You are right, someone will tell you you are wrong....:0)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/10584764/Can-20-seconds-of-high-intensity-exercise-really-beat-a-session-in-the-gym.html

What does this say that wasn't already known? 30 minutes/day isn't the upper limit of cardiovascular health development, nor is 60/120min. Had anyone said that it had been?

Even the article says 15 minutes is better than nothing, which is basically what the arbitrary 30 minutes is aimed to achieve: increasing public fitness in a reasonable and practical manner.

On a different note, to my knowledge, there aren't any good papers that suggest exercise alone is enough to develop a health lifestyle; most people who attempt it, fail. And if that's the case, we need find alternative ways to figure out this problem, not raise the bar on people who hadn't been able to meet the lower standard.

/rant

50.50.50

In my opinion (and I'm pretty into this subject) health is at least 80% diet and at most 20% exercise (beyond normal life activities).


(i won't even get into the mental aspect of physical health with stress, etc.)

Pretty much. Most people sleep, sit in a car or on transit, sit at a desk or stand with minimal activity, get home and sit in front of a screen, and then sleep again.

30 minutes is advice aimed at *everyone else*, to get them lapping the people on the couch. The audience of this ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN7lt0CYwHg

This forum is for people who aim to lap their competitors.

---

'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

Nice omission of genetics.

Though people are predisposed relative to one another, it's hard to say genetics is the source of the issue when you see the obesity trend so closely related with lifestyle choices. So while yeah, it's clear that being healthy is something that is passed within a family, the connection is more likely related to passing on unhealthy habits.

Interestingly, though it's not genetic in the true sense, it does seem that an unhealthy mother can "desensitize" their unborn child to satiety signals and other such things. Practically genetics if you ask me.

I should have been clear that I was referring to other metrics of health, beyond body fat %.

Even if obesity is substantially genetic (and I think it has more to do with the general lack of self control than anything), it doesn't absolve people from their behavior. Society hasn't accepted genetics isn't an excuse for lying, murder, cheating, etc., so why should it for obesity?

Ah, I see. Misread on my part.

On the other front, I think people were kind of hoping that if you can pinpoint obesity as a out-of-your-hand disorder (which it sometimes very well is), then we can have grounds for developing more effective rehabilitation programs that just telling patients to do better at being healthy. Maybe a better way of saying it is that there's an attempt to shift the victims of the obesity epidemic to that of the individuals. As entitled as it may sound, it's not baseless for reasons above and as you suggest for low bodyfat unhealthy individuals.

Think of the trend things like depression and substance abuse are taking (albeit slowly...)

Exactly, you can't gain weight if you don't eat, period. If you just drink water for a week or two or three, you will lose weight:)

---

"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Here it is simply put:

The recommendations [paraphrased] from the American College of Sports Medicine (widely accepted and slightly modified around the world) suggest that you should aim to accumulate 30 minutes or more of moderate intensity on 5 or more days a week in order to maintain cardiometabolic health. Breaking the time into shorter bouts of 10 minutes throughout the days is acceptable.

From this we can say:

If you want to get fitter, you do more. If time is short and you have the ability, do hard shorter sessions.

But in general, doing something is better than nothing. Doing more will get you healthier and fitter.

Take home message - stop over complicating things and move.

---

Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)