People who are too busy to do exercise

This! It is not about them feeling more important and too busy to exercise it is just their preference to give it priority and sometimes people just don’t feel like working up a sweat instead they prefer relaxation.
Exercise is a matter of personal taste, not one for discussion- everyone to their own.
Well done you for being so active👍

I am on my own diet, not just for weight loss but also for medical reasons. I exercise in my own way which is pretty restrictive with being disabled. I don't bother with SW or WW because I can't be arsed with the way it is structured. However, I don't condemn anyone that goes to either or exercises in their own way because that is their business!!

How would you fit exercise into this day?

Wake up at 6.30 and get myself and baby ready for the day.
Leave for work at 7.30.
Collect baby and get home at 6pm (I'm a teacher).
Get family dinner ready for 7pm
Bath and into bed by 8 (if lucky!).
Do house tasks - washing up / laundry / tidy up / by 9pm
Make sure I'm ready for next day of work (sorting lessons on the laptop, washing my hair, making tomorrows lunch) by 9.30.
Fall into bed exhausted.

I have 3 young children (6,2 and 4 months). I get up at 6am to get the eldest ready for school before taking all 3 of them on the school run, I then spend my day with the youngest 2 which includes keeping them entertained, cooking tea and making sure the housework and washing is kept ontop of. When my husband comes home at 4pm after collecting my eldest, I leave for work cleaning offices until midnight.
When would you suggest I fit a 40 minute run in?

What an absolutely entitled, holier than thou attitude to have OP.

This is my approach as well. Weights left over from lockdown and online workouts. Mixed in with long walks with the double pram

Everyone should try to make time to be active, though it doesn't have to be running or going to the gym. I've always considered being active a basic component of looking after yourself. Particularly as many of us have to sit a lot at work. It's not a guarantee that you won't become ill or disabled but if you are in good health, it's a good idea to try to preserve that and be as fit and healthy as possible for as long as possible as it makes everything else in life so much easier. Also as I have two DDs I have tried to model a healthy lifestyle to them to take forward into adulthood.

Asking me how I find time to exercise is a bit like asking how I find time to eat or sleep. It's important so I have to find time.

I have small children and a DH out the house 12+ hours a day. I'm lucky to have a home gym (second hand equipment in the conservatory) so I can exercise, and I walk a lot, but I can well imagine how someone else couldn't. Realistically, there's no way I'd be off for a run, or to the gym at 4am or 9.30pm if those were my only options.

Whilst I think some people do use lack of time as an excuse, I do think there are some people who really do struggle to find time. When I had young children I couldn’t just disappear out for a run or to go to the gym if DH wasn’t around. I have more flexibility now as they are old enough to be at home alone for an hour or so. If someone is a single parent, exercise is something I imagine is difficult to fit in.

When you think of other people's lives, do you think of them as being basically like yours? And when you hear people say they don't have time to exercise you don't believe them, because you have the time?

I think it's a human thing to think that other people's experience of the world is the same as yours but it often isn't. When people say they don't have time, sometimes they really don't. They can be caring for children and elderly parents while working full time and find every hour of their lives accounted for. But sometimes what they mean is that they don't have the energy for it. They use all their energy elsewhere and don't have any left. Somewhere between 30-50% of adults in the UK have some sort of persistent pain and even more have long term health conditions. These people might have to pace themselves and will feel quite unwell if they overdo it.

The vast majority of people struggle to get the WHO recommended amount of exercise a week (which is incidentally 150 mins of moderate intensity cardio and 2 sessions of strengthening exercise so you could think about adding a couple of sessions of something like weights or pilates to meet them yourself).

We are wired to find it easy to do things that have a quick return and exercising for vague future benefits to your health for as long as possible is really quite hard to convince yourself to do. Arguably, conserving energy has an evolutionary advantage so the fact it's hard work to make yourself want to go and waste a load of energy running round the block makes a lot of sense.

This.

I despise almost all forms of exercise. So when I have 'free' time in the evenings, I prioritise other things and other hobbies. I do hike, but that's an all day/ all morning event requiring planning so not possible multiple times a week. I do walk the dog every lunch time but that doesn't get me my 10,000 steps.

