually exercising without those
| mental obstacles.
|
| Funny advice, but it's an interesting way of thinking about
| building new habits.
|
| It also reminds me of people on various fitness subreddits who
| will expend a bunch of effort trying to craft an optimal
| workout routine when their baseline is barely working out at
| all. Just pick something you like and do it at a moderate
| intensity for a few months! It's way better than nothing, and
| you'll accumulate random knowledge along the way that will help
| you come up with something better later.
| jacobmischka wrote:
| I'm a massive fan of walking for mental, psychological, and
| physical benefits and have been walking at least 25k steps a day
| for the last two years. The only (somewhat major) downside is
| that it takes quite a bit of time, some days, particularly
| weekends when I don't have work to do, I look at the clock and
| it's approaching dinner time and I feel like the day just
| disappeared without being able to sit down and relax at all.
|
| 25k is excessive in that regard and I wouldn't recommend that
| much, but 10k is incredibly achievable and I would highly
| recommend anyone make a habit of walking every day.
| elric wrote:
| 10-15k steps is (relatively) easily achievable simply by not
| driving. Walking to the office, walking to the shop, walking
| over to a friend's house for dinner, etc. It takes a little
| more time than driving, but not as much as one might fear (I'm
| guessing, I've never owned a car). It keeps you fit(ish). It
| helps you sober up after getting drunk in a bar. It helps you
| unwind from a shitty day at the office. Throw in the occasional
| random walk and you'll reach 10k+ easily.
|
| I basically do everything on foot that is within a 5k step
| radius. I make allowances for when I'm carrying heavy stuff
| (once made the mistake of walking 7km with a 10liter bucket of
| paint). It's not something I would recommend to everyone, but I
| would recommend it to almost everyone.
| grayfaced wrote:
| That really only works in urban areas, the suburbs are just
| too spread out. It would take me over that many steps to get
| to a bus stop that would get me to work. If I wanted to walk
| the whole way, I'd be walking along roads without sidewalks
| most of way. Google maps has it as over 4 hours to get to my
| closest friends place on foot, a 25 minute drive.
| hansvm wrote:
| > 25k steps
|
| 14 mi, 22 km, 3.5+ hr?
| dTal wrote:
| Maybe shift a bit to running? You should be able to jog without
| breaking much of a sweat now, and it's more time-efficient than
| walking for getting steps in.
| jacobmischka wrote:
| I do also run occasionally when the weather is nice. My
| cardio of choice is bicycling, which I do twice a week either
| for 1.5 hours on a trainer or 40 miles (~2.5 hours) outdoors.
|
| I used to run a lot more, but I never actually enjoyed it. I
| just forced myself to do it to burn calories. Walking I enjoy
| much more, so I do that more now instead.
| ghaff wrote:
| For me, I really like getting out for a walk but don't care
| for running at all. It's not a matter of sweating--if there
| were walking/hiking available that involved some climbing
| convenient I'd do that. But just don't enjoy running and it
| falls into the category of maybe tomorrow.
| jacobmischka wrote:
| Agreed, sweating and needing to take a shower afterward is
| annoying, and I also tend to push myself to near limit when
| running so I'm just completely out of breath the entire
| time and miserable. And my knees get pretty annoyed with me
| if I do it too often or for too much at a time.
|
| Weighted or incline walking is a great compromise to
| increase effort, but I do enough strenuous activity with
| weight training that I would rather take it easy and enjoy
| the walk instead most of the time.
| kruxigt wrote:
| I had a mentally rough start to my work life. I graduated as an
| engineer in 2009 and for several years I couldn't really make
| much choices for myself, but after 7 years I quit having a
| boos. I now work for myself and all is good.
|
| Anyway. One of the important steps (pun somewhat intended) of
| getting back in mental shape was to walk part of the way back
| from work. If I would have walked all the way that would
| probably have been something like 80 k steps and I could get
| off the train at several places on that way. And since I could
| also get on it again I could both choose the length of my walks
| and the vary where they took place.
|
| My record during that period was a day where I in tota walked
| almost 40 k steps. There is something that happens after about
| 3-4 hours of walking like that. At least I can achieve
| something similar to a runners high. Also, I had some problems
| around let's say my more sensitive parts, which also got
| completely fixed by that treatment.
|
| If you've just walked for 1-1.5 hours, that's still good and
| everything. But if you have the time and have some
| mental/physical problems, and like walking, try 3-4 hours
| several times a week. There's some magic in that. I recommend
| having a start and a goal but taking different paths and
| exploring. Listen to some pods sure, but also explore and
| think. Most important though, put in those 25 k + steps, and do
| it in a pace you like!
| pan69 wrote:
| I do these walks on weekends. Doing 25k steps usually takes me
| a little over 3 hours (3 and ~20 mins). I walk the exact same
| route each time. When I work in the office, on such day I
| usually do about 10k step. I wish I had the time to walk more,
| for me it's almost as good as sleeping (brain wise).
| spiderjerusalem wrote:
| I hate gym culture and I hate running too because the exercise
| is the 'core' of what you're doing in that time. Walking works
| for me because I can listen to new music and podcasts or
| sometimes just go through my mental monologue backlog without
| any stress. Living in an extremely walkable European capital is
| also a plus.
|
| Human legs are heavily optimized for walking. Running is a
| hunting/fleeing mechanism and it just feels wrong for me to
| artificially simulate that stress environment.
| pc86 wrote:
| > _Running is a hunting /fleeing mechanism and it just feels
| wrong for me to artificially simulate that stress
| environment._
|
| "Artificially simulate that stress environment?" Is that a
| joke? Exercise _is_ [physical] stress. What about that seems
| "wrong" to you?
| scatters wrote:
| There's an argument that stress is bad, because it forces
| the body to prioritise immediate survival at the expense of
| long term health.
|
| However, simulating a hunt should be good for the health
| since it informs the body that it is in a prey rich
| environment. The same goes for other stressful but
| evolutionary fitness promoting activities such as sex.
| pc86 wrote:
| Any stress-related problems from running (not a point I'm
| conceding as I've never seen evidence of _any_ )
| certainly outweighs the long-term problems from being
| overweight and out of shape with the lower respiratory
| capacity to boot.
| spiderjerusalem wrote:
| No, no humour was intended by a purely subjective statement
| that intense exercise is more or less a deeply unpleasant
| experience for my body and my brain. The fact that it is
| beneficial to long term vitality is orthogonal to how it
| makes me feel and why I am almost never motivated to do it.
| conistonwater wrote:
| Just to be clear: if running is "intense exercise" that
| means you're doing it wrong, and you will have a much
| better time of it if you slow down to easy conversational
| pace. (People usually use the run-walk method to develop
| such a pace in the beginning.) The thing about exercise
| and human biology is that there is some room for
| subjective statements, but not _that_ much room. I, for
| one, find it quite pleasant about exercise that it doesn
| 't matter how it makes me feel temporarily, that it works
| so long as I do the right thing.
