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Activity levels have collapsed. You can save yourself years of extra health-span standing in any way more than sitting. Turns out knowledge work is just as da

Activity levels have collapsed. You can save yourself years of extra health-span standing in any way more than sitting. Turns out knowledge work is just as dangerous as physical work, you just die in a different way and the coffin is larger.

naveen99 2y ago
But life expectancy is higher now with knowledge work and lower activity levels.
- yurishimo 2y ago
  Because we can all afford to go to the doctor regularly. If treated early, you can live with type 2 diabetes and other obesity related diseases for decades.
- Jtsummers 2y ago
  This exists in a system. We have obesity (caused by several factors, diet and activity levels of course and then the factors into those) along with improved medical care. It's like inflating a balloon with a slow leak. The medical care is propping up our life expectancy numbers while our individual behavior is bringing it down. It'll level out or decline at some point as our obese population continues to become a larger percentage and medical improvements stop happening so regularly.
- chucksmash 2y ago
  There's been an approx 80% decline in US infant mortality from 1963 to 2023 according to [0]. I know when comparing against pre-industrial society this is a big driver of increased life expectancy. There's another metric that adjusts for this that only looks at the life expectancy of individuals who survive to the age of (iirc) 15, but I don't have time to look it up right now. Perhaps comparing the change in that versus the one that includes the drop in infant mortality would be interesting though. [0]: https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/infant-mortality-rate https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/uni...
- 0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago
  Infant mortality, smoking levels, alcohol consumption, social acceptance of driving while intoxicated, car collision safety, etc have all changed significantly in that same time frame.
klingoff 2y ago
This is true and contributes to poor health, but I don't think it is the primary factor for weight. It is very hard to excersize yourself out of a high calorie diet. It's really pretty shocking how much added sugar there is in anything with more than 1 ingredient, and getting more sweetness in is basically a race with every other element of someone's diet. The 1980s had it junk food, but there was still other food.
- jeffbee 2y ago
  > It is very hard to excersize yourself out of a high calorie diet. Is it? Glancing around, it seems to me that the stark difference is between places where nobody walks or bikes anywhere — Tulsa, Little Rock, etc — and places where everyone walks and bikes — NY, DC, SF.
  - klingoff 2y ago
    A donut is about a half hour of jogging. If a Little Rock breakfast is like the rest of that neighborhood most of the sedentary thin thin state people I know wouldn't be able to keep it down.
  - Hamuko 2y ago
    That one large Baskin Robbins Chocolate Oreo Shake has 2600 kcal and to burn that amount of calories, you'll probably need to go for a 3-hour run. And I imagine not a lot of adults have the time to go run for hours to keep up with their high-calorie diets. I've heard that keeping a calorie intake diary is an effective way to lose weight. I also had pretty good results with it personally by setting a calorie target in an app and sticking to it.
    - jeffbee 2y ago
      Are there more Baskin Robbins in McAllen than in San Jose? I see people in SF walking around with some Starbucks abomination or another, every day.
      - deleted 2y ago
otabdeveloper4 2y ago
The human body doesn't have a power-saving mode. You burn roughly as many calories walking as you do sleeping.
- fragmede 2y ago
  That probably stacks up there in the bro science hall of fame for being wrong while sounding plausible. What's next, recommending an all meat diet because we were carnivores 10,000 years ago?
  - otabdeveloper4 2y ago
    Look it up if you don't believe me. Sleeping burns 40-80 calories per hour, walking 200-350. You're not gonna burn off any calories by walking.
    - fragmede 2y ago
      > You burn roughly as many calories walking as you do sleeping. > Sleeping burns 40-80 calories per hour, walking 200-350. We must have different definitions of "roughly", that's an order of magnitude difference! > You're not gonna burn off any calories by walking. That's a very different claim (but still not true). To be clear: walking is great exercise. No, you're not going to walk off a 10,000 calorie/day diet with it; you need to not eat that much. Nor are you going to look like you spend 3 hrs/day doing crossfit just by walking. But 10,000 steps per day is miles better than 500.
teekert 2y ago
Apparently it's not exercise! [0] Yes exercise is very healthy, that has been proven, but loosing weight is mostly a matter of eating less, at least according to this (reputable) meta source. Apparently, over eating but not getting fat (which holds true for me), leads to other problems (also true for me, I have an autoimmune disorder). Eat less to lose weight. Exercise more to be healthy. (nice, got my first downvotes in less time it takes to watch 1/10th of my source ;)) [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSSkDos2hzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSSkDos2hzo
- keybored 2y ago
  They said activity levels. Activity is more than exercise.
  - teekert 2y ago
    OP was wondering about why we are so much heavier. It seems to be the food. Not much to do with activity levels.
    - keybored 2y ago
      I don't know if OP was strictly on topic or was generalizing to health in general. It’s not like there’s a point to neatly delineate obesity from overall health on this topic since the overall topic is health. There are a lot of pathological things we do regularly, not just overeat/eat the wrong things. They all contribute. Last I saw less exercise is more caused by obesity than the other way around. And sitting a lot can cause biomechanical maladoptions which makes movement (and in turn exercise) more inconvenient.
      - teekert 2y ago
        Well if you'd watch the movie and read the sources, you'd see that there is not much difference in the amount of calories you burn exercising or sitting at a desk. Consequently you won't loose weight one way or another. Weight seems to be almost exclusively about the calories you ingest. It has little to do with obesity causing less exercise or the other way around. There is not a swathe of pathological things we do that contribute. We eat too much. I also found that surprising. You can exercise without changing your diet, but you won't loose (much) weight. You can sit at a desk and start eating less and loose a lot of weight.
amriksohata 2y ago
Nonsense this is what the food industry tried to tell us when we know it's sugar
tuatoru 2y ago
Talking about "activity" is like identifying an organism as "a plant". There is huge diversity. Walk uphill 400 metres altitude gain every day, and you will lose weight, yes. Run uphill 400m every day and you will lose even more. Carry a backpack, and ... you will put on muscle. Walking or running on the flat, not so much.

