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Comment by paulpauper | Hacker News Reader

It's called the fitness & health industry, not charity. It's in their financial interests to exaggerate or oversell the health consequences of not doing exercise. It comes down to genes. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are both in their 90s and do not exercise and have crappy diets yet both are healthy and productive. Another example is William Shatner, who is also obese and just went to space at 90.

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That said, gambling on genetics and luck seems like a dreary way to play your one chance at life, even for those of us who aren't billionaires.

Most people in the US seem to eat and live like they're consciously making that gamble, and the result isn't all that seductive when I look around. e.g. How much heart disease, the #1 killer in the US, is preventable by diet and exercise?

Also, living until 90yo+ tells me nothing about your quality of life. Is the softbody 25yo happier and more confident and more fulfilled than the 25yo who puts some work into their body? Is the 40yo without the energy to chase his kids around the house happier than the one who can? Are man-tits and a limp dick at 50yo the key to happiness that fit people are overlooking? etc.

I 100% agree with you and you should take everything the fitness industry says with a grain of salt. They lie all the time.

That being said, it’s possible for both genetically lucky people to exist and for people who would greatly benefit from exercise to exist.

Pointing at outliers doesn't prove anything. They can easily be (and likely are) highly atypical genetically, that doesn't prove how much exercise helps or doesn't help the average person.

True, but you won’t be able to sustain any moderate physical effort later in your life if you never did anything for your fitness when younger.

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