3 ms·

I became addicted to running, and lost 26 lbs. All thanks to ChatGPT

40 points by hu3 3y ago

leoradovey1993 3y ago
[dead]
WheelsAtLarge 3y ago
I used to think that LLMs were just parrots. But it looks like parrots at scale can actually be useful. I keep on seeing new uses regularly. This is one that I would have never imagined. It's been less than a year since the start of chatGPT. Now, imagine 10 yrs from now. LLMs will impact society in ways we can't even imagine.
- numtel 3y ago
  My water heater stopped working a few weeks ago. I told ChatGPT what I was seeing and it told me which part to replace. I had never worked on a water heater before and fixing it was no problem with its instructions. OTOH, I didn't realize until I got in there that there's only like 3 parts in a water heater so it wasn't as complicated as I imagined but I didn't have its breadth of knowledge.
- kuhewa 3y ago
  I mean, if he just googled a few websites he'd get the same information. I guess these days there's enough blogspam (ironically, increasingly AI generated) that having an LLM cut through it if you aren't sure of what handful of reputable sources you should check for a given topic might be a slight effort and time-saver, but it isn't providing anything that's not fairly immediately accessible.
justusthane 3y ago
> I noticed something around this point. Each run was well within my skill level. I was supposed to go at my all day pace. > After each run I started to feel accomplished, and because I hadn’t exceeded my ability, I always felt like I could do more. > I really started looking forward to my runs because I knew it wasn’t going to be miserable. It felt like I was checking something off the list. It felt great. This is really important if you’re starting to run. I always thought I hated running. On the occasion I would go for a run, I would go out and do a couple of kilometers as fast as I could and felt miserable. It turns out I didn’t hate running, I was just doing it wrong. Start easy. Like, really easy. About 80% of your running should be at a pace you can maintain comfortable conversation at without huffing and puffing.
- aledalgrande 3y ago
  Turns out this is how olympic athletes do as well. They run *a lot* of kms slow (at least their slow pace, that to us mortals looks very fast) and few fast. Look for the book called 80/20 running if you wanna go deep
- throwaway22032 3y ago
  Yes. The same is true of any athletic pursuit. You have to build the habit first. Want to strength train? Go and do a bench press. It doesn't matter the weight. It could be just the bar. Just learn the technique. Don't overdo it, you will be sore. Keep it fun. Next week you can try more. In fact, the same may be true of many things.
gretch 3y ago
Or maybe this guy was sufficiently motivated anyway. And if he had did a search for “running plan for beginners to get in shape”, he would have gotten pretty much the same place. I think LLMs are very powerful as a tool and believe in their future potential. But this narrative of ChatGPT getting him addicted to running is super cringe. As he was pushing through workouts he was probably thinking “wow I’m going to get so many views about I can attribute this to Chatgpt”
- jvanderbot 3y ago
  I agree, but the power of conjuring manageable workout plans without sifting through piles of over optimized forum posts really lowers the barrier to entry. That analysis paralysis gets me off the wagon a few times a year when I seek to level up my workout game.
  - red-iron-pine 3y ago
    It's really not that hard. Couch-to-5k (aka C25K) if searched has a number of websites that are the top results and literally has a plan on the main page. It's faster to just search for "C25K" than type out a chatGPT prompt and you dont have to trust a bot
    - jvanderbot 3y ago
      That's probably fine if your goals are already covered by a well understood acronym. Its not really a counter example to "chatgpt might lower barrier to entry".
- fragmede 3y ago
  you take motivation where you can get it. if Internet points got him to run a literal extra mile, good for him! I'd love to lose 26 lbs.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- sdwr 3y ago
jokoon 3y ago
My psychiatrist told me that depression does have an effect not only on motivation, but also on physical fitness, unrelated to training or sedentary behavior. Apparently it's related to how the nervous system is affected by depression, which in turn changes how your body reacts to physical exercise. This explain why despite doing physical activity, it became immensely more difficult to go running when depression came back. This is really important to remember to do physical activity but to go slowly and not expect to be fast or to improve. Depression suits reduce physical fitness, but not just because you stay inside.
johnfn 3y ago
He ran for 3 months - the end of the first month only running a full mile - and lost 26 lbs by the end of the third month? How? I do like an hour of pretty hard cardio every other day and I barely lose any weight at all. I'm not exactly calling BS, since he did say he adjusted his nutrition as well, but 26 is an astounding number. This is a fun story, but I feel that without the actual prompts and responses it feels a bit hollow.
- johnz 3y ago
  I guess it depends on where you’re starting at and what else you’re doing, like a diet. 26 over three months does sound like a lot but not impossible. Anecdotally, I broke my leg and had surgery in January and gained 20 lbs over 9 weeks of being on crutches. I’ve been slowly getting back to being active and running again. But also have been strict with my diet at the same time. I’m down 7 lbs just this month. I don't see why I won't continue that or make even more progress next month.
- AtlasBarfed 3y ago
  Just to remind people of the physics! 10 lbs of fat is 36,000 calories. Which is: - 82 miles of swimming - 240 miles of running - 700 to 900 miles of biking 26 lbs obviously being 2.6 times that: 200+ miles swimming, 600 miles of running, 2400 miles of biking. So as you point out, 26 lbs lost isn't going to happen even if he ran that 1 mile every day for 3 months. The ONLY way is substantial caloric deficit through dieting/reduced food intake.
  - alvarezbjm-hn 3y ago
    DISCLAIMER: Under no circumstance think about to stopping eating without consulting a nutritionist. There is no medical advice here! Fun fact: If you stop eating completely, your metabolism goes down. Still, with a basal metabolism of 1500 calories (daily) and no food, you would lose 160g of fat (daily). You can add exercise to lose more fat, and keep your muscle. You could also stop eating (only water allowed) for 74 days and lose around 10 pounds (combined fat and muscle) This is the reason diets don't work longterm. It takes great willpower (which the person didn't have much of to begin with) for a really long time (probably for life)
andrewstuart 3y ago
I don't think this much weight loss comes from running. It comes from diet. Running would be part of the equation, but a smaller part.
zug_zug 3y ago
So 26lbs in 3 months is unusual. Think of it this way, if you ate zero food (and your metabolism didn't go down for some reason) it'd take 36.4 days to lose 26 lbs of fat. So it's like going a 1000 calorie deficit (40%) for 90 days straight. The more you weigh the easier this is (because your body isn't going short, it's just eating the fat inside you already).
- whateverman23 3y ago
  2 pounds per week is a typical recommended max. 3 months is 13 weeks. So 26 pounds in 3 months is fine.
Borrible 3y ago
Reach out and touch faith. There must be a finetuned 'Personal Jesus' LLM already? ... Reagrding his weight loss, no problem. Done it multiple times in the last 50 years. Workout made it easier.

