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"While we await the results, the best course to help fight that middle-age spread hasn’t changed. Eat right and follow an exercise plan that you know you can st

"While we await the results, the best course to help fight that middle-age spread hasn’t changed. Eat right and follow an exercise plan that you know you can stick to—it will make you feel better. Take it from me, a guy who decided eight years ago that it was time to shape up, stopped eating honey buns, got into a regular exercise program with a trainer to keep me accountable, and lost those 30 pounds. You can do it, even without a DNA-PK inhibitor!" I'm glad the article finished with the above paragraph because while the study is interesting, Americans don't seem to have unique physical traits that cause them to gain weight, we just don't have healthy habits. I wonder what the weight gain in the same time period is in different regions of the world

akgerber 9y ago
We have pretty successfully engineered almost all physical activity out of the normal daily life of a middle-aged suburban American, who move from bed to car seat to desk chair to car seat to couch to bed with as little walking as possible in between. Most other societies make walking (including to and from public transit) and bicycling much bigger parts of their transportation landscape, rather than designing new communities to make driving as easy as possible and other means of transportation impossible, either intentionally or implicitly.
- convolvatron 9y ago
  its really amazing how much a difference 20 minutes of walking a day makes. so instead, spend that time in a car, and that time again at a gym. what wealth!
  - chrisseaton 9y ago
    How much energy do you burn with 20 minutes of walking? A couple hundred kilocalories at most? That's not going to solve anyone's weight problem.
    - lostapathy 9y ago
      If you work from home and otherwise spend 20 seconds walking for your "commute", a factor of 60 improvement is a big change.
      - chrisseaton 9y ago
        I'm afraid that's meaningless feel-good talk. It doesn't matter how large the relative change is if the absolute value is still too small to help.
        porkloin 9y ago
        There are benefits to light exercise beyond calorie expenditure.
    - NikolaeVarius 9y ago
      Like a hundred. Pretty much a large Apple. A decent paced 5k burns like 400 at most
    - abraves10001 9y ago
      Most people aren't overeating by thousands of calories a day, increasing activity by 20 minutes without increased intake would probably diminish the vast majority of weight gain for a large percentage of the populous.
    - nsxwolf 9y ago
      I can tell you that amount of walking makes zero difference to me. Certainly not in terms of weight. Maybe it has some health benefit that statisticians could eek out by studying 1,000 of me over a lifetime, but not anything cosmetic. And cosmetics are what really matters in these discussions, because that is how you are ultimately judged and categorized.
    - nradov 9y ago
      It's not a lot, but 20 minutes daily walking at a good pace would be sufficient for most people to lose about 1lb / month, assuming no change in diet.
- HannibalChew 9y ago
  It's worse for me because I move from bed, to shower, then down to the office downstairs. You'd be surprised how many steps you get from just walking around the office. Luckily, I don't have a problem exercising on a daily basis, whether it's just walking outside or hitting the gym. Losing weight is an entirely separate issue for me though. After hard-core lifting sessions, I'm eating way too many calories.
- snuxoll 9y ago
  I work from home, so it's doubly bad for me - I don't even have to walk to a car, just the couple steps from bed to my office. I went to Boston for Red Hat Summit last week and it amazed me just how exhausted I was after all the walking to/from the train stations and around the convention. I used to bike every day to/from work when I was just a couple years younger and never felt as sore and tired as I did every day during the event. I really need to start getting out more, even just walking to the coffee shop 1/4 mile away on occasion and working from there.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - Naomarik 9y ago