| busymom0 wrote:
| > I can listen to new music and podcasts
|
| That's exactly what I started doing last year when covid hit.
| Before then, I used to do decent running / stepper cardio in
| the gym. When covid hit, I cancelled my bus pass membership
| and have been walking everywhere since then. I do all my
| groceries, buying pet food etc walking. It takes about 40
| minutes and I get to listen to podcasts during then. I have
| even started to "plan" my groceries - so I only buy around
| 2-3 days worth of meat and that ends up forcing me to leave
| the house at least every couple days. I sometimes plan things
| like buying larger items like toilet paper on separate days
| so I can walk with all my items without having to do uber or
| something else.
| spiderjerusalem wrote:
| Yes haha, I've also been 'cheating' myself to walk more.
| Grocery planning as you mentioned, also picking up food
| from far away restaurants that I miss due to the lockdown.
| akvadrako wrote:
| > _Walking works for me because I can listen to new music and
| podcasts or sometimes just go through my mental monologue
| backlog without any stress._
|
| That's why I like running.
| spiderjerusalem wrote:
| Any sort of intense exercise makes it impossible for me to
| actually think or concentrate on listening. It's a
| heightened state in many ways biochemically and is very
| different from the calm that walking gives.
|
| Running would just make what I'm listening to background
| noise, but that's not the correct level of engagement I
| want. I want 'exercise' to be the side effect and not the
| main activity I'm engaging in. Running is the other way
| around.
| elijaht wrote:
| I think you are running too fast. For years I detested
| running because of what you mentioned as well as it just
| draining me mentally. My mistake was trying to kill
| myself on every run. Now I run significantly slower- by
| the end of most of my runs I am not even breathing
| heavily. This is actually recommended, as well
| prlambert wrote:
| My dad is a competitive runner and ultramarathoner (now
| well into his 60s). One of his favorite sayings is 'how
| do you know if you're a runner? If you don't think about
| running while doing it.' I finally got into it too, and
| for me/us it's much more like meditation. Or taking a hot
| shower. I let my mind wander, come up with most of my
| best ideas, and generally don't think much about running
| while out there.
|
| If you can't do this you're probably running too fast for
| your fitness level. I was for a long time.
| vsareto wrote:
| I generally can't think coherently if I'm doing a 9mph
| interval for a short time (this is 170-180bpm heart rate
| territory for me) but I actually prefer that mental
| state. I wish I could get that same mindset at my lower
| speed (5-6mph) because the time melts away. It feels like
| a flow state in a good way but with no focus.
| vladvasiliu wrote:
| That's interesting. I don't usually think about running
| while running. And I do find the state somewhat
| meditative, especially since I find I usually observe my
| breathing and the sound of my feet on the ground.
|
| But this feels more like a "trance" to me, in that I seem
| to not actively think about anything at all, I just
| "observe".
| randomsearch wrote:
| When reading about improving sleep, it seems the evidence
| points toward rhythmic exercise being important. The
| repetition of running and swimming seems to help (vs say
| interval training).
| akvadrako wrote:
| > _I want 'exercise' to be the side effect and not the
| main activity I'm engaging in. Running is the other way
| around._
|
| What I meant is for me running is the background and it's
| mostly automatic. I can listen or think about things and
| they are my primary focus.
|
| I'd say it takes a few months to get to this level but
| for most people it's doable.
| rrdharan wrote:
| You could try running significantly slower (jogging, ~10
| min/mi pace). Worked well for me.
| kossTKR wrote:
| Yes this is actually an important factor that is often
| overlooked.
|
| For the longest time i ran really fast to the point of
| exhaustion, ,sometimes with small pauses interval style.
|
| Then i tried running slower, which was actually hard for
| me for some reason, but could go much longer, and with
| less tax on my sympathetic nervous system and joints.
|
| I've also seen people do the "powerwalking" thing so
| that's also an option.
| atat7024 wrote:
| Have you tried running on CBD?
| mrfusion wrote:
| Explain?
| frosted-flakes wrote:
| Running high
| sn9 wrote:
| You should try running slower at a conversational pace.
| It's much more aerobic at that pace, and is more
| meditative and more stress-relieving than stressful.
| cafard wrote:
| A neighbor's son runs cross country for his high school.
| She quoted him last fall or winter as saying that he
| didn't miss the classroom, he missed the conversations on
| long training runs. It has been a long time (maybe 35
| years) since I did much running with anyone, but I do
| remember conversations.
| vladvasiliu wrote:
| I understand what you're saying and in my experience, while
| lifting weights or running, I don't really think about
| anything but the current action.
|
| However, I find that taking this time "off" from my usual
| activities, especially during the work day, is like a breath
| of fresh air (pun not initially intended).
|
| Yes, I also find that walking allows me to either listen to
| podcasts, music, or just think about random things. I will
| even start walking around my apartment or my parents' garden
| when I need to think over a difficult problem.
|
| But I find, more and more, that being "on" all the time and
| trying to optimise every last minute of the day isn't all
| that... optimal.
|
| Taking, say, an hour off work every day [0], during which I
| absolutely do not think about work at all, and only focus on
| the feeling of my muscles working or my breathing during a
| run has enormous consequences on my thinking about work when
| I actually get back. I find that this helps be much, much
| more focused than had I staid at my desk browsing random
| things on the internet or even walking and having my thoughts
| drift back to whatever it was I was working on. Bonus points
| for this removing my back and other random pains while
| sitting.
|
| To me, those are different "tools", each with its own
| purpose.
|
| ---
|
| [0] I don't run for long periods of time and am not looking
| to run a marathon. My goal is usually to run around 30
| minutes, just enough to give my cardiovascular system a bit
| of a workout. So all in all, it takes me around 1h, counting
| the cool-down period (when the thinking random thoughts
| process comes back), washing my clothes and showering.
| Steltek wrote:
| Me too! I call it "hamster wheel exercise" (not sure where I
| heard that term). Bike commuting to work feels very different
| than simply biking in a circle after work.
|
| Pandemic has not been kind to the bathroom scale. I lost my
| regular exercise but my diet got worse from stress eating.
| IkmoIkmo wrote:
| Wow, 25k is a LOT! I try to average 7-8k a day, and post-Covid
| I hope to bring that average to 10k a day. It's the perfect
| base to stay healthy for me, with all other more intense
| cardiovascular exercise (e.g. strength training or HIIT) being
| extra 2 or 3 times a week.
