I've gone through phases of being sedentary(ish), and I think it wasn't just time cost or cheating, it was going straight to high-intensity exercise because I t

I've gone through phases of being sedentary(ish), and I think it wasn't just time cost or cheating, it was going straight to high-intensity exercise because I thought exercise was "meant" to be difficult and unenjoyable. Most fit people have pretty good intuition about their bodies. They choose appropriate workouts, they don't run at high intensity too long and give themselves a stitch when they're meant to be doing endurance training, they know what it feels like to be lazy versus what it feels like to need a lower intensity rest day, they enjoy at least some of the exercise they do. When a sedentary person starts exercising on their own, they often don't know the benefits of training at a lower intensity, and adopt a "no pain no gain" approach, which is counterproductive if it doesn't build on a solid foundation of good habits.