Megan McArdle Embraces Idiocy

It's well-known to anyone who has ever ran farther than 100 yards, lifted more than 25 pounds, or done a single pull-up that mainstream medical science, as it pertains to exercise and diet, is often not much more than a pseudoscience. Body responses often vary, and what works for some people won't work for others. But beyond that, the advice is still often flawed. You have a guy eating Rice Krispies for breakfast and a steak for dinner, and the doctor tells him to cut the steak. Crap like that.

The bottom line is that you start with a general idea, and then change it up as it you see fit. Like, blueberries are good, donuts are bad. Chicken is good, iced tea is bad. Lifting weights is good, running on a treadmill is dumb. Then you use your experiences to alter your routine. It isn't rocket science.

It especially isn't rocket science if you decide to go full retard like Megan McArdle does today:

But take heart: exercise may not be nearly as great as we've been told. It definitely helps ward off diabetes, but most of that benefit comes at very modest levels. It might have modest effects on depression, heart disease, and cancer, but it's hard to tell because of selection effects: if you stay depressed, you probably stop exercising. And it's hard to tease out the confounding factors in the other two: the exercisers are also thinner, more educated, and less likely smoke than the others. I was shocked to find out how much of the difference between women's and men's life expectancy was accounted for by their different rates of smoking, and it seems the same sort of thing may be operating here.

Yes, Megan, the sole benefit of working out is reducing your risk of diabetes. How about not looking like the rest of America? Or feeling better? Or being stronger? Or more able to walk up a motherfucking flight of 12 stairs without gasping for air? To Megan, these are simply not benefits. They're just illusions. She continues spewing:

Oh, and exercise probably won't make you thin, either, particularly if you're the sort of person who finds it hard to lose weight. Your appetite eventually seems to increase enough to compensate.

Laugh. Out. Loud. This is essentially false without qualification. If you "find it hard to lose weight" you need to stop eating fucking donuts. Thyroid problems and the like are bullshit excuses for America's giants and giantesses, on par with ADD diagnoses for children whose parents royally fucked the cat at their jobs. People "have trouble losing weight" in the same way they "have trouble keeping their car from being drawn to the drive-thru window." If you lift weights, you will develop more muscle, and therefore acquire a faster metabolism, which will allow you to eat more. Going for a run doesn't give you carte blanche to become Entenmann's spokesperson. Only an... Atlantic blogger would think that.

Basically, unless you're at risk for diabetes, Kolata says there's no solid evidence that exercise will do much besides make you sweat.

Of course, my idea of exercise is biking to work, so you'd expect me to say that.

This must go down as one of the worst posts in e-history. Calling it a "cop-out" is a cop-out. It's full blown Downie retardation at the highest level imaginable. It really makes you wonder if these people have ever, ever, exercised--shot hoops, done a single bench press, completed a sit-up, jumped rope... It's not something you analyze on paper. You try shit out and the results will come.