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Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Lose Weight, and Stay Healthy
One of the foremost researchers in human metabolism reveals surprising new science behind food and exercise.
We burn 2,000 calories a day. And if we exercise and cut carbs, we'll lose more weight. Right? Wrong. In this paradigm-shifting book, Herman Pontzer reveals for the first time how human metabolism really works so that we can finally manage our weight and improve our health.
Pontzer's groundbreaking studies with hunter-gatherer tribes show how exercise doesn't increase our metabolism. Instead, we burn calories within a very narrow nearly 3,000 calories per day, no matter our activity level. This was a brilliant evolutionary strategy to survive in times of famine. Now it seems to doom us to obesity. The good news is we can lose weight, but we need to cut calories. Refuting such weight-loss hype as paleo, keto, anti-gluten, anti-grain, and even vegan, Pontzer discusses how all diets succeed or For shedding pounds, a calorie is a calorie.
At the same time, we must exercise to keep our body systems and signals functioning optimally, even if it won't make us thinner. Hunter-gatherers like the Hadza move about five hours a day and remain remarkably healthy into old age. But elite athletes can push the body too far, burning calories faster than their bodies can take them in. It may be that the most spectacular athletic feats are the result not just of great training, but of an astonishingly efficient digestive system.
Revealing, irreverent, and always entertaining, Pontzer has written a book that will change how you eat, move, and live.
We burn 2,000 calories a day. And if we exercise and cut carbs, we'll lose more weight. Right? Wrong. In this paradigm-shifting book, Herman Pontzer reveals for the first time how human metabolism really works so that we can finally manage our weight and improve our health.
Pontzer's groundbreaking studies with hunter-gatherer tribes show how exercise doesn't increase our metabolism. Instead, we burn calories within a very narrow nearly 3,000 calories per day, no matter our activity level. This was a brilliant evolutionary strategy to survive in times of famine. Now it seems to doom us to obesity. The good news is we can lose weight, but we need to cut calories. Refuting such weight-loss hype as paleo, keto, anti-gluten, anti-grain, and even vegan, Pontzer discusses how all diets succeed or For shedding pounds, a calorie is a calorie.
At the same time, we must exercise to keep our body systems and signals functioning optimally, even if it won't make us thinner. Hunter-gatherers like the Hadza move about five hours a day and remain remarkably healthy into old age. But elite athletes can push the body too far, burning calories faster than their bodies can take them in. It may be that the most spectacular athletic feats are the result not just of great training, but of an astonishingly efficient digestive system.
Revealing, irreverent, and always entertaining, Pontzer has written a book that will change how you eat, move, and live.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published March 2, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 332 reviews
March 12, 2021
I've always struggled with my weight, but during my 8-year drug addiction, I put on over 200 lbs. I've been sober for 8.5 years, and I've been struggling to take the weight off. Something that drives me nuts is all of the non-scientific contradictory information about diet and exercise out there, so I decided to check out this book from Herman Pontzer. I must say that Pontzer did an incredible job with this book, and I think it's perfect for a wide range of readers.
I'm more of a psychology guy than a biology guy, but Pontzer was able to break down how the body functions in a simple way. There are still a few concepts I may need to go back and revisit, but his overall thesis was easy to grasp. What I really enjoyed about this book was how the author dispelled a lot of myths about diets, exercise, metabolism, and more. My only critique is at the end of this book, I personally didn't leave with many solutions, but that's not what this book was about. Fortunately, Herman replied to me on Twitter and recommended some other great books that I can check out.
I'm more of a psychology guy than a biology guy, but Pontzer was able to break down how the body functions in a simple way. There are still a few concepts I may need to go back and revisit, but his overall thesis was easy to grasp. What I really enjoyed about this book was how the author dispelled a lot of myths about diets, exercise, metabolism, and more. My only critique is at the end of this book, I personally didn't leave with many solutions, but that's not what this book was about. Fortunately, Herman replied to me on Twitter and recommended some other great books that I can check out.
April 9, 2021
For years my exercise routine consisted of waking up at 5:00 a.m. to walk four miles or attend a cardio class. Over the years, my weight crept up and by the end of 2019, I was thirty pounds overweight. I decided to approach losing the weight by focusing on nutrition. I still worked out daily, but I overhauled my diet, focused on portions, and developed the mindset that this is how I wanted to eat for the rest of my life. I didn't cut out any food groups or try popular diets. I focused on eating nutritious foods that kept me full and satiated. I've lost forty pounds and for the most part, I feel amazing. In addition to eating well, I read articles, books and watch videos about nutrition. That is how I found out about this book.
Herman Ponzter explains in detail with science to back his claims, what I figured out through trial and error. Exercise is wonderful for the body. There are so many benefits to be gained from exercise-even mild exercise, such as a daily walk around your neighborhood. However, exercise does not automatically result in weight loss.
There are portions of this book that are a bit technical and exposed me to facts about the brain and the intricacies of the metabolism that I really didn't need to know. Overall, I do think that the language and terms are accessible to readers that believe in science, but aren't very interested in every single detail.
I read a mild criticism about the ending of the book. Pontzer steps away from the inner workings of the digestive tract and discusses how the world around us fits into what we eat, how much we eat, why we eat and the consequences of stuffing ourselves with processed food. I find no issue with raising questions about the cost of potato chips versus the cost of an apple. I think it blends in perfectly.
This is a good read and I strongly recommend it.
Herman Ponzter explains in detail with science to back his claims, what I figured out through trial and error. Exercise is wonderful for the body. There are so many benefits to be gained from exercise-even mild exercise, such as a daily walk around your neighborhood. However, exercise does not automatically result in weight loss.
There are portions of this book that are a bit technical and exposed me to facts about the brain and the intricacies of the metabolism that I really didn't need to know. Overall, I do think that the language and terms are accessible to readers that believe in science, but aren't very interested in every single detail.
I read a mild criticism about the ending of the book. Pontzer steps away from the inner workings of the digestive tract and discusses how the world around us fits into what we eat, how much we eat, why we eat and the consequences of stuffing ourselves with processed food. I find no issue with raising questions about the cost of potato chips versus the cost of an apple. I think it blends in perfectly.
This is a good read and I strongly recommend it.
April 9, 2021
Pontzer frequently digresses into memoir-esque stories about his own personal adventures, which would be distracting enough from the content of the book if they weren't jam packed with his personal opinions and forced / corny jokes.
As for the content of the parts that actually discuss the science of metabolism, the parts that talk about doubly labeled water and the new insights Pontzer and his colleagues have come up with, it's interesting enough. However, Pontzer constantly impugns the research others have found with large scope research that focuses on wide cross sections of humans and then asserts that such evidence disproves a variety of diet modification strategies. Then later, he blithely mentions that there is more complexity than the calories in / calories out simplification he underlines (he mentions that some kinds of fats seem to be handled differently by our body than others, but briskly moves on from the implications that individual variation and macronutrient composition may indeed play important roles).
Beyond these epistemic oversights, he also fails to mention any of the controversy surrounding Ancel Keys' work on the diet-heart-hypothesis and moves on quickly from the topic to continue carping about the superiority of his own views and how they are compatible with Keys'.
That would all be enough on its own, but most of the last 10-20% of the book is given over to a discussion about modern society and climate change and his particular prescriptions for fixing the ills of affluence as well as climate change with little respect to the fact that both of these fields have a deep well of scholarship which is not his particular expertise and that his particular opinions on this seem quite thinly informed.
As for the content of the parts that actually discuss the science of metabolism, the parts that talk about doubly labeled water and the new insights Pontzer and his colleagues have come up with, it's interesting enough. However, Pontzer constantly impugns the research others have found with large scope research that focuses on wide cross sections of humans and then asserts that such evidence disproves a variety of diet modification strategies. Then later, he blithely mentions that there is more complexity than the calories in / calories out simplification he underlines (he mentions that some kinds of fats seem to be handled differently by our body than others, but briskly moves on from the implications that individual variation and macronutrient composition may indeed play important roles).
Beyond these epistemic oversights, he also fails to mention any of the controversy surrounding Ancel Keys' work on the diet-heart-hypothesis and moves on quickly from the topic to continue carping about the superiority of his own views and how they are compatible with Keys'.