40 points by hu3 3y ago

leoradovey1993 3y ago

[dead]

I used to think that LLMs were just parrots. But it looks like parrots at scale can actually be useful. I keep on seeing new uses regularly. This is one that I would have never imagined. It's been less than a year since the start of chatGPT. Now, imagine 10 yrs from now. LLMs will impact society in ways we can't even imagine.

numtel 3y ago
My water heater stopped working a few weeks ago. I told ChatGPT what I was seeing and it told me which part to replace. I had never worked on a water heater before and fixing it was no problem with its instructions. OTOH, I didn't realize until I got in there that there's only like 3 parts in a water heater so it wasn't as complicated as I imagined but I didn't have its breadth of knowledge.
kuhewa 3y ago
I mean, if he just googled a few websites he'd get the same information. I guess these days there's enough blogspam (ironically, increasingly AI generated) that having an LLM cut through it if you aren't sure of what handful of reputable sources you should check for a given topic might be a slight effort and time-saver, but it isn't providing anything that's not fairly immediately accessible.

justusthane 3y ago

> I noticed something around this point. Each run was well within my skill level. I was supposed to go at my all day pace. > After each run I started to feel accomplished, and because I hadn’t exceeded my ability, I always felt like I could do more. > I really started looking forward to my runs because I knew it wasn’t going to be miserable. It felt like I was checking something off the list. It felt great. This is really important if you’re starting to run. I always thought I hated running. On the occasion I would go for a run, I would go out and do a couple of kilometers as fast as I could and felt miserable. It turns out I didn’t hate running, I was just doing it wrong. Start easy. Like, really easy. About 80% of your running should be at a pace you can maintain comfortable conversation at without huffing and puffing.

aledalgrande 3y ago
Turns out this is how olympic athletes do as well. They run *a lot* of kms slow (at least their slow pace, that to us mortals looks very fast) and few fast. Look for the book called 80/20 running if you wanna go deep
throwaway22032 3y ago
Yes. The same is true of any athletic pursuit. You have to build the habit first. Want to strength train? Go and do a bench press. It doesn't matter the weight. It could be just the bar. Just learn the technique. Don't overdo it, you will be sore. Keep it fun. Next week you can try more. In fact, the same may be true of many things.