I can't do a regular exercise that would take me out of the home as I can't leave my kids unattended, but I could do a in home class, I just really really dislike it so don't. (I go through periods where I do, I just don't keep it up).

I'm glad to have reached my 60s as quite a few of my peers have not. I spent 40 years teaching infants which was exhausting. I never had time to exercise then and now I'm retired, the last thing I want to do is take up running or going to the gym.

Awful as it may seem, I actually enjoy getting up late, meeting friends for coffee and lunch, lazing about reading or watching shite on the telly.

You are being unreasonable and judgemental yes. Exercise can be a luxury if you don't have a decent support system.

I was alone with my 2 young children for months when my partner was ill in hospital- was a struggle to get even a few minutes to myself and I usually only got that because I had family to help and often needed to use that time for things like shopping.

Oh bugger off, I bet you’re a nightmare in real life.

I work 8am until 5.30 5 days per week and I can only get a childminder to take my child from 7.30 til 6 so I’m rushing as it is to make drop offs and pick ups fit. I am then in the house all evening watching my child as I am a single parent.

I then have my child all weekend every weekend.

there are no gyms near me that offer childcare/crèche facilities.

So no not every bloody person can go for a 4 mile run 3 miles a week. I can do Pilates in the house and keep active walking at the weekend but actual proper cardio (which I miss like mad) I do not have the time for right now. Hope that helps.

So what? It's none of your business.

I think OP is a goady thread starter who won't be back.

This is a good point, does your job involve sitting down for 8 hours a day op? If so then I probably get more exercise than you

Stealth brag. Bet you wear your active wear all day too..

A lot of people will say they don't have time, and really what they mean is they do have time but they are choosing to prioritise other things with that time, such as chilling, watching TV, scrolling etc.

Another significant proportion of people who say that will not be able to go for a run 3 x a week since they have young DC who can't be left or children with disabilities requiring care.

I have just got back into running after the baby years and whilst I agree it's a great feeling, I have had years when I simply couldn't go as I was on my own with babies or young DC.

Are you as smug and lacking in empathy is real life?

Currently have a 4 month old, I’m desperate to get in shape but don’t get any time for myself as she is clingy AF and I have no support network. The 20 mins a time she will be put down I use for washing/peeing/making food.
Good for you that you can do it but what’s your point here? Not everyone is a lazy couch potato, and if I ever get a minute to myself would probably prioritise sleep anyway. Think your post make you sound like a judgy 🛎️ 🔚

Perhaps you're not busy enough if you have time to worry about such trivial matters

I exercise a lot more than you OP (another running nut). The reason is that my DC are in their 20s and I don't need to be at home with them all the time. When they were little and I had a job with long hours and a DH who worked away I had literally no time to exercise - it was go to work, work through my lunch break with a sandwich so I could leave in time for childcare and then I couldn't leave the house (and usually had to do more work in the evening anyway) to go for a run. I'd get one in at the weekend if DH was around to look after the DC. Once they were older and could be left it got easier although running after dark is a luxury that only men really get so it didn't always work.

Well I don’t have time as I would prioritise being with my kids for those 40 mins the exercise would take place. No beef in saying this my point is people have different priorities.

"Look at me, I do exercise, I'm soooo much better than you" is what I'm getting from your post.

I lead an active life @Hollyandivygoout.
A full-time job, to which I drive and leave at 7.30am, returning at 7.30pm ish, a large household, grown-up DC, pets, visitors, large garden.

I do about 5k steps a day, I am on the go from 6.30am until about 9pm. I do about 4-6 hours of heavy gardening when the weather allows and consider the weekly shop as a weightlifting challenge.

I'm 64, have a normal bmi, and severe osteoporosis (5 breaks in 5 years). A start my day with five minutes of gentle pilates to get my back moving. When I give up work I'll do more gentle pilates.

I don't exercise because I hate it. I find running for the sake of it a pointless exercise. I had to do sport and PE at school. I hated every single minute of it. The day I left school I vowed nobody else would ever again make me participate in enforced exercise. Never again would I suffer the ridicule of the alpha sporty girls because I was crap at sport.

.I hope that answers your question with sufficient detail.

YABVVVVVVVVU - it's is not your business to query or criticise what others do when there is no detriment to others involved.