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Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

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Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#401

Post by tpoacher »

jbotz wrote: post #385
rdiddly wrote: post #312

Last thing I saw was "The son of two high school English teachers, Pontzer grew up on 40 hectares of woods in the Appalachian bla bla bla..." You know that sentence. So many articles have that sentence. The one where it veers off course to talk about the (usually uninteresting) person who found the thing the article is ostensibly and nominally about. Am I alone in being perfectly happy reading about science for the d…

Am I alone on HN in being perfectly happy to get a bit of insight in the human nature of scientists doing impressive work? Seriously, yeah, some of this stuff may be fluff, but it does matter. Two scientists can be doing equally good work on a similar topic, but one's work makes headlines and the other's gets buried in some obscure journal and forgotten. Why? What can I do to be more like the former rather than the l…

I would agree in principle, but puffed up articles rarely give you the kind of insight you are referring to.

I doubt what colour dog they had and their preference for cornflakes instead of oatmeal at buffets is going to let you enter their scientific mind as such.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#402

Post by Broken_Hippo »

dpark wrote: post #120
Fezzik wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The general rule I find helpful is that diet=size and exercise=shape. Being aware of this really helps me limit my food intake even when I’m exercising a ton.

> exercise=shape That really depends on the exercise you’re doing and what “shape” you’re going for. Putting tons of time into running won’t make someone look like they lift weights. Aerobic exercise is great for health but it mostly doesn’t change anyone’s “shape” except to the extent that it helps them lose weight.

"Aerobic exercise is great for health but it mostly doesn’t change anyone’s “shape”"

This just isn't true. It generally won't take away fat, but lifting weights won't remove the fat either (it doesn't matter how strong your stomach is, you aren't seeing it if you have a layer of fat on top). But if you are already thin - or thinner in places - most of the aerobic exercise will build appropriate muscle. Walking makes for changes in the lower half of the body, for example. It still won't make you look like you lift weights, true, but there is still change.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#403

Post by bluecalm »

pjerem wrote: post #263
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2) Your hunger will increase to compensate for the calories burned and you'll subconsciously eat more if not carefully tracking. This is also a oft-made claim that doesn't have much backing. Part of the point of the research described in TFA is that humans who face specific periods of energy expenditure during the day may often simply reduce energy expenditure during the rest of the day so that TEE remains roughly…

Also anecdotal, but I’m not an athlete (like, the inverse of an athlete, I’m overweight and don’t move enough) and moderate exercising does, in my case, suppress some appetite. I eat les after exercising. My 2 cents theory is that it suppress the "stress induced" appetite.

It might also increase dopamine. I have ADHD and there are two things that let me focus better and feel less hungry: stimulants and exercise.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#404

Post by jeltz »

1_player wrote: post #382
michalu wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever there's insignificant science making "controversial" claims like "you can't lose weight with sport" journalist will provide storytelling instead of science. The whole premise of that "You can’t exercise your way out of obesity" is that you burn more calories when you start running than later on as you continue. What's so controversial about it? It's normal that body optimizes for energy expenditure that's wh…

> What's so controversial about it? Your body burns incredibly more energy just "being there" than you burn moving about. Exercise certainly increases your calorific expenditure, but it's much easier to ingest less fuel than to run 5 more miles because you had a portion of fries. There are benefits in exercise, apart from the obvious ones the raising of the baseline metabolic expenditure, because muscles are expensiv…

While I agree with that excerice isn't a very efficient way to lose weight I think that you understate how many calories running burns.

When I run consistently I need to eat what feels like a lot more food to maintain my weight. Running burns about 700-800 kcal per hour for me (I have a quite small build) which ends up quite a bit over a week (I run 5-8 hours per week).

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#405

Post by jeltz »

FrankyHollywood wrote: post #395
michalu wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever there's insignificant science making "controversial" claims like "you can't lose weight with sport" journalist will provide storytelling instead of science. The whole premise of that "You can’t exercise your way out of obesity" is that you burn more calories when you start running than later on as you continue. What's so controversial about it? It's normal that body optimizes for energy expenditure that's wh…

> If I start lifting 20lbs and 3 years later I still lift that of course I won't lose weight. I don't understand, your body optimizes, and uses 20% less energy. However, you are still using the 80% which is more than not doing anything at all don't you?

