Since I can remember I’ve been a skinny kid with a high metabolism. I have also always loved sports. But eventually, I came to find that I’m only exceptionally good at one sport…running. The transition from middle school to high school is when I really became serious but honestly, I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into.
Reynold’s article “Pushing the Limits of Human Endurance” leads into my obliviousness. Reynolds within the article says there are limits to a growing body. In 8th grade when covid hit while I was home alone, I believed that the ways to become a talented runner were to “train hard” and “eat healthy”. While eating healthy, I was not consuming enough calories to train at an intense level. This led to a decline. Exhaustion increased as well as soreness. I decided to make a change.
I began to strictly follow the training and eye enough calories. This led to higher energy and less strain. But what I could not explain is why I was able to train harder and even gain weight while eating the same. “The same finely tuned physiological mechanisms that reduce energy expenditure in multiday endurance racers may slow metabolic responses” Reynolds says. When training intensely for multiple days the body acquires the ability to slow down the burning of calories even if exertion is at the same level. Is this the reason for still being able to consume the same number of calories or as I got bigger my perception of food changed and I began to eat a lot more.
Your sample with an N = 3 volunteers who finished the trial does not allow you to conclude anything because of such a small sample size.
1
my own experience across almost 40 years of distance running is what is described here: I've become much more efficient calorically, and my basal metabolism has slowed considerably. I don't think the particular elite/non-elite character of the runners tested makes any difference: one becomes more efficient, whether faster or slower.
4
This race is one of the most difficult, sustained and prolonged human endurance efforts.
Any data and/or knowledge gained from studying the human body during this race is not really applicable to an ordinary and average human life.
2
Is it surprising or new that we become more proficient and efficient at something the more we do it?
2
While the math needs some work this does explain a lot. As I'm pushing 50 the last 5-6 years of weight gain and failed attempts at weight loss have been frustrating. Before 40 I've lost 30-40 lbs over a few months twice (10 years apart) but "somehow" that same formula hasn't worked since turning 40. This despite calorie restriction, strength training and interval cardio for years. The body looks and feels different but the weight and body composition is the same.
The problem with this study is, that the Race across America in 2015 attracted only some subpar multiday ultrarunners. The concept was to run Marathon distances every day and have a rest day every week or so.
All other Trans America races since 1928 had average distances above 40 miles per day and no rest days at all and it took 9 to 11 weeks over all. The 2015 race took 20 weeks, that's a huge difference.
Ultrarunners run very efficiently so the overall calorie use is a lot less than most people might think. One of the many challenges in a Trans Continental race is to eat enough calories on really long hot days lasting 12-15 hours. That was not the case with this 2015 race since the daily distance was just a Marathon. There was enough time to rest and eat after the running part was over.
Just my thoughts on this, after 2 trans con races.
4
Not that surprising. Bio 101...homeostasis.
3
The numbers for "times metabolic rate" don't add up. There is no figure such that 6,200 is 3 1/2 times it and 5,600 is 2 1/2 times it. The math is wrong. Please correct it.
5
The upside of lower metabolism may well be that lower metabolism may be providing more health benefits.
After all, high metabolism means higher oxidation
3
The results of thyroid hormone disruption without a period of recuperation, as described by Anthony Hackney, AW Moore, and others, may contribute to, if not cause, the metabolic disruptions explored in this article.
3
A recent BBC article used the same studies as this article to emphasize a different, and I think more interesting conclusion. It was that the human body, after many days of much exertion, will reach a steady-state where it cannot expend more energy than about 2.5 times that exerted at rest.
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I would love to see a further study of the what the optimal amount of sustained exercise is to maximize metabolism. This article explains how too much sustained exercise starts to diminish metabolism, but what is the ideal amount to keep it revved. Obviously cardiovascular exercise is great for your heart and endorphines, and weight bearing and resistance exercise is great for joints and bone health, but what is the ideal amount of activity for metabolism? I suppose it depends on whether you do "burst" type of exercise like burpees etc versus just jogging on a treadmill versus circuit training but I would love to know more
1
Study group sample is minuscule.