That would all be enough on its own, but most of the last 10-20% of the book is given over to a discussion about modern society and climate change and his particular prescriptions for fixing the ills of affluence as well as climate change with little respect to the fact that both of these fields have a deep well of scholarship which is not his particular expertise and that his particular opinions on this seem quite thinly informed.
March 2, 2021
One of the foremost researchers in human metabolism reveals surprising new science behind food and exercise. We burn 2,000 calories a day. And if we exercise and cut carbs, we'll lose more weight. Right? Wrong. In this paradigm-shifting book, Herman Pontzer reveals for the first time how human metabolism really works so that we can finally manage our weight and improve our health. Pontzer's groundbreaking studies with hunter-gatherer tribes show how exercise doesn't increase our metabolism. Instead, we burn calories within a very narrow range: nearly 3,000 calories per day, no matter our activity level. This was a brilliant evolutionary strategy to survive in times of famine. Now it seems to doom us to obesity. The good news is we can lose weight, but we need to cut calories. Refuting such weight-loss hype as paleo, keto, anti-gluten, anti-grain, and even vegan, Pontzer discusses how all diets succeed or fail: For shedding pounds, a calorie is a calorie.
At the same time, we must exercise to keep our body systems and signals functioning optimally, even if it won't make us thinner. Hunter-gatherers like the Hadza move about five hours a day and remain remarkably healthy into old age. But elite athletes can push the body too far, burning calories faster than their bodies can take them in. It may be that the most spectacular athletic feats are the result not just of great training, but of an astonishingly efficient digestive system. This is a fascinating, captivating and deeply insightful look at the science of metabolism and seeks to set right the myths and pseudoscience often perpetuated about eating, weight loss and lifestyle. Written in an accessible conversational fashion and in Pontzer's typical entertaining style, this is an informative, revealing and likely the most definitive read on the topic to date. It will change how you eat, move, and live and leave you with a much more sound understanding of the way our bodies convert food into energy. Highly recommended.
At the same time, we must exercise to keep our body systems and signals functioning optimally, even if it won't make us thinner. Hunter-gatherers like the Hadza move about five hours a day and remain remarkably healthy into old age. But elite athletes can push the body too far, burning calories faster than their bodies can take them in. It may be that the most spectacular athletic feats are the result not just of great training, but of an astonishingly efficient digestive system. This is a fascinating, captivating and deeply insightful look at the science of metabolism and seeks to set right the myths and pseudoscience often perpetuated about eating, weight loss and lifestyle. Written in an accessible conversational fashion and in Pontzer's typical entertaining style, this is an informative, revealing and likely the most definitive read on the topic to date. It will change how you eat, move, and live and leave you with a much more sound understanding of the way our bodies convert food into energy. Highly recommended.
September 24, 2021
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. I was prepared to give it five stars at the beginning, but at the end I found myself having to put the book down every three or four pages in order of pace out my frustration. I've settled on three because the science is sound and I think incredibly important. We honestly think we know how our bodies work, but the reality is we don't know a whole lot at all. Pontzer does a fantastic job of expanding that knowledge, but once he steps outside of the strictly biological and into the social, things get messy. Cross-discipline collaboration is important.
I'll start of with what I liked before I get started in on my ranting criticism.
Pontzer discusses his experiments in how apes use the energy we get from our food. The study includes many other apes, like gorilla's and orangutans, and also humans that choose to live in what we might consider 'pre-modern' society, such as hunter-gatherer groups. The information that we all burn the same amount of calories, regardless of lifestyle, was fascinating. There is nothing special in terms of metabolism between ourselves and hunter-gatherers like the Hadza. Pontzer discusses how incredibly adaptive our bodies are when it comes to burning energy, and keeping such 'energy expenditures' as he calls them, within a specific range. I loved that he took down the Paleo diet, which I've always considered a bunch of bunk. The idea that humans don't need carbs is just stupid. In the context of history we always discuss the rise of complex civilizations in terms of a staple grain (or tuber in some cases). Famines are caused by a failure in the staple grain crop. If carbs were so unimportant to our diets, then all past famines should not have been as severe. Humans, as Pontzer explains, have an opportunistic diet. We eat what is available in our environment. Peoples living in the far north, like the Inuit and Saami people, eat meat heavy diets because plants do not grow well. Groups that live in areas that lack large game animals eat more plants and insects. I do agree with some of the advice offered, humans were made to move, and most of us in modern societies don't move enough, and we need to find a diet that is sustainable and healthy, not these bizarre, super restrictive diets.
But here is where I diverge from a lot of the advice or conclusions the author draws. First of all, I found a contradictory message in the book. I think some of that might have been Pontzer attempting to reconcile what he had learned with our society's incredible weight bias. Serious, we have a problem, we fat shame pregnant people! Pontzer discusses how good our bodies are at managing the energy we consume, if we eat too much, our bodies attempt to burn it off, storing it is a last resort. So if you eat more than your body needs for essential functions in a day, it will shunt it offer to other functions. When you begin to expend a lot of energy on physical activity your body dials back on the energy allotted to other functions, like reproduction. He even cited a study by Kevin Hall, which followed the metabolism of dieters from the Biggest Loser. These people, even though they were a 'healthy weight' (what is that anyway?), had the metabolism of someone undergoing severe starvation. When we SEVERELY cut back our calories, our bodies go into survival mode and slow energy burn as much as possible. But Pontzer still claims that america's obesity problem stems from eating too much food and not moving enough. Look at the Hadza (who he almost always uses for comparison), they don't eat the sugary processed junk we have, and look at how much they 'work out' each day. In fact, Pontzer suggests caloric reduction to lose weight, despite pointing out that 2000 calories a day are what a child burns, and adults need much more energy, and that when we restrict our energy intake our bodies try to save energy by turning off 'non essential' functions. We do need to move more, but Pontzer's suggestion that we are all lazy and coddled by the modern world compared to the Hadza is a case of comparing apples to oranges. Pontzer speculates that if it won't make us look good in a swimsuit (eg lose weight) Americans won't exercise. For starters, you can live a more active lifestyle without 'exercise'. Engaging in physical activities that you find rewarding, like sports, are much more appealing than running in place for an hour. The idea that we won't make time to exercise because we're lazy doesn't acknowledge that americans work longer hours than any other developed country, and we have fewer rest days as well. Pontzer also acts as though all of these lifestyles are actual choices, ignoring the gaping differences in culture between Americans and the Hadza that can easily account for weight differences. Stress for starters. Pontzer describes a young man who had stayed in camp for a few days in a row because he had been feeling unwell. Never once was it mentioned he was worried that he would go hungry because he couldn't hunt for himself, because for the Hadza sharing food is a given, as opposed to the idea in america where if you don't work you don't eat. Pontzer mentions briefly that poverty and food deserts are a problem, but that's it. Google Obesity Poverty Paradox. Our poorest people are also our fattest, which flies in the face of the idea that obesity is a sign of over-consumption. How do you over consume when you don't have consistent access to food? And Pontzer's suggested solutions to food deserts are overly simplistic. Just tax sugary food to make it more expensive and make fresh fruit and vegetables cheaper. Really? Poverty is the problem. You can only lower the cost of something so much before the farmer who grows it doesn't make enough money to keep the farm running and himself fed.
The finally, he blatantly ignored all of the other differences between american and Hadza environment. How much pesticide was on those berries the Hadza women gathered? How much chemical fertilizer was in the soil they dug their tubers from? How many hormones had the zebra eaten that the Hadza men hunted? How much of their food and drink come from plastic containers that leech chemicals like BPA, BPS, and BPF? We also have access to a lot of medications that, while they do help us immensely, tend to have weight gain as a side-effect. About one quarter of all people on an anti-anxiety or antidepressant will experience weight gain, which is also a side effect of hormonal birth control pills for women. The point is we have an incredibly different social structure, and cultural values, from the Hadza that can account for weight factors, as well as exposure to chemicals of our own making that we are just now starting to realize might have negative effects on our health. For the record, Europe and Canada more strictly control the use of BPA and other chemicals in food packaging than America (science has shown that BPA affects us at levels way lower than what the american government has considered 'safe'), and Europe has also banned the use of hormones in food animals and the importation of meat that has been exposed to those hormones. I feel like Pontzer should have stuck to the science, instead of trying to make broad social claims by comparing two radically different cultures, without sufficient understanding of sociology, traditional anthropology, and considering other differences in our environments, other than availability of food and cars.
