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I think it's silly to focus on single variable. I'm Over 40 and my body is showing it. I've done quite a lot of health research over the past few years. My per
by fsloth 6y ago
I think it's silly to focus on single variable.
I'm Over 40 and my body is showing it. I've done quite a lot of health research over the past few years. My personal metric at the moment is to lower my cholesterol and have been moderately successful without medication, so I think I'm doing something at least partially right.
I think the beneficial geeky rules of thumbs for healthy living that are simple rather than perfect, are:
1. One needs in ones diet
1.1 Protein
1.2 Fiber
1.3 Carbohydrates
1.4 Fats
1.5 Vitamins
2. Prefer foods with:
2.1 Unsaturated fats like olive oil, salmon, etc
2.2 Fibers
3. Generally avoid food with:
3.1 Fast sugars
3.2 High inflammatory index
3.3 High saturated fat content
4. Don't eat more than you consume.
5. For exercise, as the bare minimum, try to walk at least 8000 steps per day or equivalent. This will statistically reduce mortality considerably.
6. Sleep enough
7. Don't stress about the above rules! Pay attention, but don't judge - yourself or others.
8. Look into other stuff that's probably good for you like stretches, breathing exercises and strength exercises.
These are not hard and fast rules. But things that one can pay attention to, and through self observation perhaps make slow adjustments.
So don't stop eating burgers, but pay attention to the number of calories you eat, and of what the calories are composed of. Eat what you like, but don't delude yourself.
For geeks metrological devices may offer motivation. I have a bracelet that measures my steps and my sleep, and I feel it as a successful facilitation tool. But don't treat the device as a life coach, or the numbers as something that you should strive to optimize.
- TheOtherHobbes 6y ago4. will (literally) kill you because your metabolism slows down as you age and you have to choose between obesity and eating much, much less. Exercise helps but will only get you so far. In my 20s I would eat ~1000 calorie meals with an entire pizza, salad, rich dressing, and a big slab of chocolate fudge cake. I was never slim, but I wasn't obese either. If I tried that today I'd be breaking the scales in a few months. Having to cut down on food a lot has been one of the hardest adjustments to make. Quite a few of my friends have never managed it and they're now dangerously beyond a reasonable weight.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- moltar 6y agoThe answer is fasting. That’s the missing feature of our modern life. Humans need to fast to clear out the glycogen stores and liver fat.
- KozmoNau7 6y agoI would love to see the research backing this, because that would be a quite simple lifestyle change for most people. However, it does also have an air of "this one trick will solve obesity!", which should be viewed with skepticism.
- voisin 6y agoThere are hundreds of links on HN about fasting. You cannot lose fat without first depleting glycogen stores. You can exercise these stores away and then in the absence of further caloric input your body turns to fat stores. Or if you fast, the absence of caloric input means your body will naturally burn its glycogen stores (takes longer if you aren’t exercising, for obvious reasons).
- DougWebb 6y agoI think most people would disagree with your definition of "quite simple". Going from three meals a day to a 16:8 eating pattern (16 hrs fasting, 8 hrs eating window) isn't too bad. It's basically skipping breakfast. Shortening the eating window until you're eating one meal a day is tougher. Then extending the fasting period > 24 hrs is tougher still. You can't just jump into this stuff while you're carb-addicted and your body is screaming for glucose. Getting used to a keto-style diet, even if your carb intake is just low but not keto-low, helps a lot.
- KozmoNau7 6y agoIf you're a somewhat lazy young person like I was, falling into a one-meal daily routine could just happen due to a busy daily schedule. Unfortunately I also managed to put on weight during that time, so my meals of choice were probably non-optimal and probably too large. I stand by that most people should be able to do it, as long as they can get over the hangry phase.