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Such good, dare I say, great, information and such a shame so few will take the time to even read it. Some of the smartest people in all groups are the regular readers of these columns. @John Igoe of NY explains why I state that.
Take great care of your body and brain long and they will serve you well for eons of time. Putting lots of garbage in will assure you get garbage out. Take it from an old late septuagenarian who daily outruns kids, you can do it.
3
For more than a yearI ran 4 miles to the University of Washington and back. Took 3 90 minute ballet classes, 1 90 minute modern dance class, taught and participated in a 4 hr vigorous gung fu class that had 3 pro football player, a top ten in world feather weight boxer pro boxer, the Canadian weight champion, 242 pound US powerlifting champion, and three graduate classes in math.
The doctors calculated I was consuming 8000 calories a day, burning 8800 a day, and neither gaining nor losing weight over the nine months. Similarly when I laid pipe 12 hr per day. Weight actually increased as 30 lb of muscle.
Neither my doctors nor I could figure it out. Guess this explains it. Resting heart rate had dropped. Relaxation certainly became excellent. Perhaps sleeping more deeply relaxed? It would be interesting to measure muscle contraction and dynamic relaxation.
Now you have me wondering. Ate the same amount of C rations as everyone else, 3 a day, and gained 30 lb of hard muscle in a year in combat in the swamps.
2
Isnt it the same phenomena that allows us to adjust to whatever physical and mental requirements life throws at us?
Should any human have mentally or physically survived Nazi concentration camps? Cambodian killing fields? Decades in Palestinian (Israeli imposed) or South African apartheid? The horror of Iraq, Syria, Congo, Sudan, Yemen or untold others?
Our resilience only becomes apparent through our ability to adapt to circumstances we often could never have imagined existing, let alone overcoming.
As any SEAL (regardless of the many disgraces we are learning of), Ranger, Greem Beret, .Legionnaire, child growing up in a diseased impoverished slum, or under brutal subjugation can tell you, we humans are capable of overcoming extraordinary things, because our minds and bodies have capacity for adaptation that no one not put through the wronger, can imagine. Calorie usage seems part of the story. But the full story seems even richer and more intriguing.
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My question is does this also hold true for mental exertion? Do we become more efficient mentally as we learn?
1
@Jay Dwight
I don't see why not.
For example, I understand that half of what doctors know each year is obsolete the following year. So doctors have to go through a lot of practice learning the latest published findings in medicine in their field. That would seem to say that doctors become really good at remembering information over time. Their very careers depend on remembering this information. This should have spillover effects and doctors should have an unusually easy time remembering information in other areas of their lives relative to the rest of the population.
My dad is a doctor, and I've noticed he's very good at remembering information, and I believe this has everything to do with the fact he's a doctor. One time he called someone using a phone number he hadn't dialed before, that person wasn't available. Three weeks later I asked him to call that person again. I said I would go get the phone number, he said don't bother and dialed right then and there, straight from his memory. Still hadn't forgotten the phone number from three weeks before. I would not be able to do that.
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@Dov Todd
The half-life of truth in medicine and surgery is greater than 40 (forty) years, not one year.
https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/715343/truth-survival-clinical-research-evidence-based-requiem
So, about half the knowledge one learns as a student will be changed during the rest of one's life, career and retirement together.
I do not think any profession as complex as that of a physician will be sustainable if half the things changed in one year. No one has the capacity to relearn 50% of the knowledge per year that one needed 4 years of med school, then 3-7 years of additional training to master.
Unless we cheat that is: methytestosterone etc. changes the whole deal.
And a large fraction of professional athletes - likely the overwhelming majority (and many many so called amateurs) do cheat.
So all this article really points out is that non-cheaters will almost always lose.
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This makes sense. The body is amazing in it's efforts to adapt or die.
