4 ms·

...and then we see that exercising an hour per day (7.5 hours or more per week), which people trying to lose weight often do, can cause damaging calcium buildup

...and then we see that exercising an hour per day (7.5 hours or more per week), which people trying to lose weight often do, can cause damaging calcium buildups in your heart, especially if you are a man [1]. So we're damned if we do and damned if we don't. I really hate these conflicting studies. [1] http://time.com/4987426/too-much-exercise/ http://time.com/4987426/too-much-exercise/

rincebrain 8y ago
That is, unfortunately, how science works in almost any nontrivial case - you get a number of studies that are contradictory or weak with simpler hypotheses, people modify them to account for the dissonance, run more experiments, rinse, repeat. It doesn't help that our observability of biological systems, while better than it's ever been before, is still p. bad in situ.
learnstats2 8y ago
7.5 hours or more per week of gym is an extreme amount that elite athletes might think twice about, not to mention that it's not recommended by anyone. Where is the conflict? That article itself says: “This [study] doesn’t apply to 99% of people”
- downandout 8y ago
  I'm trying to lose weight. I am doing approximately 7 hours per week...an hour per day of exercise isn't particularly hard to reach. I apparently fall in the 1%, and I'm not remotely close to being an "elite athlete," nor do I feel like I'm do anything extreme.
- grecy 8y ago
  > 7.5 hours or more per week of gym is an extreme amount that elite athletes might think twice about I personally have plenty of friends that run, swim or gym session for an hour 7 days a week. Elite athletes are doing more like 2-5 hours per day. My brother in law runs ultra marathons (just for fun), and runs somewhere between 1-3 hours every single day of his life. For fun.
  - learnstats2 8y ago
    I personally do more than 7.5 hours of "exercise" but all the people I know doing 7.5 hours of "gym" are highly injury-prone. I guess the article doesn't make it clear what counts.
stevenwoo 8y ago
That is not supported by the article. "Even if hardcore exercisers do have more calcium buildup, it’s still not clear if that’s damaging the heart..." The article states calcium build up in the heart is a bad sign for sedentary people and that it is not clear what it means for healthy people. There are similar syndromes/symptoms that mean different things for people with different activity levels - folks who do aerobic exercise a lot have larger hearts than sedentary people, the enlarged heart can be a symptom of very serious problems - but mostly for sedentary people.
- downandout 8y ago
  "Even if hardcore exercisers do have more calcium buildup, it’s still not clear if that’s damaging the heart..." First, I'd argue that an hour a day is not "hardcore". Anyone trying to lose weight can easily fall in this category, including me currently. Second, the actual underlying study upon which this article is based seems to indicate that calcium buildup is bad for everyone. Time Magazine went out and found someone who gave a quote contradicting the study, but that was the whole point of my comment. Different studies and individual researchers have different views on all of this stuff. Some say that lots of exercise is bad, and others say it is great. The point is that nobody knows, but everyone seems to be be publishing studies advocating for a given position.

rincebrain 8y ago

That is, unfortunately, how science works in almost any nontrivial case - you get a number of studies that are contradictory or weak with simpler hypotheses, people modify them to account for the dissonance, run more experiments, rinse, repeat. It doesn't help that our observability of biological systems, while better than it's ever been before, is still p. bad in situ.

learnstats2 8y ago

7.5 hours or more per week of gym is an extreme amount that elite athletes might think twice about, not to mention that it's not recommended by anyone. Where is the conflict? That article itself says: “This [study] doesn’t apply to 99% of people”

downandout 8y ago
I'm trying to lose weight. I am doing approximately 7 hours per week...an hour per day of exercise isn't particularly hard to reach. I apparently fall in the 1%, and I'm not remotely close to being an "elite athlete," nor do I feel like I'm do anything extreme.
grecy 8y ago
> 7.5 hours or more per week of gym is an extreme amount that elite athletes might think twice about I personally have plenty of friends that run, swim or gym session for an hour 7 days a week. Elite athletes are doing more like 2-5 hours per day. My brother in law runs ultra marathons (just for fun), and runs somewhere between 1-3 hours every single day of his life. For fun.
- learnstats2 8y ago
  I personally do more than 7.5 hours of "exercise" but all the people I know doing 7.5 hours of "gym" are highly injury-prone. I guess the article doesn't make it clear what counts.

stevenwoo 8y ago

That is not supported by the article. "Even if hardcore exercisers do have more calcium buildup, it’s still not clear if that’s damaging the heart..." The article states calcium build up in the heart is a bad sign for sedentary people and that it is not clear what it means for healthy people. There are similar syndromes/symptoms that mean different things for people with different activity levels - folks who do aerobic exercise a lot have larger hearts than sedentary people, the enlarged heart can be a symptom of very serious problems - but mostly for sedentary people.

downandout 8y ago
"Even if hardcore exercisers do have more calcium buildup, it’s still not clear if that’s damaging the heart..." First, I'd argue that an hour a day is not "hardcore". Anyone trying to lose weight can easily fall in this category, including me currently. Second, the actual underlying study upon which this article is based seems to indicate that calcium buildup is bad for everyone. Time Magazine went out and found someone who gave a quote contradicting the study, but that was the whole point of my comment. Different studies and individual researchers have different views on all of this stuff. Some say that lots of exercise is bad, and others say it is great. The point is that nobody knows, but everyone seems to be be publishing studies advocating for a given position.