You sound 'young.' When you start looking 50 years of age in the eyes, your attitude will assuredly change. Like with everything in life, there's a balance. You actually need to work-out more as you age than when you were young.

Mid-30s. My attitude definitely has changed. When I was younger I thought different. I thought I would want to live forever, and figured I could if I did all the right things. The older I get the more I realize that it’s luck that determines the majority of outcomes. I’ve been surprisingly lucky, literally zero health issues in my life. But I see what happens to the people around me and it just seems like mostly luck. When my luck inevitably ends I don’t think I’m going to want to stick around.

The fittest people around me seem to actually be the most miserable. Arthritis, bad headaches from whatever fad diet they are doing, agitation from fasting, various food sensitivities, back problems, etc.. Antecdotal of course, but that’s my experience. There’s probably some confirmation bias here too, as people seek out fitness as a way to compensate for various conditions.

I just don’t know what to make of it. I’m not saying you have no control, I just think it’s vastly overstated.

> The fittest people around me seem to actually be the most miserable. [..] back problems

This caught my eye. Back in highschool I rollerbladed for fun, a couple times a week. During that period, and for years before that, I had pretty regular soreness in my lower back, for no apparent reason, which would persist for most of the day.

Then in college I stopped rollerblading and gained about 30 pounds, ticking over into the "overweight" BMI category, and the soreness completely vanished. Since then, ~10 years ago, it's only reoccurred a couple times.

Since it was still gone during breaks and back home after college, all I can figure is the extra fat added some support or padding that's stopped whatever was causing it.

That's a very shortsighted statement, but I can see where you're coming from.

I thought the same way when I was in my late teens/early twenties. Was a way for me to justify unhealthy food, smoking and alcohol.

Now I'm 30 and slowly realized it's not true. Living healthy when you're young doesn't have short-term reward. But I'm pretty sure when you're 50+ you'll be happy that you ate healthy, exercised and had a way to deal with stress (e.g. meditation).

If you're mentally and physically fit, you can do as much with 65 as you do with 20 today.

Also, I believe that our understanding of how sicknesses work and tech advances, we'll be able to live much longer. So, in 40 years from now, 65 might just be "middle-aged". Heck, it's even possible that you'll never have to die if you don't want to.

I’m older than you. When I was younger I thought you had more control over your health. Now I realize the amount of control you really have is minimal. It seems like a crapshoot. I see older people who did nothing to take care of themselves doing just fine, and plenty of fit people whose health is surprisingly bad.

I see some people over 65 who can do what they once did, but they are the exceptions.

I see how diet and excise impact heart disease. That’s obvious, particularly in the extremes. Other than that… it seems like the genetic lottery determines the majority of outcomes.

Of course you could be perfectly healthy and then get a bad disease, or get run over by a bus. But life is about probability.

And living healthy increases your probability of living a longer, healthier life. And as this study shows, it increases it by a significant factor.

Of course, the wonderful thing about life is that you can make your own choices. And if you don't want to eat healthy and work out, and are fine with the consequences, that's totally ok.

That crosses into personal attack. I assume you didn't mean it that way, but we ban accounts that do this on HN. Please make your points without resorting to it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> "If you're mentally and physically fit, you can do as much with 65 as you do with 20 today."

Can you, though? You're definitely long past your peak physically and in terms of testosterone. I don't know if intellectual decline is a factor at that age.

You can definitely still do a lot, but I don't think you can come close to your abilities at age 20.

Yeah, I mean it'll be harder to become a professional athlete or something, but you can surely do 99% of what people normally do in their lives.

There are definitely 65-year-olds who are fitter than some of the 20-year-olds you see :-)

I will be 65 in a few months. I did my first ever dead hang strict pullup about a year ago. Lately I can do six. This time next year, probably twelve. It is fun slowing or reversing sarcopenia, which is mainly a societal result, not a genetic curse.

Roger Daltrey famously said "I hope I die before I get old" in 1965.

He's 74 now...

That's essentially Trump's response to climate change haha. We're already screwed so let's just keep on the same track. Personally, I find that nothing in life is certain, but I certainly thing that we can increase our statistical chances of success by making good decisions.

Also, you'll certainly feel different about dying once you are 65.