Should Drugs be Used to Help Lazy People Exercise?

[Tennis]

Endurance expert: drugs could help ‘lazy people’ exercise

Together with lack of time, physical exertion is one of the main perceived barriers to exercise. This is not surprising because humans evolved to be ‘lazy’, i.e. to conserve energy. Professor Samuele Marcora suggests that reducing perception of effort during exercise using caffeine or other psychoactive drugs (e.g. methylphenidate and modafinil ) could help many people stick to their fitness plans.

Whilst acknowledging that such an intervention is both drastic and controversial, Professor Marcora points out that perception of effort is one of the main reasons why most people choose sedentary activities for their leisure time. Compared to watching television (zero effort), even moderate-intensity physical activities like walking require considerable effort.

He says finding a way that makes people with very low motivation to do even moderate exercise, like walking, could be particularly useful. Similarly, a reduction in perception of effort would be very helpful to the many people who find exercise difficult because they are overweight and/or exercise after work in a state of mental fatigue.

Professor Marcora also states that whilst there is no strong ethical opposition to the use of psychoactive drugs to help quit smoking (nicotine) or treat obesity (appetite suppressants), the negative perception of doping in sport may prevent the use of stimulants and other psychoactive drugs to treat physical inactivity.

Given that physical inactivity is responsible for twice as many deaths as obesity, he hopes that psychopharmacological treatment for physical inactivity will be considered fairly and seriously rather than immediately rejected on the basis of unrelated ethical considerations about doping in sport.

http://www.kent.ac.uk/news/science/7...eople-exercise

Might be worth a try since physical inactivity and obesity are starting to really destroy society.
It sucks that society needs to coddle these lazy folks but it's better than doing nothing.

[ItachiZaku]

No, they'll weed themselves out eventually.

[Deleted]

You show me a couch potato playing with his dick all day and I'll show you someone who's not causing any trouble.

Motivation's overrated.

[Tennis]

You show me a couch potato playing with his dick all day and I'll show you someone who's not causing any trouble.

Motivation's overrated.

Not causing trouble? The healthcare system would argue otherwise.

[Independent voter]

Not against their will. A lot of fat people would jump on the chance to take a useful drug that helped them lose weight, I think.

[Forgettable]

There should be some form of fat tax. That'll motivate them.

[Deleted]

Making yourself dependent on a drug when you do not have a serious psychological condition just sounds incredibly stupid and (thats btw the main problem) lazy to me.
It won't help people understand healthy nutrition, proper ways to workout and stuff like that. And that's coming from a former fat person who used to eat tons of food and take the car to the pizza place around the block...
Once you get the first feelings of success...when you actually realize that talking a walk can be amazing, or when you reach your goal of losing a certain amoung of weight, or when you gain more and more knowledge of lifting weights, get stronger and meet new people you make friends with...THATS what actually helped me out of it.

[Emageht Tsoluoy]

Not against their will. A lot of fat people would jump on the chance to take a useful drug that helped them lose weight, I think.

i would jump all over this.
for me, motivation is a significant problem in getting exercise.

im at that 'tipping point' where everything hurts, and if i don't start soon im gonna be a 450lb tubbalard if i make it to 60.

[Tennis]

There should be some form of fat tax. That'll motivate them.

Good plan. Start it off low and then slowly increase it. Maybe do a pilot project in Alberta on it.

[ItachiZaku]

i would jump all over this.
for me, motivation is a significant problem in getting exercise.

im at that 'tipping point' where everything hurts, and if i don't start soon im gonna be a 450lb tubbalard if i make it to 60.

Like Einst3in said about you, start slow, set goals. As you see some sort of results, it's motivating in itself. At that point, it's easier to keep going, setting more goals and poof.

[ComputerNerd]

If "motivation" is such a problem, then perhaps they should take look at the treatment of "fat" people by others.
This just looks like fat shaming, instead of dealing with the real causes.

[Shahad]

Being active helps, but 75-90% of weight loss is nutrition. Fix the food people eat and they won't be obese anymore, anything else is pointless.

[Revi]

If it works, sure, let them. I know plenty of people who use things like caffeine pills for working out already, you can buy them over the counter at fitness stores. There's really nothing preventing people from doing that already.

[Emageht Tsoluoy]

Like Einst3in said about you, start slow, set goals. As you see some sort of results, it's motivating in itself. At that point, it's easier to keep going, setting more goals and poof.

This is me in 10 years



i need more motivation than "meh, maybe after months of excruciating pain, i might lose 10 pounds."