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Study: You can only burn so many calories a day

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Jan 29, 2016.

  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

  2. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

    I'm no scientist, so I might be missing something here, but when I was an extremely active teenager I know I burned a hell of a lot of calories. I ate and ate and ate and never gained weight. Pizza, burgers, fries, steak, pop tarts, snickers. I ate cereal out of mixing bowls. Ate five meals a day. Also ran miles and miles or played basketball for four to six hours a day and struggled to get over 130 lbs. I was maybe a third as active in my early 20s and got up to 175 pretty quickly.

    Isn't the flaw in the study that they only tracked this over seven days? If you work out like that daily for months your metabolism is going to speed up.
     
  3. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Your body adapts to high activity levels. There is nothing that surprising about this. If you run 2 miles a day, upping it to 15 miles a day, isn't going to make you lose a ton of weight. But most people who exercise at least moderately and regularly don't have serious weight problems. So it's kind of a non story.

    If you are a couch potato or lead a relatively inactive life, though, exercise is NOT an inefficient and ineffective way to lose weight. Even just taking the stairs every rday and walking to and from work every day is going to boost your metabolism and lead to weight loss.

    People overthink this stuff. Exercise is not JUST about weight loss. It's likely very good for your body in a multitude of ways -- regardless of whether there is a ceiling on how much weight you are going to lose past a certain threshold of exercise. As for weight loss, if you are overweight and inactive, adding some moderate to strenuous exercise, will very likely help you lose weight. It's tried and true.

    It's also not just about how many calories you burn. It's also about how much food you take in. So if you are overweight and sedentary, and you change your habits so you don't eat too much, stay away from processed foods and exercise moderately. ... and you stick to it? The vast majority of people will lose weight.
     
  4. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

    Portion size
    Portion size
    Portion size
     
    poindexter likes this.
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I'm a hellacious exerciser - like 1,200-plus calories burned, according to the treadmill. (I know that can be way off, but it at least should give you a gauge of how hard I'm working.)

    But I have discovered that after a certain point - probably about 170 pounds and/or a 35-36-inch waist - the scale won't budge unless I cut carbs, snacking, and alcohol drastically.

    As far as this: Exercise is not JUST about weight loss. It's likely very good for your body in a multitude of ways -- regardless of whether there is a ceiling on how much weight you are going to lose past a certain threshold of exercise.

    I was having this conversation with Mrs. Whitman this morning after reading the article. Regardless of whether I'm stuck with 10 extra points right now, which I am and which I'll clean up my diet to work on, the workouts aren't a waste. My heart loves them. Plus, I'm bounding up two stairs at a time while others have to take the elevator to get up two floors.

    The tough part for me is that I want to build/maintain muscle, for one thing, and, for another, also have energy to fuel the intense cardio workouts I like to do.
     
  6. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Drudge boils it down:

     
  7. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Last year I did the classic/cliche New Year's resolution, but I really actually did it -- 31 days in a row of exercise, and not just walking etc. I didn't weigh myself through the whole thing. At the end of it, I got back on the scale -- weighed the exact same. That was when it hit me: I'm old now.

    But as noted, it had a lot of other effects. I was tons stronger, and specifically my back was holding up better and allowing me to move around more. (A not-insignificant consideration to someone with a 2-year-old.) So I've made sure to keep up on that part. As for the food/weight loss, I try, but every couple of weeks I'm somewhere with good food and/or good drink, and I have to ask myself what exactly I'm training for.
     
  8. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I'm training to not have to buy new clothes.
     
  9. Brian

    Brian Well-Known Member

    The biggest difference I noticed between my pre-workout days and now is how much my memory and thought clarity have improved. It was the last thing I was thinking about when I started working out. Losing the weight was. Now it might be the best side effect of consistent cardio workouts. I get foggy-headed if I go three or four days without them. I'm also much more apt to feel gloomy without them.
     
  10. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    The formula is simple: eat less (and better) and exercise more. You do hit a point of diminishing returns, in part because you add muscle mass and muscle weighs more than fat. The additional muscle burns more calories, though. Doing this will also help improve or stave off both high blood pressure and diabetes.
     
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    That has nothing to do with my waist size, though.

    No, it doesn't. That's largely a myth.
     
  12. JohnHammond

    JohnHammond Well-Known Member

    I need to go to the local vitamin store to get to the truth.
     
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