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Comment by kiba

Not my experience, let me explain:

Experience and anecdote does not substitute for real scientific evidence. Research suggests that your body compensate for any activity expenditure to maintain caloric burn within that specific range. This is known as constrained total energy expenditure.

I notice that I have a baseline of appetite, hunger. Going below that makes me deeply uncomfortable. At the same time, I know that I don't need too much exercise to come to a calorie neutrality or slight deficit - but I can't reach that energy expenditure with a sedentary lifestyle.

If I do a 30min run every day, plus walk to work (another 30min), I spend enough calories so I can eat comfortably (still healthy).

A tracker like the Apple Watch helps to see this in action. Closing your rings in the city? Easy. Closing your rings while car centric? Hard.

I don't trust smartwatches and other devices to track caloric expenditure accurately given that they seemed to have constantly overestimate how much I burn.

This does not dissuade me from making sure that I get at least an hour of exercise everyday.

People should not need to diet. They should spend enough calories to burn off excess food. Note I am talking about healthy BMI, not Instagram fitness model levels. Dad bod, etc. Not morbidly obese.

I agree that people should not do anything special, but here we are in a food environment that makes this difficult.

parent kiba 7 years ago

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