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Comment by Merad | Hacker News Reader

> walking just ~8k steps per day

You kind of gloss over this, but 8k steps is around 3 miles of walking for the average person. You might be able to get that "naturally" if you live in an urban area and go out on foot every day to get coffee, groceries, etc., but if you're a typical WFH software engineer living in the suburbs, you're probably going to have to spend 45 min to an hour every day walking for exercise to achieve that number. I'm certainly not claiming that this is excessive or impossible or anything, but spending more than an hour a day (when combined with the weight lifting) on exercise and fitness is a MAJOR lifestyle change for most people. I think it's extremely important to be honest about the effort and commitment required. Getting healthy and staying healthy is _hard_, especially if you're starting out seriously overweight or obese.

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And by the same logic, staying healthy “naturally” is quite easy when you live in an urban area and go out on foot for [everything].

I gave up automobiles about twenty years ago, and attribute my health and slenderness (relative to the rest of my family) mostly due to walking-lifestyle. I spent last month visiting family, and definitely put on weight from thirty days of being sedentary in the suburbs. Awful way to live.

When I took a full remote position late last year, I also invested in a cheap treadmill for my home office, plus a laptop attachment. I get on it first thing every day, and do my normal inbox processing, generally at a pretty slow pace. Responding to slacks, emails, PRs is easy in this mode, no different than sitting at a desk. Lately I've added a 30-minute end of day shutdown walk on top of it. Review my todo list, check tomorrow's calendar, etc. Altogether, I average 2-3 miles per day.

I haven't been able to consistently operate on it for deeper work/code or meetings, but I don't know if I really need to.

> if you're a typical WFH software engineer living in the suburbs, you're probably going to have to spend 45 min to an hour every day walking for exercise to achieve that number

Now, obviously this isn't for everyone, but my partner and I adopted a dog and she needs to be walked once or twice a day for about 45 minutes. It's been a great way to get us out of the house every day.

And for those who dont want a dog, listening to audiobooks while walking for fitness is a great way not to lose the time.

Walking is the best way to begin that lifestyle change. Walking is easy, it's pretty relaxing, and it helps establish that there's a period of time in a person's day dedicated to getting them healthy. Plus, that 45 minutes of walking can be split up over the day. And with some commitment, most people can become pretty fast walkers.

You are absolutely right that adding an hour a day of exercise is a major lifestyle change, but so are a lot of things in life.

The lifestyle change is also the point isn't it. Anything else is either "product" research or selfdeception.

I mean if youre willing to walk around with an oxygen mask allday and aren't bothered about possible health consequences, there is also plastic surgery.

It’s 6pm. I’m WFH. I’m seeing 7451 steps on my iPhone. I wouldn’t say I’ve walked anywhere today, but I water my horses a few times a day (at bottom of garden).

Counter point, I’m work from home and actually spend up to an hour a day doing HIIT and am lucky to break 4k steps. If you’re fidgety or pace you may get there but even with being intentionally active and burning around 850 calories in exercise a day, I’m about half the 8k steps.

No doubt it can vary wildly depending on your life circumstances. Personally most of my hobbies are sedentary (reading, gaming, plastic models) and I don't have kids or pets that require me to be active in some way. A normal day for me if I don't go anywhere and make no effort to exercise is usually less than 2500 steps.

To hit that number I enrolled in a small coworking space that is 20 minutes away from my house... It's 2500 steps from home... So just going and getting back from the office gives me 5,000 steps...

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