|
| 25k would really take a huge chunk out of my day, I think at
| least 3 - 3.5 hours or so. But it really depends, working from
| home means I'm sedentary all day. In other jobs you wouldn't
| have to squeeze everything into the few evening hours so much.
|
| The biggest issue I have with walking is that the city becomes
| a bit boring. I love walking and exploring, but I've also lived
| in the capital city of my country for decades. Every day is new
| and brings new little experiences, yet also many similar ones.
| Especially because I'm always leaving and returning from and to
| the same place, there's a limit to my routes. I've walked the
| same streets thousands of times by now. On holidays in Europe
| or Asia I easily hit >40k steps daily because it's just so much
| fun, every corner brings something new, architecture, a river,
| a forest, a square or park, or lots of little shops or eateries
| or public art pieces.
| jacobmischka wrote:
| Agreed, it is much more pleasant when exploring. These days I
| also end up often seeing mostly the same things in my few
| staple routes, but also usually something new as well.
|
| I usually listen to audiobooks or bring a book to read when
| taking a path I've taken before, which usually alleviates the
| boredom problem. But it's not always necessary, sometimes if
| I'm in an energy surplus from delicious bread and sweets
| walking just feels so good on its own.
| hirundo wrote:
| Crawling may be even better. Not even hands and knees but on your
| belly. I've been working in the crawl space under my house for
| the last couple of weeks and it is kicking my ass. It's very much
| a whole body workout. Maybe babies are smarter than they look.
| jbverschoor wrote:
| Monkeys too
| htk wrote:
| Just your quick description gave me claustrophobia. What if
| something moves and you get stuck?
| atat7024 wrote:
| Hey Siri...? Call Pookie-Bear.
| MayeulC wrote:
| Crawling definitely helps, it's a common parkour exercise.
| tolbish wrote:
| You missed the part where it isn't supposed to feel _hard_
| (author 's words, not mine)
| orzig wrote:
| Absolutely, that's why everyone is chasing the elusive "baby
| body"
| tsomctl wrote:
| Roll. It's the fastest way to move under a house (I'm a
| plumber/electrician).
| Steltek wrote:
| Heh, I guess that works for Sparks because all you need is a
| flat head and a Klein ;). My tool belt would leave me with
| bruises everywhere.
| 8note wrote:
| Drag it behind you?
| hirundo wrote:
| Is that allowed in crawl spaces? You're just willy nilly
| converting them into roll spaces? That way lies chaos.
| xwdv wrote:
| IMO if you have the discipline to walk regularly, which is a slow
| and efficient activity that won't burn too many calories quickly,
| then you probably have the discipline to do better workouts that
| will give you much faster results for the same amount of time
| spent walking. I don't understand why anyone would rely on
| walking for fitness, it's the worst. Humans are made to walk.
| michaelt wrote:
| _> long walks have been a hidden weapon of superhero body
| transformations for ages._
|
| Really? And here I thought the hidden weapon of celebrity body
| transformation was steroids.
|
| When so many other athletics endeavours have widespread doping,
| despite testing? And somehow Hugh Jackman at age 50 is more
| ripped than Lance Armstrong was at age 30? And the secret weapon
| is _walking?_ Sure.
| taurath wrote:
| Or hired dieticians controlling what you eat and 3-4 hours of
| workouts a day under the supervision of a personal trainer or
| 3. Chris Pratt said something similar about his role in a few
| movies
| travisjungroth wrote:
| It's not a "or", it's "and". Steroid use is very common among
| celebrities, especially male action stars. Celebrities have
| physiques in time frames and at ages that just aren't
| possible otherwise.
|
| No hate to them for doing it. But it's important that we're
| at least honest about it because of the effect it has on
| people's (especially men's) own body images and ideas about
| transformations. Losing 60 pounds while packing on muscle in
| 6 months at 38 years old is not possible without gear.
| alboy wrote:
| >But it's important that we're at least honest about it
| because of the effect it has on people's (especially men's)
| own body images and ideas about transformations.
|
| Steroids are mostly there to aid recovery from the
| otherwise unmanageable amount of work one puts in. Most
| people are limited by their willingness to put in the work
| and never reach the point where steroids would be required
| (or even make a significant difference).
| Graffur wrote:
| Actually there is justified hate for them doing it. They're
| promoting unrealistic bodies which is causing a huge amount
| of problems.
| ryanlol wrote:
| Safely taking steroids to achieve a movie star look is
| just about as realistic as driving a new Mercedes.
|
| Sure, you need to spend some money on medical
| supervision. Beyond that all it takes is ~6 hours a week
| at the gym.
| amval wrote:
| The only way to do 3-4 hours workouts daily is to take
| performance enhancing drugs. Those hired dieticians are
| controlling diet, workout and drug regime.
| vidarh wrote:
| Depends how intense those 3-4 hour workouts are. I think a
| lot of the difference in peoples estimate of how much they
| can exercise without steroids is down to differences in how
| people train.
|
| E.g. you're not going to manage 3-4 hours of heavy compound
| lifts a day done in quick succession, sure. At least not
| without lowering the weights so much it becomes more cardio
| than resistance training.
|
| Even 1 hour a day is overdoing it for powerlifting type
| training. At my strongest I was doing 45m every other day.
| I could probably have done more, but I got my best gains
| when I eased up and let my body recover properly.
|
| But if you're doing bodybuilding, and a lot of that time
| are not the big lifts but adding in lots of isolated lifts
| of various small muscle groups, and sufficiently low
| intensity cardio takes up a good chunk of the time as well,
| sure you can easily spend 3-4 hours a day without drugs.
|
| That said, a lot of people clearly claim to be natural
| while they're not.
| taurath wrote:
| 1-2 hours doing spot bodybuilding and 2 hours jogging seems
| reasonable without too much risk of overtraining
| Stunting wrote:
| The first statement is false. I do 3-4 hour workouts 5x a
| week and have never taken PEDs
|
| Some facts. - I am a professional stuntman, so my
| livelihood and time are dedicated to this pursuit. Making
| the time is a requirement. - the time is made up of
| stretching, skill work, cardio, and strength training. It's
| not 3 hours of 1 rep maxes. It is still intense. - lots of
| people use PEDs and HGH to acquire a temporary physique.
| However you would be shocked what small changes can do to
| affect your health, physique, and overall happiness. Adding
| squats will help you move move better. Yoga will help you
| feel better, and sprints will shed fat. - consistentcy
| beats all. Take all the drugs, do all the weekend
| bootcamps, and try all the crash diets you want. Simply
| doing anything over a long enough period of time will
| always yield better results.