Plus at least for running you can just run faster and make up for that 20% effioency gain. I personally do not think excercise is very good for losing weight but that particular argument is BS.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#406

Post by ajuc »

hgomersall wrote: post #392
Elte wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a bit confused by this point in the article, because it also states: > There seems to be a hard limit on how many calories our bodies can burn per day, set by how fast we can digest food and turn it into energy. He calculates that the ceiling for an 85-kilogram man would be about 4650 calories per day. Given that "regular" people clearly do not burn 4650 calories per day, and it is possible to burn 4650 calories…

Yeah, I thought this. There's clearly an amount of exercise that will cause you to lose weight. An interesting question is whether your body prevents you from achieving that. Cycling was always interesting to me in this context because it seems easier to burn energy on a bike than other forms of exercise.

When cycling there's this "wall" you hit after a few hours. At least I do. After that it's much harder to keep pace or go uphill.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#407

Post by rob74 »

artdigital wrote: post #378
rob74 wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Congratulations! I would be happy to lose "only" 10 kg (hell, 5 kg would be good for a start), but since Covid and home office my weight has been (slowly, but steadily) going in the wrong direction. Yeah, you can and do burn calories by exercising, but it's depressing how little it is. And it's also depressing if I look at the graph that some 40 to 50 year olds seem to still have the metabolism of a toddler - I'm def…

My advise: (as someone who does a lot of working out and calorie control) Write down what you eat for a while and its calories. Weigh yourself daily as well and write that down too. If after a week your weight went up: Your calories are above your TDEE. If it went down: Your calories are under your TDEE. And that's basically it, once you know what your TDEE is, eat under it to create a caloric deficit and you will lo…

Of course, eating less is the ideal solution if you can muster the willpower to actually do it - but that's a big "if" for many people...

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#408

Post by mcv »

rdiddly wrote: post #312

Last thing I saw was "The son of two high school English teachers, Pontzer grew up on 40 hectares of woods in the Appalachian bla bla bla..." You know that sentence. So many articles have that sentence. The one where it veers off course to talk about the (usually uninteresting) person who found the thing the article is ostensibly and nominally about. Am I alone in being perfectly happy reading about science for the d…

It would be nice if articles actually made use of the possibilities of the Web: show me just the brief summary of what it's about, and let me click links to choose whether to read more about the science, or more about the 40 hectares of woods where the guy grew up.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#409

Post by Broken_Hippo »

soheil wrote: post #199
dahart wrote: post #4

> “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…

It's even worse than that. It's about eating the same thing every day, that's how you lose weight. Most people give up because you have to know what's in different food and then track it somehow. Counting calories is a herculean task, but if you already know the same exact food has 80% of daily calorie intake then you never have to count calories and there is literally no work involved in losing weight.

It's about eating the same thing every day, that's how you lose weight

This simply isn't true at all, and you don't have to count calories per se. I lost quite a bit simply changing my diet. I kept most of it off for years: I gained some back when I quit nicotine, though (Quitting smoking changed my sense of hunger, and Im still upset about that). It wasn't quick weight loss and it came in stages, but I didn't count calories nor spend too much time thinking about food. I simply focused on getting more fruits, vegetables, and legumes when I could. (I completely dropped meat outside of fish, but it isn't necessary and was losing weight before that). I also rarely eat out, even when I've had work/school (I just brought something). This meant I could pretty well eat what I wanted and would just choose lower calorie things by default. As long as I ate fairly well most of the time*, I was OK. I didn't have to suffer the PMS hunger I get either: I would just eat something.

You can eat the same thing every day, mind you, and I've met a lot of folks that do. Generally, however, it is a lifestyle choice and you have to be careful to make sure you have enough vitamins and things. One of the three folks I'm thinking of made themselves sick by not including enough vegetables.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#410

Post by ajuc »

csee wrote: post #399
skohan wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just have a hard time believing it to be true that no amount of exercise will increase the overall caloric expenditure. For example, I've done a few multi-week bike tours, and we ate an enormous amount of mostly pasta every day, and managed to peel off a few pounds each by the end of it.

The article mentions a study that tracked energy expenditure of runners over many weeks, and found that the energy expenditure was much lower at the tail end of the experiment, suggesting the body gets accustomed to the activity somehow and burns less energy.

Well one obvious adaptation is losing fat = less energy needed to move the body.
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