1
There is no such a thing as free lunch. The body must be giving up something of value for the efficiency during extended endurance events. If the efficiency was free, the evolution would've made us efficient all the time.
You flirt with your homeostatic limit too long too often, your body will force you to rest either by getting sick, injured or developing overtraining syndrome. You keep at it despite repeated down time, you could permanently damage your body one way or another.
Here's another amazing endurance achievement: 2.5 million vertical feet of skinning up mountains (and skiing down them) over the course of a year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKidiVrT_Uk
First I lost 60 pounds in 1.5 year period , then I began training.
Keep dieting all my life ....
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With a sample size of 3, you can "prove" almost anything.
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This will lead to making Donald Trump fatter than he already is. Plus: Have you ever seen an over-weight long distance runner? Me neither.
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@cee-dog I see plenty. I was at the start line for the Disney Goofy Challenge (half and full marathon in same weekend) and saw many "body types". They were there at the finish too.
no mention about efficiency gains which many athletes are aware of. I swear studies get so myopic or the articles that cover them that they miss important or obvious findings.
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@ed llorca
Agree. Almost all runners exhibit efficiency gains over repeated training, meaning greater speed and endurance for same cost in calories. If the study used very well-trained athletes the researchers might expect that efficiency gains played less of a factor.
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I thought this was already a well-known concept. I can recall decades back knowing that weight loss from exercise leveled off at a certain point, and that even increasing workout levels made no difference. And weight gain could happen because one was building muscle, which is heavier than fat. This wasn't recognized by the experts back then?
Thanks for this work and the insights you provided into how we metabolize during prolonged periods of heavy exercise. It's also very interesting to know that we don't understand how the eventual energy savings are achieved. The gaps that remain in our understanding of the links between food intake, exercise, and changes in body weight are filled for us by well-meaning health professionals and self-serving commercial interests. The resulting noise contributes to the epidemic of obesity.
This is a great race for endurance runners and one, in my wildest fantasies, I'ved dreamed of doing. First off, I'd need to not be working, at least not anything that required much physical energy. Next problem is to find a proper route. Every time I tried to just find a route across my small state, it became necessary to trespass. I can only assume these runners had gained permissions.
The runners doing this race should be very proud of their accomplishments even if they can't finish. It's really still amazing! I'm so glad to read the race is still going on and that, if I ever go into training for it, I, too, will become more metabolically efficient.
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Based on the many up and down studies about food intake and exercise I'm certain it's only a matter of time before we are told that exercising less and eating more will lead to weight loss.
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An explanation for why excessive exercise leads to illness. The immune system is getting reduced energy.
Ultra marathons and other forms of extreme exercise are simply not healthy.
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Given the very high intelligence and analytics of the following 36 comments, it seems that we need a wikipedia of diet research.
Thousands of intelligent people recording every ounce/gram/calorie/type of calorie they eat on a daily basis along with a detailed description of their daily workouts.
I learned a lot more from these comments than I did from the research and article.
I myself have struggled with weight for my entire adult life. Spent a decade and a half running 28 miles a week at a sub 7minute pace to stay below 180. Now, I go through extended spells of no sugar/no wheat based products/no sodas along with daily weight lifting and treadmill workouts that burn about 320 calories.
But, after about six months my resolve breaks down.
Now, it is a struggle to stay below 200. At one point in my life, I would have been horrified to be 200, now I would be satisfied.
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@John Huppenthal Dear John, I am at the other end of the spectrum on that gain weight thing; no matter what I eat or drink (or so it seems), I can't put on weight. Though I am quite muscular for my body frame. I can't get up to 190# and I just experienced one of the reasons, whenever I take on a bunch of food (I limit my food intake to only the great things and nothing deep fried or processed), I wind up with a full rush out on the toilet. It only takes 30 seconds to 1 minute but wow!
