I would highly encourage anyone to read Pontzer’s book, Burn. I just finished it and found it to be incredibly eye opening and well written. The TL;DR is that we need to think of calories like a relatively fixed budget rather than additive, and that the primary benefit of exercise is that it consumes that budget more than it expands it (hence not effective for weight loss), but by consuming that budget there is less budget to go around for unhealthy things like inflammation, excess hormone creation, etc (which is why exercise is so beneficial to health).
Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories
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Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories
#12Pontzer was the guest on one of my favorite podcasts last summer. Great discussion with him: https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-podcast/examining-energy-evoluti...
Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories
#13I would highly encourage anyone to read Pontzer’s book, Burn. I just finished it and found it to be incredibly eye opening and well written. The TL;DR is that we need to think of calories like a relatively fixed budget rather than additive, and that the primary benefit of exercise is that it consumes that budget more than it expands it (hence not effective for weight loss), but by consuming that budget there is less…
> but by consuming that budget there is less budget to go around for unhealthy things like inflammation, excess hormone creation, etc (which is why exercise is so beneficial to health).
You dont understand inflammation, inflammation is like a nuclear bomb going off, however certain chemicals found in the diet will turn that nuclear bomb into an array of guided missiles.
We are complex chemical reactions, eat the wrong stuff you get sick, eat the right stuff you get well, but you need to make the right chemical reactions take place and reduce the wrong chemical reactions.
The problem with scientific study is they generally focus on what they can test directly or indirectly this is why we now see complete reversals in some medical thinking & theories.
Sure exercise and other output will consume calories, but if you focus on just calories, you ignore the properties of the chemicals and ill health will occur.
Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories
#14> “You can’t exercise your way out of obesity,” […] “you can’t outrun a bad diet.” While this article is being a bit dramatic and possibly understating the impact of exercise slightly, I feel a little dumb that I didn’t know this earlier. It took me several decades too long to understand the obvious, that exercise is for building strength, and losing weight happens by eating less. I tried for way too many years to ex…
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Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories
#15I would highly encourage anyone to read Pontzer’s book, Burn. I just finished it and found it to be incredibly eye opening and well written. The TL;DR is that we need to think of calories like a relatively fixed budget rather than additive, and that the primary benefit of exercise is that it consumes that budget more than it expands it (hence not effective for weight loss), but by consuming that budget there is less…
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Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories
#16> Exercise doesn’t help you burn more energy on average; active hunter-gatherers in Africa don’t expend more energy daily than sedentary office workers in Illinois; pregnant women don’t burn more calories per day than other adults, after adjusting for body mass. I love this intro. > His message that exercise won’t help you lose weight “lacks nuance,” says exercise physiologist John Thyfault of the University of Kansa…
> Combining this with the fact that Everest climbers are apparently eating 10K+ calories a day and then up to around 20K on summit day, I have to wonder how these facts jive...if they can really temporarily push the limit, for how long, etc. Yeah, I'm not convinced the article passes the smell test. Michael Phelps discussed his diet extensively, suggesting he ate 10k a day while training. Other athletes talk about si…
They could just be shitting out the excess calories, and the article directly says,
"Elite athletes can push the limits for several months, as the study of marathoners showed, but can’t sustain it indefinitely, Pontzer says."
Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories
#17> Exercise doesn’t help you burn more energy on average; active hunter-gatherers in Africa don’t expend more energy daily than sedentary office workers in Illinois; pregnant women don’t burn more calories per day than other adults, after adjusting for body mass. I love this intro. > His message that exercise won’t help you lose weight “lacks nuance,” says exercise physiologist John Thyfault of the University of Kansa…
> Combining this with the fact that Everest climbers are apparently eating 10K+ calories a day and then up to around 20K on summit day, I have to wonder how these facts jive...if they can really temporarily push the limit, for how long, etc. I think a lot of these stats are myths meant to accentuate the difficulty of the task. Pontzer’s book discusses Michael Phelps and the lack of an actual source to the rumours he…
Michael Phelps directly says in one of his auto biographies that he was eating 8-10k calories a day. I don’t think you can call that a rumor.
Of course he could be off a bit, but it seems unlikely that he’s off by a factor of 2.
He lists the foods that he ate, and it definitely sounds like it was close to 10k calories. His coach also discussed his diet, and backs up his claims.
Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories
#18I would highly encourage anyone to read Pontzer’s book, Burn. I just finished it and found it to be incredibly eye opening and well written. The TL;DR is that we need to think of calories like a relatively fixed budget rather than additive, and that the primary benefit of exercise is that it consumes that budget more than it expands it (hence not effective for weight loss), but by consuming that budget there is less…
> but by consuming that budget there is less budget to go around for unhealthy things like inflammation, excess hormone creation, etc (which is why exercise is so beneficial to health). You dont understand inflammation, inflammation is like a nuclear bomb going off, however certain chemicals found in the diet will turn that nuclear bomb into an array of guided missiles. We are complex chemical reactions, eat the wron…
He is referring to chronic low grade inflammation - not acute inflammation from specific chemicals. He cites studies. If you read them I would love to hear your take because you are correct - I am not an expert on inflammation!
Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories
#19> “You can’t exercise your way out of obesity,” […] “you can’t outrun a bad diet.” While this article is being a bit dramatic and possibly understating the impact of exercise slightly, I feel a little dumb that I didn’t know this earlier. It took me several decades too long to understand the obvious, that exercise is for building strength, and losing weight happens by eating less. I tried for way too many years to ex…
You tracked what you ate was the key difference. Not the exercise. I did an experiment on myself. I deliberately did not do any exercise and changed my diet. I loss 5kg quicker on my diet than I did when I was running 10km regularly. I think its counter productive to see an obese person in the gym or running as this will certainly lead to injury. The narrative around weight loss should always be eat less calories and food that don't encourage hunger.
Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories
#20How do his results line up real world data like soldiers needing about 5k calories a day when active. Or athletes like Michael Phelps consuming 8k-10k calories a day while training?
I didn't read the article, but it may be relevant that (IIRC) swimmers lose a lot of these calories just to maintaining body temperature while in water for a significant fraction of each day (any activity that involves spending a lot of time in water may just be quantitatively abnormal?)