On more exercise to burn calories

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the relationship between exercise, calorie burning, and obesity, referencing a study that examines total energy expenditure across various populations. It explores the implications of exercise on weight loss and the role of diet in obesity.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants highlight a study indicating that individuals of similar body size tend to burn a consistent number of calories daily, regardless of exercise levels.
  • One participant argues that diet, particularly the consumption of ultra-processed foods, is a more significant factor in obesity than exercise.
  • Another participant emphasizes that while exercise can increase calorie burning, the amount required to offset high-calorie diets is substantial and may not be practical for most individuals.
  • One participant suggests that exercise may reduce hunger, potentially influencing overall energy balance and weight management.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the effectiveness of exercise in addressing obesity, with some asserting that diet is the primary factor, while others acknowledge the role of exercise but emphasize its limitations in calorie burning relative to dietary intake. The discussion remains unresolved with multiple competing perspectives.

Contextual Notes

The discussion reflects varying assumptions about the relationship between exercise, diet, and energy expenditure, and does not resolve the complexities involved in weight management.

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TL;DR
A recent article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences takes a close look at the role of Exercise on weight loss.
A recent article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) takes a close look at the role of Exercise on weight loss.
There is Washington Post coverage of this report.

The study uses the Doubly Labelled Water method to measure the daily "total energy expenditure" (TEE) of the 4213 subjects of the study.

Those subjects were selected from "a wide spectrum of economic development, including hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, farmers, and people in industrialized countries".

The surprising result: For a given body size, We all tend to burn the same number of calories each day.
The total of the basal energy expenditure and physical activity energy expenditure tended to remain steady.

There are many practical corollaries.
If you are interested in the article, I suggest reading either the PNAS or the Post reports. There is a lot of detail - too much to properly summarize.
 
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Essentially, we are what we eat, not how we exercise. Eating ultra-processed foods leads to obesity.

Exercise won't solve the obesity problem since we all burn roughly the same number of calories per day.
 
jedishrfu said:
Exercise won't solve the obesity problem since we all burn roughly the same number of calories per day.
Typical junk foods have so many calories that it's almost impossible to burn them off in any case. It is easy to consume 5,000 calories in a day, and you would have to ride a stage of the Tour de France to burn that off! These numbers have always been clear.

That said, it's possible to burn more calories by exercise - it's just that the amount of exercise is out of proportion to what you might expect.
 
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I have found that exercise can act as a reducer of hunger and thus has other effects on this whole relationship.
 
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