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| _Some facts. - I am a professional stuntman_
|
| This place never ceases to surprise me.
| johnchristopher wrote:
| 3-4 hours workout is a lot.
|
| What are your characters stats (I don't know how to put
| it): muscles, bench press, endurance, etc. ?
| jhickok wrote:
| Adding 30 minutes of yoga to my daily routine has been
| life-changing. I have more energy, move better, feel more
| comfortable in my body, and feel more confidence in doing
| other workouts. It's been 6 months and I wish I would
| have know about this in my teens.
| bobcostas55 wrote:
| People keep bringing up dieticians as if there's some kind
| magic, secret food they have access to that normal people
| don't. It's complete nonsense. Bodybuilders and actors and
| athletes eat the same chicken breast, rice, and broccoli that
| you can buy at the store.
| chmod600 wrote:
| Having someone to do the tracking and handle the decisions
| sounds like a huge help to me. Both of those things cause
| stress which is hard to sustain.
| phobosanomaly wrote:
| Yeah, it's literally paying someone to follow you around
| _all_ day and control what you put in your mouth. There
| 's no guy in spandex telling me _not_ to buy those Reese
| 's Pieces at 7/11 when I'm bored on a Sunday.
| vkk8 wrote:
| Maybe it was once, but things like Myfitnesspal make diet
| tracking pretty easy for everyone nowadays. As for timing
| and macronutrient composition of foods, that's something
| the dieticians can probably help, but it's also something
| you can learn in a few hours by watching Youtube.
|
| Having trainers, dieticians, etc. professionals around
| you to help with everything probably makes it easier in
| the sense that you probably save one or two hours of
| planning and organizing your life per week, and probably
| your programming is a bit more optimized, but it's hardly
| a game changer. If you are somewhat devoted to the topic,
| you can learn and do all the same stuff yourself.
| Someone wrote:
| Money and (loss of) fame are great motivators.
|
| Also, for this having made it, money-wise, being able to
| afford a great cook, having a personal trainer who reminds
| you of your goals, being tempted less because you never
| visit a supermarket, etc. all help.
| ec109685 wrote:
| Read the linked to article, where the author went through a
| transformation: https://www.gq.com/story/fitness-how-to-get-
| chris-pratt-fit
|
| It was mostly about getting skinny and more defined, not
| bulking up.
|
| Agree that to put on 10 pounds of muscle would take years.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > And here I thought the hidden weapon of celebrity body
| transformation was steroids.
|
| The hidden (not so much, plenty are open about it) weapon of
| celebrity body transformation is (1) having plenty of resources
| for dietitians, trainers, equipment, etc., and (2) having it be
| central to your livelihood so that you can literally spend as
| great a proportion of your waking hours on it as necessary.
| efficax wrote:
| (but also steroids and growth hormone)
| edanm wrote:
| I used to this this. Now I think it's mostly the steroids.
|
| I mean, yes, obviously having trainers helps, but really the
| basics of a good exercise plan are pretty readily available.
| As for equipment, really most gyms have enough equipment to
| get 95% of what most actors achieve.
|
| And yes, it's part of their livelihood, but they _can 't_
| actually spend every waking hour on training. Both because
| it's actually detrimental to gaining more muscle, but also
| because actors actually _do_ have other things to do, like
| acting in other things, learning lines, appearances, etc.
|
| This is not to take away from their hard work and sacrifices
| w.r.t. diet. Obviously they have to work _very_ hard at it.
| But the actual reason most people won 't end up "looking like
| a super-hero", even if they can devote lots of time to
| training and dieting, is because of the steroids.
|
| (Lots of people _do_ take steroids, btw.)
| ddelt wrote:
| No, you are absolutely right. It is extremely naive to think
| actors/celebrities (whose million dollar movie contracts, photo
| endorsements and ad placements, and other visual body marketing
| media, depend on their physical appearance being top 1%) are
| doing this without drugs.
|
| Your observation about Hugh Jackman is on point. If you need
| more evidence, look at the difference between The Rock (a pro
| wrestler and admitted user) between 1993-2003 vs. now. In 2021,
| he's at least 20 years older, and yet his latest action movie
| appearances have him at a lower body fat, and higher muscle
| mass % per height than when he was 20 years younger? Come on,
| that's not how biology works.
|
| If you go to any serious website or forum where actual steroid
| users converse, none of this is shocking news. Drugs make for
| fast body transformations, and the results revert back to
| natural limits once you stop the drugs (useful for an actor
| preparing for a movie/show/appearance, who then does not care
| about that look once it's finished).
| opportune wrote:
| Well, taking steroids is a necessary but not sufficient
| condition for those kinds of body transformations. You still
| need a good diet and exercise regime (to a normal person who
| isn't into fitness at all, even that is very hard), and
| because of the enhanced recovery you are probably exercising
| much more than without steroids.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| During the pandemic I have started taking all early emails and
| communication while walking and dictating. Great way to start the
| day, and I feel way more fit after a year of this.
| dillondoyle wrote:
| A LOT! Measuring calories burned with a calculator or with my
| Whoop walking a few miles doesn't burn that much less than a hard
| jog. And personally I can't do an hour of intervals or all out
| fast.
| hourislate wrote:
| Walking is one of the more efficient ways to lose fat. But you
| need to walk correctly, _keep your speed very low and your walk
| time very long_. When you walk your body doesn 't need to access
| glycogen stores in the muscle, liver or glucose in the blood. It
| wants to naturally save those for Fight or Flight, so since your
| activity level is very low it can use your fat as fuel because it
| has enough time to covert it to energy. If you start speeding up
| it can't convert the fat fast enough and starts to use the
| Glucose/Glycogen in your body.
|
| I've lost 100lbs Fasting/Keto/Walking (approx 280lbs/127Kg ===>
| 180lbs/82Kg) over a period of 2 years. I've experimented what is
| best for me and it was rolling 72 hour fasts/walking for a couple
| to a few weeks and then switching things up to keep my body
| guessing (Longer fasts/OMAD). I feel like being in Ketosis during
| those fasts and eating extremely clean was the most helpful. Cole
| from the SnakeDiet Youtube Channel was basically the guy I
| followed, he is natural and doesn't use PED, just diet and
| exercise.
|
| Snakewalking
|
| https://imgur.com/WYGItHs
| rendall wrote:
| That "before" photo: the fellow is pushing his belly out and
| holding his chin in to make himself look fatter than he
| actually is. Why would he do that, do you suppose?
| hourislate wrote:
| There is some intentional bloating, etc in that first picture
| but he still naturally dropped some serious weight to get
| ripped. The guy practices what he preaches and has great
| advice.
| xirak57187 wrote:
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/C%C3%A1diz-...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Celta-Vigo-...
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| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Leicester-C...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Levante-vs-...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Real-Betis-...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Real-Madrid...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Southampton...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Valencia-vs...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Villarreal-...
| https://fid.medicine.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/webform...
| https://fid.medicine.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/webform...
| https://fid.medicine.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/webform...
| https://fid.medicine.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/webform...
