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The metabolism myth – and why exercise won’t make you thinner

16 points by akbarnama 5y ago

manbart 5y ago
> His findings took him by surprise. Although the Hadza people are far more active than the average Westerner, walking miles every day, they burned no more calories than we do – around 3,000 per day. That’s pretty vague. Walking 2 miles in flat terrain would meet that description, and I would hardly categorize that as ‘exercise’. I presume that is significantly less than what’s implied here, but I wish they would have elaborated a little more than that
NikolaeVarius 5y ago
I dont really think that the article title matches the content of the article. Writer re-affirms that the phrase "you cant outrun a bad diet", and re-iterates that supersize by itself wont make you thinner since its obscenely difficult to burn calories faster than you can consume it. Article title seems to be bait for people who refuse to take agency in their own body weight
justtologin 5y ago
Anecdotally, people adapt to do whatever they are doing efficiently. At some point I started exercising (distance running) a lot and I lost weight despite eating constantly. That phase lasted a few months, at which point my hypothesis is I got efficient at running and no longer burned huge calories doing it. I started gaining weight and had to adjust my diet. Seems to me the example of the hunter gatherers is the same. Their bodies have adapted to do their everyday tasks efficiently. This is a logical evolutionary adaptation. It also leaves room for exercise to play a role in weight loss, by doing things you're not well adapted for. Diet of course is also important, however both have a role.
kaminar 5y ago
Click bait
nasmorn 5y ago
It depends how much you run I guess. When you run a 100km per week you will eat a lot more to stay in homeostasis. When I go on a 5h run I can eat 200kcal of sugar an hour and I don’t gain any weight of it since I burn more calories than I take in.
silisili 5y ago
This has been pretty understood for years, but in addition to 'good for you', I feel exercise does help one to lose weight. Anecdotally, I'm much, much less likely to eat irresponsibly if I've put in a lot of physical effort, vs say just lounging watching TV all day. Maybe it's like a sunk cost fallacy thing, but it sure helps motivate me.
boublepop 5y ago
> And, yes, you need to exercise to stay healthy, but you shouldn’t expect to see big changes on the bathroom scale with that. Anecdotally and n=1, but I highly doubt this assertion. I lost significant weight without a diet change going from little exercise to swimming 2km 5 times per week. I think what give people the impression of exercise not affecting the scale is that a little exercise won’t show. If you do yoga once per week, you might have the mindset of “I’m active, I do yoga, why aren’t I losing weight?” But it’s just not that much when you calculate the calories. Even at 10km of swimming a week, it’s not like I was shredding the weight instantly. I was maybe losing a bit more than 500g per week, which isn’t even significant enough to show if you aren’t consistent about weighing at the same hydration level, but over a couple of months and staying at that level it definitely shows. Now in comparison most others I know who casually swim would do maybe 400m once a week at a comfortable pace. That’s enough that you answer in a question are that “yes, I’m active, I swim each week” but not enough that you’ll significantly change your weight from it. I think the saying shouldn’t be “you can’t outrun a bad diet” should really just be “you have to run a hell of a lot more than you think to outrun a bad diet”
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  A side note: we change our diets automatically when we start or stop exercise routines (usually) We're pretty damn good at maintaining homeostasis, so you probably did alter your diet a bit unconsciously
  - boublepop 5y ago
    I was doing meal prep both before and after, so I can attest to the fact that I didn’t change my diet down to the g amount of skyr I was eating at lunch. So no, I didn’t subconsciously change my diet.
  - hansthehorse 5y ago
    Assuming a 150lb person it takes an hour of moderate swimming to burn 400 calories.
    - 5y ago
twirlock 5y ago
I don't understand this stupid assertion or why it remains current. Show me all the fat athletes then. Where the fuck are they?

16 points by akbarnama 5y ago

> His findings took him by surprise. Although the Hadza people are far more active than the average Westerner, walking miles every day, they burned no more calories than we do – around 3,000 per day. That’s pretty vague. Walking 2 miles in flat terrain would meet that description, and I would hardly categorize that as ‘exercise’. I presume that is significantly less than what’s implied here, but I wish they would have elaborated a little more than that

NikolaeVarius 5y ago

I dont really think that the article title matches the content of the article. Writer re-affirms that the phrase "you cant outrun a bad diet", and re-iterates that supersize by itself wont make you thinner since its obscenely difficult to burn calories faster than you can consume it. Article title seems to be bait for people who refuse to take agency in their own body weight

justtologin 5y ago

Anecdotally, people adapt to do whatever they are doing efficiently. At some point I started exercising (distance running) a lot and I lost weight despite eating constantly. That phase lasted a few months, at which point my hypothesis is I got efficient at running and no longer burned huge calories doing it. I started gaining weight and had to adjust my diet. Seems to me the example of the hunter gatherers is the same. Their bodies have adapted to do their everyday tasks efficiently. This is a logical evolutionary adaptation. It also leaves room for exercise to play a role in weight loss, by doing things you're not well adapted for. Diet of course is also important, however both have a role.

kaminar 5y ago

Click bait

nasmorn 5y ago

It depends how much you run I guess. When you run a 100km per week you will eat a lot more to stay in homeostasis. When I go on a 5h run I can eat 200kcal of sugar an hour and I don’t gain any weight of it since I burn more calories than I take in.

silisili 5y ago

This has been pretty understood for years, but in addition to 'good for you', I feel exercise does help one to lose weight. Anecdotally, I'm much, much less likely to eat irresponsibly if I've put in a lot of physical effort, vs say just lounging watching TV all day. Maybe it's like a sunk cost fallacy thing, but it sure helps motivate me.

boublepop 5y ago

> And, yes, you need to exercise to stay healthy, but you shouldn’t expect to see big changes on the bathroom scale with that. Anecdotally and n=1, but I highly doubt this assertion. I lost significant weight without a diet change going from little exercise to swimming 2km 5 times per week. I think what give people the impression of exercise not affecting the scale is that a little exercise won’t show. If you do yoga once per week, you might have the mindset of “I’m active, I do yoga, why aren’t I losing weight?” But it’s just not that much when you calculate the calories. Even at 10km of swimming a week, it’s not like I was shredding the weight instantly. I was maybe losing a bit more than 500g per week, which isn’t even significant enough to show if you aren’t consistent about weighing at the same hydration level, but over a couple of months and staying at that level it definitely shows. Now in comparison most others I know who casually swim would do maybe 400m once a week at a comfortable pace. That’s enough that you answer in a question are that “yes, I’m active, I swim each week” but not enough that you’ll significantly change your weight from it. I think the saying shouldn’t be “you can’t outrun a bad diet” should really just be “you have to run a hell of a lot more than you think to outrun a bad diet”

netizen-936824 5y ago
A side note: we change our diets automatically when we start or stop exercise routines (usually) We're pretty damn good at maintaining homeostasis, so you probably did alter your diet a bit unconsciously
- boublepop 5y ago
  I was doing meal prep both before and after, so I can attest to the fact that I didn’t change my diet down to the g amount of skyr I was eating at lunch. So no, I didn’t subconsciously change my diet.
- hansthehorse 5y ago
  Assuming a 150lb person it takes an hour of moderate swimming to burn 400 calories.
  - 5y ago

twirlock 5y ago

I don't understand this stupid assertion or why it remains current. Show me all the fat athletes then. Where the fuck are they?