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Comment by cptskippy | Hacker News Reader

I agree, most of the life changing experiences people describe sound a lot like they were depressed and now they're not.

I ran in excess of 32 miles a week for several years and the only side effect I had from it was blisters.

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If the only change 32 miles a week had on your body was blisters then you must of been in rather great shape to begin with. No cardio improvement? No muscle gain? No weight loss? For the vast majority of Americans I have a feeling this would not be the case.

I transitioned to running in college when I got too old for most basketball leagues so I was in pretty good at the time.

I started running again a few years ago after a 5 year hiatus from any regular physical activity. I logged my Time, Avg/Max HR, and Calories burned for each run and there really wasn't much of a change in metrics over the 3 year period I tracked them. My heart rate was surprisingly stable and run times reduced gradually but only about a minute a year.

Maybe if I was incredibly unhealthy but I generally eat well and at my worst I've only been 20-30lbs over weight. I know that sounds like a lot but I'm 6'5" and my "ideal" body weight is 190lbs which is kind of ridiculous.

Sounds like it worked great for you.

Some folks would argue that if you're in reasonably good physical condition, you're not going to see big results from any exercise program. The contention is that diet controls much of your body composition and all those other effects people are talking about. I don't know if I agree, but it's an interesting idea; the remaining hunter-gatherers in east Africa don't expend more calories than us even though they do a lot more physical activity every day. My own experience is that once I got used to biking 50 miles a week it had no effect on my body shape or composition.

However, once I stopped eating a few things that continually gave me sinus problems I didn't even realize I had, I did feel less depressed :)

What were you eating that gave you sinus problems?

I'm also curious about foods that may be related to sinus problems.

Surprisingly, wheaty foods. I was not a very nice person in the mornings for decades, because my face hurt. I thought that is what being tired felt like. My old roommate still mentions that I'm a grumpy morning person because that is all she ever knew.

Then I stopped eating wheat and I stopped feeling like someone punched me in the front side of the head. It was truly bizarre. I had no idea.

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