5 ms·

Increased sedentary behavior alters metabolism and body composition (2018)

56 points by gautamsomani 4y ago

fsckboy 4y ago
TFA says the changes are temporary, or at least reversible: Conclusions/interpretation: A short-term reduction in physical activity with increased sedentary behaviour leads to a reversible reduction in multi-organ insulin sensitivity and cardiorespiratory fitness, with concomitant increases in central and liver fat and dyslipidaemia.
- svnpenn 4y ago
  Did you read AFT though? Specifically says that the changes are permanent.
colechristensen 4y ago
Seems to be one of those plainly obvious things. Probably valuable in a scientific sense as a factual basis for other research (in which you should never just guess things) but for the public… well duh?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- meltyness 4y ago
  Medicine tends to neglect the first derivative due to the amount of complication that more rates introduces in making claims about the body, similar for impulse or step response, studied here. The favored route is chemistry, cellular, genetic factors.
  - colechristensen 4y ago
    It’s sort of the opposite. A doctor telling a patient to exercise has a very small effect size because the people who need to don’t actually do it regardless of what they’re told. Patients repeatedly told to eat less and exercise more get frustrated and offended and insist on other therapies.
    - pmichaud 4y ago
      To be fair to those people, they probably, by and large, have no idea what to actually do. Starting from nothing, changing your diet to something healthy and learning how to be active at all is kind of huge, like maybe a university course or two worth of info to get started. I think many people who are open to change in spirit are just lost, and that’s before facing the uphill battle of habit change in general.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - ralusek 4y ago
        I've never understood this argument. Go to anybody on the street from any neighborhood in any demographic and ask them: "In order to lose weight, should you eat more of: - Candy or Fruit? - Soda or Water? - Big Mac or Chicken Breast? - Hot Pockets or a Salad? - Fried Chicken or Grilled Chicken? etc... It's honestly so insulting when people say that people are unhealthy do to a lack of information. Not only is common sense enough to navigate you 80% there, the rest is a YouTube video away.
        Folcon 4y ago
        This feels like a pretty uncharitable take, for a start sugar is pretty addictive and reducing / cutting it out of your life if you're used to having lots of it isn't easy. Secondly I vaguely recall the shift as a university student routinely eating take away to cooking for myself, it's not a trivial step, you have to pickup habits around shopping, meal planning and cooking. There's a lot of steps someone who's not used to doing it can drop off on. So yes, I can believe that people both know what are healthier options, but have no idea how to actually practically execute them in their life. It is deeply unhelpful to give people advice that they can't action and then expect them to thank you for it.
        ralusek 4y ago
        The uncharitable take is assuming that a person can't make a salad.
- akuji1993 4y ago
  Yeah the result is pretty much "Never stop moving, always do sports." as if nobody knew that that is something we should probably all do.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
aidepast 4y ago
Due to mental illness, I've spent 22-23 hours of my day for the last 4.5 years in bed on my smartphone. I only leave for food & bathroom. My BMI has been 17-19 for the entire period, but I worry whether I'm causing permanent damage. My body constantly aches and I tire easily. I feel like an old man, yet I'm 27. I began to have what I assume is Restless Leg Syndrome after a few months, with a constant desire to tense or move my legs. I hope that this horrible lifestyle will not burden me with lasting unforeseen health problems even when I begin to exercise and live again.
- zdragnar 4y ago
  I was similarly mostly bed ridden when I had an onset of chronic pain. Turned out, being so sedentary allows your muscles to shrink / weaken, and vexingly after a certain point the only thing to do from being in even worse pain was to power through some light exercise. It worked in so far as it staged off pain from atrophy. As for restless legs, may I assume that your sleep schedule is very out of whack? I found that taking melatonin in an effort to get some more sleep was guaranteed to give me restless legs. I didn't put those two together until my wife tried some as well and suffered the same thing.
- tokamak-teapot 4y ago
  If you look around, you may spot there's a decent number of people over 30 (and 40) who have turned around their lifestyles and become very physically healthy. I'm one of them, having experienced mental illness like you - and I keep noticing others who have done the same as me. It did take a change in my mental health to help me get the kick start, but then the exercise (especially moderate weight training) put me in a positive feedback loop and improved my mental wellbeing to the point where I'm shocked at how 'normal' I have managed to become. Good luck with getting back to better health.
- pomian 4y ago
  Try adding magnesium to your diet or with vitamins. Takes about 6 months, but seems to help, even after 25 years of shaking legs. Obviously there are other reasons why we might have an absence of magnesium, but in the between time, that seems to help. Just need patience.
Bigoni 4y ago
In other news, water is wet
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > water is wet Wetness is complex [1]. And this being Hacker News, I'll note that water technically isn't wet. It's wetting, wetness being an interaction characteristic of a solid, liquid and gas, and not an intrinsic property of any of them alone. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetting
  - lob_it 4y ago
lob_it 4y ago

