Originally Posted by
jsigone
my guess would be slight ignorance of being new
thinking that 20min a day is a magic pill because he owns a bike. Reality there are 1440 mins in a day, that 20 mins is only 1.3% of his day for that magic pill to work. Given he sleeps 9 hours a day, the 20min on the bike increases to 2% of the 15hours he's awake. Given he works 8 hrs a day, that leave 420 mins of his 900 mins to himself/family, 20 mins is 4% of his available time
To your point, I was just reading this study that said that the one thing that correlates best with cardiovascular health in later years isn’t eating, isn’t working out... it’s whether you have a desk job or not. The idea is that most people workout maybe 1-2 hours a week (if that) and it's just not a big enough % of their waking hours to overcome the sedentary lifestyle. Their data suggested that only really extreme workout kings / marathoners / body builders / etc can hope to overcome it.
They suggest that perhaps standing occasionally at your desk, walking while taking calls, plus diet and exercise can add up to big benefits, even if the exercise is moderate. But moderate exercise alone may not be enough if the other 99% of your life is sedentary.