Well, for instance, dietary changes can strongly impact triglyceride:HDL ratio, which is a strong independent predictor of cardiovascular disease. But really, there are a thousand small ways that exercise and diet are tied to both quality and quantity of life. Everything from joint health, to organ reserve, to sleep quality, to mood.
I can appreciate the desire to establish minimums in the interests of efficiency, as I am this way with cardio myself. As far as exercise goes, the negative health effects of stress probably dominate differences in exercise regimes, so I’d optimize for that. Diet has a similar cost:benefit analysis in that you probably get the vast majority of benefits out of the first few (obvious) interventions with decreasing marginal benefit after that.
on the first few obvious interventions? In order of intervention.
Diet:
Nudging total caloric intake in the direction you want
Slowly replacing micronutrient poor foods that commonly recur in the diet
seeking out specific foods for their nutrient content
further optimizations (everything else)
Exercise:
Anything
Averaging several hours of moderate activity per week
splitting this activity between resistance exercise and cardio
further optimizations
The temptation is to optimize too much, too soon, and wind up with an amazing plan that you don’t actually follow. Between the guy who followed a sub-optimal exercise plan and the guy who occasionally started the perfect exercise regime for two weeks, guess who has better outcomes?
Well, for instance, dietary changes can strongly impact triglyceride:HDL ratio, which is a strong independent predictor of cardiovascular disease. But really, there are a thousand small ways that exercise and diet are tied to both quality and quantity of life. Everything from joint health, to organ reserve, to sleep quality, to mood.
I can appreciate the desire to establish minimums in the interests of efficiency, as I am this way with cardio myself. As far as exercise goes, the negative health effects of stress probably dominate differences in exercise regimes, so I’d optimize for that. Diet has a similar cost:benefit analysis in that you probably get the vast majority of benefits out of the first few (obvious) interventions with decreasing marginal benefit after that.
… Mind elaborating?
on the first few obvious interventions? In order of intervention.
Diet:
Nudging total caloric intake in the direction you want
Slowly replacing micronutrient poor foods that commonly recur in the diet
seeking out specific foods for their nutrient content
further optimizations (everything else)
Exercise:
Anything
Averaging several hours of moderate activity per week
splitting this activity between resistance exercise and cardio
further optimizations
The temptation is to optimize too much, too soon, and wind up with an amazing plan that you don’t actually follow. Between the guy who followed a sub-optimal exercise plan and the guy who occasionally started the perfect exercise regime for two weeks, guess who has better outcomes?