Comment by vamerock | Hacker News Reader

Comment by vamerock | Hacker News Reader

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Don't let the fact that he was 24 deter you. Over at r/bodyweightfitness, there are hundreds of people who started above 45 and are in better shapes than 20 year olds.

Obesity is now a taboo topic in tech because you might unfortunately step on the toes of a few sensitive people and be labelled a fat shamer. This is not the case.Obesity in tech is a disease on it's own and it needs to be fought with a sharp edged pitchfork. We need to help our colleagues who have lost hope and given up on ever being fit again.

It is never too late to get healthy again. If you're overweight and believe your work schedule cannot allow you to lose weight, give yourself a 6 - 8 month break. Step over to the r/bodyweightfitness Recommended beginner routine and make a big change in your life. You don't need an expensive gym membership. You can use the floor, parks, chairs, tables, doors, ledges, trees etc.

Sustainable weight loss is achievable by everyone, whether you're 40 or 50 years or 400 pounds or 600 pounds.

Consistency over time is the key!

Some obesity is a disease, and some (perhaps much) in the western world is brought on by the combination of available foods and the lifestyle driven by our culture as it relates to compensation and work "ethic." Quality, healthy nutrition is hard to come by in America, either because it's scarce in an area or else the basic mechanics of putting together healthy things isn't really taught or socialized.

The whole concept of "fat shaming" is outrageous. It is quite hurtful and, if the object is to motivate change, unhelpful anyway. On the other hand, the concept of "fat but fit" is also not helpful. Being fat isn't healthy, period. As one gets fatter one gets even less healthy and it also starts to impact hygiene (which itself negatively impacts health).

If it's a disease, it's a social one. We've normalized what used to be fairly abnormal. Today, the person who is 75 lbs over weight looks around, readily sees someone 150 lbs,200 lbs or more over weight. The +75'er thinks "I'm not overweight."

Humans do that. We adjust. We assimilate. We make presumptuous about validity based on what we see. That's the disease.

That said, it doesn't help that people like Oprah have led the "love your body" parade. Sure. Do it! It's your body. But that doesn't make it healthy. That does mitigate the broader societal damager you're doing.

Sure. Let's stop fat shaming. But let's also stop being in denial about the personal health implication of carrying too much extra weight.

I don't understand how we can discuss healthcare, the cost of healthcare, but then not talk about (personal) health. We want lower costs and we want to be more and more unhealthy. It doesn't work that way.

> On the other hand, the concept of "fat but fit" is also not helpful.

I don't know. One of my friends is fat, but she's also an incredibly competent rower (including doing it as a varsity sport in college). If that's not fit, I don't know what is.

Counterpoint: strongman competitors are often incredibly unhealthy. They are also literally the strongest humans on earth, who dedicate their lives to the singular pursuit of being able to pick up more weight than anyone else on the planet. Eddie Hall, this year's WSM, retired from the sport after achieving the win, because he has been destroying his health in pursuit of the title. Strongmen are famously at elevated cardiovascular risk, and they nearly universally require CPAP machines to sleep because their weight puts them at serious risk of death by obstructive sleep apnea. NFL defensive linemen tend to be in a similar position - very strong, very athletic, and at very elevated risk of fatal or debilitating health conditions.

One can be extremely strong and extremely competent - world class, even - and still not be fit.

Of course there are always outliers. However, the older you get the less likely you are to be overweight. That is, you'll typically die sooner, not later. I'd say ("premature") death qualifies as unhealthy ;)

I discovered /r/bwf six months ago. I love it. Doing the recommended routine (RR). I am 49 and 1.72m; Went from 75kg to 76kg. Which means that I lost some fat and gained some muscle. It is very entertaining to figure out what is the next progression. I look better but not great. But I feel great.

"Sustainable weight loss is achievable by everyone, whether you're 40 or 50 years or 400 pounds or 600 pounds."

While I applaud those individuals that have kept off weight long term, the science disagrees that is an achievable goal for everyone.(only about 5% of people who successfully lose large amounts of weight will keep it off long term)

For example here is what happened to the contestants on the biggest loser.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weig...

The body will fight very hard to get back up the heavier level. It play nasty tricks such as increasing hunger, decreasing metabolism, and nastiest of all physiologically sabotage the part of the brain that is responsible for conscience regulation of food intake(it turns off willpower specifically for food).

Do you have any sources for the 5%?

More often than not, the cause of the weight gain is because they fall back to bad eating habits. If you can lose it, you can keep it off. Changing to long-term good habits is extremely difficult though.

http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.full

Here's one that mentions 20%. But that's at a year. The % changes depending on how long you follow up(drops all the way out to 5 years.). This is study uses keeping off 10% of body weight as the definition of success which is far less than the amount that it takes to move an individual from obese into the normal healthy range.

If you can find a study where a majority of the individuals experienced significant and long term(3 yrs+) weight loss I would be happy to see it.

The "Biggest Loser" contestants undergo an extremely rapid weightloss regimen. It's not clear that similar slowdowns would impact more gradual weight loss regimens, or that it would affect people who start dieting at a lower (but still fat) weight.

Why would you think different rates of weight loss would have different effects? I'm not aware of any studies that say that. Also the hypothesized reason weight loss maintenance is so hard is changes to leptin level which related to absolute level of body fat, not rate of body fat loss.

This is known for decades. If you drop too fast over too long period of time your metabolism changes base burn rate and you will have a hard time losing fat/staying the same weight once your normalize your diet. There is a reason diets like PSMF at restricted to 1-2 weeks. Not healthy over time.

I've now read several studies about successful long term weight loss maintenance. And none of them mention speed of weight loss as a factor. The Wikipedia article on it doesn't mention it.

Also here's a study that suggests the exact opposite, that rapid weight loss is correlated with long term success.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3780395/

I am not an expert in this area. I speculate the rate is important due to hysteresis in the system.

The system definitely experiences hysteresis.(if you drop and regain weight you're metabolism will be slower) But I haven't seen any evidence that the rate of weight loss has any influence on it. I can see the intuitive appeal, but I haven't seen theoretical, epidemiological, or any other empirical evidence for it.

From my understanding, they dropped body weight very quickly, not allowing their body to adjust to new eating and exercise habits. They (seem) to go to extremes -- either all or nothing.

Not everyone can afford to take a 6-8 month break......

I lost 40lbs in 12 months while working. I did a bodyweight routine at home 4x a week for 30 minutes and calculated calories in and out. 4 months in, I eyeballed everything.

I was a pretty experienced athlete in high school/college, so I knew the basics well and knew if I worked at it I'd lose it, so that helped a lot, but I didn't do anything magic.

Kudos.

But the point is, you changed your lifestyle, and stuck with it. I think most who lose weight put it back on because they don't change anything. As if being thinner makes bad food less bad :)

a 6-8 month break from work? Who can afford that?

If your health is really important to you, you'll take a 3 year break(Not realistic, I know) if you have to. I know people who quit jobs so they can focus on weight loss. Moved to cheap areas/countries and made their weight a priority. I'll rather go broke a few months than spend the rest of my life with mounting medical bills that pile up as a result of my weight.

Know of any blogs/stories like that to read, particularly of people moving to a cheaper area while quitting?

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