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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 se

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.
  - Retric 9y ago
    Maintaining 1lb of fat is ~2-4calories per day though this increases with activity levels. So, assuming all else is the same over 30 years you would end up around 20-30 pounds heaver. In the real world exercise is important for regulating appetite which has a much larger impact. Remember, evolution was not optimizing for people to sit around all day long. So, feedback systems are dependent on activity.
  - tutufan 9y ago
    Exercise won't cause you to lose weight. It has other important benefits though.
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.

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.
- Retric 9y ago
  Maintaining 1lb of fat is ~2-4calories per day though this increases with activity levels. So, assuming all else is the same over 30 years you would end up around 20-30 pounds heaver. In the real world exercise is important for regulating appetite which has a much larger impact. Remember, evolution was not optimizing for people to sit around all day long. So, feedback systems are dependent on activity.
- tutufan 9y ago
  Exercise won't cause you to lose weight. It has other important benefits though.

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.