naveen99 2y ago

But life expectancy is higher now with knowledge work and lower activity levels.

yurishimo 2y ago
Because we can all afford to go to the doctor regularly. If treated early, you can live with type 2 diabetes and other obesity related diseases for decades.
Jtsummers 2y ago
This exists in a system. We have obesity (caused by several factors, diet and activity levels of course and then the factors into those) along with improved medical care. It's like inflating a balloon with a slow leak. The medical care is propping up our life expectancy numbers while our individual behavior is bringing it down. It'll level out or decline at some point as our obese population continues to become a larger percentage and medical improvements stop happening so regularly.
chucksmash 2y ago
There's been an approx 80% decline in US infant mortality from 1963 to 2023 according to [0]. I know when comparing against pre-industrial society this is a big driver of increased life expectancy. There's another metric that adjusts for this that only looks at the life expectancy of individuals who survive to the age of (iirc) 15, but I don't have time to look it up right now. Perhaps comparing the change in that versus the one that includes the drop in infant mortality would be interesting though. [0]: https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/infant-mortality-rate https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/uni...
0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago
Infant mortality, smoking levels, alcohol consumption, social acceptance of driving while intoxicated, car collision safety, etc have all changed significantly in that same time frame.

klingoff 2y ago

This is true and contributes to poor health, but I don't think it is the primary factor for weight. It is very hard to excersize yourself out of a high calorie diet. It's really pretty shocking how much added sugar there is in anything with more than 1 ingredient, and getting more sweetness in is basically a race with every other element of someone's diet. The 1980s had it junk food, but there was still other food.

