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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

#411

Post by episteme »

oblio wrote: post #384
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. This example is kind of bad :-) You don't lose weight by lifting weights, in general. And amusingly, if you did want to lose weight by lifting weights, your example is precisely how you > lose weight. You lift 10kgs over and over and over again, or even better, incorporate the extra weight into some sort of cardio routine. I…

This is not accurate, weightlifting with a reasonably difficult weight for your strength level is one of the most effective ways to burn calories.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#412

Post by vanderZwan »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #391
elvis10ten wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we have fitness wrong in this side of the world. I grew up seeing 60 year olds that were as fit as youths in the west. They didn’t have a treadmill or did keto diets. My take away was fitness should be a lifestyle and to avoid lots of western food (sugar, processed, empty calories, I drink only water, etc). I don’t count calories and can eat twice in the morning. If I counted, both morning meals are less than…

> My take away was fitness should be a lifestyle There's only one way this actually happens for a majority of the population: exercise being built into daily habits, in a way that's so natural that it almost seems unavoidable. The Netherlands seems to have the right of it: their urban design strongly supports walking and biking, and indeed, their rates of 'active transportation' are very high. As a bonus, walk and bi…

"Traditionally" the people of Osaka, Sicily and various Greek islands are actually best at maintaining such healthy lifestyles, from what I recall from studies on longevity. Good diets, lots of mild exercise from long walks (on hilly terrain) and strong socal ties. I say traditionally because of course these studies can only really look at the lifestyles of past generations.

With that in mind the flat landscape of the Netherlands might be giving us a slight disadvantage ;)

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#413

Post by fastball »

oblio wrote: post #384
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. This example is kind of bad :-) You don't lose weight by lifting weights, in general. And amusingly, if you did want to lose weight by lifting weights, your example is precisely how you > lose weight. You lift 10kgs over and over and over again, or even better, incorporate the extra weight into some sort of cardio routine. I…

I'm pretty sure you have that backwards. What you're describing is effectively trying to turn weigh-lifting into cardio, while most research shows that interval training / weigh training are more effective at burning calories than steady-state cardio.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#415

Post by L_Rahman »

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…

You are not alone. A subset of HN users have an identity marker around having a preference for "explicit material claims and nothing else for color or emotion". They then enjoy signaling this preference to their tribe in the comments. I've found it best to ignore them.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#416

Post by namdnay »

dTal wrote: post #377
ajuc wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes counting calories is essential, I had very similar experience (walk 10 km on the weekend ~= burn 600 kcal, then buy a 1000 kcal snack on the way back and wonder why I'm not losing weight), but still the exercise makes a big difference. Last year in march I started counting calories, recording my weight and all exercises I did and walking/biking every day. I lost 30 kg, walked 2100 km, biked 1000 km, and the sum o…

What the heck kind of "snack" is 1000 kcal?

A single cinnamon roll is nearly 500 calories. As soon as you’re combining fat and sugar things skyrocket

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#417

Post by foxfluff »

emodendroket wrote: post #177
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…

I know this isn't rigorous but it definitely matches up with my personal experience -- I'll be hungrier, often ravenously so, after strenuous activity.

The activity makes a big difference for me though. Running for example tends to not have a major impact on appetite.. sometimes I feel like it actually lowers my desire to eat. That's based on relatively short runs though (45-90 mins of activity). I don't know how I'd feel after a marathon.

If I ride a bike for 3 hours, I feel like I could eat a horse.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#418

Post by toolslive »

ajuc wrote: post #192
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…

Yes counting calories is essential, I had very similar experience (walk 10 km on the weekend ~= burn 600 kcal, then buy a 1000 kcal snack on the way back and wonder why I'm not losing weight), but still the exercise makes a big difference. Last year in march I started counting calories, recording my weight and all exercises I did and walking/biking every day. I lost 30 kg, walked 2100 km, biked 1000 km, and the sum o…

roughly 3/4 of your energy consumption is maintenance (fe keeping body temperature). So you walking/biking might even be irrelevant. If the outdoor temperature was low, this would probably be number 1.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#419

Post by [deleted] »

lhuser123 wrote: post #88
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…

I have a bias towards the idea that we are very different, and it really depends on many unknown factors that apply only to one specific individual.

[deleted]

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#420

Post by watwut »

episteme wrote: post #411
oblio wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If I start lifting 20lbs and 3 years later I still lift that of course I won't lose weight. This example is kind of bad :-) You don't lose weight by lifting weights, in general. And amusingly, if you did want to lose weight by lifting weights, your example is precisely how you > lose weight. You lift 10kgs over and over and over again, or even better, incorporate the extra weight into some sort of cardio routine. I…

This is not accurate, weightlifting with a reasonably difficult weight for your strength level is one of the most effective ways to burn calories.

> This is not accurate, weightlifting with a reasonably difficult weight for your strength level is one of the most effective ways to burn calories.

It wont make you loose weight however. It will likely make you gain weight as your muscles will grow. Which is explicit goal of many guys who start lifting weights.

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