Pontzer's work isn't about napping. It's about your body having a set point for how many calories it burns, independent (up to a factor of +/- a few hundred calories) of how much exercise you do. For most people this is true, as their work shows. It may not be true for extreme athletes. I don't think Pontzer's team of dozens of people working over ten years misunderstood basic thermodynamics. Their work clearly points to "compensation" -- the body making up for energy it burned during the day by gently lowering the metabolism later on.
Saying "burning 600 calories now means burning 600 less later" gets the point across. It's pretty much on the money for some people. For others compensation may not be total. I guess I'm not really sure where your beef is.
Saying "burning 600 calories now means burning 600 less later" gets the point across. It's pretty much on the money for some people. For others compensation may not be total. I guess I'm not really sure where your beef is.