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Yep. Gyms exist for one reason - to take your money.

For cardio, try, um walking. Go a place with trees and hills once a week and walk instead of pounding a treadmill in a filthy flu/fungus-ridden gym.

For strength, you can equip yourself for about $20, eg.: http://www.shovelglove.com/

you want him to spend his one spare hour working out?

Well, if it's sex...

But no, seriously, a lot can be done in fourteen minutes, even if it's not every single day.

No it doesn't. A calorie is a unit of heat. Fiber may prevent absorption of certain carbohydrates in the intestines, etc, but nothing can "flush heat".

Flush as in, carries with it, into the toilet. Then you flush.

Either way, the effect is the same.

Protein doesn't build muscle, muscle is made of protein.

Fine. Close enough.

That one I agree with :) Though aerobic exercise in the morning will do a lot more.

I do both -- though admittedly, not much exercise.

in the end WHAT you eat is completely secondary to HOW MUCH...

Maybe I could be more scientific about it, but I eat way more often, and I eat a lot. Add it up, I'm probably eating more than before I started, both in volume and in calories.

What I'm not doing is eating pizza for lunch every day, or stupid things like that.

And exercise is easy enough, too...

Or, a case could be made that you still have to at least get up and walk around. I don't think a high-protein diet would be a bad thing, even with no exercise.

Shovelglove seems like it fits perfectly, especially the "schedulistically significant time" concept.

That is, if you're in America, you won't find a calendar with a granularity of less than 15 minutes, so you have no excuse for not working out for 14. If you have any time at all, including the time you wasted submitting this Slashdot article, you have time.

There's a bit more to it, but nothing particularly difficult for a geek. There are really only two things to do:

A diet. Doesn't really matter which, as long as you can stick to it, mostly -- so pick something delicious and relatively cheap. Preferably high-protein...

Excercise. Worth mentioning that this guy is a geek. And I agree with the philosophy that it's far more important to just do it, than how much you do.

There are all kinds of tricks to this -- for example, I rarely drink coffee (tea instead), and when I do, it's black. I've almost completely given up my Mountain Dew habit. And, as you said, park farther away, or just walk/bike if you can.

I almost wouldn't call it a skill. It's just a habit.

Also: I have an agreeable stomach, and I imagine plenty of games play action games, which means we've got fast nerves.

No, I'm much more of a geek than GP -- I don't want to go back to that time, because they didn't have the Internet or laptops.

I found what may be the perfect exercise routine for an introvert who doesn't want to buy a lot of equipment...

Shovelgloving

http://shovelglove.com/

Take a sledgehammer and wrap an old sweater around it. This is your "shovelglove." Every week day morning, set a timer for 14 minutes. Use the shovelglove to perform shoveling, butter churning, and wood chopping motions until the timer goes off. Stop. Rest on weekends and holidays.

I do 50 shoveling motions, 50 right then 50 left; 15 to 20 butter churns, right then left; 20 woods chops in both directions; and then 5-8 curl like movements for which I haven't thought of a good name yet. Then I repeat the cycle until the timer goes off.

The number and the order of the movements is flexible. Do them at the pace and in the order that feels right to you. Pay careful attention to your form, so as not to strain yourself. Imagine that you really are performing the activities being simulated. The critical thing is to do it every weekday, no more, no less; for 14 minutes, no more, no less; in a careful, non spastic manner.

Shovelglove is clever, extremely effective, and extraordinarily elegant in its simplicity.

I've been "shugging" for 3 years, off and on. When I'm on, I feel great, I have more energy, more muscle tone, etc. When I don't do it regularly, all of the above gradually go away over a matter of days or weeks.

Once I pick it up again, I'm feeling great within a couple of days.

Go slow at first. You will use muscles you didn't know you had. I recommend starting with an 8# sledge, maybe a 10# if you are already strong. I also got a 16# hammer after about a year of steady shugging. I also use a 4# framing hammer for one-handed moves.

Aside from the stupid name, it seems to be a decent workout, and the 14 minute strategy is pure genius. Given the number of people claiming success on the forums, it might be worth a shot.

Worst case,at least you end up owning a sledgehammer.

http://shovelglove.com/

The theory is: It's dirt-simple, dirt-cheap, and you'll keep doing it for the rest of your life.

Except I haven't actually done it; just going to buy a sledgehammer tomorrow.

Shovelglove has been a great upper-body workout for me. It's simple, cheap, and fun, and you can do it at home. Shovelgloving hardly takes any of your time; it emphasizes habit-building for long-term fitness rather than short-term gains.

For exercise, I use a portable gym made with a sledgehammer called Shovelglove.

Both of these plans, along with Urban Ranger, were developed by a computer programmer, so you may find they work for you too.

Once my body adapted to the dietary and exercise changes, I found that I had far more energy through the day than I was accustomed to.