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Sport does not help much when losing weight, according to experts

2022-05-28T05:19:04.828Z


Diet myth debunked by experts: Exercise does not help you lose weight Created: 05/28/2022, 07:11 By: Judith Brown According to anthropologist Herman Pontzer, the only way to lose weight is through diet. Sports and exercise hardly help. Durham – If you want to lose weight, you have to diet and exercise. At least that's what it says in numerous guides who want to support us in the fight against


Diet myth debunked by experts: Exercise does not help you lose weight

Created: 05/28/2022, 07:11

By: Judith Brown

According to anthropologist Herman Pontzer, the only way to lose weight is through diet.

Sports and exercise hardly help.

Durham – If you want to lose weight, you have to diet and exercise.

At least that's what it says in numerous guides who want to support us in the fight against the pounds.

Prof. Herman Pontzer, biological anthropologist and professor at Duke University, and his team use a method from physiology to measure the total energy consumption of humans and animals in different areas of life.

They came across a surprising result: sport is said to not help much when losing weight.

Diet myth debunked by experts: Exercise does not help you lose weight

Sport is important to shed the pounds.

A researcher got to the bottom of this assumption and discovered something amazing.

(Iconic image) © Claudia Nass/IMAGO

Many a colleague considers Pontzer's work to be revolutionary.

In their eyes, he debunks long outdated myths about human energy consumption.

At the same time, it offers the opportunity to develop a new understanding of evolution and physiology.

"We now have data that gives us a whole new way of thinking about how humans have adapted to energetic limits," said paleoanthropologist Leslie Aiello, according to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".

Because Pontzer's investigations showed that exercise alone does not contribute to burning more energy on average.

For example, sedentary office workers in the US use no less energy than hunter-gatherers in Africa, and pregnant women use no more calories per day than other adults.

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Researchers examine total energy expenditure in humans and animals

For this purpose, Pontzer examined the total energy expenditure (TEE), i.e. the number of kilocalories that the human cells burn within 24 hours.

It was already known that the basal metabolic rate (BMR), at which the body uses energy at rest, accounts for only 50 to 70 percent of total energy expenditure.

This is how the calorie consumption of humans and animals when walking and running on treadmills was measured.

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Using a urine sample from orangutans, the anthropologist found that the animals used only a third of the energy that would have been thought for mammals of their size.

Further studies with monkeys confirmed this result.

The studies also revealed that among the great apes, human beings consume more energy per day than other apes, adjusted for body mass.

For example, it consumes 20 percent more than chimpanzees, 40 percent more than gorillas, and 60 percent more than orangutans.

At the same time, great apes put on more fat than other apes.

According to Pontzer, our excess body fat may have developed because of our faster metabolism.

Fat thus functions as a fuel reserve because it burns less energy than lean tissue.

"In millions of years of evolution, our metabolism was certainly not created for a bikini body suitable for the beach," says Pontzer.

However, we humans have the ability to convert food and fat stores into energy faster than other apes.

This gives us an advantage over the animal apes, since we have more energy every day with which we can supply our brain, for example.

Hunter-gatherers don't use more energy than office workers

When Pontzer measured the energy consumption of the Hadza people in Tanzania, this study brought him further surprising insights.

Hadza women walk about five miles a day, men nine miles, to share and distribute food.

So you move a lot more than a typical American does in a week.

Despite differences in activity levels, Hadza men and women burn the same amount of energy per day overall as men and women in the United States, Europe, Russia and Japan, he explained in a 2012 report.

The results were confirmed by further studies.

Pontzer suspects that people's bodies use fewer calories for other, invisible tasks such as the immune system or stress reactions and thus prepare themselves for more activity.

According to Pontzer, the Hadza's calorie consumption did not increase per day, but rather the Hadza's physical activity "changed the way they burned their calories".

Another study of marathon runners found that runners burned fewer and fewer calories over time.

Exercising doesn't help you lose weight, but exercise is still important for good health

For people trying to lose weight, Pontzer's results are arguably daunting.

Nevertheless, the scientist emphasizes that exercise and sport are even essential for good health.

Finally, it reduces the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

According to experts, sport also helps to maintain weight and not gain weight.

However, Pontzer concludes: "Exercise keeps you from getting sick, but the best way to control weight is diet."

This article only contains general information on the respective health topic and is therefore not intended for self-diagnosis, treatment or medication.

In no way does it replace a visit to the doctor.

Unfortunately, our editors are not allowed to answer individual questions about clinical pictures.

Source: merkur

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