    I live in the desert where going outside in the summer is intolerable. What's helping me immensely while working from home is playing some VR games throughout the day. If I want something light I play a few rounds of archery in Holopoint. If I want to max my heart rate very quickly I'll do boxing in Thrill of the Fight.
    - Declanomous 9y ago
      When I visited Houston I felt like I was being held hostage. I love living in a city because it makes it really easy to be active. Time spent in Houston feels like it's being spent in the most hostile suburb on the planet. Honestly, I think Houston might actually be hell.
  - nradov 9y ago
    If it's practical for you, consider getting a dog. Dogs need to be exercised every day so it forces you to get out and walk or run at least a couple miles every day. And by "dog" I mean a real dog, not some fragile inbred abomination that can't handle a run around the block.
    - snuxoll 9y ago
      My wife and daughter would love a dog, but we rent and already have a couple cats so it's not really in the cards right now (the cats alone aren't an issue, but trying to get the OK from the landlady for another animal isn't in the cards).
- RugnirViking 9y ago
  > Most other societies make walking Unfortunately, obesity is a global epidemic, and it is not showing signs of slowing in, as far as I can tell, in any developed nation.
metamet 9y ago
> Americans don't seem to have unique physical traits that cause them to gain weight, we just don't have healthy habits A diet of hyper-palatable, nutritionally void processed food will do that. Eat real food. Meat, fish, nuts, fruits, veggies, maybe some carb-dense grains (I like rice) here and there when your body can take advantage of the extra glucose, and you'd be surprised how easy it is to both manage your hunger and your weight.
- cookiecaper 9y ago
  Yes, there's a systemic issue here. Just as we don't say "Users just need to be smarter!" when a substantial segment of the population is having difficulty accessing our programs, we shouldn't say "Eaters just need to eat fewer calories!" when OVER HALF of the population is getting sick on the food supply. Try to buy something healthy at your conventional grocer. It's generally tucked away at the far extremities of the aisle if it's there at all, and you normally have to bypass several fake "healthy" options that are really just slightly different formulations of the primary recipe. You have to really hunt just to find something as simple as a loaf of bread that isn't infused with extra sugar. Some loaves that bill themselves as "wheat" are still mostly white bread, etc. There is a large array of deceptive tactics used to get people to buy the more addictive formulations when they think they're buying healthier ones. IMO this is a technology problem. We have sufficient technology to bring a steady supply of maximally-desirable foods, which, unfortunately, tend to have the least nutritional value. This creates perverse incentives across the marketplace because grocers, suppliers, distributors, and farmers all want to sell more, which means they will always favor the higher-calorie options, because human biology always favors it. It's a really bad place to stall at a technological stasis. Instead of fighting chemistry and biology and berating those who fall victim not only to their own strong physical inclinations but also to a barrage of marketing tactics designed to trick them into continuing to buy addictive-but-unhealthy foods when they're explicitly trying not to do so, we need to develop technology that makes broccoli maximally-desirable without changing its basic nutritional and caloric properties, or technology that infuses maximally-desirable foods with nutritional and caloric properties akin to maximally-nutritious foods. I don't think most people are compulsive overeaters. There's a myth among some naive people that every overweight person has a stash of 40 SNICKERS bars constantly at hand and that they eat 10 of these per day. This is not true except in the most extreme cases. The truth is that most people eat reasonably normal amounts and types of foods.