56 points by gautamsomani 4y ago

TFA says the changes are temporary, or at least reversible: Conclusions/interpretation: A short-term reduction in physical activity with increased sedentary behaviour leads to a reversible reduction in multi-organ insulin sensitivity and cardiorespiratory fitness, with concomitant increases in central and liver fat and dyslipidaemia.

svnpenn 4y ago
Did you read AFT though? Specifically says that the changes are permanent.

colechristensen 4y ago

Seems to be one of those plainly obvious things. Probably valuable in a scientific sense as a factual basis for other research (in which you should never just guess things) but for the public… well duh?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
meltyness 4y ago
Medicine tends to neglect the first derivative due to the amount of complication that more rates introduces in making claims about the body, similar for impulse or step response, studied here. The favored route is chemistry, cellular, genetic factors.
- colechristensen 4y ago
  It’s sort of the opposite. A doctor telling a patient to exercise has a very small effect size because the people who need to don’t actually do it regardless of what they’re told. Patients repeatedly told to eat less and exercise more get frustrated and offended and insist on other therapies.
  - pmichaud 4y ago
    To be fair to those people, they probably, by and large, have no idea what to actually do. Starting from nothing, changing your diet to something healthy and learning how to be active at all is kind of huge, like maybe a university course or two worth of info to get started. I think many people who are open to change in spirit are just lost, and that’s before facing the uphill battle of habit change in general.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    - ralusek 4y ago
      I've never understood this argument. Go to anybody on the street from any neighborhood in any demographic and ask them: "In order to lose weight, should you eat more of: - Candy or Fruit? - Soda or Water? - Big Mac or Chicken Breast? - Hot Pockets or a Salad? - Fried Chicken or Grilled Chicken? etc... It's honestly so insulting when people say that people are unhealthy do to a lack of information. Not only is common sense enough to navigate you 80% there, the rest is a YouTube video away.
      - Folcon 4y ago
        This feels like a pretty uncharitable take, for a start sugar is pretty addictive and reducing / cutting it out of your life if you're used to having lots of it isn't easy. Secondly I vaguely recall the shift as a university student routinely eating take away to cooking for myself, it's not a trivial step, you have to pickup habits around shopping, meal planning and cooking. There's a lot of steps someone who's not used to doing it can drop off on. So yes, I can believe that people both know what are healthier options, but have no idea how to actually practically execute them in their life. It is deeply unhelpful to give people advice that they can't action and then expect them to thank you for it.
        ralusek 4y ago
        The uncharitable take is assuming that a person can't make a salad.
akuji1993 4y ago
Yeah the result is pretty much "Never stop moving, always do sports." as if nobody knew that that is something we should probably all do.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

aidepast 4y ago

Due to mental illness, I've spent 22-23 hours of my day for the last 4.5 years in bed on my smartphone. I only leave for food & bathroom. My BMI has been 17-19 for the entire period, but I worry whether I'm causing permanent damage. My body constantly aches and I tire easily. I feel like an old man, yet I'm 27. I began to have what I assume is Restless Leg Syndrome after a few months, with a constant desire to tense or move my legs. I hope that this horrible lifestyle will not burden me with lasting unforeseen health problems even when I begin to exercise and live again.

zdragnar 4y ago
I was similarly mostly bed ridden when I had an onset of chronic pain. Turned out, being so sedentary allows your muscles to shrink / weaken, and vexingly after a certain point the only thing to do from being in even worse pain was to power through some light exercise. It worked in so far as it staged off pain from atrophy. As for restless legs, may I assume that your sleep schedule is very out of whack? I found that taking melatonin in an effort to get some more sleep was guaranteed to give me restless legs. I didn't put those two together until my wife tried some as well and suffered the same thing.
tokamak-teapot 4y ago
If you look around, you may spot there's a decent number of people over 30 (and 40) who have turned around their lifestyles and become very physically healthy. I'm one of them, having experienced mental illness like you - and I keep noticing others who have done the same as me. It did take a change in my mental health to help me get the kick start, but then the exercise (especially moderate weight training) put me in a positive feedback loop and improved my mental wellbeing to the point where I'm shocked at how 'normal' I have managed to become. Good luck with getting back to better health.
pomian 4y ago
Try adding magnesium to your diet or with vitamins. Takes about 6 months, but seems to help, even after 25 years of shaking legs. Obviously there are other reasons why we might have an absence of magnesium, but in the between time, that seems to help. Just need patience.

Bigoni 4y ago

In other news, water is wet

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> water is wet Wetness is complex [1]. And this being Hacker News, I'll note that water technically isn't wet. It's wetting, wetness being an interaction characteristic of a solid, liquid and gas, and not an intrinsic property of any of them alone. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetting
- lob_it 4y ago

lob_it 4y ago