ReThinking The Couch Potato's Position

[Rinse & rePeat]

“While jogging became popular for preventing heart disease, we were frequently told by experts how many miles a person has to run to burn off a pound of fat. However, in Russia, physiologists always remember to include the brain in their calculations, and it turns out that a walk through interesting and pleasant surroundings consumes more energy than does harder but more boring exercise. An active brain consumes a tremendous amount of fuel.” Ray Peat


Could this be the Couch Potato's real problem, lack of exercise to the brain? Granted chips and bad snacking goes with typical Couch Potato scenerio, but I now wonder if the Couch Potato is not grown from a combo of sitting and eating bad, but rather a combo of mindless activity and eating bad. Sure the Couch Potato needs to do his Ray Peat 10% moving around to 90% eating properly part to ever get away from it's stereotype, but it makes me now rethink Couch Potato's position. I know many many people that move around, doing stimulating activities, that don't require much exertion, and eat the same amount of junk that the Couch Potato eats and are slim, you see them all the time in libraries, art galleries and painting in the park. I doubt any of them are "Peaters". Maybe we have misjudged the Couch Potato. With the rise in depression that people are dealing with more and more, and t.v. numbing brains, my grandma was really right by saying, "When you are feeling down, just go outside and you'll feel better". Funny how no matter how far we think we have come, going back to the beginning always seems to have the answers.

 

[OccamzRazer]

Love that Dr. Peat quote!

I think you're onto something. For many people, entertainment is mindless, daily activities are mindless, and even learning is mindless (i.e. passively absorbed, as opposed to actively sought out). Most people's brains are probably not uptaking as much glucose/energy as they should be.

Detoxing from tech by getting out in nature, as your Grandma advocated, is great for all sorts of stuff!

Actively learning something - and then putting this thing into action - is also deeply empowering. I suspect it's also very pro-metabolism. If the brain is allowed to carry one along from one positive change to the next, good things are almost bound to happen.

Unfortunately, society today is set up to make taking action on new knowledge difficult. (Dr. Peat has another great quote about this.)

I suspect many people resort to TV and video games because these things present an easy way to manipulate one's environment - albeit an imaginary one. The rewards for intense thought fade when imaginary escapism becomes easy!

 

[pauljacob]

From my experience diet and a sedentary lifestyle are the primary causes of obesity. As a vegetarian who barely eats any vegetables, I eat mainly bread, cheese, potatoes, tomatoes, chickpeas and some milk and fruit. I pace-walk a mile or two a day, but the rest of the day I'm seated. However, and also from my experience, mental, physical, and emotional stress play a vicious and often ignored role in obesity and sickness. Excess Cortisol, a product of stress, has been implicated in obesity in umpteenth studies. I also believe and know that internal mental stress created by my fears and worries is the most damaging to my physical and mental wellbeing, and is the culprit in my own struggle to reduce my circumference. Just so you don't imagine me as a blimp, I weigh 180 pounds, and my wasteline is 37 inches. I'm 5.5 and that makes me look huskier than I actually am. According to my doctor's weight chart I should weight 130 pounds for my height.

Stress, cortisol, and obesity: a role for cortisol responsiveness in identifying individuals prone to obesity - PubMed

There is a strong inter-relationship between activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis and energy homeostasis. Patients with abdominal obesity have elevated cortisol levels. Furthermore, stress and glucocorticoids act to control both food intake and energy expenditure. In particular...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Love that Dr. Peat quote!

I think you're onto something. For many people, entertainment is mindless, daily activities are mindless, and even learning is mindless (i.e. passively absorbed, as opposed to actively sought out). Most people's brains are probably not uptaking as much glucose/energy as they should be.

Detoxing from tech by getting out in nature, as your Grandma advocated, is great for all sorts of stuff!

Actively learning something - and then putting this thing into action - is also deeply empowering. I suspect it's also very pro-metabolism. If the brain is allowed to carry one along from one positive change to the next, good things are almost bound to happen.

Unfortunately, society today is set up to make taking action on new knowledge difficult. (Dr. Peat has another great quote about this.)

