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"Society" has not been really trying anything; when we'll see it educating people in having a healthier lifestyle, that is, eating less junk food and doing spor
by pizza234 13y ago
"Society" has not been really trying anything; when we'll see it educating people in having a healthier lifestyle, that is, eating less junk food and doing sports, then it's possible to state that something is being tried.
The problem is that in a culture where junk food is cheap and pushed 24/7, there is no tradition of healthy nutrition, and there is much unbalance work/life, such education is clearly impossible.
- DanBC 13y agoDo you have any research to show that exercise is effective in helping people lose weight?
- pizza234 13y agoFirst of all, I've talked about healthier lifestyle; exercise is only half of it. Second, and most important, I think you never lived in countries having different lifestyles, so that your idea on the subject is purely theoretical. Nutrition research itself is not "wrong", but it's much more important to have a broader view and experience. Nutritional "discoveries" have been coming and going for decades, and yet the situation didn't improve at all. If you'll have a very simple walk around a city, and possibly in a supermarket, in a country where obesity is not epidemic, you will see immediately why the situation is such.
- zxcdw 13y agoBuilding and maintaining muscle consumes lots of calories in the long run. But then again, it takes lots of time and hard work too, so there's that. And of course, to actually gain any considerable muscle you need to eat relatively clean, so there's that too. But of course, 90 % is diet. 10 % is hard work. And these numbers come from my hat. Effort and discipline -- everybody knows those can get us anything, but the question is, how can we minimize effort and discipline and still get what we want?
- deletes 13y agoI'm against the mentality of Shit HN Says, but your comment really takes the cake. I'm mean really... just read it out loud. :)
- DanBC 13y agoNo, really, research has been done. Go read it. Exercise does not help people lose weight. It might make them healthier and fitter and less likely to die but it doesn't help them lose weight.
- deletes 13y agoSure, I would love to, but I can't find anything. Can you provide any relevant/correct source?
- gaadd33 13y agoWhere do the calories to burn come from in those cases? If I consume 1500 calories per day and burn 2500, where does the other 1000 calories come from if not from fat stores? I guess at extreme caloric deficit the body would start breaking down muscles but that would still cause weight loss. Any chance you can link to some of the research that shows where the rest of the energy comes from?
- runako 13y ago>> If I consume 1500 calories per day and burn 2500 I think the key insight is that the body is a complex, dynamic system. So the exercise required to burn 2500 calories will vary between individuals, and even for a single individual based on any number of factors. I won't profess to have all the answers here, but I don't think it's as simple as X calories per mile x Y miles = 2500 calories, where X comes from a table on the Internet. I think it's more of f(X) calories per mile, where f is a compound function that includes the composition & fluctuations of your gut biome and its effect on your metabolic rate. My foggy memories of the research are that in practice, solving f in the real world is quite difficult. So while your calorie deficit theory works, in practice unless you're precisely measuring your compound (i.e. you plus your gut flora) metabolic rate in a lab, you don't actually have a way to know how many calories you're burning.
- carbocation 13y ago> Do you have any research to show that exercise is effective in helping people lose weight? I don't know why you're getting downvoted for this question. Epidemiologic studies tend to support the notion that in a practical setting (not an ideal laboratory), exercise is helpful for keeping weight off, but not really for losing weight. So yeah, exercise is very important, but in the normal setting, it seems that exercise is counterbalanced by an increase in appetite, so it doesn't promote weight loss (but somehow does promote weight maintenance once weight is lost).
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- carbocation 13y agoYou are quite right, which is why I said, "Epidemiologic studies tend to support the notion that in a practical setting (not an ideal laboratory)"... These are studies of what people do in the real world, not whether thermodynamics applies to people (which, of course, it does).
- 011011100 13y agoI'm stupid and completely ignored that bit.
- carbocation 13y agoNo worries. Your concern was spot on, anyway.
- 011011100 13y agoAre you trying to tell me that if a person begins to exercise more, with everything else being constant (calories), that there would be no weight loss?
- DanBC 13y agoI'm just asking if anyone has any research that shows exercise helps people lose weight. Lots of things that seem obvious turn out to be mot true or much weaker than people thought when put through a proper trial. To answer your specific question: muscle weighs more than fat, so if a person reduces fat percentage but increases muscle percentage will they lose weight or not? They'll be fitter and healthier, but will they be lighter?
- deletes 13y agoNo they won't be lighter, but they will still lose weight. You unfortunately used the phrase in the literal meaning lose weight, while it is commonly used to indicate that someone is going to start reducing their fat percentage and improve the body shape. If the word phrase has a different meaning to you, fine, but whenever it was used in conversations I was involved in it had that definition, thus the confusion. You should have used the word mass and there would be no misunderstanding. Exercise will definitely work, but it might not strictly lower your mass.
- DanBC 13y agoBut do you have links to any research to show that people lose weight - that people lower their fat percentage? Read through this thread. Sometimes people spout utter nonsense about nutrition. While "exercise makes you lose weight" sounds reasonable I'm keen to see what the research says. So far someone told me that I'm talking shit and a bunch of people downvoted the post that requested research, but no one has provided any links to any research.
- pizza234 13y agoThis is happening because the message is: nutrition science is a very problematic field, and it's at the opposite of being straightforward and/or evident. If you want this kind of researches, you will find by yourself lots of researches that support one thesis, then lots of researches supporting the opposite. I've stopped reading nutrition research, because it's essentially a jumble of conflicting, unfounded theories. The smartest thing one can do, for this specific question, is this: go to a sports club, then ask to the people: when you stop practicing your sport, do you get fatter? And conversely, when you started, or in periods of intensive training, do you get leaner? If you're really curious about the subject, do that, you will get the answer. I've been practicing sports for 20+ years, so I know the answer, and the experience of any person who's been practicing sport intensively for decades, is worth way more than a platoon of armchair academic nutritionits can possibly theorize. This should remind that research (at least, this type of research) should be grounded and not detached from reality.
- maxerickson 13y agoChildhood obesity rates in the U.S. have been falling recently. So there is a correlation between society trying things and obesity going down. Who knows if there is a causal link.