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I tend to hang out with hundreds-to-thousands of endurance athletes [0], and the large plurality of them are not heavy people. Sure, there are some that don't r

I tend to hang out with hundreds-to-thousands of endurance athletes [0], and the large plurality of them are not heavy people. Sure, there are some that don't run competitively and take around an hour to do a 5k with their friends. They do tend to be a bit curvier and say things like "I run for donuts" or "I've gotta work off my beer somehow". By and large, though, people who are consistently running throughout the week are not overweight. Some of us also eat a ton to support this. All this is to say that I suspect our cultural understanding of "normal movement" is near zero minutes per week, and "exercising" is only slightly above that. The study itself references 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise out of the 6,720 waking minutes available. Allotting just over 1% of time to exercise does not strike me as the type of strategy that would effect meaningful change. In fact, 30 minutes is a relatively easy 5k time— a distance which most coaches would say a healthy adult can shake off and be well rested from within 24 hours. 25km per week is a very low volume for someone expecting to see a physical change. Unfortunately, the levels of activity that do have a positive impact on peoples' lives are often described as "insane amounts" or other discouraging descriptions. Indeed, it takes time to adjust from old normal, where 292.6 minutes per day of television does not seem out of place, to a new normal where investing in ones body (and mind!) is given a high priority. I haven't finished reading the second referenced study, but I'm seeing the same thing— small impacts at the start of something. The first random referenced study [1] I picked had this to say: > The results suggest that dieting is associated with weight loss followed by regain after treatment ends, whereas exercise alone produced smaller weight losses but better maintenance. The key, from my experience, is adopting a lower-weight lifestyle. We've all seen friends attempt a new diet and it never works, as TFA explains. Unfortunately we've built a culture of obesity, and cultural influences are very difficult things to avoid. [0] https://ultrasignup.com https://ultrasignup.com (These are all over the country, and not all of them are ultramarathons) [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000282239600096X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00028...

leoedin 3y ago
Even just designing your lifestyle to include movement makes a huge difference. I commuted by bike for years - 11 miles a day, every day, and basically maintained my weight despite eating or drinking whatever I liked. The pandemic put an end to that and my weight has been creeping up year on year since. It didn't really feel like exercise, just a way of travelling. Similarly - walk everywhere. Choose to live somewhere you can walk to the shops and then take advantage of that. I read a study a few years ago that showed that people living in UK cities walk more than twice the distance each year of those living in suburban or rural locations. You definitely wouldn't know there was an obesity epidemic in my country looking at the people in my neighborhood. Half of them don't own a car.
pbmonster 3y ago
> I tend to hang out with hundreds-to-thousands of endurance athletes [0], and the large plurality of them are not heavy people. Might be sampling bias, or rather reverse causation. It's not that "endurance athletes are not heavy", but simply "heavy people don't like endurance sports". So the interesting question is how many of those athletes used to be obese more than 2 years ago?
- ultrarunner 3y ago
  This is a good point. I do know of a handful who joined the community strictly because they realized they were getting too heavy. One (adult) guy's dad had a sit down with him. Another guy I know needs a hip replacement and his mobility has been decreased for the last two years or so as he waits. His weight has also gone up dramatically. Interestingly in his case, he's tried all kinds of different diets which have all had negative effects at best. Still, there have been a few people that fit the profile exactly as you describe— heavy people who find it very difficult and eventually decide the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Running is very difficult when carrying extra weight. There are surely people who decide they can't do it even before they give it an honest try. But that's kind of what I was referring to above; the amount of times I've heard people say "I honestly cannot believe I had that in me" at the completion of a race is why I keep coming back.
0xf00ff00f 3y ago
It does work. I've lost about 15kg (88kg to 73kg; I'm 179cm) over a few months since I've started running regularly. I didn't change anything in my diet (I've always hated stuff like sugary drinks, but my diet is not otherwise super strict). Now I'm running between 4.4km and 6.5km almost every morning, which would sound crazy to me not too long ago. On weekends I sometimes try longer runs.
- oezi 3y ago
  Sorry, that doesn't work. You would have had to run 10k every day for 100 days to burn 80.000 kcals, which according TFA only gets you 10kg of fat.
  - 0xf00ff00f 3y ago
    I've been running regularly for over 100 days (ran sporadically before but started running daily in the beginning of 2022). I didn't keep track but lost weight fast in the beginning, then plateaued.

leoedin 3y ago

Even just designing your lifestyle to include movement makes a huge difference. I commuted by bike for years - 11 miles a day, every day, and basically maintained my weight despite eating or drinking whatever I liked. The pandemic put an end to that and my weight has been creeping up year on year since. It didn't really feel like exercise, just a way of travelling. Similarly - walk everywhere. Choose to live somewhere you can walk to the shops and then take advantage of that. I read a study a few years ago that showed that people living in UK cities walk more than twice the distance each year of those living in suburban or rural locations. You definitely wouldn't know there was an obesity epidemic in my country looking at the people in my neighborhood. Half of them don't own a car.

pbmonster 3y ago

> I tend to hang out with hundreds-to-thousands of endurance athletes [0], and the large plurality of them are not heavy people. Might be sampling bias, or rather reverse causation. It's not that "endurance athletes are not heavy", but simply "heavy people don't like endurance sports". So the interesting question is how many of those athletes used to be obese more than 2 years ago?

ultrarunner 3y ago
This is a good point. I do know of a handful who joined the community strictly because they realized they were getting too heavy. One (adult) guy's dad had a sit down with him. Another guy I know needs a hip replacement and his mobility has been decreased for the last two years or so as he waits. His weight has also gone up dramatically. Interestingly in his case, he's tried all kinds of different diets which have all had negative effects at best. Still, there have been a few people that fit the profile exactly as you describe— heavy people who find it very difficult and eventually decide the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Running is very difficult when carrying extra weight. There are surely people who decide they can't do it even before they give it an honest try. But that's kind of what I was referring to above; the amount of times I've heard people say "I honestly cannot believe I had that in me" at the completion of a race is why I keep coming back.

0xf00ff00f 3y ago

It does work. I've lost about 15kg (88kg to 73kg; I'm 179cm) over a few months since I've started running regularly. I didn't change anything in my diet (I've always hated stuff like sugary drinks, but my diet is not otherwise super strict). Now I'm running between 4.4km and 6.5km almost every morning, which would sound crazy to me not too long ago. On weekends I sometimes try longer runs.

oezi 3y ago
Sorry, that doesn't work. You would have had to run 10k every day for 100 days to burn 80.000 kcals, which according TFA only gets you 10kg of fat.
- 0xf00ff00f 3y ago
  I've been running regularly for over 100 days (ran sporadically before but started running daily in the beginning of 2022). I didn't keep track but lost weight fast in the beginning, then plateaued.