I'll start of with what I liked before I get started in on my ranting criticism.
Pontzer discusses his experiments in how apes use the energy we get from our food. The study includes many other apes, like gorilla's and orangutans, and also humans that choose to live in what we might consider 'pre-modern' society, such as hunter-gatherer groups. The information that we all burn the same amount of calories, regardless of lifestyle, was fascinating. There is nothing special in terms of metabolism between ourselves and hunter-gatherers like the Hadza. Pontzer discusses how incredibly adaptive our bodies are when it comes to burning energy, and keeping such 'energy expenditures' as he calls them, within a specific range. I loved that he took down the Paleo diet, which I've always considered a bunch of bunk. The idea that humans don't need carbs is just stupid. In the context of history we always discuss the rise of complex civilizations in terms of a staple grain (or tuber in some cases). Famines are caused by a failure in the staple grain crop. If carbs were so unimportant to our diets, then all past famines should not have been as severe. Humans, as Pontzer explains, have an opportunistic diet. We eat what is available in our environment. Peoples living in the far north, like the Inuit and Saami people, eat meat heavy diets because plants do not grow well. Groups that live in areas that lack large game animals eat more plants and insects. I do agree with some of the advice offered, humans were made to move, and most of us in modern societies don't move enough, and we need to find a diet that is sustainable and healthy, not these bizarre, super restrictive diets.
But here is where I diverge from a lot of the advice or conclusions the author draws. First of all, I found a contradictory message in the book. I think some of that might have been Pontzer attempting to reconcile what he had learned with our society's incredible weight bias. Serious, we have a problem, we fat shame pregnant people! Pontzer discusses how good our bodies are at managing the energy we consume, if we eat too much, our bodies attempt to burn it off, storing it is a last resort. So if you eat more than your body needs for essential functions in a day, it will shunt it offer to other functions. When you begin to expend a lot of energy on physical activity your body dials back on the energy allotted to other functions, like reproduction. He even cited a study by Kevin Hall, which followed the metabolism of dieters from the Biggest Loser. These people, even though they were a 'healthy weight' (what is that anyway?), had the metabolism of someone undergoing severe starvation. When we SEVERELY cut back our calories, our bodies go into survival mode and slow energy burn as much as possible. But Pontzer still claims that america's obesity problem stems from eating too much food and not moving enough. Look at the Hadza (who he almost always uses for comparison), they don't eat the sugary processed junk we have, and look at how much they 'work out' each day. In fact, Pontzer suggests caloric reduction to lose weight, despite pointing out that 2000 calories a day are what a child burns, and adults need much more energy, and that when we restrict our energy intake our bodies try to save energy by turning off 'non essential' functions. We do need to move more, but Pontzer's suggestion that we are all lazy and coddled by the modern world compared to the Hadza is a case of comparing apples to oranges. Pontzer speculates that if it won't make us look good in a swimsuit (eg lose weight) Americans won't exercise. For starters, you can live a more active lifestyle without 'exercise'. Engaging in physical activities that you find rewarding, like sports, are much more appealing than running in place for an hour. The idea that we won't make time to exercise because we're lazy doesn't acknowledge that americans work longer hours than any other developed country, and we have fewer rest days as well. Pontzer also acts as though all of these lifestyles are actual choices, ignoring the gaping differences in culture between Americans and the Hadza that can easily account for weight differences. Stress for starters. Pontzer describes a young man who had stayed in camp for a few days in a row because he had been feeling unwell. Never once was it mentioned he was worried that he would go hungry because he couldn't hunt for himself, because for the Hadza sharing food is a given, as opposed to the idea in america where if you don't work you don't eat. Pontzer mentions briefly that poverty and food deserts are a problem, but that's it. Google Obesity Poverty Paradox. Our poorest people are also our fattest, which flies in the face of the idea that obesity is a sign of over-consumption. How do you over consume when you don't have consistent access to food? And Pontzer's suggested solutions to food deserts are overly simplistic. Just tax sugary food to make it more expensive and make fresh fruit and vegetables cheaper. Really? Poverty is the problem. You can only lower the cost of something so much before the farmer who grows it doesn't make enough money to keep the farm running and himself fed.
The finally, he blatantly ignored all of the other differences between american and Hadza environment. How much pesticide was on those berries the Hadza women gathered? How much chemical fertilizer was in the soil they dug their tubers from? How many hormones had the zebra eaten that the Hadza men hunted? How much of their food and drink come from plastic containers that leech chemicals like BPA, BPS, and BPF? We also have access to a lot of medications that, while they do help us immensely, tend to have weight gain as a side-effect. About one quarter of all people on an anti-anxiety or antidepressant will experience weight gain, which is also a side effect of hormonal birth control pills for women. The point is we have an incredibly different social structure, and cultural values, from the Hadza that can account for weight factors, as well as exposure to chemicals of our own making that we are just now starting to realize might have negative effects on our health. For the record, Europe and Canada more strictly control the use of BPA and other chemicals in food packaging than America (science has shown that BPA affects us at levels way lower than what the american government has considered 'safe'), and Europe has also banned the use of hormones in food animals and the importation of meat that has been exposed to those hormones. I feel like Pontzer should have stuck to the science, instead of trying to make broad social claims by comparing two radically different cultures, without sufficient understanding of sociology, traditional anthropology, and considering other differences in our environments, other than availability of food and cars.
October 1, 2021
The smarmy tone and navel gazing that suffuses this tome cannot make up for any number of useful anecdotes about his adventures:
“We were a clever crew, after all—budding scientists pursuing our PhDs at prestigious academic institutions from around the world. We had the intelligence and temperament to earn competitive spots in top-tier graduate programs and to work our way here”
Btw, did you know he did his PhD at Harvard? Don't worry, he'll remind you:
“I had learned the consensus view in college at Penn State in the 1990s and grad school at Harvard in the 2000s,”
“It was the late summer of 2003, midway through my PhD at dear old Harvard”
“Brian and I were friends from our grad school days at Harvard”
“Dan Lieberman (my PhD advisor at Harvard)”
“We were a clever crew, after all—budding scientists pursuing our PhDs at prestigious academic institutions from around the world. We had the intelligence and temperament to earn competitive spots in top-tier graduate programs and to work our way here”
Btw, did you know he did his PhD at Harvard? Don't worry, he'll remind you:
“I had learned the consensus view in college at Penn State in the 1990s and grad school at Harvard in the 2000s,”
“It was the late summer of 2003, midway through my PhD at dear old Harvard”
“Brian and I were friends from our grad school days at Harvard”
“Dan Lieberman (my PhD advisor at Harvard)”
April 17, 2021
I had such high hopes for this book. Had to sift through much information ( honestly though interesting, I skimmed a lot of it) to locate what I wanted. About 15,000 steps to maintain weight, eat less than 2,000 calories ( more like 1500 or less) to lose weight.
March 5, 2021
A fun, authoritative & witty guide to the latest science of metabolism, exercise & weight loss
Have you ever slept just a few hundred yards from a pride of hungry lions to gather data, with just a thin nylon tent between you and becoming breakfast? Herman Pontzer has. In "Burn", he lives to tell the tale of trying to keep up with bafflingly badass Hadza hunter-gatherers and steel-livered Georgian paleoanthropololgists. The result is a masterwork of popular science writing: authoritative yet accessible, iconoclastic, and funny as hell.
The book is primarily about energy: the evolution of how humans acquire, use, and store it; the mechanisms for turning energy into work; how other animals do it differently; and how we sometimes thoughtlessly squander it. In the process, he upends some popular myths about diet and exercise.
For example, his research shows that the Hadza, who every day move around for ~4 hours and 15,000 steps, use the same amount of energy as couch-potato North Americans. What?!? How is this even possible? I'm still wrapping my head around this, but the definitive double-labeled water experiments don't lie. Humans have "constrained energy expenditure", meaning that you only burn so many calories a day no matter what you do. Our extremely effective "metabolic compensation" simply shifts calories around so we break even at the end of the day no matter how much we move.
For practical purposes, this means that you basically can't lose weight through exercise. Reducing caloric intake is the only way. Nevertheless, the manifold health benefits of exercise still make it the single most healthful activity we can do, as Prof Pontzer takes pains to emphasize.
