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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   38067 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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The two fit together quite neatly though. Exercise (both aerobic training and resistance training) modulate appetite and result in the body handling insulin spikes appropriately by replenishing muscular glycogen rather than fat. People that pick a sport and compete become much more acutely aware of their nutrition both as a necessity of fueling their activities, but also in shaping their bodies. The calories burned from an endurance sport are themselves quite helpful in providing a buffer to get away with some genuine splurge days. You're just a lot more likely to successfully stay lean and healthy if you participate in a sport than if you try to accomplish it through self-control around food where your only motivation and frame of reference is weight.

I find it darkly ironic that problems exist at both ends of this spectrum: yes, there are obese people, but the number of serious runners (among other sports) with very real eating disorders isn't zero either.

But for most people, more activity and less gluttony is probably better.

If you want to see a wild ass tale of the problems of being too thin and doing too much cardio, Jonas Abrahamsen is currently in the polka dot jersey at the Tour de France and has a crazy story:

Abrahamsen went from being a 132-pound climber to a 172-pound climber and sprinter. He told StickyBottle.com that in his weight gain journey, his peak power went from 900 watts to a whopping 1,500 watts. And as he gained weight, he told reporters that his body went through a “delayed puberty” where he actually grew a few centimeters and packed on muscle (and finally needed to shave).

Abrahamsen admitted that in his early career, he was focused on staying as light as possible, as many cyclists tend to do. This led to him severely under-fueling, until the nutritionist with Uno-X helped him learn to listen to his body’s hunger cues.

You really do need balance in all things. Bike hard, eat well, enjoy life.

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