Hacker News Reader

Comment by buckbova | Hacker News Reader

Everyone I have ever known or seen that goes on one of those bootcamp style exercise programs loses dramatic weight. Every single person.

There's something about working your ass off everyday for an hour with resistance and cardio that works.

Everyone I have ever known or seen that went to actual bootcamp loses dramatic weight too, whether be army or marines.

Yes there might be exceptions for some with rare illnesses, but let's not throw out good common sense because of a small percentage of people.

View on HN

I'm unsure how your response indicates that obesity is a self-control problem. Participating in a camp for however long and dramatically changing food intake is bound to create results. But if people could get the same results on their own then they wouldn't need the camps in the first place.

In addition, the group of people that are aware that this type of service is available, and that can afford to take multiple days off work to go to a bootcamp exercise program and pay for the program, is a unique portion of the human population with significant commonalities in genetic markers, cultural backgrounds, and many other areas. Their accomplishments should not be used as an indicator for all of humanity (and of course neither should the events described in the original article).

For the person below who asked for references: Unfortunately I don't keep a file of research on obesity because I don't have the problem myself. So I can't directly point to the things I remember reading. But that is also why I started my comment with "I believe".

> Everyone I have ever known or seen that goes on one of those bootcamp style exercise programs loses dramatic weight. Every single person.

I'm assuming you mean TV show. I doubt you know a great many people that go on an "exercise style bootcamp" personally...

> Everyone I have ever known or seen that went to actual bootcamp loses dramatic weight too, whether be army or marines.

Indeed because in basic training you don't get to pick your own meals and you're also limited to a set number of meals a day. Anyone would lose weight if someone else was controlling exactly what they could eat.

> here's something about working your ass off everyday for an hour with resistance and cardio that works.

Also the fact you think exercise contributes to significant weight loss (as opposed to diet changes, which do) suggest that you may not be very well informed in general.

An hour of cardio is one Big Mac worth of calories. It is insignificant.

> I'm assuming you mean TV show. I doubt you know a great many people that go on an "exercise style bootcamp" personally...

They offer a bootcamp program at my office. I have a friend who is a personal trainer. I have relatives who have done bootcamp exercise programs. I drive by one of these every day and see people flipping tires.

> Indeed because in basic training you don't get to pick your own meals and you're also limited to a set number of meals a day. Anyone would lose weight if someone else was controlling exactly what they could eat.

You've obviously never trained hard for anything. At some point you can't consume enough calories to counter the metabolism jump from the hard-core training.

> An hour of cardio is one Big Mac worth of calories. It is insignificant.

That's why I said "cardio and resistance", which you conveniently left off. Yes an hour on a stationary bike does very little, but an hour of intense physical exertion daily will transform a person.

> Everyone I have ever known or seen that goes on one of those bootcamp style exercise programs loses dramatic weight. Every single person.

I've seen people lose weight, I've seen people not. Most people I've seen do it for the first time lose weight, but most of those who choose to do it and are doing it for the first time are otherwise-healthy people with high body fat.

> Everyone I have ever known or seen that went to actual bootcamp loses dramatic weight too, whether be army or marines.

Everyone I knew at the time they went to military boot camp gained weight; lost body fat though.

Of course, that's not really what's interesting, since most people care about keeping the weight off for an extended period of time, and not whether they can yo-yo back and forth between heavy and less-heavy.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com