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| https://fid.medicine.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/webform...
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| gwern wrote:
| > Four months ago my friend John Sharkman stepped on the scale
| and realized he was the heaviest he'd ever been. Sharkman--a
| former college football quarterback--was weighing in at 263
| pounds, fifty pounds heavier than his time as an elite
| athlete...It's not like walking is some secret. 10,000 steps is
| the default recommendation of some of the most popular fitness
| trackers on the market, and long walks have been a hidden weapon
| of superhero body transformations for ages. But until witnessing
| Sharkman undergo his transformation I didn't realize just how
| powerful just walking could be...So in our group chat, Sharkman
| and a few other friends made a commitment to walking 10,000 steps
| a day and tracking our food. We aimed for about 2,000 calories.
| Sharkman dubbed the initiative Health Zone. After four months
| following those guidelines, my friend dropped 43 pounds.
| Collectively the group chat was down 105.
|
| So in other words, a single individual, who already had a history
| of being fit and the ability to pursue athletics at a high level,
| reverted to his mean, and made up almost half of the entire gains
| across 4+ ('a few other') people, by using bog-standard
| recommendations, of the sort that have completely failed to solve
| the obesity crisis and fail for most people that try it.
|
| What can I say to a writeup like this, which is so self-refuting?
| "Nothing in psychology makes sense except in the light of
| individual differences." How can fitness journalists and
| 'nutrition coach and personal trainer' experts be so blind to the
| reality of individual differences? Just look at exercise
| studies's summary statistics, and look at how different the
| results are for individuals doing the same thing!
| 0xcde4c3db wrote:
| > Just look at exercise studies's summary statistics, and look
| at how different the results are for individuals doing the same
| thing!
|
| People might be interested to know that this is not just some
| fringe theory or freak result. It's well-known in the field
| that there's a massive pile of studies that _show_ large inter-
| individual variability and a comparatively tiny pile of studies
| that are actually designed to _examine_ inter-individual
| variability. [1].
|
| [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6818669/
| ogre_codes wrote:
| Walking will help your heart and is a good way to improve base
| fitness, but generally speaking not a way to lose weight.
| Fundamentally, walking burns very few calories. To lose 50 pounds
| walking, you need to walk hours per day which isn't very
| practical.
|
| That said, it can still work because ritualizing fitness also
| brings more awareness to other aspects of your life. When you are
| regularly working out (walking or otherwise), it can make you
| conscious of mealtime choices. You also are fundamentally _not_
| eating when you are out walking.
|
| If you want to lose weight, you either need much more intense
| exercise or to figure out how to stop eating. Walking or other
| activity is still important, but it's not a "Weight loss"
| solution.
| tim333 wrote:
| You can get quite fit from hill walking. Flat dunno.
| xirak57187 wrote:
| xirak57187
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/C%C3%A1diz-...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Celta-Vigo-...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Getafe-vs-R...
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| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Real-Betis-...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Real-Madrid...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Southampton...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Valencia-vs...
| https://hdfs.msu.edu/sites/default/files/2021-04/Villarreal-...
| https://fid.medicine.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/webform...
| https://fid.medicine.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/webform...
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| jahnu wrote:
| Walk at a brisk pace and you'll get fit and burn fat on any
| terrain.
| xirak57187 wrote:
| https://caribbeanfever.com/photo/albums/fdgfdg-fgfgf-1
| http://network-marketing.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fdgfg-
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| franciscop wrote:
| This article was great. It is known that counting calories on
| itself helps with getting thinner, and walking it's known to have
| many benefits as well. Now I'd love to see how much of the
| improvements were based on walking itself, vs calorie counting,
| vs calorie restriction.
| faichai wrote:
| One thing I've found very recently is that walking _outside_
| early in the mornings does wonders for your sleep.
|
| I've been a light, disrupted sleeper for as long as I can
| remember, but a walk outside and getting daylight on retina has
| the effect of shutting down melatonin levels, properly starting
| your day in biological terms. Now I hit 11:30pm and feel
| genuinely sleepy, which is novel in and of itself and get nearly
| double the deep sleep I was getting before.
|
| Doing the exact same walk at midday does not have the same
| effect.
|
| The impact of feeling genuinely rested and refreshed is life-
| changing.
| jokethrowaway wrote:
| I disagree that being fit is just about not being fat, I think we
| should have strength / skills based tests.
|
| For becoming fit and for losing weight faster, I think walking is
| not enough.
|
| Also, what people want is a completely different game.
|
| The problem is that societal expectations for males are not just
| of being lean, it's to have some muscle.
|
| Women generally have it easier and just need to lose weight
| (skinny, not muscular women often rate even better than muscular
| women) albeit in the last years having a big booty became trendy,
| increasing the popularity of lower body focused weight training
| for women.
|
| Losing fat is not easy but building muscle is 10x harder.
|
| Your sleep, caloric intake, protein intake, progressive overload
| exercise routine need to be in place. Screw up one of this
| factors and you'll just be a skinny dude.
| CheezeIt wrote:
| What are you talking about? Building muscle is much easier than
| losing weight. You just have to lift heavy things on a regular
| basis, and eat something more nutritious than ramen. If you
| work out, the sleep takes care of itself. Losing weight, on the
| other hand, requires self control.
| jk7tarYZAQNpTQa wrote:
| Yeah, no. Not by a million miles. Not eating is easy, you
| just ignore the hunger pain. Gaining weight is extremely hard
| for some people. I bet you don't know the feeling of forcing
| your 2nd dinner down your throat and trying not to vomit at
| 1am before going to bed because you're still 500kcals away
| from your daily caloric goal. Or setting an alarm every 90
| minutes to eat yet another meal.
| CheezeIt wrote:
| Some people have that problem, but look at America. Most
| have the opposite problem.
| thinkharderdev wrote:
| I think the aesthetic for men is to have muscle definition
| rather than muscle mass per se. And that is more about being
| lean than having big muscles. And if you are lean it doesn't
| take much in the way of weight training to get enough
| definition to appear muscular.
| jk7tarYZAQNpTQa wrote:
| I agree about the walking part. Walking 10k steps a day is the
| bare minimum to be considered a healthy habit, and it might be
| great if you're 70, injured or very out of shape, but we
| shouldn't be aiming at that. Sport is an area where I don't
| think there are diminishing returns. Walking 15k steps will
| make you feel better than walking 10k, and running them will
| make you feel even better.
|
| Coincidentally today I walked more than 20k steps (10k carrying
| a baby), and it's a great way to have a "non zero" day while
| listening to music/podcasts. But it feels very, very far from a
| workout.
|
| > Losing fat is not easy but building muscle is 10x harder.
