‘Get in Shape’ Hack #8: Nutrition: ‘If the furnace is hot enough…” | Hacker News Reader

‘Get in Shape’ Hack #8: Nutrition: ‘If the furnace is hot enough…”

davidadewumi.com

7 pointsph0rque10 comments

I've skimmed over a few the articles in this series and I'm confused as to how it keeps making appearances on the front page of HN.

There is nothing specific here that applies to start-up founders/employees/entrepreneurs (despite the intended purpose), the articles are poorly written and far from complete, most of the advice is common knowledge, and the rest of the advice is of dubious value.

For anyone looking to get in shape, I highly recommend reading the stickies in the John Stone Fitness forums: http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/

Because it only takes a few votes to get on the front page, David has some HN readers that subscribe to his blog, so within a few hours of submitting, 1-2 upvotes put it on the front page. Once it's there, more people see it and upvote it. It doesn't take much.

On a depressing note, once an author has a history of getting upvoted (37s, Godin, Maroon), people race to submit anything they write so they can get karma.

Also, they say "hack" in the title, like the recent story about football hacking.

most of the advice is common knowledge, and the rest of the advice is of dubious value

So in turn, your advice would be to read random fitness forums...

No, my advice is to read well regarded forums (John Stone Fitness is one of them) and to read the stickies which are posts that have been deemed ("moderated," if you will) by the readers and the moderators to be the most informative.

I don't think you said this, but a big one is not to feel you need to finish everything on your plate.

I agree 100%. Another thing is people feel the need to eat until they feel full. Your stomach can stretch and contract, so obtaining that full feeling isn't really a great measure for determining how much you should eat. I'd say controlling your portions based on something other than feeling full or clearing your plate is more important than trying to split your food up into more than 3 meals a day.

personally I prefer to work out a little bit more and eat whatever I want instead of watching my diet. For me pretty much the entire day is nothing but junk food, the only time I have a proper meal is for supper.

> Eat 5x a day, spread out every 3-4 hours

Bzzzt. Frequent eating keeps your insulin levels up, which encourages weight gain as well as stresses your body in various ways. Eat two hearty meals and a light one. Digestion dulls the mind and saps energy, so why do it more than three times a day? Preparing good food should also take some time.

When you eat frequently your body never burns fat. It becomes accustomed to constantly running on glycogen and you get hunger pangs very easily. You want to run mostly on fat metabolism; it's really how your body is designed to work. You're not a grazer like a cow. You're closer to a lion or a bear. These animals eat their fill and then go long periods running on the fat.

> Drink lots of water

Drink when you're thirsty. There is absolutely no reason to drink more than thirst demands. If anything, drinking extra water stresses your kidneys and depletes you of water soluble minerals and vitamins.

> Bzzzt. Frequent eating keeps your insulin levels up, which encourages weight gain as well as stresses your body in various ways. Eat two hearty meals and a light one. Digestion dulls the mind and saps energy, so why do it more than three times a day? Preparing good food should also take some time.

Interesting... I read that eating smaller amounts more often keeps your metabolism in high gear, and shrinks your stomach by never having too much in it... can you point to some sources for your assertions (not saying you're wrong, just trying to solve a contradiction).

FWIW, I got my info from The Abs Diet book.

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