akgerber 9y ago

We have pretty successfully engineered almost all physical activity out of the normal daily life of a middle-aged suburban American, who move from bed to car seat to desk chair to car seat to couch to bed with as little walking as possible in between. Most other societies make walking (including to and from public transit) and bicycling much bigger parts of their transportation landscape, rather than designing new communities to make driving as easy as possible and other means of transportation impossible, either intentionally or implicitly.

convolvatron 9y ago
its really amazing how much a difference 20 minutes of walking a day makes. so instead, spend that time in a car, and that time again at a gym. what wealth!
- chrisseaton 9y ago
  How much energy do you burn with 20 minutes of walking? A couple hundred kilocalories at most? That's not going to solve anyone's weight problem.
  - lostapathy 9y ago
    If you work from home and otherwise spend 20 seconds walking for your "commute", a factor of 60 improvement is a big change.
    - chrisseaton 9y ago
      I'm afraid that's meaningless feel-good talk. It doesn't matter how large the relative change is if the absolute value is still too small to help.
      - porkloin 9y ago
        There are benefits to light exercise beyond calorie expenditure.
  - NikolaeVarius 9y ago
    Like a hundred. Pretty much a large Apple. A decent paced 5k burns like 400 at most
  - abraves10001 9y ago
    Most people aren't overeating by thousands of calories a day, increasing activity by 20 minutes without increased intake would probably diminish the vast majority of weight gain for a large percentage of the populous.
  - nsxwolf 9y ago
    I can tell you that amount of walking makes zero difference to me. Certainly not in terms of weight. Maybe it has some health benefit that statisticians could eek out by studying 1,000 of me over a lifetime, but not anything cosmetic. And cosmetics are what really matters in these discussions, because that is how you are ultimately judged and categorized.
  - nradov 9y ago
    It's not a lot, but 20 minutes daily walking at a good pace would be sufficient for most people to lose about 1lb / month, assuming no change in diet.
HannibalChew 9y ago
It's worse for me because I move from bed, to shower, then down to the office downstairs. You'd be surprised how many steps you get from just walking around the office. Luckily, I don't have a problem exercising on a daily basis, whether it's just walking outside or hitting the gym. Losing weight is an entirely separate issue for me though. After hard-core lifting sessions, I'm eating way too many calories.
snuxoll 9y ago
I work from home, so it's doubly bad for me - I don't even have to walk to a car, just the couple steps from bed to my office. I went to Boston for Red Hat Summit last week and it amazed me just how exhausted I was after all the walking to/from the train stations and around the convention. I used to bike every day to/from work when I was just a couple years younger and never felt as sore and tired as I did every day during the event. I really need to start getting out more, even just walking to the coffee shop 1/4 mile away on occasion and working from there.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Naomarik 9y ago
  I live in the desert where going outside in the summer is intolerable. What's helping me immensely while working from home is playing some VR games throughout the day. If I want something light I play a few rounds of archery in Holopoint. If I want to max my heart rate very quickly I'll do boxing in Thrill of the Fight.
  - Declanomous 9y ago
    When I visited Houston I felt like I was being held hostage. I love living in a city because it makes it really easy to be active. Time spent in Houston feels like it's being spent in the most hostile suburb on the planet. Honestly, I think Houston might actually be hell.
- nradov 9y ago
  If it's practical for you, consider getting a dog. Dogs need to be exercised every day so it forces you to get out and walk or run at least a couple miles every day. And by "dog" I mean a real dog, not some fragile inbred abomination that can't handle a run around the block.
  - snuxoll 9y ago
    My wife and daughter would love a dog, but we rent and already have a couple cats so it's not really in the cards right now (the cats alone aren't an issue, but trying to get the OK from the landlady for another animal isn't in the cards).
RugnirViking 9y ago
> Most other societies make walking Unfortunately, obesity is a global epidemic, and it is not showing signs of slowing in, as far as I can tell, in any developed nation.

metamet 9y ago

> Americans don't seem to have unique physical traits that cause them to gain weight, we just don't have healthy habits A diet of hyper-palatable, nutritionally void processed food will do that. Eat real food. Meat, fish, nuts, fruits, veggies, maybe some carb-dense grains (I like rice) here and there when your body can take advantage of the extra glucose, and you'd be surprised how easy it is to both manage your hunger and your weight.

cookiecaper 9y ago
Yes, there's a systemic issue here. Just as we don't say "Users just need to be smarter!" when a substantial segment of the population is having difficulty accessing our programs, we shouldn't say "Eaters just need to eat fewer calories!" when OVER HALF of the population is getting sick on the food supply. Try to buy something healthy at your conventional grocer. It's generally tucked away at the far extremities of the aisle if it's there at all, and you normally have to bypass several fake "healthy" options that are really just slightly different formulations of the primary recipe. You have to really hunt just to find something as simple as a loaf of bread that isn't infused with extra sugar. Some loaves that bill themselves as "wheat" are still mostly white bread, etc. There is a large array of deceptive tactics used to get people to buy the more addictive formulations when they think they're buying healthier ones. IMO this is a technology problem. We have sufficient technology to bring a steady supply of maximally-desirable foods, which, unfortunately, tend to have the least nutritional value. This creates perverse incentives across the marketplace because grocers, suppliers, distributors, and farmers all want to sell more, which means they will always favor the higher-calorie options, because human biology always favors it. It's a really bad place to stall at a technological stasis. Instead of fighting chemistry and biology and berating those who fall victim not only to their own strong physical inclinations but also to a barrage of marketing tactics designed to trick them into continuing to buy addictive-but-unhealthy foods when they're explicitly trying not to do so, we need to develop technology that makes broccoli maximally-desirable without changing its basic nutritional and caloric properties, or technology that infuses maximally-desirable foods with nutritional and caloric properties akin to maximally-nutritious foods. I don't think most people are compulsive overeaters. There's a myth among some naive people that every overweight person has a stash of 40 SNICKERS bars constantly at hand and that they eat 10 of these per day. This is not true except in the most extreme cases. The truth is that most people eat reasonably normal amounts and types of foods.