I appreciate Pontzer's vivid prose with evocative imagery and analogies that even a 10-year old can understand. I have no idea how he summarized all of college biochemistry in 2 pages while still making sense, but I'm sure glad he did. I particularly laud his deft use of technical terms like "hooey", "BS" and "poo", sometimes when dispatching bad science and fad diets like Paleo, low-carb keto, and raw foodism into the rubbish bin of nonsense. He's the anthropologist who's actually gathering the data in the African bush, freezing urine samples in liquid nitrogen and hauling them back. Don't know about you, but I'm going to listen to working scientists with real data before armchair engineers, journalists, and self-styled diet gurus.
Finally, it's been a while since I laughed out loud multiple times reading a science book. The gleefully irreverent humor lives in the hangover poetry, the punny section titles ("Mitochondria and the O2 joy", "It's alimentary, my dear Watson"), and the Hadza language lessons.
Out there, there's a lot of contradictory information on diet, exercise, and metabolism. For literate primates who use energy and want to disentangle truth from speculation without having to confront hungry lions, Prof Pontzer has done us a great service in compiling all we need to know in one enjoyably informative package. Read "Burn" to learn how your body really works.
-- Ali Binazir, M.D., M.Phil., Happiness Engineer and author of The Tao of Dating: The Smart Woman's Guide to Being Absolutely Irresistible, the highest-rated dating book on Amazon, and Should I Go to Medical School?: An Irreverent Guide to the Pros and Cons of a Career in Medicine
Have you ever slept just a few hundred yards from a pride of hungry lions to gather data, with just a thin nylon tent between you and becoming breakfast? Herman Pontzer has. In "Burn", he lives to tell the tale of trying to keep up with bafflingly badass Hadza hunter-gatherers and steel-livered Georgian paleoanthropololgists. The result is a masterwork of popular science writing: authoritative yet accessible, iconoclastic, and funny as hell.
The book is primarily about energy: the evolution of how humans acquire, use, and store it; the mechanisms for turning energy into work; how other animals do it differently; and how we sometimes thoughtlessly squander it. In the process, he upends some popular myths about diet and exercise.
For example, his research shows that the Hadza, who every day move around for ~4 hours and 15,000 steps, use the same amount of energy as couch-potato North Americans. What?!? How is this even possible? I'm still wrapping my head around this, but the definitive double-labeled water experiments don't lie. Humans have "constrained energy expenditure", meaning that you only burn so many calories a day no matter what you do. Our extremely effective "metabolic compensation" simply shifts calories around so we break even at the end of the day no matter how much we move.
For practical purposes, this means that you basically can't lose weight through exercise. Reducing caloric intake is the only way. Nevertheless, the manifold health benefits of exercise still make it the single most healthful activity we can do, as Prof Pontzer takes pains to emphasize.
I appreciate Pontzer's vivid prose with evocative imagery and analogies that even a 10-year old can understand. I have no idea how he summarized all of college biochemistry in 2 pages while still making sense, but I'm sure glad he did. I particularly laud his deft use of technical terms like "hooey", "BS" and "poo", sometimes when dispatching bad science and fad diets like Paleo, low-carb keto, and raw foodism into the rubbish bin of nonsense. He's the anthropologist who's actually gathering the data in the African bush, freezing urine samples in liquid nitrogen and hauling them back. Don't know about you, but I'm going to listen to working scientists with real data before armchair engineers, journalists, and self-styled diet gurus.
Finally, it's been a while since I laughed out loud multiple times reading a science book. The gleefully irreverent humor lives in the hangover poetry, the punny section titles ("Mitochondria and the O2 joy", "It's alimentary, my dear Watson"), and the Hadza language lessons.
Out there, there's a lot of contradictory information on diet, exercise, and metabolism. For literate primates who use energy and want to disentangle truth from speculation without having to confront hungry lions, Prof Pontzer has done us a great service in compiling all we need to know in one enjoyably informative package. Read "Burn" to learn how your body really works.
-- Ali Binazir, M.D., M.Phil., Happiness Engineer and author of The Tao of Dating: The Smart Woman's Guide to Being Absolutely Irresistible, the highest-rated dating book on Amazon, and Should I Go to Medical School?: An Irreverent Guide to the Pros and Cons of a Career in Medicine
June 13, 2021
This is sort of a weird book. It is billed as a diet book, but really is a wonderful summary of work on human evolution and metabolism. It does much to debunk many of the diet myths in our society, while providing a basic scientific framework for health.
The stories of archaeological excavation and the time spent with the Hadza are remarkable in their own right. This book was a joy to read.
The stories of archaeological excavation and the time spent with the Hadza are remarkable in their own right. This book was a joy to read.
January 31, 2021
I learnt a lot reading ‘burn’. The topic of calorie burn interests me as a runner and a calorie counter.
From the synopsis I gleaned that much of what I thought about exercise and calorie burn was incorrect, and I was intrigued to find out more.
This book is heavy on research so it feels very authentic and one to be taken seriously.
Chapters are a good mix of storytelling around the authors time with the Hazda community of hunter gatherers he has researched along with the science and ‘take home’ messages we can all learn from.
While this book is pretty intellectual and definitely challenged me in that respect, I felt I did get the gist.
This book really makes us think about lifestyle and rethink our relationship between (highly palatable) foods and obesity. Some great points about exercise are included, and while it may have less bearing on our weight the importance of exercise and movement in our daily lives is encouraged.
Knowledge is power, and this is definitely a book that it is well worth reading for anyone who wants to know the truth behind nutrition and exercise based on real science and without any fads!
My thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an advance copy.
From the synopsis I gleaned that much of what I thought about exercise and calorie burn was incorrect, and I was intrigued to find out more.
This book is heavy on research so it feels very authentic and one to be taken seriously.
Chapters are a good mix of storytelling around the authors time with the Hazda community of hunter gatherers he has researched along with the science and ‘take home’ messages we can all learn from.
While this book is pretty intellectual and definitely challenged me in that respect, I felt I did get the gist.
This book really makes us think about lifestyle and rethink our relationship between (highly palatable) foods and obesity. Some great points about exercise are included, and while it may have less bearing on our weight the importance of exercise and movement in our daily lives is encouraged.
Knowledge is power, and this is definitely a book that it is well worth reading for anyone who wants to know the truth behind nutrition and exercise based on real science and without any fads!
My thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an advance copy.
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August 5, 2021It's rare that I'll read a non-fiction/self-help/research based book and think, "that wasn't long enough." Aaaaaaand... that's still the case with Burn.
I was optimistic about this book from sentence one, as the author weaves personal anecdotes well with his research findings. However it became quickly clear to me that the scope he gives is just... too large.
When you write a research book that promises on the cover to change the way people think about burning fat / diet culture, you have to deliver to the impatient masses (aka, me). The tagline of the book is literally "New research blows the lid off how we really burn calories, lose weight, and stay healthy." But Herman Pontzer gave so much background information to try to color the context of his research, but it just caused his research to get lost in the noise.
Ultimately it was soooo much scientific information I didn't care about. Because the tagline that was promised wasn't delivering.
I was optimistic about this book from sentence one, as the author weaves personal anecdotes well with his research findings. However it became quickly clear to me that the scope he gives is just... too large.
When you write a research book that promises on the cover to change the way people think about burning fat / diet culture, you have to deliver to the impatient masses (aka, me). The tagline of the book is literally "New research blows the lid off how we really burn calories, lose weight, and stay healthy." But Herman Pontzer gave so much background information to try to color the context of his research, but it just caused his research to get lost in the noise.
Ultimately it was soooo much scientific information I didn't care about. Because the tagline that was promised wasn't delivering.
April 22, 2022
One of the best books related to fitness and health (in a broad category). I picked it up because of Keith Rabois' recco.
Like my favorite book Sapiens, it digs deep into the evolution of human beings from apes and very beautifully sets the context. Very crisply articulates about the importance of metabolism and demystifies a lot. My key takeaway from this book are these two points:
1. Exercise doesn’t change the number of calories you burn each day, but it does change how you spend them—and that makes all the difference.
2. Exercise won’t keep you thin, but it will keep you alive.
It took sometime for me to wrap my head around the fact that an Olympic athlete and a normal person's "daily energy expenditure" is more or less the same. Herman Pontzer writes so good on this and cites many research about metabolism. So the exercise does nothing to weight loss but necessary for living a vital life.