|
| > Your sleep, caloric intake, protein intake, progressive
| overload exercise routine need to be in place. Screw up one of
| this factors and you'll just be a skinny dude.
|
| As someone who went from "quite skinny" to almost "magazine
| cover body" in 18 months, having a nice looking body is hard,
| but much easier than many people expect. Consistency is key,
| and I'd say eating enough is the hardest part (I think that's
| also true for people trying to lose weight), but it's perfectly
| doable. In 2 years you can achieve it. And I'm talking all
| natural.
| Jonnax wrote:
| It can make a significant impact.
|
| My healthiest was when I lived in a small town of 30k people.
|
| Everything was walkable. So I walked 30 minutes to work and back
| every day.
|
| Went to the town centre for shopping and carried it back.
|
| Put on a podcast or audiobook. Time will fly
| elevenoh wrote:
| Truth. I've seen many get fit when they move to walkable
| vancouver.
| mattm wrote:
| Living in a walkable city, it's remarkable when I go back to my
| hometown. There, everything is spread out so people don't
| really walk. The difference in people's body sizes is
| noticeable immediately.
| Tiktaalik wrote:
| There's got to be a relationship between North America's
| obesity crisis and the design of its cities.
|
| In so many places in NA you are forced to get into your car
| to go anywhere. You're in your car to commute to work (where
| of course you sit all day), in the car to get groceries then
| back at home where you sloth on your couch, or desperately
| sweat on the peloton to try to make up for the fact that you
| sat in your car or at the office all day.
|
| It's an incredibly stationary lifestyle that is forced by
| making it impossible to walk or use active transportation to
| do anything.
| _huayra_ wrote:
| Even if you wanted to use another mode of transport it's
| often impossible if you live in the suburbs / exurbs.
|
| Sidewalks can be patchy at best and bike lanes are an
| afterthought; often they include the steepest part of the
| road grade to shed water off to the side and include pinch-
| flat-happy sunken sewer / drain grates. Roads are often
| laughably designed in a car-centric manner, i.e. higher
| than an European highway with no lane markings or stop
| signs, turning it into a veritable drag strip.
|
| Whenever someone in the boomer generation says "why don't
| kids go outside to play these days?", I always retort "look
| at the Outside that y'all designed for them" :|
| paulcole wrote:
| > Even if you wanted to use another mode of transport
| it's often impossible if you live in the suburbs /
| exurbs.
|
| I grew up in the US suburbs (in an area with some of the
| hottest and most humid weather in the country) and it has
| all the problems you mentioned. However, I have made it
| to age 40 without ever driving a car. How? By not ever
| driving a car.
|
| Many people love the idea of biking/walking but they seem
| to love making excuses for not biking and not walking
| even more. Yes, it's a risk. Many things are but people
| do them anyway. Yes, it's inconvenient but that doesn't
| mean it _can't_ be done.
| ackbar03 wrote:
| Does anyone here have trouble focusing after a tough workout?
| Sometimes even a few days after? I used to do sprint training as
| part of my workout routine and also some weight lifting/machine.
| However, especially after especially tough sessions, it'd give me
| brain fog for the rest of the day and sometimes days after as
| well. Also sometimes I'd just be too sore to really concentrate.
| I'm currently doing a post grad degree which requires quite a lot
| of deep focused thinking and I've kind of stopped my exercise
| regiment as a result. Anyone else experienced this before and how
| did they deal with it?
| rapsey wrote:
| Maybe a mineral deficiency after a lot of sweating? You could
| try with some good magnesium supplements (NOT magnesium oxide)
| or a spinach smoothie (dark green vegetables are rich in
| magnesium).
| thinkingemote wrote:
| Would you take this before or after? I guess after, then how
| long after?
| rapsey wrote:
| Any time after
| jerrre wrote:
| I Have a this too and it can feel like I'm broken for that, as
| it's the exact opposite of people who feel energized from
| exercise. I'm not in bad shape at all but even a 1hr walk takes
| some time to be back to where I can focus on work most of the
| time. No solution yet sadly, apart from doing it in the evening
| when you don't need to do anything afterwards.
| radu_floricica wrote:
| Same here. No solution yet, other than lighter workouts or
| moving them in the evening. I rarely get the multiday effect
| too, but it takes multiday effort to get tbere and I vary
| rarely train hard enough.
| gedy wrote:
| Not sure if same, but I experienced similar to this when was
| not paying attention to heart rate and running hills. I thought
| the harder/faster the better but I was nearly maxing my heart
| rate for my age, and was exhausting me. I've felt much better
| now that I keep my heart rate in the 75-85% range during runs.
| float4 wrote:
| Same happened to me, but I was at a point in my life where I
| didn't need to do a lot of deep thinking so I continued anyway,
| and after a few months my body had grown accustomed to it.
|
| I can now push myself to my limit and will feel fine after 15
| minutes.
| thinkingemote wrote:
| I get something like I have a cold for a day after, headache,
| tiredness, sneezing, runny nose.
|
| I get brain fog the same day too. I've not heard or read of
| this occuring normally. It's not bad enough to stop me driving
| but it is enough to stop all work.
|
| I think it's fatigue basically and I've found that gradually
| increasing my fitness allows me to do more before this starts.
| But it's not listed as what fatigue is, especially the brain
| fog bit.
| phobosanomaly wrote:
| It could just be that you need a nap. I used to do a basic
| powerlifting routine in the morning, and my brain would get
| progressively slower and slower until noon when I took a nap.
|
| It was like hitting the reset button and I was fine for the
| rest of the day.
| massysett wrote:
| The man in this story lost weight because he restricted his
| calorie intake to 2000 per day, not through "just walking."
| andyxor wrote:
| I'm surprised noone mentioned under-desk treadmills, you can walk
| and work at the same time, not to mention use meetings for
| something productive.
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| Walking a lot was the default norm for humans across the world
| before cars, etc, made it impossible to do what we need to do
| with just walking. Urban planners used to incorporate fitness
| into their designs and that seems to mostly be a thing of the
| past.
|
| You can blame our couch potato physiques on modern life to a
| large degree. We don't have to quietly accept this. We can decide
| to redesign the world such that walking to run errands is much
| more the default norm again and then fitness can be incorporated
| into daily activities of living instead of being an extra burden
| on top of them.
| vkk8 wrote:
| > Urban planners used to incorporate fitness into their designs
| and that seems to mostly be a thing of the past.
|
| Do you have a source for that? I've never heard of such thing
| before.
