This is such an important distinction to actually effect change. The vast majority of folks who go from 0 to Gym Rat will quickly peter out, reverting to sedentariness. Small lifestyle changes are far more effective.

Likewise for diets. Those who spend their New Years resolution momentum eating baked chicken and broccoli for a week or completely cutting out carbs will shortly find themselves failing completely and binging ice cream or whatever. Rarely do you see sensible advice like "keep your same diet habits, but cut out soft drinks", or "if you engage in late night boredom-eating, try binging vegetables instead."

Unfortunately, humble and incremental changes in habit seem antithetical to our society's affection for (unrealistic) sweeping, dramatic transformations.

I have to agree. I’ve been able to keep my gym attendance regular by starting pretty slow and gradually building up to more intense workouts.

I honestly have done this for the endorphine boost, but overall I’ve lost just under 11kg in about 10 months and I’ve really started to notice my belly go down, and I can actually see muscle building now... which I’ll be honest and say surprised me (why I have no idea). This is great, but I did exercise to deal with some pretty appalling trauma I experienced - everything else is nice but for me, not essential.

> I’ve been able to keep my gym attendance regular by starting pretty slow and gradually building up to more intense workouts.

People start way too intense, spending hours in the gym, and burn out all their enthusiasm in the first weeks or two before they realize that their efforts are unsustainable. Really, start with a plan on what do to, go in and do it. If it's a half hour that's perfectly fine. My sessions, depending on the day, last anywhere from half an hour to 3 based upon my mood and the workload for that particular session - but you gotta keep the mandatory work to a reasonable amount - everything else should be treated as icing on the fitness cake.

I'm sure to go with the 11 kg there has been significant body composition changes to make it count for more as well.

I've enjoyed cleaning chores a lot more after mentally declaring them to be exercise.

See, this is some of my own problem. I personally despise going for a walk for the sake of going for a walk. The same for a bike ride. The only times I've enjoyed such things is when part of my unhappiness was at home and it was one of the few escapes available. I don't find these fun at all. Doing actual exercise sounds dreadful and embarrassing. Not to mention that finding basic gear is expensive and hard to find (I'm just talking about a sports bra here - unfortunately, if you are thin with breasts, these get incredibly hard to find and expensive and often must be mail-ordered, which makes them risky).

Yet I'll walk to anywhere within a half an hour's walk. I'll do that daily. Grocery store? walk. I'll go longer at times. I'll take the stairs. I'll go out hiking and walking to see something or do something.

Unfortunately, if I have nothing to see or do - no work or lack the means to do something - I rarely do these things. These have generally been the times when my mental health is worst as well (though that trend has changed the last few years). It makes me despise these sorts of reports.

I like walking to town though the park and listening to a good podcast (through the phone's speaker, I don't bother with headphones.)

Also sometimes when I've spent time indoors on the PC/internet I realize that sitting outside with a book would have been better.

I s'pose that access to nearby walking routes and some sort of garden can be a big help here and I'm lucky in that respect.

I totally agree with you. I go to gym and weight train 3 days a week and I spend one day running as far as I possibly can (8-10 mile range). If someone asked me to go for a walk, I would just slouch down in my sofa and ignore them. I hate walking without purpose and as an exercise it does pretty much nothing.

Personally, I hate exercising but I do about 90 minutes of high intensity cardio every day (with no end goal like grocery shopping; just for the sake of exercise). It's masochistic and I wish I were the type of person who actually enjoyed it.

For me, it just took having the self-control to commit to an exercise regime. Eventually it became easier because I track my exercise and having a break in it (even if I am traveling or on vacation) feels really bad.

I doubt it would work for everyone, but I think it was necessary for me because I live in a city and even if I walked everywhere (which I do), I would never get enough exercise to offset 8-hour days of sitting at a computer desk writing software.

Yes, even just the "10K steps a day" idea is vastly better than nothing...