The Workout Paradox

[Guybrush]

I saw Kurzgesagt's latest video yesterday and it's about exercise. For those who don't know the channel, they strive to present the latest scientific knowledge on various topics so their videos are always well researched.

This one's called The Workout Paradox:

It's well worth watching, but I'll give a quick TLDW;

Your body burns roughly about the same amount of calories every day, regardless of how active you are. If you are inactive, the calories you don't spend moving are spent on other things instead, like excess immune system activity that might promote inflammation.

Exercise is healthy because we are adapted to having active lives and being active makes your body's processes' caloric budgets more like how they are supposed to be. This can reduce stress, improve sleep, promote physical health etc. - but it's not a good way to lose weight as the total caloric burn remains mostly unchanged.

I believe there's another video coming up soon about diet and I'm really looking forward to it.

[grindy]

As far as I know this is rather simplified. Exercise alone is usually insufficient to lose weight but saying that exercise has no impact at all on calorie consumption is also not true. Exercising can certainly burn a few hundred calories and supplement your diet a bit.

[Guybrush]

As far as I know this is rather simplified. Exercise alone is usually insufficient to lose weight but saying that exercise has no impact at all on calorie consumption is also not true. Exercising can certainly burn a few hundred calories and supplement your diet a bit.

It burns calories, but your body re-allocates calories from other physiological processes' calory budgets to pay for the burn, so the impact it has on your total caloric burn for the day will be small.

[grindy]

It burns calories, but your body re-allocates calories from other physiological processes' calory budgets to pay for the burn, so the impact it has on your total caloric burn for the day will be small.

This is what they are claiming but as far as I know this doesn't happen in all cases and not to an extent that cancels out exercise completely or at least to a degree that would make it useless.
For example it might depend on the type of cardio (e.g. high intensity cardio is worse than something like walking in that regard, according to at least some studies)
I can't find their sources but it could be a case of overinterpreting one or very few studies.
Also being small and being negligible are different things. Burning 200 calories per day over a long time can be a pretty substantial contribution to weight loss if the diet is already dialed in.

[Guybrush]

This is what they are claiming but as far as I know this doesn't happen in all cases and not to an extent that cancels out exercise completely or at least to a degree that would make it useless.
For example it might depend on the type of cardio (e.g. high intensity cardio is worse than something like walking in that regard, according to at least some studies)
I can't find their sources but it could be a case of overinterpreting one or very few studies.
Also being small and being negligible are different things. Burning 200 calories per day over a long time can be a pretty substantial contribution to weight loss if the diet is already dialed in.

Kurzgesagt are always up-front about their sources. For this video, they are listed here:

https://sites.google.com/view/sources-workoutparadox

The sources page is actually a good read in its own right.

Edit:

Based on your comment, it's not clear you're in disagreement with their claims (perhaps just my own poor retelling of them).

Active people who work out regularly do burn more than inactive people. But only very little, often as low as 100 calories, the equivalent of a single apple.

If I was exercising to lose weight, I'd definitely find this claim interesting.

[grindy]

Kurzgesagt are always up-front about their sources. For this video, they are listed here:

https://sites.google.com/view/sources-workoutparadox

The sources page is actually a good read in its own right.

Edit:

Based on your comment, it's not clear you're in disagreement with their claims (perhaps just my own poor retelling of them).

If I was exercising to lose weight, I'd definitely find this claim interesting.

I don't disagree with their claims, I just think they overstate them somewhat, even though they do add qualifiers throughout. There is still reason to believe that exercise can contribute to weight loss, albeit of course much less than most people assume.

I know that they are usually upfront with their sources but couldn't find the link for some reason.

[Shhon]

Kurzgesagt does such great videos! I never seen this one, thanks for posting Guybrush!

[Guybrush]

Kurzgesagt does such great videos! I never seen this one, thanks for posting Guybrush!

Yes! They're definitely the best YouTube channel for infomercials 👍

[Shhon]

Yes! They're definitely the best YouTube channel for infomercials 👍

yeah I've been watching their videos for years, they are top level content!

seeing this thread reminded me of this one video they posted a couple years ago. I liked it a lot!
this one below