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| Urban planning has long been closely intertwined with public
| health, though disease prevention gets the lion's share of
| the press.
|
| Before life got in the way, I wanted to be an urban planner.
| So I've heard this a lot over the years.
|
| Here are a few excerpts from a piece by the CDC:
|
| Urban planning and public health have been intertwined for
| most of their histories.
|
| During the middle of the 20th century, the disciplines
| drifted apart, to a certain extent because of their success
| in limiting health and safety risks caused by inappropriate
| mixing of land uses.
|
| The disciplines recently have begun to reintegrate. During
| the last 20 years, shared concerns have included
| transportation planning to improve air quality, encourage
| physical activity, prevent injuries, and promote wellness.
|
| https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/su5502a12.htm#:~:t.
| ...
| mbeex wrote:
| I started walking three years ago at the age of 55 for ~2000 km
| per year since. There was Hypertension and a suspected heart
| problem at this time, so I was cautious about running. I also
| have a nice area of wood very close to my home.
|
| It turned out quite well. I am officially heart-healthy today,
| blood pressure went down about 20-25 mm Hg, weight 10-15kg.
|
| Regarding running - I do it the same way I do something for my
| upper body. Sometimes the body is longing for it, and than I do
| it. In the case of running: Long walks often give a certain
| stiffness, especially in the legs. When this happens, I simply
| include a few (1-3) kilometers during the walk.
|
| I also learned, that it is far easier to sustain such a regime
| instead the more common forms of exercise. I think its more
| natural for all but a few people in the long run. Someone wrote
| here about running as hunting/fleeing which by origin is
| necessarily associated with stress. I think there is much truth
| in this.
|
| The only part that becomes sometimes difficult, is the time
| demand. Doing the math: My 180 km / month are 12km (two hours)
| every other day. I had to aquire some additional discipline to
| make it happen.
| troydavis wrote:
| Most of this person's weight loss seems to have been from eating
| fewer calories, not walking. I posted this reply to a prior
| submission of the same article
| (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26744434):
|
| 43 pounds in 16 weeks is 2.7 pounds per week. A pound is 3,500
| calories, so 2.7 is 9,450 calories per week, or a deficit of
| 1,350 calories per day.
|
| Even if he was walking a very low 3,000 steps per day previously,
| an extra 7,000 steps/day - about 3-4 miles - is walking for
| perhaps 60-80 minutes. For someone who weighs about 260 pounds, 1
| hour of moderate walking would burn about 450 calories. So,
| assuming he didn't do other exercise that the article omitted,
| the remaining ~900 calorie/day deficit came from eating less than
| his metabolic rate (BMR).
|
| Walking sped up the process, but he would have lost the weight
| just by eating fewer calories - and food changes account for
| about 2/3rds of the loss.
|
| (I'm assuming he neither added nor lost much muscle mass, which
| seems likely from the description.)
| pessimizer wrote:
| > Most of this person's weight loss seems to have been from
| eating fewer calories, not walking.
|
| This is likely true for everyone losing weight. Exercise gets
| you fit(-ter than you were before), though, and there are a lot
| more health benefits from being fit than thin. I'm pretty sure
| being thin just helps you with your sugar.
| magicalhippo wrote:
| For me, cycling to and from work helped me eat less, in the
| sense that I wasn't hungry while cycling and for at least
| half an hour afterwards.
|
| So I could skip breakfast, jump on the bike, and then have a
| late-breakfast/early lunch at work. At the end of the work
| day I'd start to get hungry, but then I'd jump on the bike
| and when I got home I still had time to make and eat dinner
| before the raging hunger kicked in.
|
| This helped me skip an entire meal per day, which made things
| a lot easier for me.
|
| Maybe I'm just weird that way though.
| uxp100 wrote:
| Nah that's typical I think. If I'm biking a longer way I
| have to force myself to eat some around like 35 to 40
| miles, and then every 15 or 20 after. I don't feel hungry
| but I start getting noticably weaker.
|
| In fact, when building up for distance cycling, I felt like
| learning when to eat and making my saddle and handlebars
| more comfortable was equally as important as building
| strength. Extra strength makes you finish your trip faster,
| but you'll probably still complete it even slowly, but if
| your saddle isn't right for you, the pain can be
| insurmountable.
| magicalhippo wrote:
| Ah interesting. I noticed getting a lot weaker around
| 50-60 km, which is roughly the same. Though I was just
| hitting a performance cliff.
|
| Guess I'll have to pack some food next time!
| vladvasiliu wrote:
| I think there are two components to this (they might be
| related, though, I don't know).
|
| On the side, exercise does make you fitter, and consume some
| calories, etc.
|
| But then, I find that it also has a non-negligible effect on
| the food I crave. I find it much, much easier to not eat tons
| of "junk food" when I exercise. And by that, I mean I
| practically don't feel like eating any, _at all_. I actually
| crave vegetables and meat. And those have a tendency to be
| "filling" and not have you want to eat again 2 hours later.
|
| So it's much easier for me to actually lower my calorie
| intake when exercising.
| magicalhippo wrote:
| Yeah I noticed the same. Once I got into doing regular
| longer bike trips, when I got home I almost never wanted
| junk food for dinner afterwards.
| rdruxn wrote:
| > I'm pretty sure being thing helps you with your sugar.
|
| Yes, adipose tissue contributes to insulin resistance and
| impaired glucose metabolism. Why? Not exactly sure.
| https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2019.12.014
| porb121 wrote:
| Worth noting that the longer someone is in a caloric deficit,
| the more their non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT)
| drops. NEAT is the caloric burn from this like random movements
| and fidgeting, walking around the house, etc. Maintaining a
| baseline step count creates a NEAT floor, so you're more able
| to stay in a deficit towards the end of the diet.
| em-bee wrote:
| translating this into basic english: burning calories through
| exercise causes you to move around less otherwise (because
| you have less energy?), but tracking your steps ensures that
| you keep moving around as much as before (compensating the
| lower non-exercise movement with more deliberate exercise
| movement) and therefore ensuring that you keep burning the
| same amount of calories.
|
| is that correct?
| ghufran_syed wrote:
| That's not quite correct.
|
| I think of non-exercise activity thermogenesis as being
| like the idle rate of an internal combustion engine car. If
| you increase the idle engine rate, it doesn't affect the
| fuel consumption at higher activity speeds, but at times
| when the car is slow or stationary, it would burn more fuel
| than necessary. In a car, that's a bad thing. The claim is
| that doing exercise increases your "idling speed" (NEAT) ,
| or rather stops your body's idling speed from dropping the
| way it would normally do during calorie restriction. If you
| are trying to lose weight, burning "more calories than
| necessary" would be a good thing
| em-bee wrote:
| so that actually means that more exercising has the
| additional side-effect of also burning more calories even
| when the body is not moving.
|
| but eating less causes the body to reduce burning
| calories because less calories are coming in.
|
| so eating less while exercising more maximizes the effect
| of weight loss because the body is forced to use up more
| of the stored fat reserves to compensate for less
| incoming calories while also needing to burn more due to
| the exercises.
