“We did a study where we looked at really active people, including runners who raced across the United States, and found that they were really sedentary and actually burned the same amount of calories,” Pontzer said. I observed people.” Explain why you don’t lose much weight through exercise, even though it makes you healthier.
This discovery is just one of many by Pontzer and his colleagues, who have been hard at work overcoming stereotypes about our metabolism in recent years.
As we enter the holiday season and calorie and weight management are top of mind, I sat down with Ponzer to find out what the latest science is saying about our metabolism, and whether it is affected by exercise. Please, we talked about whether it’s different for men and women. You can “boost” it. We also talked about why he thinks Thanksgiving is the most humane holiday. (The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Q. Let’s start with a quick yes and no. Men’s metabolism is faster than women.
A.No.
Q. Our metabolism slows down every year. middle aged.
A: No.
Q. The more you exercise, the more calories you burn.
A: No, overall not.
Q. Now, this is a more basic question that I don’t think I can answer. What is our metabolism?
A. Metabolism is all the work that all 37 trillion cells do every day. The work can be measured in terms of the energy required. That’s why we measure metabolism in calories, a measure of energy.
Q. Most of us probably believe that our metabolisms are fastest during adolescence and begin to slow down rapidly in middle age, and that men’s metabolisms are faster than women’s. But none of that is true?
A. So how do I get started? The main determinant of the calories you burn each day is the number of working cells. Bigger people burn more calories. Cell type is also important. Fat cells burn a small amount of energy, but not a lot. Therefore, when comparing women and men, men burn more calories than women, but this is because men tend to have slightly larger bodies and less fat. If you compare a man and a woman of the same body size and the same fat percentage, you would expect them to expend exactly the same amount of energy per day.
Q. Are teenagers the ones who burn the most calories?
A. Yes, the greatest amount of total calories burned during a lifetime is probably during late adolescence. But pound for pound, no one burns more calories than a 3- or 4-year-old child. Their metabolism is heated because of how much work their cells do as they grow and develop. But since they are small, the total calories are still quite low.
Q. Does your metabolism slow down significantly in middle age? It certainly seems that way.
A. I’m in my late 40s, but my reactions to food have clearly changed from when I was in my 20s. But surprisingly, that’s not the case. We have now conducted this measurement with thousands of adults ranging from their 20s to their 50s and above. However, in the 20s to 50s block, no change in metabolic rate is observed even after controlling for size. After the age of 60, there seems to be some decline.
Q. But many of us gain weight in middle age. If you can’t blame a slow metabolism, what is going on?
A. If energy is not consumed, it must be the energy we eat. Why would that change? One reason is that it increases stress. This makes it easier to develop unhealthy eating habits. Additionally, if you look into how people actually gain weight, you’ll find that it’s common to gain a few pounds around Thanksgiving, around the Christmas season, and then lose weight with New Year’s resolutions. No one will be surprised. As I get older, I seem to get a little better at putting things on, but less enthusiastic about taking them off.
Q. So where does exercise fit in? I’m a runner, so I like to think that the more I run, the more calories I burn and the more weight I lose. But isn’t it?
A: I thought so too. But it turns out it’s not that simple. Exercising today will burn more energy. But when you really change your lifestyle and start exercising regularly, and it becomes your new normal, your body adapts and you end up burning fewer calories overall. Basically, when you spend more energy exercising, your body finds ways to spend less energy doing other things. But here’s the good news. The adjustments your body makes, such as reducing inflammation and stress reactivity, may be a big part of why exercise is so good for us.
Q. Can I increase my metabolism with the right medicines and foods?
A. No, there is no way to increase your metabolism by what you eat. It can be high-carb, low-carb, low-fat, or high-protein. None of them seem to have a measurable impact on calories burned per day.
Q. How about thinking hard? Would you like to burn extra calories?
A. Wouldn’t it be great if all you needed was an enlightening conversation around the Thanksgiving table to burn off the desserts, or if discussing chess strategies could help you lose weight? But that’s not the case. Sure your brain is incredibly hungry. Basically, you run 5km every day and burn about 300 calories, which is the same as a 5km run. However, this is true whether you are deep in thought or completely absent-minded.
Q. You mentioned Thanksgiving. Are you going to eat a large meal all at once, like many of us do on Thanksgiving? [or Christmas]increase metabolism and help burn extra calories?
A. About 10% of your calories are burned during digestion, thanks to everything from chewing your food to digesting it and processing it inside your cells. But that’s pretty trivial. Realistically, if you want to avoid gaining weight on Thanksgiving or Christmas, you need to eat less. But let’s stop for a moment, put on our anthropologist hat, and talk about what’s really great about the festive season. It’s about us all sitting down and sharing food. It’s the weirdest thing we do.
Q. Is that strange?
A. No other great apes share the same things as we do. This is abnormal in nature. But we do it every day. And whenever there’s a big moment to celebrate, we celebrate it by sharing food. So, of course, you need to take care of your health as well. But we must never lose sight of the fact that for humans, food is a social bond, and this is especially important at Christmas. Why not give yourself a day to focus on that and not worry so much about calories? Honestly, it’s okay to just enjoy the pie.
