Hacker News Reader

Comment by raspyberr | Hacker News Reader

There is no hack. Exercise is non-negotiable. Our lifestyles are far too sedantry for our bodies' evolution. If you are not willing to add a small amount of exercise into your life, you are admitting that you are happy to at least have health issues later in life or at most willing to live a shorter life.

View on HN

Exercising is easy, most people can find an activity they enjoy doing. Eating right is a far more demanding task, and sadly that's what matters when it comes to losing weight.

Exercising in the US is hard AF, and only getting harder. There’s comparatively little opportunity to make exercise a part of daily routine. I’m either behind the wheel or a car or behind a desk all day.

lol. If your rationales for not exercising have made it all the way to the country itself being the problem, well.. you might want to just acknowledge that you don't want to exercise.

As a counterpoint, I also live in the US and have never found making time to exercise to be some kind of insurmountable task -- even when I was commuting almost 3h/day. Exercising requires just a few hours out of your whole week

This is true, but lifestyle is undoubtedly a factor in people’s activity patterns.

Exercise is essential for health, but not the best bet to lose weight, isn't it?

That's right. Diet is the key to "losing weight."

"Exercise" is a bad way to lose weight because what is traditionally considered as exercise is 30 minutes to 1 hour of high intensity activities. If you live a sedentary life, exercise isn't going to help.

Passive exercise, that you do throughout the day, though, is a great way to expend calories. Walk more, bike for transport, use a standing desk, etc. That's the difference between 1500 calories and 2200.

> Exercise is a bad way to lose weight

Exercise is not a bad way to lose weight.

Exercise is 100% the best bet to lose weight.

For a simple empirical study, ask every person you meet/know that is fit, and nearly everyone will say they exercise.

Specifically, cardio. If you're goal is to lose weight, you shouldn't touch weights until your BMI < 22. Just run or swim a few times a week.

I don't think that's as universally agreed upon as you claim. I know of plenty of women who struggled to lose weight via diet and cardio, and then turned things round when they started eating high protein and lifting weights.

Diet + cardio with no strength work can put people into 'gotta make it through this famine' mode, where their metabolism slows right down to eke out the stores as long as possible.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com