I have a scientific strenuous exercise regimen that starts in bed with leg lifts and ends with walking up 4 flights of stairs. I start so early in the morning coming down from the 19th floor that by the time I get to ground level, I have done 30-36 high martial arts kicks and will do 45-50 chin-ups and 105-135 pushups with 3 high intensity dashes up a long incline going full bore along with some regular jogging.
As a late septuagenarian, I don't know what my possibilities might have been, I started late to push my limits, but daily people love to talk about & many even touch my body to make sure I am real. A young couple in the elevator with me another elderly colleague were astonished when he told them I was much older than he. I was well dressed in short sleeved shirt dress clothes and a tie so they could see the muscles. He was barely mobile. I have NO body fat; all my blood vessels are plainly seen pushing up on my arms and hands.
So, yes, I do wish I had a few of your pounds. Just a few.
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Would you be willing to share this scientific regimen? Also, did you do this and manage to work when you were younger? Do you have a strict diet? I am impressed but think it also may be your particular genetic gift. My grandmother passed at 95 but easily looked 70. Her skin was beautiful. She lived a normal life (not athletic) and didn’t eat anything special but was gifted to look so young. Athleticism is often a gift too.
Interesting study though 3 seems a very small sample.
Furthermore one can think of variables that may influence energy consumption. Eg. Elevation gains: did the 7x 42k in week one have significantly more/ less elevation gain than the same distance in week 20? Weather: Did runners face more/ less humidity, heat, wind in week 1 compared to week 20?
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As I recall, the two folks who raced each other across Antarctica ate as much as they could force down their throats while going as fast as they could and still lost very serious amounts of weight. Is the idea that in a much longer race, they would eventually have stopped losing weight and even begun to put it back on if they didn't reduce the caloric intake to something below 5500 Calories/day (or whatever the figure was that they tried to maintain)?
The results show a decrease in caloric burn rate but I don't see any thing about any changes in muscle weight. Do we assume that the athletes did not reduce their overall weight and/or the non-essential muscle mass?
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I have run several marathons with an approximate caloric burn of 4500. That’s a lot. But I can’t run a marathon every day. I burn between 700 and 1200 daily for my routine runs. Also not bad.
The problem is that if I wanted to, I could eat an extra 3000cal a day in dessert and snacks (and poor choices) without even trying.
Exercise is wonderful. But my point is that even heavy running like I do cannot compensate for eating too many calories.
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@NY Surgeon
Sorry to be off topic, but do you think it's safe
to resume running after a retinal detachment and surgery? Thanks
Now 88 years old, I have lost 50 pounds several times during my up and down lifetime. I found it was necessary to increase exercises during dieting. This was not to supplement weight loss but to prevent illnesses. Without fail, dieting without increasing exercise led to colds, flue etc. Exercise prevented such illnesses. The adaptions the human body makes to varying exercise and diet combinations, as evidenced by this article, are poorly understood. This could be a highly beneficial area for increased medical research. Certainly, more cost beneficial than a billion dollar aircraft carrier.
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The final paragraphs are pure speculation, but as always seems to happen with stories about fitness, exercise, and weight loss, people are taking the speculation as established fact. And yes, some scientists are sometimes tempted to make their findings seem to show more than they actually do. This seems especially common in this field.
Note that what the study actually found was that people running at the limits of human endurance ended up burning about 2.5 times as many calories as a normal person and they lost no weight, presumably because they were also eating enough to compensate.
Few people could match this level of output. When I used exercise to lose weight, I was running or using the rowing machine about 5 to 6 hours a week, far below the level of these people. And it worked. Over a period of a few months I lost about 15 lbs.
That is an anecdote of one, but it is much closer to what most people are capable of doing and therefore more relevant than a study of what happens with superbly conditioned people who probably didn’t need to lose weight anyway.
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To paraphrase the article: those of us who sit behind desks all day burn about the same number of daily calories as hunter-gatherers who are motion almost all day.
This is wonderful news. I'm very proud of my desk. :-)
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In a word, homeostasis - a concept we have known for a century and more!
