How Much Is Enough?
Much of the benefit comes early.
See where, for the things that fill a life.
Most arrives early.
Each curve starts at 0% gain. Its best point is 100%. We call 90% enough.
Walking and exercise: lower risk of dying.
Protein: muscle gain while lifting, per lb of body weight.
Fraction of each dose range, not equal effort.
At 40% through each range
What does “enough” mean?
Here, enough means the first amount that captures 90% of the improvement within a stated range. Walking covers 2,000 to 12,000 steps a day; exercise covers 0 to 600 moderate minutes a week; protein covers 0.41 to 1.09 grams per pound a day, while lifting.
The horizontal scale is the fraction of each displayed range, not equal effort. Its endpoints shape the curves. The vertical scale is the share of each curve’s own gain, not equal health benefits or a personal prediction. These three curves measure different things: risk of dying and muscle gain.
Some curves keep rising. Some have a sweet spot. For a few things, enough is zero. The cards below keep those differences.
Your enough
Put in a few numbers. See how much of each curve’s gain you already reach.
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About your bars
Each share belongs to its own outcome and study. The bars place your numbers on those curves. Sleep shows your position near or away from the low point; work uses this historical factory’s output, not your productivity. Fruit and veg snaps to the nearest published group. Beyond a chart’s range, no estimate is made.
Exercise means moderate activity, such as brisk walking. Count each vigorous minute as two moderate minutes for this chart. Protein is total daily intake while resistance training.
Loading the curves. Read the source data.
Sources, method and painting
Every chart names its range. For a curve where more helps, its gain is the improvement from the lowest displayed amount to the best point anywhere in that range. We divide the improvement at each amount by that total. The first 90% crossing is its enough point. For published groups, we select the first qualifying group rather than inventing an exact dose between them.
A lower or upper confidence curve can produce a different crossing. Those separately normalized crossings are sensitivity checks, not a formal confidence interval for an optimal amount. An absent uncertainty band stays absent.
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters, 1565. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1919. Public domain.
Checked October 4, 2026. Compare paintings, overview layouts and colors.