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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

#231

Post by sdoering »

timr wrote: post #137
nu11ptr wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you fall into a routine CICO isn't that difficult in practice. First, while sleep/stress definitely impact the equation unless you are at an unusual life crisis, the ups and downs mostly balance out over time. Second, I don't recommend counting calories, at least not in the traditional way. Instead, eat a fairly standardized diet at least on a weekly basis, so roughly the same meals (doesn't have to be exact). Eat…

I have also done almost exactly this process, and it worked for years to regulate my weight. But then I hit a plateau (a high plateau, not a low one) where I was unable to drop weight no matter how low I cut my calories. I started at a range that I knew had worked in the past, and lowered it over the course of weeks, well past the point where I was miserable. I even tried more complicated things, like varying my inta…

What I know from personal experience and learned a bit through knowledge osmosis (my better half studied ecotrophology/nutrition) is that many people underestimate how the body adapts to a "new normal" of caloric intake when this is well below basal metabolic rate/consumption.

On the other hand, the body also likes to get essential amino acids, if it does not get them from food, from the body's own muscle mass. This leads to a reduction of the own muscles and to a low basal metabolic rate.

I cannot judge whether one of the reasons is true, that would be the job of a good (!) nutritionist. Unfortunately, at least in Germany, the term is not protected and anyone, regardless of education, knowledge or experience may call himself so. Here there are really (especially on social networks) really many false claims.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#232

Post by Moru »

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.

I have no apetite at all after biking for two hours. However, if I drink any diet soda or piece of candy with sweetener, I will be ravenously hungry in 10 minutes. Has always been like this so I stay away from that stuff.

My exercise is a game called Turf. Mostly played in Sweden where there are a lot of zones close by. I bike quite relaxed for 1-4 minuts and stand still for 20 seconds in the zone, then repeat until next zone. It's a bit harder during winter with all the snow though. I have done nothing to my diet and lost about 20 kilo the last year. The GPS says I traveled about 3500 km the last year at my slow pace.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#233

Post by allisdust »

Can't they get to the science part without dramatising the scientist. It's a long slog with tidbits thrown here and there. I hate articles like this that assume that reader is up for biography instead of the core subject. We get it. Everyone's story is unique. No need to hash all that uniqueness in every article about their work.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#234

Post by bagacrap »

josefrichter wrote: post #21

It’s sad that majority of people hit the gym or go for a run when they want to lose weight. Without diet it’s pointless. But what’s worse, diet change is also about finding a new balance that fits your body. If you start exercising at the same time, you are throwing your body drastically off current balance and it’s probably much harder to find a new one.

exercise without diet is still good for your health even if it doesn't lead to lower weight

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#235

Post by MuffinFlavored »

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…

> losing weight happens by eating less

If your BMR is say... 1,800 calories a day and you exercise 300 calories worth... do you just get 300 calories hungrier to offset the exercise?

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#236

Post by stjohnswarts »

nsxwolf wrote: post #36

This is very depressing. I find it incredibly difficult to lose weight dieting. And now it's telling me I just wasted all this money on a treadmill (and the effort it took to get it down into the basement).

There are plenty people who are skinny and who don't exercise and are not healthy. Exercise helps you get more healthy, it's not all about how thin you are. Walking/running is great exercise and great for you in terms of your overall health even if they doesn't help you lose weight directly. It does help your mental health.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#237

Post by cagmz »

e40 wrote: post #186
urthor wrote: post #114

The thing is, exercise still reduces appetite. It raises the blood sugar levels as the body supplies the muscles with carbohydrates, and triggers a complementary response in appetite hormones. Finally, and most importantly: Exercise releases dopamine. Dieting is universally a mood killer, because kilo-joule deficit equals starvation. So whilst it does not directly impact weight loss. It still makes it (a bit) easier.…

Fasting isn’t a mood killer, it actually has the opposite effect. IF gives me an energy boost and associated euphoria.

What is your IF schedule like? Can you expand on the euphoria?

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#238

Post by lostmsu »

it_does_follow wrote: post #204
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…

If you train for endurance sports you'll definitely lose weight without much attention to your diet. For example, with marathon training, once you start to hit the 6 plus mile your daily run eats up over 1,000 calories. Near the end of your training your long run days become over 2,000 calories, and even your easy runs becomes 1000+. That's essentially an entire extra meal, and you're running 5-6 days a week. If you'…

This would be nice if 1hr+ a day would not be 5% of your conscious life.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#239

Post by bagacrap »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #84
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Running isn't efficient at high speeds. The same with cycling. It's funny to see people buy a bike for exercise and then roll along at a crawl, expending less energy than walking.

Cycling is roughly 5x more efficient than running/walking for similar effort. Thinking you will lose much weight by cycling is generally mistaken, unless you plan to cycle very long distances or are extremely obese already and do very little existing exercise (and this is discounting most of what TFA is saying too).

wouldn't efficiency correlate to effort? pretty sure the "effort" is the feeling of burning calories. If an elite athlete can run for an hour and burn 2000 calories in that time, they will beat a less elite athlete who can run for 1900 calories in an hour, all else equal. Put them on bicycles or a rower and they'll be able to burn the exact same number of calories (assuming sufficient training in the target exercise medium) because the limiting factor is their body's ability to process oxygen, not the exact form factor of the exercise.

Re: Scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories

#240

Post by fredophile »

nightski wrote: post #181
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"much faster" is ambiguous here. Ride 150 miles a day every day for a week, don't over-eat, and you will lose much more weight than you ever could from HIIT. On the other hand, that's a lot of hours, and HIIT will easily win in terms of weight-loss per unit time.

How is it ambiguous. You clearly understood I meant calories burned per unit time.

The ambiguity is what unit of time you care about. With HIIT you lose more weight per minute of exercise you do. With a lot of LISS you can lose more weight per week than you could with HIIT.
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