But the most tough pill to digest is the take on diet. Herman argues that keto, low-fat, vegan all diets are just calories, YMMV based on the total calorie count. This is hard to accept for me as I was influeneced a lot by Gary Taubes' school of thought, keto and low-carb. But Herman has engaged with Gary on keto and explains why it works for some and how to think about food and diet in a wholesome manner.
This is truly a keystone book for me that has given a new lens to look at fitness, diet and exercise. Fantastic read. Highly recommend it.
Like my favorite book Sapiens, it digs deep into the evolution of human beings from apes and very beautifully sets the context. Very crisply articulates about the importance of metabolism and demystifies a lot. My key takeaway from this book are these two points:
1. Exercise doesn’t change the number of calories you burn each day, but it does change how you spend them—and that makes all the difference.
2. Exercise won’t keep you thin, but it will keep you alive.
It took sometime for me to wrap my head around the fact that an Olympic athlete and a normal person's "daily energy expenditure" is more or less the same. Herman Pontzer writes so good on this and cites many research about metabolism. So the exercise does nothing to weight loss but necessary for living a vital life.
But the most tough pill to digest is the take on diet. Herman argues that keto, low-fat, vegan all diets are just calories, YMMV based on the total calorie count. This is hard to accept for me as I was influeneced a lot by Gary Taubes' school of thought, keto and low-carb. But Herman has engaged with Gary on keto and explains why it works for some and how to think about food and diet in a wholesome manner.
This is truly a keystone book for me that has given a new lens to look at fitness, diet and exercise. Fantastic read. Highly recommend it.
January 10, 2024
Esse é um daqueles livros que eu colocaria na lista “livros que mudaram a minha maneira de pensar”. Eu não sou um cientista do metabolismo ou nutricionista, apenas tenho um background de física. Eu digo isso porque não tenho como verificar se todas as afirmações ditas pelo autor são verdadeiras, mas no que diz respeito à física e termodinâmica, o autor possui um excelente entendimento.
Leitura recomendada! Eu não esperava me divertir e aprender tanto lendo um livro sobre metabolismo.
Leitura recomendada! Eu não esperava me divertir e aprender tanto lendo um livro sobre metabolismo.
March 18, 2021
If you're looking for an insightful new weight loss plan, then this is not the book for you. In fact, it's pretty much bad news on the weight loss front, because bodies have biologically obvious reasons to set calorie burn limits and our economically driven society doesn't want you to be satiated. It wants you eat more, because that means buy more. The take-away is eat whole foods and move lots and avoid weight gain in the first place. It's really hard not to walk away from this book feeling hard done by, and so, so mad at society.
On the other hand, for everyone who tried to manage their weight and found the calorie in-calorie out mantra basically useless, this book has a practical and logical explanation for that experience. We're not weak, we're human. We're human in an environment we created that's hostile to our own biological needs.
I appreciated the perspective shift, considering all our modern conveniences as outsourced or externalised calorie burn. It sheds a whole new light on sustainability for our planet and sustainability for humans in their every day lives.
This book is funny, challenging, weirdly beautiful and in some parts, haunting AF.
On the other hand, for everyone who tried to manage their weight and found the calorie in-calorie out mantra basically useless, this book has a practical and logical explanation for that experience. We're not weak, we're human. We're human in an environment we created that's hostile to our own biological needs.
I appreciated the perspective shift, considering all our modern conveniences as outsourced or externalised calorie burn. It sheds a whole new light on sustainability for our planet and sustainability for humans in their every day lives.
This book is funny, challenging, weirdly beautiful and in some parts, haunting AF.
April 6, 2021
Calories in - calories out theory. No food restrictive diets work. Exercise won't help you burn away more than you would. Basically we are who we are. Not sure I buy into everything he purports. Much of his science is from data collected from a hunter-gatherer people called the Hadza who lead (and have always led) a very different lifestyle than people of western civilizations. They are too limiting to have the big reveal ah-ha moments that then apply to all the human race.
May 12, 2021
Admittedly I picked this book up hoping to come away with a magic pill for weight loss. Instead, I learned more about anthropology and organic chemistry. At the end of the day, no matter what you’ve learned about historical anthropology or the body’s chemistry, if you eat more than you burn then you’re going to get fat. Choose your calories wisely.
December 3, 2021
I learned some things. I knew some things. I scanned a lot.
March 16, 2021
One of the best non fiction books I have ever read. The author covers wide range of subjects and reminds me of Bill Bryson except that he is a better writer, I know that Bill Bryson is a very, very good writer. I came for the analysis of different dieting strategies and stayed for the discussion about how human bodies turn food into calories, the metabolic pathways and a discusion how human metabolisms differ from other mammals and other apes. The other topics include how humans and our nearest relatives burn calories and their relative life scale versus other mammals. He then dives into a discussion of evolution and its probable effect on our metabolism. He ended up discussing the effect of exercise on our metabolism, as well as how true endurance athletes metabolize energy. I know that this sounds like a lot but it was extremely well organized and the topics flowed naturally.
July 6, 2021
Studying human metabolism illuminates climate change
A very enlightening look at metabolism. How we have evolved, the differences and similarities between human hunter-gatherer communities and modern urban communities, the future of human communities in light of the climate change that our energy usage gas wrought.
A very enlightening look at metabolism. How we have evolved, the differences and similarities between human hunter-gatherer communities and modern urban communities, the future of human communities in light of the climate change that our energy usage gas wrought.
January 25, 2022
"Our bodies don’t work like simple fuel-burning machines because they aren’t products of engineering, they’re products of evolution."
In answering questions I didn't know I had about human evolution, global economics and my bowels, Pontzer PhD leaves me informed, concerned and hopeful with his metabolism research as documented in Burn. Come for the nutrition lesson, stay for the tales from the African bush, and see the world through your dinner plate.
Our metabolism's "Constrained Energy Expenditure" as proved-and-christened in this book is counterintuitive and truly startling. While Burn offers no magic bullet regarding weight loss (beyond refuting magic bullets themselves--hooray!), it does calibrate one's expectations regarding diet and exercise. Calibration is the antidote to disappointment, and disappointment is the bane of dieting. (And yes, please eat right and exercise!) Diets can work, but calories-in-calories-out: one can't escape the laws of physics. It's seemingly harder to escape your brain's foxy hypothalamus, the master controller of your appetite who constantly moves the goal posts as a function of a workout or missed meal, and is easily blinded by the calorie-dense industrialized foods of modern society. Knowing is half the battle however, and Burn provides this knowledge in spades.
As an amateur distance runner/nutritionist for the past 30 years, I found the collegiate-level shakedown of how your gut works (Chapter 2's "subway map") wildly satisfying. What so complex about a carb? Where are ketones, if not in my meal? Are antioxidants and free radicals a thing? Etc. I've long intuited healthy eating; it's great to know how it works at the cellular level.
The anthropological arc of this book illustrates the moderate history of human diet, but ends with a imperative in fossil fuels/calorie macroeconomics: a revealing prism through which one must view our 21st-century world if we expect it to be present for our grandchildren. Your meal, the refrigerator, the store, the delivery truck: it's ALL calories, paid for by the dwindling remains of dinosaurs.
The humor/puns in the book are sometimes distracting, sometimes engaging. Perhaps in a second revision I would edit so as to not lose non-US readers. Audiobook is hard due to deep technical detail and charts; print recommended.
"The world is on fire. Start your pieces in the paper that way. Just say in big letters 'The World Is On Fire.' That will make 'em look up." --Joe Welling (Sherwood Anderson), Winesburg, Ohio
I raise my doubly-labled glass to the future work of Dr. Pontzer and his team. May you forever stay healthy as a Hazda (minus the dysentery, of course).
In answering questions I didn't know I had about human evolution, global economics and my bowels, Pontzer PhD leaves me informed, concerned and hopeful with his metabolism research as documented in Burn. Come for the nutrition lesson, stay for the tales from the African bush, and see the world through your dinner plate.
