Comment by dahart

3 years ago

It does seem like the article is exaggerating. ;) This could be more about the author presenting a narrative than Pontzer’s data. Bringing in the sports physiologist to argue for the idea of exercise without countering the caloric claims adds a little perhaps predictable dramatic flair.

At some point, there’s just physics. Running a mile isn’t free, benching 100kg isn’t free. These things take work and we can calculate the minimum energy requirement that adaptation can’t escape. Our bodies do not adapt so far that exercise becomes pointless, it only shifts the balance a little (which might be enough to be demotivating for some people, but it’s still relatively minor.) I was under the impression that the total range of metabolic adaptivity for a given person might be on the order of 25%-30% maybe. That might be an over-estimate. I googled a little and found this paper mentioning adaptations of like 8%-15% for severe calorie restriction diets (depending on how RMR is measured).