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Little kids burn so much energy, they’re like a different species, study finds

sciencemag.org

101–110 of 118 posts

Re: Little kids burn so much energy, they’re like a different species, study finds

#101
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my 2yo was dehydrated and on IV because of that, too. not uncommon for the smallest kids.

A noro or rotavirus ripped through my 2 years olds daycare recently, and in a couple classrooms (including my kid), tons of kids got sick as well as teachers, but did not hear of any hospitalizations. The first evening was brutal though. 6 hours of drink, vomit, eat, vomit, drink, vomit, etc. My kid easily threw up 20+ times.

If my kids vomit more than once they go on a cycle we've developed over the course of having five young children.

First time, maybe a fluke. Check for other signs of illness, heat sickness, what did they eat recently, fever etc.

Second time they get no food or water for two hours. Then small sips of water/Pedialyte

If they don't vomit after the liquid they can eat a few bites of BRAT (banana rice applesauce or toast) if they do, wait another hour or two and repeat.

If they're still vomitting after 6+ hours, depending on the child's age, we'll call the pediatrician and ask for advice.

If they're still not keeping even liquids down after 8+ hours (again depending on age) we take them to the ER after consulting with the pediatrician again. We've only had to do that once.

If at any time the child shows signs of dehydration we skip to the last step.

Source - have 5 kids.

Re: Little kids burn so much energy, they’re like a different species, study finds

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A noro or rotavirus ripped through my 2 years olds daycare recently, and in a couple classrooms (including my kid), tons of kids got sick as well as teachers, but did not hear of any hospitalizations. The first evening was brutal though. 6 hours of drink, vomit, eat, vomit, drink, vomit, etc. My kid easily threw up 20+ times.

If my kids vomit more than once they go on a cycle we've developed over the course of having five young children. First time, maybe a fluke. Check for other signs of illness, heat sickness, what did they eat recently, fever etc. Second time they get no food or water for two hours. Then small sips of water/Pedialyte If they don't vomit after the liquid they can eat a few bites of BRAT (banana rice applesauce or toast)…

Good process to keep in mind, thanks!

Re: Little kids burn so much energy, they’re like a different species, study finds

#103

My 22 month old son wakes up at 5am, and doesn't stop running, climbing, singing and dancing, any possible "activity" you can think of until 7pm when we have to wrangle him for about an hour during "quiet time" until he eventually decides it's time him to sleep. The description "different species" seems apt because I really don't see how it's possible for such a tiny "human" to just have so much energy. All in jest o…

seems invariant across many mammals for toddlers at least: in dogs "the zoomies" for example fits the same description, cats too, unsure what else is comparable

I never thought of it that way - it seems my son has a near permanent case of the zoomies!

Re: Little kids burn so much energy, they’re like a different species, study finds

#104
Nothing here that hasn't been a common knowledge in a long time.

As a skipper I have also went through a lot of training for emergencies and children are practically treated as their own category on every step. In particular increased metabolic requirements, decreased ability to survive without oxygen, inability to survive in cold water for any length of time, and so on.

Consequently, when I train my crews before I go for a cruise with them we have separate scenarios for emergencies with kids (assuming there are children on board).

Re: Little kids burn so much energy, they’re like a different species, study finds

#106
post #65

Do you think that could be the reason some adults can eat a lot and gain very little weight ?

Stable weight simply means the intake calories are just enough for the spent energy (muscle and brain which still use 20% of energy for adult, for example a chess player can spend up to 6k calories/day when playing)

Re: Little kids burn so much energy, they’re like a different species, study finds

#107
post #11

Personally, I was more surprised by the various groups of people who _don't_ have higher metabolic rates: > Children’s metabolic rates stay high until age 5, but the rate slowly begins to glide down until it plateaus around age 20. Interestingly, adult rates are stable until age 60, when they begin to decline. After age 90, humans use about 26% less energy daily, Pontzer says. > The study also found that pregnant wom…

This seems almost unbelievable to me. Almost everyone I know, with a handful of exceptions I can think of, had a dramatic change in what I can only say was metabolism at 30 declining steeply to 40. I can tell you personally my ability to lose weight when exercising daily has decreased significantly since 30. If it’s not metabolism, then what? Diet and exercise are almost identical.

