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higher energy use does not mean fatter, if you /use/ all of that energy.
by appleflaxen 11y ago
higher energy use does not mean fatter, if you /use/ all of that energy.
- thaumasiotes 11y agoAnimals don't operate on the principle of "run the tank until it's empty". If they did, they would frequently die for no good reason by getting caught out at an inopportune moment. Imagine if, whenever a car ran out of gas, it exploded. You'd probably keep your car close to full, and that is what animals do too. In normal health, you can go several weeks without needing to eat. Higher energy use means we store more energy than other animals need to. We do balance energy intake against energy output, very precisely. But we still need greater reserves, and those reserves are fat.
- monsieurbanana 11y agoAs long as a some specific crowd doesn't use the article as another excuse for being morbidly overweight, I'm fine with that.
- maxerickson 11y agoThe study abstract says greatest body fat percentage which isn't really the same as fatter, but when it is true across individuals it points to humans having more tissue devoted to energy storage. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature17654.html http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu...
- appleflaxen 11y agoAgreed. However, "making us fatter" implies causality. I don't think the paper substantiates that.
- maxerickson 11y agoMy post was more about who cares what mistakes the popularizer blog made. It's unfortunate how poorly things get translated into the public eye, but it's also so bad that specific instances of it are pretty ignorable.