Quote:
Originally Posted by pink grapefruit
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Have you guys heard of Dr. Herman Pontzer and his intriguing research concerning human metabolism? He's a biological anthropologist at Duke University. I read his provocatively titled book Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Stay Healthy, and Lose Weight, and while I'm not sure how settled the science is it really blew my mind. Super provocative statements made by researchers should be considered very carefully ofc.
A 2012 study he did using the doubly-labeled water method of measuring metabolic expenditure (the gold standard) of a group of tribal hunter-gatherers and then comparing the data with previous findings of Westerners with a variety of lifestyles indicated there may be no significant differences in the metabolic expenditure of these groups: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ar...l.pone.0040503
It's been a couple years since I read the study, but some of the data didn't quite support the hypothesis and I think they try to explain why that might be. Since the publication, he's continued to perform studies that do keep pointing to this possibly being the case.
Basically, what Pontzer believes is that total metabolic expenditure is not significantly impacted by physical activity- meaning that while exercise is beneficial for a number of reasons, it will not result in loss of adiposity due to "burning more kilocalories". Exercise may result in weight loss for other reasons, such as reduced opportunity to consume kcal while exercising and physical activity making a person more health-conscious overall, but he does not believe that exercise = burning more total kcal.
One hypothesis is that when we expend kcal on physical activity, our bodies become more metabolically "efficient," and expend fewer kcal on other metabolic processes- which may be part of why physical exercise is so health-promoting.
Take all of this with a grain of salt ofc, but this is so fascinating and it's the sorta thing I nerd out hard over. |
I’ve heard stuff similar to this
What everyone knowledgeable in the fitness agrees upon is that calorie restriction is many, many times more effective for weight loss than calorie expenditure during active, non-NEAT, activity. It’s far effective for the typical person to choose not to eat that extra burger than to attempt to burn it off, basically
But I have heard of the idea that the body adjusts its NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) to things like cardio. I personally don’t believe it, but even if it were true, cardio/exercise has so many other health benefits I consider it crucial
But I have been wrong on science-y stuff before. I just got proven wrong that two vehicles traveling 60mph towards each other exact the same amount of force on each other as a single vehicle going 60mph into a stationary brick wall. You would think it would be more for the former, but after a lengthy argument with a co-worker, I looked it up and I was wrong. I STILL don’t understand the physics on that one ….