I think being moderately poor really helps with staying thin. A major shift for me going towards my 30s was replacing parties with dinner dates.

Last year during the short lockdown break I went to a birthday party followed by a rave followed by sleeping on a friend's couch followed by a walk of shame home... Like in the good old days. My Garmin said I did 30k steps that night, probably double my previous record. I also couldn't really eat much for two days after that, so there's that too...

Re: Little kids burn so much energy, they’re like a different species, study finds

#108
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People tend to massively overestimate how much the extra muscle mass matters, and how much they burn during exercise, though, and it takes very little to overcompensate with a little extra food here and there. I lift too, and for many years I wrote down everything I wrote, and weighed myself every morning. I could tell very precisely how much I burnt, and it tended to shock people on lifting forums who were certain t…

I'm curious: how tall are you and/or roughly how much do you weight? Benching 150 kg with 2000 kcal/day absolutely does sound odd compared to recommendations. However, my personal experience also tells me that the regular recommendations might be a bit high.

6'1/185cm. At the time my weight was around 93kg, so 150kg bench was nothing special for my size. When bulking I'd do about 2400kcal. For people pushing towards competitive levels it may well have made sense to go higher to allow exercising accordingly harder, but for me it was just to stay fit so I prioritised staying reasonably lean.

Also worth mentioning that outside of lifting my life absolutely was/is very sedentary, so I did burn less than a lot of people.

EDIT: One thing that will confuse people here is that style of exercise will matter a lot. To reach a 1RM of 150kg on bench meant most of the time I did bench 1-2 times a week for 5 sets of 5 reps of ca 120kg or so. My bench routine took 10-15 minutes. My whole lifting program took about 40m x 3 days/week. I added some cardio to that, but that is not a lot of physical activity. Someone who does bodybuilding on the other hand will typically do a lot more volume.

Re: Little kids burn so much energy, they’re like a different species, study finds

#109
post #59
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. I’ve got about 20lbs more muscle than I did at 30. I currently lift 3-4 times a week and run 3.5+ miles 5-6 times a week. At 30 I worked out or ran 3 days a week. I eat out less now and generally pay attention to what I eat vs just eating whatever is in front of me. Nearly identical meaning proportions are the same but I eat less junk food now. I was a college athlete, but there’s no way I carried the fitness f…

People tend to massively overestimate how much the extra muscle mass matters, and how much they burn during exercise, though, and it takes very little to overcompensate with a little extra food here and there. I lift too, and for many years I wrote down everything I wrote, and weighed myself every morning. I could tell very precisely how much I burnt, and it tended to shock people on lifting forums who were certain t…

Yeah whenever I’ve trained for marathons and I’ve not actively worked at keeping myself from eating too much more, I’ve gained weight during the training. Every single time. You do of course burn more calories than you would if you didn’t exercise but most people don’t realize how easily you can eat back those calories and more if you’re not careful.

Re: Little kids burn so much energy, they’re like a different species, study finds

#110
post #84
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Experience of "I stopped exercising and keep eating the same, I gained a lot of weight" is not rare. It's not rare because calories add up immensely quickly. Say that you were burning 200 kcal per day exercising - and that is a low estimate. If you keep eating the same, you end up keeping 6000 kcal per month more - that translates to 1.7 lbs of body weight - per month. So, 20 lbs in the first year!

So the claim is, that simultaneously: 1.) when you stop exercising, it does a lot for weight. 2.) If you start exercising, it does nothing for weight loss.

>1.) when you stop exercising, it does a lot for weight.

Yes, if you also don't downsize your meals at the same time. Which a lot of people don't.

>2.) If you start exercising, it does nothing for weight loss.

Yes, if you increase your food intake because you feel more hungry, which a lot of people do. If you keep eating the same -- then it of course has a noticeable effect.

For exercise to matter in your weight loss, you have to always keep in mind your food intake. It is still very beneficial and should not be ignored!

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