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Comment by Eliezer | Hacker News Reader

After going outside and walking in the sun for a couple of hours, I'm too tired to get any work done the rest of the day.

As far as I can tell, everything said about exercise is lies. Or perhaps mileage varies. Just remember, mileage varies, and also, you're not alone.

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Walking around for a couple hours is not really exercise, it's normal human behavior. For instance, my 86 year old grandfather does this every day. If you aren't exaggerating you might want to see a doctor. That level of exercise intolerance is a key indicator in a number of severe health disorders, such as morbid obesity, congestive heart failure and multiple sclerosis.

Having seen the way you look in not-too-old videos, you look overweight, and your upper-body looks rather weak. That makes me fear for your life expectancy. I love your work, and it may be crucial that you don't stop cold until at least your eighties.

Of course, getting in good physical shape won't be easy. It takes time, and may even slow down your work, at first. But you may want to seriously consider the long term trade-off.

To put it another way, one hour at the gym has the highest marginal return at curing death among all hours you will spend today.

I go for a similar reason: I'm banking time for my children.

I should mention that I seem to be one of the substantial fraction of the population who's immune to exercise. I went to a gym for a year, spent two hours three times a week, aerobic and weightlifting. I didn't gain any muscle. I didn't lose any weight. It does nothing for me. Yes, I know it works for you. This is not because of your superior mental discipline; it is because you have different genes, sir.

@ "Yes, I know it works for you. This is not because of your superior mental discipline; it is because you have different genes, sir."

This sounds like an excuse, since nobody mentioned "superior mental discipline" but you. How did you measure gain in muscle?

Try swimming 20 laps in an indoor pool then? Or something else not in the hot sun. Several hours in the hot sun is draining to anyone, regardless of your penchant for exercise.

Same here; exercise does nothing for me mentally other than making me tired. I still do it because I want to improve my health and appearance, but apparently I'm not getting the endorphin release or whatever it is that makes everybody else feel better. Or it could be a placebo effect that works for most people and not me.

You have to do it regularly. :) It sucks at first.

Is this a meth argument? If I'm relatively okay without exercise, and start exercising, staying on it for a while, the anecdotes here seem to suggest that if you ever stop it throws you in a huge funk.

It's not a huge funk, you just drop back to your non-exercise level of health and happiness. It's more an indicator of the positive impact it can have than something negative.

Yes, only the opposite of what you suggest.

You are in a state of permanent withdrawal right now. You feel like crap, way worse than you're supposed to, and you don't know it. Your body requires exercise and you aren't giving it what it needs.

Yes, if you stop exercising you will return to your current relatively miserable state. Thats the worst that would happen - which is actually pretty bad.

I hope you're using "you" in the general sense, since a) as a rule one shouldn't trust people's medical judgments (especially when they don't know you) unless they're a doctor, and even then, get second opinions etc., and b) you're experimentally wrong.

Go outside.

I do it three times a week. Still.

Find a different form of exercise that you enjoy.

Drink more water. Dehydration is your enemy.

You must stay hydrated, but I'm not sure if drinking water is good advice. You have to not forget your electrolytes. Something like Gatorade works, though.

In moderation. Some people consume more calories than they burn by chugging sports drinks during a workout.

And most people aren't exercising any anywhere near the level that they need something more than water to stay hydrated.

Mind you, it's amusing when you see unhealthy people drinking them thinking that they're better than any other sugary drink.

Vita coco is awesome for this!

Just exercise in the end of the day, and then you can sleep if you feel like.

I believe there's a hockey stick there. I too had such experiences regarding exercises a few year back then, but after I decided to stick to it things started to improve, and now I do get more energetic even after rigorous workouts. I would theorizes that if you don't really exercise that regularly, exercise is indeed more a burden at first, and you need to work on it until it becomes 'profitable' one day.

Two hours is kinda long if you aren't used to it. I would try to build it up from half an hour or so upwards. Though I don't believe in any (continuous) exercise that is supposed to take more than an hour or so.

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