As for VO2max, Levitt had a longevity researcher on his podcast who found that a high VO2max (used as a proxy measure) is causally related with higher impacts on 5 year all cause mortality than smoking. In the good direction. As in: being in shape reduces your risk of death more than smoking increases it.
Sauce: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/adding-ten-healthy-years-to...
https://peterattiamd.com/podcast/
His podcast is amazing but can be dense and technical at times. He's evidence based and would probably fit in with the HN crowd.
Then I randomly got really into jiu-jitsu because why not.
The issue is that some people use cycling as their only form of exercise. For bone health you need to mix in other high impact exercises such as running and weightlifting.
If someone had to choose only one thing to do for health, a healthy diet is far more important than exercise.
> and virtually no effort to simply not consume them.
I don't think this is true. The executive function required to manage the dopamine cycle that food generates is incredibly taxing. I honestly think this is a result of our food systems being incredibly optimized to drive purchasing decisions...
Separately, this reminds me that I should eat some veggies.
In the past I've toned my training down due to exhaustion, not from the physical output but from having to constantly be shoving calories down my throat.
The ancestor comment saying to do cardio is right. Strength training is also important for health, but for different reasons (motor function, bone density, etc.). The act of strength training also burns some calories, regardless of resultant muscle mass.
Every extra kg of muscle is estimated to contribute 21kcal/day to the RMR. If you put on, say, 15kg of muscle over a few years (quite doable if you are very sedentary and have low muscle mass), that's an extra 300kcal/day. Add in 30 mins of biking a day, and say 100 cal from strength training on average, that's a good 600-700 calories per day!
The big issue with diets is that people eat too much carbs, and if you aren't burning those carbs for energy, this is where problems happen. Healthy regiment of exercise will help greatly with this, giving you the option to eat tasty foods with carbs and maintain a good weight without any problems.
It gets even worse, when the obese try to outrun a bad diet they not only fail but they often injure themselves in the process.
It always pains me to see obese people out on the trails beating themselves up in an obviously misguided but respectable effort to lose weight.
I’ve always eaten “a little bad” diet. I don’t think I eat too much, and I keep things mostly balanced, but I tend to eat quite late, and carbs and calories was always something I’d just take down without considering totals for a day or week.
Was totally fine when I was walking to work every day, and doing a lot outside.
Early COVID era, with the same diet, I started ticking up in weight, and wasn’t feeling great. Once adding more exercise to my routine I slowly returned to my baseline. Maybe I could be doing better with a better diet, but I was kind of shocked by how much of an effect ~1hr of walking a day had on me.
Exercise (specifically, aerobic type) is the main thing you need. A good exercise regime gives you a lot of leeway in the diet aspect especially if you don't overeat (since your caloric burn will be high enough on the regular to not have to deal with issues like too much carbs). It also helps you sleep as you get tired and can fall asleep easier, and reduces stress levels, which is very important in regards to longevity.
There also have been studies that link brain function deterioration with lack of oxygen, and people with higher VO2max values are at a lower risk of cognitive decline.
Something as simple as cycling to the office instead of taking the car can have extremely positive effects.