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Comment by leobelle | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, well those exercises are not at all appealing to me. Jumping jacks are not for overweight people. Crunches injure your back, etc. In fact, half these exercises look like they risk injury or look like they hurt something in the long run. If walking isn't good enough, I'm ok with that, but that's all I'm going to do.

I imagine most people here are in their young twenties and don't understand what happens to bodies when they get older. There's just no way any of these activities are realistic. Calorie moderation and walking should be good enough.

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Holy excuses. Look, no one here really cares if you exercise or not. Walking is better than nothing, though.

Anecdotal evidence, but my parents, both in their mid-60s, are some of the most active people I know. Biking, hiking, skiing, you name it. And, neither of them is skinny. There's definitely some luck (good genes, etc.) involved in them being in good shape, but the rest is because they've put forth a bit of effort their whole lives towards being active.

Yes, in that case, starting with calorie moderation is key. In fact, even if you don't do anything else, this alone should bring your weight down to managable levels where you can start doing exercises that look injury-prone now.

But exercise would make it much easier, because it releases dopamines, which makes you feel good, which lowers your food craving.

(I'm not in my early twenties and I've been overwheight for the most of my life.)

You came here angry with the world because walking 20 minutes a day doesn't make a dent in the fat and running hurts. Well, here's the response.

Of course running hurts if you are overweight. Your bones and tendons are not made to support that much weight and neither are your muscles if you have been neglecting them. Bodies get neglected, that's what happens to them when they get old. If you really love running like you said, then drop some weight and start running. Do, don't cry. Walk more. Use nordic walking poles. Swimming is an excellent low-impact sport and so is water running. Walking 20 minutes with decent pace burns around 500-600kcal for someone weighting 120kg. That's a half a can of Pringles. You need to be really careful with what you eat if you want to drop weight with just that.

Nearer 50 than 60 here. Run four to nine miles every weekend day (three this weekend, that is), walk an hour at least two days a week, generally 30 most others. I don't do weights because I never got in the habit when younger; I also ran more when young and wouldn't have wanted to add body mass--running was just better under 170 lb.

What happens to your body as you get older depends in part on what you do with it when younger. The one thing I don't do now that I occasionally did when younger is push-ups. Something in my left shoulder doesn't care for them. No doubt there's a fix for that, but I don't think it makes sense to pursue one--there's no MLB contract on the line.

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