Our metabolism's "Constrained Energy Expenditure" as proved-and-christened in this book is counterintuitive and truly startling. While Burn offers no magic bullet regarding weight loss (beyond refuting magic bullets themselves--hooray!), it does calibrate one's expectations regarding diet and exercise. Calibration is the antidote to disappointment, and disappointment is the bane of dieting. (And yes, please eat right and exercise!) Diets can work, but calories-in-calories-out: one can't escape the laws of physics. It's seemingly harder to escape your brain's foxy hypothalamus, the master controller of your appetite who constantly moves the goal posts as a function of a workout or missed meal, and is easily blinded by the calorie-dense industrialized foods of modern society. Knowing is half the battle however, and Burn provides this knowledge in spades.
As an amateur distance runner/nutritionist for the past 30 years, I found the collegiate-level shakedown of how your gut works (Chapter 2's "subway map") wildly satisfying. What so complex about a carb? Where are ketones, if not in my meal? Are antioxidants and free radicals a thing? Etc. I've long intuited healthy eating; it's great to know how it works at the cellular level.
The anthropological arc of this book illustrates the moderate history of human diet, but ends with a imperative in fossil fuels/calorie macroeconomics: a revealing prism through which one must view our 21st-century world if we expect it to be present for our grandchildren. Your meal, the refrigerator, the store, the delivery truck: it's ALL calories, paid for by the dwindling remains of dinosaurs.
The humor/puns in the book are sometimes distracting, sometimes engaging. Perhaps in a second revision I would edit so as to not lose non-US readers. Audiobook is hard due to deep technical detail and charts; print recommended.
"The world is on fire. Start your pieces in the paper that way. Just say in big letters 'The World Is On Fire.' That will make 'em look up." --Joe Welling (Sherwood Anderson), Winesburg, Ohio
I raise my doubly-labled glass to the future work of Dr. Pontzer and his team. May you forever stay healthy as a Hazda (minus the dysentery, of course).
May 19, 2022
Pontzer is a leading global expert on measuring metabolism, having collaborated on thousands of measurements over a dozen years in over a dozen species, from his phd research, to postdoc stints with archologists and tribes in tanzania and congo, to following extreme athletic events. He is perfectly positioned to answer the question "how much energy do bodies burn", accross species and activities. "Homo Energeticus."
I read and like Gary Taubes, and Pontzer knows him and loosely collaborated with him too. He doesn’t bash Taubes, but notes that the latest research tends against his insulin response to fat hypothesis, and that leptin/ghrelin is more of a mental process than a food biochemical one. He posits that rather than sugary food being the only problem, excessively delicious foods of all kinds deliver too many calories. Yet he agrees that for specific people low sugar diets have reversed type-2 diabetes.
Burn is based on a decade of original research, and makes a few massive testable claims. Partly explains why caloric restriction is useful for longevity. He loves his own research, so his details can occasionally feel excessive. He’s a scientist though, not a popular writer, and his insights require zero recipes or nutrition protocols.
Burn says to exercise in order to reduce the injury of excess calories. While still insisting that it is better to not eat too many of any kind of calories. His diet advice is common sense to achieve that goal: lots of high fiber less calorie dense foods that make you feel full. And that insufficient protein means feeling hungry. He takes time to attack raw food diets.
As an ultra athlete, this research resonated strongly with my experience, and he has been a guest on prestigeous running podcasts.
I read and like Gary Taubes, and Pontzer knows him and loosely collaborated with him too. He doesn’t bash Taubes, but notes that the latest research tends against his insulin response to fat hypothesis, and that leptin/ghrelin is more of a mental process than a food biochemical one. He posits that rather than sugary food being the only problem, excessively delicious foods of all kinds deliver too many calories. Yet he agrees that for specific people low sugar diets have reversed type-2 diabetes.
Burn is based on a decade of original research, and makes a few massive testable claims. Partly explains why caloric restriction is useful for longevity. He loves his own research, so his details can occasionally feel excessive. He’s a scientist though, not a popular writer, and his insights require zero recipes or nutrition protocols.
Burn says to exercise in order to reduce the injury of excess calories. While still insisting that it is better to not eat too many of any kind of calories. His diet advice is common sense to achieve that goal: lots of high fiber less calorie dense foods that make you feel full. And that insufficient protein means feeling hungry. He takes time to attack raw food diets.
As an ultra athlete, this research resonated strongly with my experience, and he has been a guest on prestigeous running podcasts.
December 30, 2021
It takes a while for this book to get its stride because there’s a lot of science he covers to lay the groundwork for the rest of the book to make sense. He breaks down the metabolic engine of our body really well although admittedly, I don’t think much of it will stick without re-reading the first two chapters again.
But that provides a great foundation for the truly groundbreaking insights he shares on how our bodies maintain a base metabolic rate regardless of how much energy we expend. This book definitely delivers on its claim to upend everything we’re told about weight loss; and he does it with tremendous research.
The book loses its way a bit in the final chapter when he touches on energy beyond just humans and into food production and climate change. It does help round out the picture of energy, but that’s better covered in other books and deviated too far away from his central theme of human metabolism.
Overall, though, this is a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand nutrition and metabolism.
But that provides a great foundation for the truly groundbreaking insights he shares on how our bodies maintain a base metabolic rate regardless of how much energy we expend. This book definitely delivers on its claim to upend everything we’re told about weight loss; and he does it with tremendous research.
The book loses its way a bit in the final chapter when he touches on energy beyond just humans and into food production and climate change. It does help round out the picture of energy, but that’s better covered in other books and deviated too far away from his central theme of human metabolism.
Overall, though, this is a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand nutrition and metabolism.
December 31, 2022
This book significantly changes how I view diet and exercise. Learning about the constrained energy expenditure model is a large part of this.
Our body, specifically our hypothalamus, is constantly working to achieve homeostasis. Working to take in and expend around the same amount of kilocalories each day. Exercise has little long-term effect on our weight because our bodies will adjust to the additional expended calories over time. Losing weight is nearly all about eating less calories than you expend.
Exercise is still important because of the constraint energy expenditure model. Calories devoted to exercise our calories not expended on unnecessary and possibly devastating activities in your body such as inflammation, stress responses, and excess reproductive hormone production.
Burn is a book that's accessible to everyone. Written with a bit of humor, the science behind the author's learnings is easy to grasp, which is no small feat. A must-read no matter what your interests.
Our body, specifically our hypothalamus, is constantly working to achieve homeostasis. Working to take in and expend around the same amount of kilocalories each day. Exercise has little long-term effect on our weight because our bodies will adjust to the additional expended calories over time. Losing weight is nearly all about eating less calories than you expend.
Exercise is still important because of the constraint energy expenditure model. Calories devoted to exercise our calories not expended on unnecessary and possibly devastating activities in your body such as inflammation, stress responses, and excess reproductive hormone production.
Burn is a book that's accessible to everyone. Written with a bit of humor, the science behind the author's learnings is easy to grasp, which is no small feat. A must-read no matter what your interests.
April 18, 2021
As a metabolic physiologist myself, it’s hard to find popular science books about nutrition/metabolism that isn’t just complete and utter bullshit. This was brilliant, and I thoroughly enjoyed the evolutionary / anthropological aspect to the book that I hope can feed back into my own research. Extremely well written, clever metaphors to simplify complicated science and amazing anecdotes about doing field research with animals and with the Hadza people of Tanzania.
December 25, 2021
I found this an interesting read even though I felt in end he was all over the place. The tried tie things all up and connect everything and not staying on the subject he was talking about. Although he did have interesting points and research to bring forward about energy we burn and historical evolution of man.
July 23, 2021
If you're looking for a 400 page book that could have easily been summarised into 40 pages, you've found it. 🤦🏽♀️ In summary, to maintain or loss weight, don't exceed your caloric requirements and ensure you move at least 5 hours a day, esp if you're in a sedentary job
April 16, 2023
Burn is a book about the engine in our bodies, metabolism. Its how we turn food in to work and despite that mathematic expression, how there’s so much more that goes into how we take in energy and how we expend it. Dr. Herman Pontzer is a anthropologist, taught under the famed Harvard anthropologist Daniel Lieberman known for his exclamation that mankind was built to run. Pontzer’s topic summarizes that today’s novel dietary health problems of diabetes, obesity heart disease and such are not and can never be cured by fad diets and exercise.
