I think the problem is that there's too much misinformation about exercise and nutrition. It's been turned into an industry that's rife with con artists, scams, and snake oil salesmen. When you really think about it in a historic context, exercise and nutrition are actually quite simple.

For most of human history, our ancestors didn't have abundantly stocked fridges and pantries. So when they got up in the morning, they likely had to scavenge or hunt before they could eat. Before agriculture arrived, around 10,000 years ago, our diet was fundamentally different from a typical modern diet. People mostly ate meat, including animal fats, nuts, leafy vegetables, and due to availability, a moderate amount of fruit. In terms of evolution, that time wasn't long enough for our bodies to adjust to the foods introduced by agriculture, and worse, the hyper-processed "food" products introduced in the second half of the 20th century. Is it really a coincidence that obesity becomes endemic now?

In that context, intermittent fasting seems like a sound idea and what is generally referred to as the Paleo diet seems like a sound idea too. The latter is not a diet like the many weird diet fads out there, it's just based on evolutionary biology.

My girlfriend and I both live like this and we're like aliens in our environment, because we're very slim. We eat what we want, even though our baseline is meat and vegetables, and as much as we want. I exercise because I like it, my girlfriend doesn't exercise regularly because she doesn't like it. We don't eat breakfast, because we feel good on a fast and we both agree that when our parents made us eat breakfast when we were little, it felt forced on us, and we didn't feel good eating it.

It isn't genetics though. Both of us had periods of being on the heftier side and no one else in our families is particularly skinny, except for my brother, whose lifestyle is similar to ours in that regard.

We gave her mom these basic tips, because she's in menopause and was shocked to see how chubby she looked in pictures. Her mom can't do without breakfast, so she eats nuts with a bit of fruit or eggs and bacon. The eggs can be boiled or fried together with the bacon in its own fat. The most unbelievable thing for me is that her mom, who never exercised in her life, got into calisthenics and got hooked on it to a point where she desperately missed it when she had to take a week-long break after a dental procedure. After around 3 months, she showed visible improvements to the point of people questioning whether she's on some kind of miracle drug and a work colleague very inappropriately lifting her shirt to see if she's wearing a corset. After around 9 months, she's now in the best shape of her life, according to her own words.

Let's see if they'll limit themselves to comments or also inject ads into UI code.

I have a somewhat complicated personal history with exercise. Got bullied in school, was always among the last to be picked in gym class, and was a scrawny teenager with no confidence. At some point I bought some weights and half-heartedly exercised in my bedroom.

Later, I had a work colleague who I started going to the gym with. He moved away and going to the gym alone wasn't the same. I went on a month-long road-trip and quickly felt how I was getting out of shape.

Through the app store, I discovered bodyweight exercises and got into them in a regimented way. Initially it was fun, and I saw results rather quickly. But then I became more and more obsessed with counting reps, and felt a pressure to at least match or better, outdo my reps from the previous day. This made me dread exercise.

I got into skipping rope and really enjoyed that. When I realized that I enjoyed it, because I wasn't counting or timing, I started to apply the same approach to push-ups and other exercises.

Exercise has completely changed my life and being playful, rather than strictly regimented about it, has completely changed the way I look at exercise. I can absolutely confirm the positive effects of short bursts of exercise.

Nowadays, I squeeze exercise in whenever I can, while I'm heating my lunch, for example. Apart from that, I generally try to be as active as possible, walk as much as possible, prefer stairs over elevators, etc.

I made gymify.it to keep myself accountable and to track my physical activity in a fun, light-hearted way. If anyone here is interested in beta-testing, I would be more than happy to give you free access.