gretch 3y ago

Or maybe this guy was sufficiently motivated anyway. And if he had did a search for “running plan for beginners to get in shape”, he would have gotten pretty much the same place. I think LLMs are very powerful as a tool and believe in their future potential. But this narrative of ChatGPT getting him addicted to running is super cringe. As he was pushing through workouts he was probably thinking “wow I’m going to get so many views about I can attribute this to Chatgpt”

jvanderbot 3y ago
I agree, but the power of conjuring manageable workout plans without sifting through piles of over optimized forum posts really lowers the barrier to entry. That analysis paralysis gets me off the wagon a few times a year when I seek to level up my workout game.
- red-iron-pine 3y ago
  It's really not that hard. Couch-to-5k (aka C25K) if searched has a number of websites that are the top results and literally has a plan on the main page. It's faster to just search for "C25K" than type out a chatGPT prompt and you dont have to trust a bot
  - jvanderbot 3y ago
    That's probably fine if your goals are already covered by a well understood acronym. Its not really a counter example to "chatgpt might lower barrier to entry".
fragmede 3y ago
you take motivation where you can get it. if Internet points got him to run a literal extra mile, good for him! I'd love to lose 26 lbs.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
sdwr 3y ago

jokoon 3y ago

My psychiatrist told me that depression does have an effect not only on motivation, but also on physical fitness, unrelated to training or sedentary behavior. Apparently it's related to how the nervous system is affected by depression, which in turn changes how your body reacts to physical exercise. This explain why despite doing physical activity, it became immensely more difficult to go running when depression came back. This is really important to remember to do physical activity but to go slowly and not expect to be fast or to improve. Depression suits reduce physical fitness, but not just because you stay inside.

johnfn 3y ago

He ran for 3 months - the end of the first month only running a full mile - and lost 26 lbs by the end of the third month? How? I do like an hour of pretty hard cardio every other day and I barely lose any weight at all. I'm not exactly calling BS, since he did say he adjusted his nutrition as well, but 26 is an astounding number. This is a fun story, but I feel that without the actual prompts and responses it feels a bit hollow.

johnz 3y ago
I guess it depends on where you’re starting at and what else you’re doing, like a diet. 26 over three months does sound like a lot but not impossible. Anecdotally, I broke my leg and had surgery in January and gained 20 lbs over 9 weeks of being on crutches. I’ve been slowly getting back to being active and running again. But also have been strict with my diet at the same time. I’m down 7 lbs just this month. I don't see why I won't continue that or make even more progress next month.
AtlasBarfed 3y ago
Just to remind people of the physics! 10 lbs of fat is 36,000 calories. Which is: - 82 miles of swimming - 240 miles of running - 700 to 900 miles of biking 26 lbs obviously being 2.6 times that: 200+ miles swimming, 600 miles of running, 2400 miles of biking. So as you point out, 26 lbs lost isn't going to happen even if he ran that 1 mile every day for 3 months. The ONLY way is substantial caloric deficit through dieting/reduced food intake.
- alvarezbjm-hn 3y ago
  DISCLAIMER: Under no circumstance think about to stopping eating without consulting a nutritionist. There is no medical advice here! Fun fact: If you stop eating completely, your metabolism goes down. Still, with a basal metabolism of 1500 calories (daily) and no food, you would lose 160g of fat (daily). You can add exercise to lose more fat, and keep your muscle. You could also stop eating (only water allowed) for 74 days and lose around 10 pounds (combined fat and muscle) This is the reason diets don't work longterm. It takes great willpower (which the person didn't have much of to begin with) for a really long time (probably for life)

andrewstuart 3y ago

I don't think this much weight loss comes from running. It comes from diet. Running would be part of the equation, but a smaller part.

zug_zug 3y ago

So 26lbs in 3 months is unusual. Think of it this way, if you ate zero food (and your metabolism didn't go down for some reason) it'd take 36.4 days to lose 26 lbs of fat. So it's like going a 1000 calorie deficit (40%) for 90 days straight. The more you weigh the easier this is (because your body isn't going short, it's just eating the fat inside you already).

whateverman23 3y ago
2 pounds per week is a typical recommended max. 3 months is 13 weeks. So 26 pounds in 3 months is fine.

Borrible 3y ago

Reach out and touch faith. There must be a finetuned 'Personal Jesus' LLM already? ... Reagrding his weight loss, no problem. Done it multiple times in the last 50 years. Workout made it easier.