Cycle for One Hour and You’ll Live an Hour Longer | Hacker News Reader

Cycle for One Hour and You’ll Live an Hour Longer

ecf.com

34 pointskitkat_new30 comments

All you have to do is bicycle continuously and you'll attain immortality! Easy win!

Yeah, but that hour longer will still be an hour spent on the exercise bike.

They're not talking about using an exercise bike! It's an hour spent on your commute/errands/etc. :)

If an exercise bike is the first thing that comes to mind when you read about cycling then you are missing out.

I can heartily recommend anyone who thinks they dislike cycling to watch Not Just Bikes on youtube[0]. Most of the problem is the city you live in, not the concept of cycling.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPUlgSRn6e0

  >Yeah, but that hour longer will still be an hour spent on the exercise bike

Indeed. At the very least they should have gone with: Cycle for Fifty-Nine Minutes and You’ll Live an Hour Longer

Can I get a 2 for 1?

It seems like no net benefit as a 1 to 1.

What does 1 hour of walking give for ROI?

We don’t value all of our time equally.

Here’s an extreme example: we sleep a bit under 1/3 of the time. Let’s say you were given the option to forgo sleeping; you would have all that extra time, you wouldn’t feel the need or the desire for sleep at all. The catch is all that time gets lopped off the end of your life.

Would you take that offer? I sure wouldn’t! I’d miss out on a lot; there’s a good chance I’d never meet my grandkids, for example.

If there were no health effects of not sleeping besides having that "gained" time taken away at the end of life, I would absolutely do it. I'd be spending more time in my 20s and 30s and wouldn't have to deal with being in my 70s and 80s

I do a one way cycle commute. Bus in the morning, cycle home. Cycling and taking the bus both take about an hour, plus cycling is more enjoyable and good exercise. I call that a net win.

You take your bike with you on the bus in the morning?

In my city all the buses have bike racks in the front. But could also be bikeshare.

Some countries allow it, e.g. Luxembourg has a policy. Hell, I'm even with my bike in a bus at the time of writing this comment.

The only catch is space... No fancy bike racks here or anything, just flexible space near mid entrance. You're at the mercy of other passengers, and for instance families with a buggy.

It is a small finding bicycle that fits in a bag.

Can you read book/news, play game, etc. while riding bike as opposed to sitting in bus and doing things you like to pass time?

No, but I listen to podcasts (with bone conduction headphones)

There's the net benefit that you'll be in better shape for the non biking hours.

> One study cited in the book even says that an hour of moderate to vigorous cycling extends an individual’s expected healthy lifetime by more than an hour.

An even better outcome than the headline suggests! Certainly interested in reading that study. Too bad the article is just an advert for a book, and doesn’t link to any research.

Reminds me of the The Very Slow Time Machine (https://www.fantasticfiction.com/w/ian-watson/very-slow-time... )

That seems like horrible deal, is this meant to discourage people from biking? So you should waste one hour today you can use any way you want for not guaranteed one hour gain far into future where you are in poor health and hardly do anything anymore?

And if it's about commute, can I read book or whatever I want during bike ride vs commute by public transport? I doubt that and I write it as someone who used to commute to work in Beijing on bike (though I would say that potentially shortened my life expectancy considering Chinese drivers).

The way I think of it is every day I exercise is another day I get to live. I have conditions that while not debilitating now will end up killing me (two obscure conditions that basically guarantee I’ll die of heart attack). Exercise is the best way of putting off death.

> The way I think of it is every day I exercise is another day I get to live.*

* unless you are hit by car or have accident, which is quite likely to happen on bike (even if you just fall on your own), which will immediately erase all benefits

I grew up hearing the old "smoke a cigarette, take 6 minutes off your life" yarn, which makes me wonder; if you smoke 10 cigarettes while riding a bike over the course of an hour, would you be more likely to crash your bike or have a heart attack?

Life is not a matter of chances in my opinion and observarion. You will die when you will die. You have as much control over your death date as you did over your birth date. Even a suicide attempt can fail and people that take care of themselves the most still die early from some random cancer.

Not to say your destined cause of death won't be lung cancer from smoking or a freak bike accident but that good choices prepare you for good outcomes, they don't guarantee them.

> You have as much control over your death date as you did over your birth date.

This is absolutely wrong. Maybe ages ago, but certainly not today. We have a lot of control over factors contributing to all-cause mortality and the avoidance of deadly accidents. Avoiding tobacco products, regular exercise, reasonable diet, and possibly strength training all reduce all-cause mortality significantly.

> people that take care of themselves the most still die early from some random cancer.

Please show me any research that shows that health-conscience individuals disproportionately die early from cancer.

Looks like you missed the entire point of my post.

Doesn't it take about 6 minutes to smoke a cigarette? You'd be chain smoking the full hour. I don't know about everybody else, but I'd be so dizzy half-way through the second stick that I'd fall over and crack my head open.

Horrible mis-citation. The scientific evidence presented is that the benefits far outweigh the risks.

So stop cycling? :(

No, since I can cycle while going other activities (commute, shopping), and the consequent fitness adds value to other parts of life.

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