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How is this counter-intuitive? Athletic training teaches your body to be more efficient, to produce more power with same energy inputs. Therefore, you will produce the same power as everyone else, "daily living" power, with less energy inputs.
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I'll tell you why many people who train for marathons gain weight. They eat too much! The extra running and training gives them permission to eat more then they need.
Most under-informed people who train hard (80% of them) mistake fatigue as hunger. The two blur, and eating becomes the easiest solution instead of rest. "Can't rest, gotta train, gotta work 10 hours a day, run errands, etc...so I'll eat more!" Eating becomes the cure-all to the fatigue.
Then there's the mistake novice marathon runners make. Carbo-loading. They believe, due to the mythologies in the runners world, they must now carbo-load in order to run longer and maybe faster. So they start eating pasta at every meal. They eat a huge pasta meal the night before their long training runs. (And also before the race day...which often results in poorer performance.) They use carb-supplements pre-workouts. They eat muffins and bread to prep for their workouts.
Its been well documented that novice and even intermediate exercisers, tend to eat more then they need. They think they actually know how much energy they expended - by using a chart, or now an App. Which leads them to believe they know how much they need to recover and build up. So they tend to overeat.
That's why so many people fail in their diet and fitness, and/or exercise goals. Overeating based on a false sense of need.
"I ran 7 miles today, logged 35 for the week. I earned a cheat day!" Which usually translates into eating too much food.
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I'd be curious to see if this shift can be avoided by varying the type of activity, or if it depends purely on the total calorie burn.
7
To this person, a past marathon runner, the interpretation is that one's body efficiency increases, and that explains the decreasing need for food. Namely, the arteries dilate better (e.g. the "2nd wind"), the heart and blood flow move with less exertion, and the energy "wasted" by friction lessens, resulting in a lower body temperature, so reduced heat loss. This I found.
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This is great news, I always worried that I have to spend too much money on food with the amount of exercising I do. Now I can eat less, while spending less money and saving time.
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I will have to read the paper to confirm this, but the way how the story is told, one cannot draw this conclusion.
The reason is that the runners were not increasing their workload during the course of the event. They were just running a marathon every day for 20 weeks. The workload remained constant.
I am not surprised that they were burning fewer calories in the end. That may be caused by them becoming more efficient in their running style, i.e. practice. It may also be caused by gradually changing muscle fiber type from fast twitch to slow twitch, increasing mitochondrial capacity, improving oxidative phosphorylation, energy transfer, etc, etc.
There are numerous possible molecular explanations that affect energy metabolism that could explain this result. I wonder how deep the paper dug into those.
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@Kara Ben Nemsi
I would agree that there has to be a 'running economy' factor related just to the fact that they were doing the same thing for so many days. It's not unlike the feeling we get when a particular run becomes easier over time, even though we're still doing the exact same distance & speed.
Also, in this study, they're only talking a 10% energy savings (600 cals) which isn't a whole lot. Still, there were many things that surprised me here, such as the limits they found on how much we could burn in a day and that it seemed to match up with how much we could process in a day.
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@Ron A
I am not sure that conclusion can be drawn either. The probands "only" ran a marathon each day and they did not lose weight. So they were in a state of energy equilibrium.
That is not the limit of what the body can burn. Look at Ironman competitors. They not only run a marathon, they also swim 2.4 miles and bike 112 miles, all in the same day. Arguably, they will have to burn more than what they need to propel their bodies through the marathon. That's just basic physics.
So, 6000 kcals is not the maximum our bodies can burn per day. To find out what the limit is, they would have to exceed that actual limit consistently and exercise the athletes to the point where they actually lose weight, despite eating as much as they can.
It is not possible to draw the stated conclusions while the body is at energy equilibrium, even if it is a high equilibrium, as in this case.
3
This is interesting but does not make sense on a few levels. I think focusing on hard core runners, who may already be at an “ideal weight” for their physiology, is a biased and too narrow a sample.
