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Comment by mrweasel | Hacker News Reader

> It’s true that exercise doesn’t make up for a bad diet. It’s easier to eat less.

That one always gets to me, because it's not universally true. I get the point, and to some extend even agree with it. To me personally, especially when I was younger and had the time, working out more always felt much easier. Controlling what I eat has always been incredibly tricky, simply exercising to the point where it doesn't matter what I eat, fairly easy, it's just a matter of putting in the hours.

Workout for 2.5 hours a day, plus 60-90 minutes transport on a bike, you can pretty much eat anything you like.

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I recently got to know someone with a resting heart rate of 45, who will pretty frequently do 8+ mile trail runs and 100 mile bike rides. He is also an amazing cook who makes decadent and delicious foods. He says he consumes 4,000 calories a day. He still has a sizeable belly. I'd say he is at like 10/10 on exercise, but 3/10 on diet. I was surprised at his extreme cardiovascular fitness while still managing to be overfat.

"Workout for 2.5 hours a day, plus 60-90 minutes transport on a bike, you can pretty much eat anything you like."

Trivial to debunk. Assuming 150 pounds. Weight lifting 2.5 hours: 1051 calories Cycling Moderate 1.5 hours: 1051 calories I'll generously add 2000 calories for the rest of the days activities.

Water intake daily 3.7 liters. 3.7 liters of soda: 1600 calories Burger and Fries: 1000 calories, 3 times a day: 3000 calories.

Calories burned daily total: 4102 calories Calories ingested daily: 4600 calories Yearly weight gain: 498*365/3500 = ~51 pounds.

You can flex the numbers a number of ways, but it's obvious that you cannot pretty much eat anything you like. Exercise does not make up for a bad diet.

Pretty much anything is not the same as anything. Being able to consume 4k calories a day is pretty much anything for the vast majority of people.

Yeah it’s not universally true.

But for some people, there are low hanging fruit like “cut out 4 Pepsi’s a day” (600 calories).

If you are already eating reasonable healthy and still gaining weight, then adding more exercise can be easier than trying to skimp on food.

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