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Comment by njharman | Hacker News Reader

The body works amazingly well when taken care of and listened too. Really. Instead of hyper tracking every aspect of your life [and making assumptions based on that data] Just exercise, eat well, no caffeine, minimal sugar/food after dark, get 10+min of sun around noon, go to sleep when tired. All of which is almost impossible for 90% of people who are forced into regimented, high stress, excessive work lives.

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While I agree with the sentiment here, the actual mechanics just don't hold true for plenty of people. Certainly the 80/20 rule probably applies: your suggestions will fix a great many issues for many people, and it's definitely worth reminding most people to make several of the changes you suggest -- particularly exercise and sleep.

But if the recipe was really that simple for all people, more of us would experience more success.

Humans are complex. Not mechanistically complex, stochastically. We're chaotic. One set of inputs may produce different outputs, and reverse-engineering the reasons for those differences may be "hard" or impossible. Apps and tracking devices can help reveal small areas where a fractional improvement in control or quality can have very large beneficial effects.

Lifestyles and other highly personal factors mean that the application of a simple single formula will be met with varying success. And anyway, you have to measure the outcomes to understand how successful the intervention has been.

I'd also point out that just because you feel well, it doesn't mean that your lifestyle or body (or mind) are healthy. Some attempt at objective data is useful to determine if you're really as healthy as you think you are. Sure, you may feel great if you get regular sleep every night. But did you know your sleep apnea puts you at increased risk of cardiovascular disease?

Edit: probably a better example... You may feel perfectly fine sitting down for several hours per day. But you're at increased risk of a whole range of diseases. A timer set to beep evey 20 minutes to remind you to get up and move may actually add years to your life.

This isn't a defence of lifestyle or health/fitness apps and so on, just a recognition that they work for some people, and for some circumstances. Or so it appears. This is the start of a vast, poorly coordinated longitudinal experiment. We'll be poring over the data for years yet.

This is, sadly, advice which gets ignored by an overwhelming number of people in our industry. I know so many otherwise smart folks who buy a FitBit and track their caloric intake only to then drive (not go outside and walk) 2 blocks to get lunch at McDonalds or someplace similar. You don't need a product/app to live a healthy lifestyle... most likely if you are trying to solve a health/lifestyle problem by purchasing something, that is just symptomatic of yet another unhealthy aspect of your lifestyle.

> You don't need a product/app to live a healthy lifestyle

You don't if you live within constraints which are healthy. Many people do not, because of their job, or because of the way their physical environment is set up - for instance, you may stand in a shop for 8 hours a day, and develop problems with your legs. The sensible thing to do is not to stand for 8 hours a day, but the reason why you may have done that before is because that is the expected, default behaviour. To change that so you are moving around enough not to cause damage requires deliberate and ongoing intervention, and something that tracks movement can certainly help with that. Likewise if you develop health problems from sitting for 8 hours a day.

I am reminded of a few simple words of wisdom from Michael Pollan - "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."

> most likely if you are trying to solve a health/lifestyle problem by purchasing something, that is just symptomatic of yet another unhealthy aspect of your lifestyle

Tell that to the thirty pounds I've lost, over the last couple months, by dint of using a Basis band to track calories out, and logging what I eat to do the same for calories in.

Could you have done it without the band though?

Not and have any idea how close I am to my target deficit; I'd either err low and fail to lose the weight, or err high and badly endanger my health via malnutrition. With the band, I know exactly where I'm coming in on a daily basis, and I can, for example, plot calorie deficit over delta-weight and see where I should be aiming for best effect.

In general, I'm surprised to see such a Luddite attitude espoused on HN. What kind of engineer doesn't see the value in collecting the necessary data to characterize a problem or a process accurately? That's Step One.

Yeah, I love to collect data on my running, for example. But my point is I'd (and probably you would also) be doing it anyway, with or without the data.

The basis band you mention looks pretty cool though, going to check that out further.

I'd add in that you should avoid computer screens (or use some software like f.lux on the maximum dark setting) after the sun goes down. I'd also recommend watching your alcohol consumption in the evening as that significantly disrupts your sleep cycle.

No kidding -- I routinely code late into the night. Each time, I can't fall asleep if I didn't have f.lux on a fairly "yellow" setting.

I (a) wish that something like that was built into iOS and (b) feel bad for people who don't know f.lux exists (or RedShift, for Linux folks.)

f.lux is the only reason I have a jailbroken iPhone. I can no longer stare into other people's phones at night without f.lux

I love the taste of coffee and tea, both of which have caffeine.

Curious, why 10+ minutes of sun at noon?

I've found Trader Joe's "smooth and mello" decaf blend to be the only decaf blend that tastes like actual coffee. I can recommend it. I now drink about 2-4 cups of that stuff (french press brewed, and in the summer, cold-brewed overnight for iced coffee) and an espresso a day (the espresso machine at school has a caffeinated blend and I love espresso too much to stay away from it). This limits my caffeinated total to less than two cups a day (since decaf still has some non-negligible amount of caffeine).

Body needs to know when to sleep. With all our artificial light it's easy to skew ones Circadian Rhythm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_clock

Vitamin D I would guess

Why no sugar/food after dark? Any links?

Sugar gives you energy, makes you hyper. Energy and hyper not conductive to sleep. nightime is sleeptime. As least that is what your body expects when not amped on caffeine, sugar and other stimulants.

Food provides energy and when it isn't burned turns into fat.

Looks like the juries out and many evidence still points to the total amount of calories in/out over the day is the only defining factor.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-truth-myth-eating-ni...

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