jeffbee 2y ago
> It is very hard to excersize yourself out of a high calorie diet. Is it? Glancing around, it seems to me that the stark difference is between places where nobody walks or bikes anywhere — Tulsa, Little Rock, etc — and places where everyone walks and bikes — NY, DC, SF.
- klingoff 2y ago
  A donut is about a half hour of jogging. If a Little Rock breakfast is like the rest of that neighborhood most of the sedentary thin thin state people I know wouldn't be able to keep it down.
- Hamuko 2y ago
  That one large Baskin Robbins Chocolate Oreo Shake has 2600 kcal and to burn that amount of calories, you'll probably need to go for a 3-hour run. And I imagine not a lot of adults have the time to go run for hours to keep up with their high-calorie diets. I've heard that keeping a calorie intake diary is an effective way to lose weight. I also had pretty good results with it personally by setting a calorie target in an app and sticking to it.
  - jeffbee 2y ago
    Are there more Baskin Robbins in McAllen than in San Jose? I see people in SF walking around with some Starbucks abomination or another, every day.
    - deleted 2y ago

otabdeveloper4 2y ago

The human body doesn't have a power-saving mode. You burn roughly as many calories walking as you do sleeping.

fragmede 2y ago
That probably stacks up there in the bro science hall of fame for being wrong while sounding plausible. What's next, recommending an all meat diet because we were carnivores 10,000 years ago?
- otabdeveloper4 2y ago
  Look it up if you don't believe me. Sleeping burns 40-80 calories per hour, walking 200-350. You're not gonna burn off any calories by walking.
  - fragmede 2y ago
    > You burn roughly as many calories walking as you do sleeping. > Sleeping burns 40-80 calories per hour, walking 200-350. We must have different definitions of "roughly", that's an order of magnitude difference! > You're not gonna burn off any calories by walking. That's a very different claim (but still not true). To be clear: walking is great exercise. No, you're not going to walk off a 10,000 calorie/day diet with it; you need to not eat that much. Nor are you going to look like you spend 3 hrs/day doing crossfit just by walking. But 10,000 steps per day is miles better than 500.

teekert 2y ago

Apparently it's not exercise! [0] Yes exercise is very healthy, that has been proven, but loosing weight is mostly a matter of eating less, at least according to this (reputable) meta source. Apparently, over eating but not getting fat (which holds true for me), leads to other problems (also true for me, I have an autoimmune disorder). Eat less to lose weight. Exercise more to be healthy. (nice, got my first downvotes in less time it takes to watch 1/10th of my source ;)) [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSSkDos2hzo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSSkDos2hzo

keybored 2y ago
They said activity levels. Activity is more than exercise.
- teekert 2y ago
  OP was wondering about why we are so much heavier. It seems to be the food. Not much to do with activity levels.
  - keybored 2y ago
    I don't know if OP was strictly on topic or was generalizing to health in general. It’s not like there’s a point to neatly delineate obesity from overall health on this topic since the overall topic is health. There are a lot of pathological things we do regularly, not just overeat/eat the wrong things. They all contribute. Last I saw less exercise is more caused by obesity than the other way around. And sitting a lot can cause biomechanical maladoptions which makes movement (and in turn exercise) more inconvenient.
    - teekert 2y ago
      Well if you'd watch the movie and read the sources, you'd see that there is not much difference in the amount of calories you burn exercising or sitting at a desk. Consequently you won't loose weight one way or another. Weight seems to be almost exclusively about the calories you ingest. It has little to do with obesity causing less exercise or the other way around. There is not a swathe of pathological things we do that contribute. We eat too much. I also found that surprising. You can exercise without changing your diet, but you won't loose (much) weight. You can sit at a desk and start eating less and loose a lot of weight.

amriksohata 2y ago

Nonsense this is what the food industry tried to tell us when we know it's sugar

tuatoru 2y ago

Talking about "activity" is like identifying an organism as "a plant". There is huge diversity. Walk uphill 400 metres altitude gain every day, and you will lose weight, yes. Run uphill 400m every day and you will lose even more. Carry a backpack, and ... you will put on muscle. Walking or running on the flat, not so much.