I suspect many people resort to TV and video games because these things present an easy way to manipulate one's environment - albeit an imaginary one. The rewards for intense thought fade when imaginary escapism becomes easy!

Thinking about what you said Occamzrazer, made me think further, that not only are we not exercising our brains watching TV, but how much we stress our adrenals, feeling angry or scared watching a movie or playing an intense video game, which in turn raises our cortisol levels creates more potato fluff. The STRESSED ups and downs our adrenals go through to RELAX and watch some tv seems like an oxymoron now.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

From my experience diet and a sedentary lifestyle are the primary causes of obesity. As a vegetarian who barely eats any vegetables, I eat mainly bread, cheese, potatoes, tomatoes, chickpeas and some milk and fruit. I pace-walk a mile or two a day, but the rest of the day I'm seated. However, and also from my experience, mental, physical, and emotional stress play a vicious and often ignored role in obesity and sickness. Excess Cortisol, a product of stress, has been implicated in obesity in umpteenth studies. I also believe and know that internal mental stress created by my fears and worries is the most damaging to my physical and mental wellbeing, and is the culprit in my own struggle to reduce my circumference. Just so you don't imagine me as a blimp, I weigh 180 pounds, and my wasteline is 37 inches. I'm 5.5 and that makes me look huskier than I actually am. According to my doctor's weight chart I should weight 130 pounds for my height.

Stress, cortisol, and obesity: a role for cortisol responsiveness in identifying individuals prone to obesity - PubMed

There is a strong inter-relationship between activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis and energy homeostasis. Patients with abdominal obesity have elevated cortisol levels. Furthermore, stress and glucocorticoids act to control both food intake and energy expenditure. In particular...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Oh my gosh don't get me started on that weight chart!

 

[OccamzRazer]

Thinking about what you said Occamzrazer, made me think further, that not only are we not exercising our brains watching TV, but how much we stress our adrenals, feeling angry or scared watching a movie or playing an intense video game, which in turn raises our cortisol levels creates more potato fluff. The STRESSED ups and downs our adrenals go through to RELAX and watch some tv seems like an oxymoron now.

Oh totally. Just watched a stressful movie last night. The TV can really play with one's emotions!

Normally sitting and resting should lead to lower cortisol. But TV + low movement + PUFA might just be the perfect storm for muscle catabolism and skinny-fatness.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Oh totally. Just watched a stressful movie last night. The TV can really play with one's emotions!

Normally sitting and resting should lead to lower cortisol. But TV + low movement + PUFA might just be the perfect storm for muscle catabolism and skinny-fatness.

Ha skinny-fatness! It is all certainly a bunch to chew on! I might just take up playing card games, Mastemind and billiards again. I would put reading on my list, but I do enough of that with all the Ray Peat stuff :)

 

[OccamzRazer]

Ha skinny-fatness! It is all certainly a bunch to chew on! I might just take up playing card games, Mastemind and billiards again. I would put reading on my list, but I do enough of that with all the Ray Peat stuff :)

And/or chess, if you enjoy it:

Chess grandmasters lose weight and burn calories from stressful games (cnbc.com)

Yet another confirmation of Dr. Peat's quotes & ideas.

 

[BestSinceDAYONE]

And/or chess, if you enjoy it:

Chess grandmasters lose weight and burn calories from stressful games (cnbc.com)

Yet another confirmation of Dr. Peat's quotes & ideas.

Is this a confirmation more of higher cortisol stimulating fat mobilization or that interesting brain activity stimulates metabolism

 

[OccamzRazer]

Is this a confirmation more of higher cortisol stimulating fat mobilization or that interesting brain activity stimulates metabolism

Probably both?

Since cortisol alone wouldn't increase metabolism nearly that much - I don't think. If it was just cortisol, chess players wouldn't need to eat more. They'd just stay at the same weight but get worse and worse body comp.

