I think (and maybe it's quite obvious) the trick is that exercise makes you feel temporarily worse. It's difficult to evaluate how you'll feel deep into a routine before starting to build those habits.
Unhealthy people who begin exercise take themselves to a point most people rarely do when training. How many regular runners go until they feel like being sick? It's no wonder unfit people don't maintain their routine. Frequent runners might do one session in a few where they push themselves, but even then they don't feel like obese people do when they go out and try to run hard.
People should run until they feel quite sweaty and a bit tired. If you are fat and that is 5 minutes then yes it's going to take you a long time to get fit, but better to start small and build up. Don't expect too much too soon.
The advice I hear from coaches about losing weight generally has three parts:
1) Watch your diet
2) Get out and walk 30-60 minutes each day
3) Start doing some form of strength training, or interval training, as those burn fat and build muscle better than just running.
It's less boring than regular gyms, so requires less will power - climbs are actually puzzles, hence there is an intellectual effort in technique. It also helps gauge progress wrt difficulty levels.
It also requires less willpower to push yourself, due to the innate fear of falling.
It strengthens the chest and arms, which is what most men want, cosmetically.
It's strengthens the arms and hands, so (IMHO) is more practical day-to-day, since I think humans use their hands a lot more, ever since the advent of tools.
It doesn't take too much time - you very quickly run out of strength, so there is not as much second-guessing yourself wrt how long you can continue.
It's a community sport. It's best to take rests, during which time you can watch others climb, and compete for progress.
Not really - you'd be suprised how much energy is expended on this change of state (and the stress that accompanies it) as opposed to the paced effort of learned distance running. That's what HIIT is based on, and I'd argue that for an average unfit person it's much easier to quickly expend lots of energy than for a trained athlete.
It should be tiring you but the description you gave sounds like the intensity might be set a little too high at the moment. Scale back a little and build into it.
Is it bad to feel out of breath? I quite enjoy it in certain contexts.
I also have this funny thing where I can't build endurance. I've been doing push ups on every work out and I can't for the life of me do more than 20. But I have no trouble increasing difficulty (putting hands closer, elevating feet, etc.) or weight (for things with weights like squats).
I had pretty good endurance in my 20s, but noticed a huge boost in my early 30s.
However, you need to (sadly) keep in mind that weight-cutting is a thing and compensate for that.
So, for example, if you weigh, say, 175-210 pounds, presumably you'd be in either Welterweight or Middleweight.
The champions of these divisions are 34 and 37, respectively.
Of course, they cut a substantial amount of weight, which favors younger fighters. It's possible they'll be at their max fitness in another 5-8 years, even though their capacity to cut weight will have diminished.
There's a message in the zeitgeist that max fitness happens in early 20's, but the evidence, at least in the martial arts world, is that it's late-30's to late-40's.
> The typical social script is to condescendingly explain to them how they must be doing it wrong
This is a bad situation when the person has a problem. I have family with chronic fatigue (+chronic pain) and it's mentally hard to get how they feel, but I've learned that I cannot have the same expectations for them as others.