He takes a similar approach to Liebermann in using a pre-modern society, in this case the hunter gatherer society called the Hadza in Eastern Africa, to compare their health with our evolutionary ancestors and that of those who lived in the developed world. His argument unfolds by first exposing on how evolution is an imperfect chain reaction that constantly tests and retests adaptations until in the end, the best species reproduce and carry on their genes. Some of these adaptations can be traced to ancestral species and others are prone to faults still. He then goes into a basic expose of college level biology in how respiration and photosynthesis came about, the absorption and creation of the mitochondria, the Krebs cycle and much more through diagrams you’d find in a textbook.
In the following chapters, the BMR, the basal metabolic rate, is recorded via double water methods to track how we expend energy through different activities and how our body for the most part, invests most of its energy in the normal upkeep of our cells. In fact, one if the bigger claims Pontzer makes is that, all of us expend energy in a small range, whether we are senditary couch potatoes or ultramarathoners. This range of 2000-3000 kcal (the proper measurement for energy as the Calories we see in the grocery store are 1,000 calories). The difference between the two and Hanza is in the amount of filling and fibrous foods we eat and how our bodies adapt to energy expenditures. This means that if one runs 5 miles a day but has the same height, sex and weight as someone who doesn’t run, they could both take in the same amount of food but the runner will divert more to muscle recovery and the other will divert more to other necessary functions. That being said running and exercise are not the silver bullet to weight loss, merely good health as our bodies can adapt back to their original weight if we are not diligent. Another expose Pontzer does is in how we differ from our primate relatives who can be just as lazy as us but pack leaner profiles naturally as their bodies adapted to less brain use and more physical power.
Pontzer’s final claims are in how our modern society is spending more energy to produce less food energy with less fiber. Its wrecking our environment and leading to unhealthy diet trends, especially when its cheaper financially then healthier less energy intensive foods. Pontzer advocates like most doctors for a balanced diet and regular moderate exercise as that’s what reduces stress and best distributes the food we take in. His findings are strengthened in his use of scientific charts and references to studies both fir and against his claims. His one weakness may be in using dad humor to break the fourth wall but it slides when his argument is taken in whole.
He takes a similar approach to Liebermann in using a pre-modern society, in this case the hunter gatherer society called the Hadza in Eastern Africa, to compare their health with our evolutionary ancestors and that of those who lived in the developed world. His argument unfolds by first exposing on how evolution is an imperfect chain reaction that constantly tests and retests adaptations until in the end, the best species reproduce and carry on their genes. Some of these adaptations can be traced to ancestral species and others are prone to faults still. He then goes into a basic expose of college level biology in how respiration and photosynthesis came about, the absorption and creation of the mitochondria, the Krebs cycle and much more through diagrams you’d find in a textbook.
In the following chapters, the BMR, the basal metabolic rate, is recorded via double water methods to track how we expend energy through different activities and how our body for the most part, invests most of its energy in the normal upkeep of our cells. In fact, one if the bigger claims Pontzer makes is that, all of us expend energy in a small range, whether we are senditary couch potatoes or ultramarathoners. This range of 2000-3000 kcal (the proper measurement for energy as the Calories we see in the grocery store are 1,000 calories). The difference between the two and Hanza is in the amount of filling and fibrous foods we eat and how our bodies adapt to energy expenditures. This means that if one runs 5 miles a day but has the same height, sex and weight as someone who doesn’t run, they could both take in the same amount of food but the runner will divert more to muscle recovery and the other will divert more to other necessary functions. That being said running and exercise are not the silver bullet to weight loss, merely good health as our bodies can adapt back to their original weight if we are not diligent. Another expose Pontzer does is in how we differ from our primate relatives who can be just as lazy as us but pack leaner profiles naturally as their bodies adapted to less brain use and more physical power.
Pontzer’s final claims are in how our modern society is spending more energy to produce less food energy with less fiber. Its wrecking our environment and leading to unhealthy diet trends, especially when its cheaper financially then healthier less energy intensive foods. Pontzer advocates like most doctors for a balanced diet and regular moderate exercise as that’s what reduces stress and best distributes the food we take in. His findings are strengthened in his use of scientific charts and references to studies both fir and against his claims. His one weakness may be in using dad humor to break the fourth wall but it slides when his argument is taken in whole.
April 22, 2021
In einem Satz: beschreibt Herman Pontzer die Nutzung und Nutzbarmachung von Energie, hauptsächlich Nahrung, aber auch darüber hinaus, durch den Menschen vergleichend mit seinen stammesbäumlichen Verwandten aus einer evolutionsbiologisch-anthropologischen Perspektive.
Mit durchweg interessanten Anekdoten aus der eigenen Feldforschung einleitend, erklärt Pontzer in einfacher Sprache, aber nie unterkomplex und mit vielen Fakten unterfüttert, den menschlichen Stoffwechsel, begonnen mit den biochemischen Grundlagen, über die individuelle Energetik in Alltag und Sport, bis hin zum Kollektiv, mündend in einer globalen Betrachtung der Generierung und Nutzung von Energie.
Eine Besonderheit an diesem Buch ist, dass vieles selbst dem belesenen Leser neu sein wird, da hier ein Forscher über seine eigenen Entdeckungen berichtet (natürlich nicht nur), anders als viele Ernährungs- und Lifestyle-Bücher zu denen „Burn“ im weiten Sinne bestimmt gezählt werden kann.
Sicher hätte man sich einige Wiederholungen sparen können, aber sie waren für mich persönlich nie störend, oft sogar willkommen, und ermöglichen, das Buch auch alinear gut zu lesen.
Einziger Wermutstropfen für die Wissenschaftlichkeit des Buches ist die (fast) durchgängige Verwendung imperialen anstatt des metrischen Systems, was aber leider üblich bei populärwissenschaftlichen Werken ist.
Mit durchweg interessanten Anekdoten aus der eigenen Feldforschung einleitend, erklärt Pontzer in einfacher Sprache, aber nie unterkomplex und mit vielen Fakten unterfüttert, den menschlichen Stoffwechsel, begonnen mit den biochemischen Grundlagen, über die individuelle Energetik in Alltag und Sport, bis hin zum Kollektiv, mündend in einer globalen Betrachtung der Generierung und Nutzung von Energie.
Eine Besonderheit an diesem Buch ist, dass vieles selbst dem belesenen Leser neu sein wird, da hier ein Forscher über seine eigenen Entdeckungen berichtet (natürlich nicht nur), anders als viele Ernährungs- und Lifestyle-Bücher zu denen „Burn“ im weiten Sinne bestimmt gezählt werden kann.
Sicher hätte man sich einige Wiederholungen sparen können, aber sie waren für mich persönlich nie störend, oft sogar willkommen, und ermöglichen, das Buch auch alinear gut zu lesen.
Einziger Wermutstropfen für die Wissenschaftlichkeit des Buches ist die (fast) durchgängige Verwendung imperialen anstatt des metrischen Systems, was aber leider üblich bei populärwissenschaftlichen Werken ist.
September 6, 2021
This book offers a clear, scientific explanation for why working out doesn't seem to help us lose weight. Pontzer's data and conclusions are built around his idea of "constrained daily energy expenditure" which states that our body does a great job allocating and readjusting energy usage based on our activity level. If you work out a lot, your body will only burn extra calories up to a fairly low ceiling and then it routes energy away from your basic, normal upkeep stuff to support the effort of the exercise. It's not that exercise isn't good for you, it's just that there is a fairly low ceiling on the amount of extra calories your body will burn when exercising, especially over longer amounts of time as your body gets used to the reallocation routine.
However, the answer isn't as simple as "just eat less" -- Pontzer goes a few levels deeper on what we should do and offers realistic approaches to staying healthy and fighting obesity. He explains why our genetics make it difficult to maintain a healthy weight in our modern era of uber-tasty, high-caloric food. He will make you feel better about your frustration with food, and give you some helpful insights on how to stay positive about eating less.
However, the answer isn't as simple as "just eat less" -- Pontzer goes a few levels deeper on what we should do and offers realistic approaches to staying healthy and fighting obesity. He explains why our genetics make it difficult to maintain a healthy weight in our modern era of uber-tasty, high-caloric food. He will make you feel better about your frustration with food, and give you some helpful insights on how to stay positive about eating less.
April 24, 2022
Herman Pontzer's Burn: New Science Reveals How Metabolism Shapes Your Body, Health, and Longevity is a must-read for anyone who cares about their weight and isn’t already familiar with constrained energy expenditure. That’s probably most of us.
