Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

science.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

461–470 of 753 posts

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#461

Post by Avalaxy »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #359
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…

Could machine learning could help with this? Could some algorithm be created to strip the padding from such articles just leaving the useful stuff?

Yes. See https://smmry.com/https://www.science.org/content/article/sc... for example.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#462

Post by JackMorgan »

colechristensen wrote: post #102
JackMorgan wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some friends and I are currently doing a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail, and only ten days in the four of us clocked 7, 8, 10, and 17 pounds lost... But we're hiking 6+ hours a day with heavy packs. We've been eating easily ~3000kcal each daily. I think at the extreme edges, nutrition science is a lot less well understood. We were very surprised to see we'd lost anything at all, as we're stopping to eat 300 calor…

A lot of an initial 10 pounds of weight loss can be dehydration and less food in the process of digestion.

That's a good point.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#463

Post by discordianfish »

ajuc wrote: post #424
rob74 wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Counting calories is still very useful, because you learn what's "worth it". For example there are protein bars that are supposedly healthy, but they have 150-250 kcal per 50g bar. On the other hand there are these watery ice creams that have about 65 kcal per piece and feel just as indulgent if not more. Other things that are very much "not worth it" on the enjoyement/kcal scale is bread and other pastries. 2 buns w…

> these watery ice creams that have about 65 kcal per piece and feel just as indulgent if not more.

that shows why it’s easier for some than for others :)

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#464

Post by jiggunjer »

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.

It is accurate. He didn't use the phrase "burn calories" at all ;)

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#465

Post by bratwurst3000 »

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.

Btw as far as I know the only way to burn bodymass with sports is to have a heart rate of 120-140 for at least one hour. And then it starts. And to loose one gramm of fat one needs to burn 4kcal ( it takes 4kcal to generate the fuel from the body. Fat has usualy 8kcal). Also to loose around 200g of bodyfat a day one has to run at least 2 hours. ( with 500kcal/hour burned)

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#466

Post by josefrichter »

dpark wrote: post #86
josefrichter wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is don’t try to change everything at once. I am not questioning health benefits of sports. But change of diet is a big change - not only biologically, but also mentally, logistically, practically, financially, etc. Change of exercise is equally massive change. It’s kinda logical that trying to juggle too many things at once is more likely to fail.

This is an entirely different thesis. You said that starting diet and exercise together is harder in terms of your body finding balance. Now you’re talking primarily about logistics and mental impact.

I wrote biologically and mentally as first two points, these concern your body.

With diet you need to find what to eat, how much, how often, so that you’re not hungry, grumpy, tired, sick, etc. and still consistently lose weight. It’s gonna take a couple of weeks for your body to adjust.

Exercise will also drastically affect your hunger, tiredness, etc. It’s gonna be harder to find new balance (or rather dysbalance with consistent weight loss) when you can’t really read which changes in your body are caused by diet and which by exercise. Higher chance of disappointment and quitting.

I’d say just change diet, find what works for you consistently, add exercise only a few weeks later, tweak diet accordingly.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#467

Post by krona »

isitmadeofglass wrote: post #356
_9omd wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a big part of the issue is that popular fitness and weight loss advice has perpetuated the wrong way to exercise to loose weight. When most people think about exercise for weight loss, they imagine long exhausting sessions on the treadmill, dripping with sweat, and a high calorie burn number. While the short term results may seem great based on the immediate calories burned, it's actually a terrible strategy…

> You'll build muscle which will increase the resting metabolism This is another myth. Even if you put on a serious amount of muscle, the change to your daily calorie burn is insignificantly increased in the larger scale of things. Don’t to strength training to lose weight, so Strength training to get strong.

The change in metabolic rate is a homeostatic adaptation of the body due to increased energy expenditure due to exercise. You can measure it in a metabolic chamber, and 200-300 calories per day during rest time is not unusual for male athletes.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#468

Post by episteme »

watwut wrote: post #420
episteme wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No, it won't, unless you are eating excess calories. It takes a lot of energy to repair muscles and grow them.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#469

Post by thecleaner »

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…

Skipped it totally. That's the part of scientific American intended for bored readers more interested in gossip. The part after it is quite cool. The conclusions are basically drawn from how much CO2 is exhaled. So the key contribution seems to be the data collection methods.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#470

Post by otikik »

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.

The scenario was "20lbs for 3 years".

Most "standard adults" (e.g no injuries, obesity or illnesses) would not consider 20 lbs "difficult", to start with. And especially not after 6 months of regular practice.

Post reply on HN