Why do people who eat cheap, fatty processed foods seem to gain weight? Based on this study they should reach some “ ideal” weight for the individual and stay there, regardless of caloric intake or exercise. But they don’t, and keep packing on the pounds.
And speaking of exercise, why do I lose 15 pounds in the summer when, after limited exercise all winter, I ride my bike 50-100 miles a week, but do not change my diet. And lose about 10 more pounds if I ride more and if I cut out a few snacks before dinner. And when I stop exercising come winter I gain weight with no change in diet.
And by the way, how have friends of mine lost as much as 70 pounds through diet, with a small helping of exercise? Shouldn’t their weight stay the same?
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I’ve seen studies that show cognitive improvements with moderate exercise but I wonder if there’s a downslope to that curve. The brain is a large calorie consumer and it’s seems quite plausible that this conservation mode reduces consumption there.
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Perhaps also to be considered is the psychological curve of competition, ie, you are much more anxious in preparation and at the beginning than at the end. While one might remain at a high level of activity, the emotional tenor of the last five miles of a marathon are completely different than those of the first five - and certainly of the week leading up. This effects sleep patterns and resting metabolism, both of which impact calories burned. That said, the body and the brain re-calibrate to new routines, exercise being one of them.
4
How did terrain and climate impact the result of this study?
4
@John Hogan... was thinking the same thing. Some daily 'marathons' had to be more brutal than others- hills, etc.
I thought this was common knowledge. I know yogis are aware of it. Exercise lowers your metabolism rate.
7
There’s an interesting annual endurance race*/hike that involves several thousand people each year: the 2600 mile PCT or Pacific Crest Trail. Anomalies include high altitudes, extreme variable weather, environmental obstacles and dynamic social relationships.
I’ve noticed that about three quarters of the way through most hikers experience what they call “hiker hunger”. They don’t seem to be able to ingest enough calories yet their dairy mileage has increased exponentially.
*I use the term Race loosely because it must be concluded before the snow shuts down the trails. Generally it lasts from April through October. There are many scenic vlogs on YouTube.
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What is “dairy mileage”? Does it involve cows?
1
This article seems to confirm the obvious; that is, if you exercise regularly, expending more energy daily than you replenish, your body adapts to prevent continual depletion of body mass. If that were not the case, all of my competitive cycling buddies and I would be the size of peanuts by now!
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These findings are NOT counter-intuitive, just ask any body-builder. They are exactly why we are told that we must mix-up our exercise routines (muscle confusion). If you do the same thing at every workout your body adjusts and you see no further benefit. This is also why exercise does not help in weight reduction (although building more metabolically active muscle does, but it takes quite awhile).
We still really have no clue how our metabolism/set point works.
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@SW
Exercise is only a minor factor that contributes to weight loss unless during extreme and controlled conditions, but diet is primary as you mentioned.
I also agree that this article doesn't mention concepts of progressive overload and periodization which are critical to all types of training and go a long way to explain these findings as well as homeostasis as has been mentioned. Anyone who trains would not be that suprised by these findings.
1
Still more than a little dubious that the ever popular Mantra, "Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger" over the long run, works well for the majority of us. And after 30 plus years as a physiotherapist (Occupational therapy and Hand therapy) it seems to me that it is more accurate to say, " Whatever doesn't kill you now, kills you later -but more slowly." Instead- regarding ones health- it seems to me that it is much more accurate to say (as the ancients did) "Everything in moderation".
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@Birddog Indeed. Yet, sadly, there are no medals to be won, no bragging rights, for a life lived in moderation.
22
@Karen Or, there are old adventurers and bold adventurers, but no old, bold adventurers.
3
Another nail in the coffin of exercise being critical to weight loss. To the chagrin, I imagine, of the Jack Armstrong zealots.
3
@GettinBig All my serious-exerciser friends at gym agree it's 90% diet and 10% the exercise, in terms of weight control.
