Except for situations of food insecurity, most humans alive today have access to absurd amounts of calories. That coupled with intense marketing, increasingly s

Except for situations of food insecurity, most humans alive today have access to absurd amounts of calories. That coupled with intense marketing, increasingly sedentary lifestyles, and decline of self-discipline explain the rise in cancer, type 2 diabetes, and CHD. On the other side (increasing metabolic rate), there is widely-held misinformation: that it is "easy" or desirable to burn calories through exercise. Unfortunately, the human body is extremely efficient at long duration, low intensity activity. Us humans can run down most any fleeing terrestrial animal on flat terrain through a combination of high endurance and caloric efficiency. [1] This is why caloric restriction is far more time, cost, and effort efficient than exercise. Said another way: the most effective categories of exercise such as weightlifting, HIIT, and 30 minutes on the elliptical are beneficial for multiple purposes secondary to weight loss. A rough guide to caloric density is dry food weight (minus all water). And double anything containing oil, cheese, or cream. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_running_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endurance_running_hypothesis