Still, we only give it three stars because we think the book suffers from poor organization and drags on longer than needed. Burn could have been three essays instead of a book – one a memoir of his work with the Hadza and his early research career; the second about constrained energy expenditure, diet, exercise, and health; the third his opinions about society and our use of energy in aggregate.
About Burn
Herman Pontzer is an Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Global Health at Duke University. His lab studies “evolutionary energetics and ecology”, or in other words “How did the human body evolve, and how does our species’ deep past shape our health and physiology today?”.
Burn is about his research on how human beings consume and use energy – that is, diet and metabolism.
Pontzer complements clear descriptions of our current best understanding of metabolism with vivid anecdotes from his field and lab research. You’ll read a story from his time working with a particular modern-day hunter-gatherer society, the Hadza, and then flip the page and learn the basics of how carbohydrates are turned into energy.
The stories Pontzer includes are entertaining and help readers understand the science in context, but they sometimes feel disjointed from what comes before and after.
In contrast, his explanations of physiological processes are coherent and expressed in simple terms. For example, “Metabolism is a broad term that covers all of the work your cells do. The vast majority of this work involves pumping molecules in or out of cell membranes and converting one kind of molecule into another.”
Summary
We’ll summarize a few key points from the book about energy and weight (there’s a lot we’re leaving out, so go read the book for yourself!):
Constrained energy expenditure
First, and most fundamental, how much you weigh is a function of how much energy you eat and how much energy you burn. If you ingest more than you use, your body stores that energy as fat.
You might be able to burn more calories for a short period of time, but your body will quickly adjust and return to its normal burn rate. In Pontzer’s words, we need to think of our metabolism more like our body temperature – absent trauma, it’s not changing much.
Diet matters
Second, diet matters a lot. While we can’t change how much we burn, we can change how many calories we consume. From the perspective of weight, a calorie is a calorie. What matters most is how much you eat, not what you eat.
That’s not to say that what you eat is irrelevant. Eating foods that leave you feeling full makes it easier to reduce how many calories you eat in a day. If you reduce your caloric intake, your body will complain, making you hungry.
In today’s world of abundant, highly engineered food we encounter many options that don’t leave us feeling satiated, driving us to eat more. “Diets that work, including both low-carb and low-fat varieties, are effective because they cut out low-satiety foods and help us feel full on fewer calories.”
In general, foods with more fiber and protein will help you feel full sooner. The rule of avoiding the middle of the grocery store, where all the prepackaged food is kept, in favor of the perimeter where the produce, meat, and dairy is kept, seems like a good rule of thumb.
When it comes to diets, Pontzer is dismissive of the notion that there was a single “paleo” diet – what our ancestors ate varied wildly across climates, seasons, and societies. In fact, he emphasizes that “none of this advocates for or against any particular diet. If you find a diet that works for you, one that keeps you at a healthy weight and free from metabolic disease, keep with it…All diets work if you stick to them, because all diets reduce caloric intake.”
Additionally, there are times when you want to gain weight and you should eat more. The most important one is when a woman is pregnant. Also, if you’re trying to gain muscle by lifting a lot more.
Exercise still matters, just not how you think it does
Third, exercise still does matter. In fact, it matters a lot, and in ways most of us are ignorant of.
Because our bodies have a daily calorie budget, if we use calories to exercise, that means those calories can’t fuel some other activity. What our bodies choose to trade off against helps our overall health. For example, exercise limits how many calories go to our:
Immune system, which for normal healthy people means less unnecessary inflammation and metabolic diseases
Reproductive hormone production, which can reduce the likelihood of cancers in the reproductive systems.
Stress response, which is one reason why exercising regularly improves our moods
Additionally, if you’ve lost a lot of weight, exercise will help you keep it off. This is the one major exception to the rule that exercise doesn’t directly help with weight loss.
Despite the 3-star rating, we heartily recommend the book - the information presented is just too important for everyday health to ignore.
Not ready for the whole book? We recommend Pontzer’s 2017 article “The Exercise Paradox” (PDF) in Scientific American and his appearance on the Science of Ultra podcast. Neither, however, do the book justice.
Still, we only give it three stars because we think the book suffers from poor organization and drags on longer than needed. Burn could have been three essays instead of a book – one a memoir of his work with the Hadza and his early research career; the second about constrained energy expenditure, diet, exercise, and health; the third his opinions about society and our use of energy in aggregate.
About Burn
Herman Pontzer is an Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Global Health at Duke University. His lab studies “evolutionary energetics and ecology”, or in other words “How did the human body evolve, and how does our species’ deep past shape our health and physiology today?”.
Burn is about his research on how human beings consume and use energy – that is, diet and metabolism.
Pontzer complements clear descriptions of our current best understanding of metabolism with vivid anecdotes from his field and lab research. You’ll read a story from his time working with a particular modern-day hunter-gatherer society, the Hadza, and then flip the page and learn the basics of how carbohydrates are turned into energy.
The stories Pontzer includes are entertaining and help readers understand the science in context, but they sometimes feel disjointed from what comes before and after.
In contrast, his explanations of physiological processes are coherent and expressed in simple terms. For example, “Metabolism is a broad term that covers all of the work your cells do. The vast majority of this work involves pumping molecules in or out of cell membranes and converting one kind of molecule into another.”
Summary
We’ll summarize a few key points from the book about energy and weight (there’s a lot we’re leaving out, so go read the book for yourself!):
Constrained energy expenditure
First, and most fundamental, how much you weigh is a function of how much energy you eat and how much energy you burn. If you ingest more than you use, your body stores that energy as fat.
“Constrained energy expenditure means that increasing daily activity through exercise or other programs will ultimately have little effect on the calories burned per day…Weight is fundamentally about energy balance: if we eat more calories than we burn, we gain weight; if we burn more than we eat, we lose weight.”
You might be able to burn more calories for a short period of time, but your body will quickly adjust and return to its normal burn rate. In Pontzer’s words, we need to think of our metabolism more like our body temperature – absent trauma, it’s not changing much.
Diet matters
Second, diet matters a lot. While we can’t change how much we burn, we can change how many calories we consume. From the perspective of weight, a calorie is a calorie. What matters most is how much you eat, not what you eat.
That’s not to say that what you eat is irrelevant. Eating foods that leave you feeling full makes it easier to reduce how many calories you eat in a day. If you reduce your caloric intake, your body will complain, making you hungry.
In today’s world of abundant, highly engineered food we encounter many options that don’t leave us feeling satiated, driving us to eat more. “Diets that work, including both low-carb and low-fat varieties, are effective because they cut out low-satiety foods and help us feel full on fewer calories.”
In general, foods with more fiber and protein will help you feel full sooner. The rule of avoiding the middle of the grocery store, where all the prepackaged food is kept, in favor of the perimeter where the produce, meat, and dairy is kept, seems like a good rule of thumb.
When it comes to diets, Pontzer is dismissive of the notion that there was a single “paleo” diet – what our ancestors ate varied wildly across climates, seasons, and societies. In fact, he emphasizes that “none of this advocates for or against any particular diet. If you find a diet that works for you, one that keeps you at a healthy weight and free from metabolic disease, keep with it…All diets work if you stick to them, because all diets reduce caloric intake.”
Additionally, there are times when you want to gain weight and you should eat more. The most important one is when a woman is pregnant. Also, if you’re trying to gain muscle by lifting a lot more.
Exercise still matters, just not how you think it does
Third, exercise still does matter. In fact, it matters a lot, and in ways most of us are ignorant of.
Because our bodies have a daily calorie budget, if we use calories to exercise, that means those calories can’t fuel some other activity. What our bodies choose to trade off against helps our overall health. For example, exercise limits how many calories go to our:
Immune system, which for normal healthy people means less unnecessary inflammation and metabolic diseases
Reproductive hormone production, which can reduce the likelihood of cancers in the reproductive systems.
Stress response, which is one reason why exercising regularly improves our moods
Additionally, if you’ve lost a lot of weight, exercise will help you keep it off. This is the one major exception to the rule that exercise doesn’t directly help with weight loss.
Despite the 3-star rating, we heartily recommend the book - the information presented is just too important for everyday health to ignore.
Not ready for the whole book? We recommend Pontzer’s 2017 article “The Exercise Paradox” (PDF) in Scientific American and his appearance on the Science of Ultra podcast. Neither, however, do the book justice.
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