That being said I am pretty sure it diminishes your glutton tendencies, for either metabolic or psychological reasons, so that's added bonus of the exercise.
So what the research shows is that in terms of energy consumption for a human, that biostasis is programmed to a steady state limit us to 250% of MET, regardless of endeavor.
Does that imply something more profound, e.g. what are the implications of "robbing Peter to pay Paul"? Is there an internal set of priorities in a human physiology that says: (1. breathing, heart beat, brain nutrition, ....) ??? Probably there is. We aren't delving that low yet into the mechanism, but it's very interesting.
Thank you for the piece.
13
Muscle mass ways more than fat.
4
@Mabrone muscle is more dense than fat, but a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat.
6
@Mabrone No it doesn’t, but a pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat.
10
Check your math. By the end of the event they were expending 2.5 times their resting metabolic rate. Then you go on to say energy expenditure plateaus at somewhere near 2.5% of their metabolic rate. Shouldn't that be 250%?
14
@TJP Isn't 250% the equivalent of 2.5 times?
7
It is important to note that physical activity, according to this article, still boosts metabolism by 2.5 times. So yes, there are limits, but the bottom line remains that you burn more calories engaging in cardiovascular activity than you do at a resting metabolism.
The take-away here is NOT that exercise makes no difference. While there seems to be a wall, we would be a healthier people if we all tried harder to hit that wall.
109
I believe that diet Trump's exercise re health and weight loss.
3
About losing weight, i think studies show that diet is what works, but that exercise and diet are required to keep it off. In one study of big losers, of over 50 pounds, it required both a low-calorie diet and a daily workout of over 60 minutes per day. Considering the potential tradeoffs, e.g., immunity, one has to wonder what the health implications were long-term.
5
@James Igoe wrote: "studies show that diet is what works, but that exercise and diet are required to keep it off."
Nope. Exercise is neither required for weight loss nor for weight loss maintenance. Exercise offers many health benefits, but weight control is not one of them. Weight/Exercise. Bicycle/fish.
Ten years ago I weighed 245, existing on 1100 (horrible, terrible, low-fat, high sugar) calories per day.
Today I weigh 128, eat 2000-2500 high fat, modest protein, modest complex carbs, almost zero added sugar calories a day. My only exercise is walking the dog daily, and a *heavy* weight-lifting session (15-20 minutes) once a week. I cook all my food from scratch, including bread and bagels.
I'm 5'2", 75 years young, no longer a diabetic, and very proud of my (now) broad shoulders and muscular arms.
It's the food. Only the food. Just the food.
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I eat as many calories as you do 2000 to 2500. I am female 5’2, 114 pounds give or take a pound up or down from that. I am 56 years “young” and my beloved sport is riding and sometimes racing a road bike. My mileage is 200 per week. I eat a variety of foods, try to eat as many vegetables as I can fats and protein. When I eat less sugar I feel less hungry. The most calorie’s I have burned in a day was about 2200 KJ (accurate because I use a power meter). That was a 105 mile ride. A little extra food the night before, fueling during the ride, and some extra chow after the ride covers that easily.
3
@SugarFree
Exercise will help you lose weight IF and a big IF you don't reward yourself with food and maintain a caloric deficit, something most people have a hard time doing.
Having had a few friends decide to train for a marathon in the hope of losing weight, it seems that many of them thought since they were "training so hard", they could eat anything they want and thus were in danger of gaining weight.
It seems to me that most people vastly overestimate how much energy is used by the body to perform exercise. Running around the block a couple of times is not going to "burn off" that Big Mac.
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@Keith You can never out-train a bad diet. Coaches across all sports agree on this point.
1
This has always made sense to me, in that physical fitness increases metabolic efficiency and muscular coordination, such that it is easier to do the same activities with less energy and effort, although granted, it can raise metabolism in the short term and raise capabilities in the long term. In the same way that smarter people use less energy to think, fitter people use less energy to move.
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