Best of all to do an interesting, low-stress activity. So maybe non-championship chess is better lol.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

And/or chess, if you enjoy it:

Chess grandmasters lose weight and burn calories from stressful games (cnbc.com)

Yet another confirmation of D

Is this a confirmation more of higher cortisol stimulating fat mobilization or that interesting brain activity stimulates metabolism

Brain activity stimulating metabolism is what Ray's quote was where we started and what he was saying, but we are realizing another connection with tv/video games and the stress and cortisol created from them.

 

[Riesensackteil]

Is this a confirmation more of higher cortisol stimulating fat mobilization or that interesting brain activity stimulates metabolism

or maybe stress hormones are sent out to nourish the increased metabolic needs of the brain?

 

[Missenger]

Video games tend to be stressful based off just being completely pointless, you can easilly treat it as a sandbox to walk around in mindlessly with cheats or whatever. I'd think doing something practical that's an exercise like wood-chopping is probably more metabolically healthier.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Ha! A sandbox is a funny analogy, but so true

 

[BestSinceDAYONE]

Brain activity stimulating metabolism is what Ray's quote was where we started and what he was saying, but we are realizing another connection with tv/video games and the stress and cortisol created from them.

Yeah but Peat is pretty anti-stress / cortisol hence why I was asking...

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Yeah but Peat is pretty anti-stress / cortisol hence why I was asking...

Things must getting lost in translation VedettaRed911 because we are all in agreeance that video games would be anti-Peat :)

 

[Missenger]

Ha! A sandbox is a funny analogy, but so true

Video games are about only really good for exploring content, creative content from other people from a level editor in the case of older RTS games or mods for older console/handheld games, turning on cheats and messing around with it. They're pretty anti-Peat beyond that though, not exactly material/mental stimulating stuff messing around with a virtual reality with plastic mouse/keyboard. The sun actually helps raise Vitamin D levels at least.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Video games are about only really good for exploring content, creative content from other people from a level editor in the case of older RTS games or mods for older console/handheld games, turning on cheats and messing around with it. They're pretty anti-Peat beyond that though, not exactly material/mental stimulating stuff messing around with a virtual reality with plastic mouse/keyboard. The sun actually helps raise Vitamin D levels at least.

....and It's non-cortisol relaxing. I do my best THINKING in the sun and in the shower ?

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

“While jogging became popular for preventing heart disease, we were frequently told by experts how many miles a person has to run to burn off a pound of fat. However, in Russia, physiologists always remember to include the brain in their calculations, and it turns out that a walk through interesting and pleasant surroundings consumes more energy than does harder but more boring exercise. An active brain consumes a tremendous amount of fuel.” Ray Peat


Could this be the Couch Potato's real problem, lack of exercise to the brain? Granted chips and bad snacking goes with typical Couch Potato scenerio, but I now wonder if the Couch Potato is not grown from a combo of sitting and eating bad, but rather a combo of mindless activity and eating bad. Sure the Couch Potato needs to do his Ray Peat 10% moving around to 90% eating properly part to ever get away from it's stereotype, but it makes me now rethink Couch Potato's position. I know many many people that move around, doing stimulating activities, that don't require much exertion, and eat the same amount of junk that the Couch Potato eats and are slim, you see them all the time in libraries, art galleries and painting in the park. I doubt any of them are "Peaters". Maybe we have misjudged the Couch Potato. With the rise in depression that people are dealing with more and more, and t.v. numbing brains, my grandma was really right by saying, "When you are feeling down, just go outside and you'll feel better". Funny how no matter how far we think we have come, going back to the beginning always seems to have the answers.

Watching Sports Counts as a Workout

New research claims you can get a workout by watching sports on the couch. Is it too good to be true?

www.menshealth.com

 

[Uselis]

There was that one guy who I enjoyed reading. He was saying that brains actually NOT designed to be used so much as we do in a modern age. He had some funny rants how Alzheimer's is actually product of endlessly frying neurons with excessive thinking, solving non existent problems, basically never having silent landscape inside our heads.

Supposedly brains main purpose is actually for environmental navigation so I'd guess something like parkour, hiking in areas where you have to be attentive to each step, trekking and outdoors stuff in general does more good vs say learning language, playing chess or writting.