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extremeMath

I got one that is still in effect in Michigan-

"Gyms are closed" (but bars and casinos are open)

A virus that kills old and _obese_ people, and you are shutting down the gym?

If anything I hope Coronavirus shifts politicians from business leaders to scientists.

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It’s more likely to kill old and obese people, but there are still plenty of rarer cases of harm to younger fitter people (eg triathletes on oxygen post-infection). It’s not binary.

I'm more concerned about the 30% of Americans that are obese than the 0.1% top athletes, who in rare circumstances are badly affected.

Open the gyms to save lives.

Truly obese people can benefit a lot from just walking, as they're not trained enough to need high intensity exercise to keep it up.

Gyms are pretty horrible places for spreading COVID and other respiratory infections, as they involve a lot of heavy breathing in confined spaces. They are probably a worse place to be than bars. Would the increase in fitness over a 6 month period for a typical obese person really reduce the risk by more than being in the gym increases it?

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/8/20-0633_article https://www.healthline.com/health-news/heres-why-covid-19-ca...

Pre-COVID studies of gyms call out a very high risk factor for respiratory infections.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324993154_Infection...

There was one RCT of gym access in Norway that showed no difference, but that's because there was only one case out of over three thousand during the entire study, in either arm, so it's difficult to say that means anything at all.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.24.20138768v...

You're fantasizing if you think re-opening gyms is going to do jack shit about the obesity rate.

Our gym group broke up due to covid and all 3 of us gained 20 lbs each.

Ancedote sure, inevitable maybe. But this wasn't some January new years resolution, this was April.

1. Weight loss is 90% in the kitchen, not the gym.

2. A gym seems kind-of a high infection risk. Lots of heavy breathing and sweating, wiping of faces, noses, and mouths, sharing of equipment, locker rooms... probably not the ideal place to welcome anyone, let along the (as you say, high-risk) obese amongst us.

Any chance your irritation at closed gyms is more personal, rather than a caring nature looking out for peoples' weight loss regimes?

Anyone can spread it, though. Kids seem to spread it less. Also, the longer this hangs around the more chances it will have to evolve into a form that can harm more demographics. We should want to get rid of Covid-19 as fast as possible. Finally, although many people get asymptomatic infections, this isn't all about death rate. Many many people are suffering brutal damage even if they do survive. This thing targets multiple organ systems and can leave permanent damage.

But bars and casinos are open.

If you want to get rid of the virus we need to shut down everything.

I agree that it's foolish that bars and casinos are open when gyms are not.

Weight gain and loss is simple physics. If you want to reduce obesity, focus on the dietary input. Virtually nobody is active enough to burn the extreme number of excess calories consumed that leads to obesity and the maintenance of obesity.

It's a psychological thing. When you go to the gym, you are significantly more likely to focus on diet(and finances, and self improvement) as well.

I have always thought that diet and exercise are both needed. If you can cut your caloric intake by 250 calories a day, and increase your aerobic exercise to burn 250 more calories a day, you should be able to lose a pound a week, without going to extremes of diet or exercise.

Of course, someone who is obese will take a long time to get to a healthy weight if they are only losing a pound a week, but most people would have a hard time maintaining extremes of diet or exercise for a long period of time.

I think the issue is healthy people who go to the gym and become asymptomatic carriers and bring it home to their less healthy cohabitants.

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