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Comment by kinghtown

3 years ago

I always feel there are some methodology issues in sports science studies like small sample sizes or strange metrics.

While I do agree with you that sustained, high level activity requires and burns more calories, I think that the advice coming out of there, exercise is less efficient than diet for weight loss, is going to absolutely be true for the majority of gym goers who quite frankly are phoning it in whenever they work out.

Like, for example, an olympic swimmer may eat 5000-10,000 calories in a day, but they are spending around 4-6 hours a day in a cold pool training at a world class level (body needs to keep warm somehow regardless of effort.) But a normal person may only swim for 20 minutes at a much gentler pace. This person should still be eating in line with calorie guidelines and macros for age/sex.

The reality is that diet needs to be flexible based on results. Not losing weight? Eat fewer carbs or calories. Feeling tired and worn out? Eat more or exercise less based on your physique and goals.

8 comments

kinghtown

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lmm  3 years ago

I spent years failing to lose weight through diet. I took up endurance cycling and in one day (13 or 20 hours) I burn off a kilo or more, even with the increased eating. Afterwards I'll put that back on in about two months, but as long as I keep doing one or two of these events every month I come out ahead.

I don't know how things are for anyone else, but it worked for me, shrug.

  • watwut  3 years ago

    I had very similar experience. I lost weight with no much additional effort when I started to do a lot sport. I did not focused on food much, I was doing sport for weight loss unrelated reasons. And it dropped.

    Attempts to loose weight by diet only all failed. To make it worst, there is also aspect of most common diet advice being plain wrong. It focuses on calories too much. It completely ignores what your body needs, so you end up in nutritional deficiency - this kind or that kind. And that will affect a lot and eventually you will stop diet and start to feel so much better and healthier after stopping it.

nradov  3 years ago

For the majority of regular people feeling tired and worn out is more likely to be caused by lack of sleep and too much booze than by lack of food or excessive exercise.

  • kinghtown  3 years ago

    I meant more from training hard for long term. Most people are not at this level or pushing that hard. Normal people would definitely benefit from lifestyle changes outside of the gym if they are tired and worn out.

bsder  3 years ago

> I always feel there are some methodology issues in sports science studies like small sample sizes or strange metrics.

The calorie stuff is from both oxygen and deuterated water studies. You burn the same amount of calories and your system just shunts them around. The science on this is one of the few things in nutrition that is quite solid.

This has the effect, for example, that if you exercise a lot, this actually suppresses your immune system making you more likely to get sick.

copperx  3 years ago

If I remember correctly, Olympic swimmers are NOT spending 4 hours a day in the pool, and certainly not 6.