| Ozzie_osman wrote:
| Walking us also incredibly stress-relieving, so I would imagine
| if you're a stress or boredom eater, walking probably creates a
| second effect where you're less likely to eat.
| troydavis wrote:
| Absolutely, and walking - and getting any exercise at all -
| is great. Unfortunately, this article doesn't cover it that
| way, and their explanation won't help readers.
| unholyguy001 wrote:
| Actually your numbers are wrong
|
| Elevation gain during walks matter hugely. Walk up a few pretty
| decent hills and your 400 number becomes a 600 number
| bumby wrote:
| I don't think the article gives enough detail to make that
| case. We could torture the scenario any number of ways to
| arrive at whatever conclusion we're after but the comment
| about weight loss being more attributable to a caloric
| deficits from eating less generally stands. For most people,
| it's much easier to eat calories than exercise it off.
| Someone1234 wrote:
| Saying someone is "wrong" then jumping into a pedantic point
| isn't very constructive.
|
| Ultimately using your own figures (400 Vs. 600) it doesn't
| alter the person above's overarching point: That _most_ of
| the weight loss was from diet changes (as is typically the
| case).
| legulere wrote:
| Physical activity helps the body regulate appetite though.
| mleo wrote:
| Its a combination and a psychological shift to ensure
| reinforcement of success. I went from 270 down to 200 over 8
| months. It slowed down, but went lower over several more
| months. I started with walking and adjusting my diet. Had I not
| started seeing success quickly I may not have continued the
| diet. When I started, walking up a moderate hill after a mile
| was tough. It got easier each day and overall health improved.
| I was eventually able to add some running and other exercises.
|
| Also, at the very start, I am certain it was more than 450
| calories per hour after weighing that much in my case. It
| certainly came down as the body got used to it and did build
| muscle mass in legs. Same with food, the body will get used to
| the calorie restriction over time and calorie restriction alone
| won't take you the distance.
| MMAesawy wrote:
| While dieting contributes the most to weight loss, I believe
| some simple exercises + calorie counting goes a long way. When
| you understand how much physical effort is needed to burn off
| that snickers bar you're thinking about snacking on, it becomes
| much easier to put it off.
| jollybean wrote:
| I believe the giant misconception in 'cardio calories burned'
| is the fact that exercise affects your resting metabolism quite
| a lot and people that exercise burn calories throughout the
| day.
|
| While diet is a 'major factor' - for people who are sedentary,
| then walking 2 miles a day can be a huge step up.
| orthoxerox wrote:
| If it's just walking the Appalachian Trail or another extra-long
| trail, then the answer is quite: https://imgur.com/9ipvLUm and
| https://thetrek.co/thru-hike-transformation-before-after/
| mauvehaus wrote:
| Your upper body, however loses fitness. I was climbing
| regularly in 2009 before I thru-hiked in 2010 and was a pretty
| solid 5.10 climber making inroads into 5.11 at the Red River
| Gorge (translation: nothing special, but usually able to find
| something I could get on at most crags there).
|
| Getting back into climbing was pretty brutal, to put it mildly.
|
| Also, if we're being totally honest, the diet of the average
| thru-hiker is pretty abhorrent. Lots of tunamac or equivalently
| unhealthy meals for dinner. Thru-hiking might get you fit, but
| I wouldn't recommend it to anybody as a way to get _healthy_.
| compiler-guy wrote:
| Weight lost through long distance hiking is among the hardest
| to keep off. On the trail you have much more limited access to
| food, and the motivation to do 15 to 20 miles a day or possibly
| much more.
|
| You get home and there is food everywhere, and maybe, maybe if
| you are lucky, the time and motivation to do fivish miles a day
| or a similar amount of exercise.
| TheCoelacanth wrote:
| Diet also plays a factor with long hikes. You can't just grab a
| burger, fries and soda whenever you want.
| PlugTunin wrote:
| I think there's some confusion over whether the term fit means
| just attaining an ideal body weight or also having a lean and
| muscular appearance. The latter isn't so easy to achieve through
| just walking and diet, but many people are only interested in the
| former.
|
| Whatever your goals, it's hard to go wrong with a mix of weight
| training, cardio/walking and eating right.
| freeflight wrote:
| Personally I found walking to improve my fitness/activity levels
| to such a degree that I will often naturally transition back into
| a regular jogging habit just to get rid of all the extra energy
| from the walks.
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| radu_floricica wrote:
| My cuurent mindset is that the first 15 minutes of (light)
| exercise in one's day are for health, not for fitness.
|
| Skip it for a few days/months and you'll be less healthy and more
| letargic.
| 0xcde4c3db wrote:
| > 10,000 steps is the default recommendation of some of the most
| popular fitness trackers on the market
|
| It's worth keeping in mind that much like "8 glasses of water per
| day", this recommendation does not have any particular pedigree
| (outside of trivia about the early marketing of pedometers in
| Japan). It's not clear that it was based on any evidence, and it
| isn't especially supported by the studies that do exist (which
| suggest that the benefits on mortality and morbidity for most
| people taper off somewhere in the range of 6,000-8,000 steps per
| day). It's a reasonable enough goal as far as it goes, but all
| signs point to it being chosen to be a "round" number and not
| because it's an actual estimate of anything materially
| meaningful.
| dakics wrote:
| In my case 8000 steps (around 5.5 km) is something I am able to
| pull every day. Having a dog makes it more fun.
|
| I've tried also 10000 steps for a while but it was non-
| practical, just couldn't fit that extra mile.
|
| During the 6-week streak of 8000+ step days, it felt as if a
| switch 'flipped' and I went from a plateau of 90kg to 85kg
| (what I saw as a target) and surprisingly am able to maintain
| it at that level for a few years now, without almost any
| changes in dietary or activity habits, even throughout the 2020
| lockdown.
|
| I'm a typical developer/couch potato, I do not avoid occasional
| junk food, beer, extra slice of cake etc. I try not to eat
| late, except for nuts and seeds. I wholeheartedly recommend
| Turkish? (white, large sort) unsalted sunflower seeds, which
| have nutritious benefits according to Dr.Google, plus it
| definitely helps the next morning.
| joe-collins wrote:
| > But until witnessing Sharkman undergo his transformation I
| didn't realize just how powerful just walking could be.
|
| My compliments to the author for this genre-ambiguous sentence.
| dsego wrote:
| For those who hate running but want to burn more calories and get
| fit, may I suggest hiking in the mountains.
| sumnole wrote:
| For those who need an even greater challenge, modify your hike
| with rucking weights.
| dsego wrote:
| Brings back memories of carrying 20kg of caving gear and
| ropes up the mountain. Still, I find ascending the rope with
| a jumar and croll to be the most exhausting exercise I've
| ever done.
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