Is Exercising to Lose Weight a Myth?

something like eight thousand calories a day. You try twelve thousand cowers a day during his peak training, he need a whole pizza, pound of pasta, three fried eggs, French toast, multiple burgers, and it seemed like anything else he could get his hands on, which seems so gross but also kind of the best thing ever. And during those same Olympics, Hussein Bolt reportedly ate forty seven thousand calories worth of chicken McNuggets. Yeah, he was eating them with fries for breakfast, lunch,

and dinner. That seems at less great. Yeah, but wouldn't sixteen year old Mango think of it's pretty incredible. So I started thinking about this, and I know you've been getting back into the tennis, and I've been running a good bet these past few years. But I thought, if I could just take this to the extreme, I may

be able to follow a similar diet. Like let's say I'm running twenty miles a week, right, now, and I just keep doubling up for the next five weeks, I'd be running six hundred and forty miles a week by the end of this. I'm so excited about this. Then I could eat like twelve Chipotle burritos every day and still have room for a half dozen Wendy Spicy Chicken sandwiches and maybe even a couple of those naked chicken choloopas after I run for the border. It's gonna be great.

But after our research for today's episodes, Science may have crushed my dreams again. It turns out there's not quite as strong of a connection between exercise and weight loss as we once thought. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. Stupid science. Yeah day their podcast listeners, Welcome

to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Man guesh Ticket and today we're diving into the topic of exercise, its benefits, it's limitations, whether it can actually help us shed some unwanted pounds, and if it really makes us healthier people. And fear not. We also have a couple of our patented, ridiculous quizzes along the way. Who've we got on the

line today A mango. So we'll be talking to Herman Pontzer, and anthropology professor at Hunter College in New York City. He's responsible for some truly incredible research on exercise, and he's gonna help us get to the bottom of just how useful physical activity really is for burning calories. We're also going to talk to a couple of personal trainers and see if we can whip them into shape through

the power of our trivia. Right, So, before today's episode, I would have told you that exercising is probably the best way to lose weight, simply based on the conventional wisdom of calories in, calories out. I mean that sounds sensible, right, Sure, We're taken calories through what we eat and drink and then burn them up through exercise. The more you exercise, the more calories you burn, and the more weight you lose.

It just makes sense, it does. But there are actually all these studies conducted over the last few years that suggests exercise really isn't an effective way to lose excess weight. For example, Dr Timothy Church at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at l s U. He held an experiment where hundreds of overweight women were given strict workout regiments for six months. The one group of them exercised a little over an hour each week, another one for a little

over two hours, and another for over three hours. There was also a fourth group that stuck to their typical routine and didn't exercise at all. And against all logic and fairness, there was no major difference in the weight loss between the women who had exercised and the ones who had And how pissed would you be if you were that three hour group. In fact, some of the women in the exercise groups actually gained weight, which doesn't seem fair at all. I mean, they put in the work,

they deserve a reward. Well, it's funny you should say that, because Church actually concluded that the rewards were the problem. You know, exercise stimulates appetite, and many of the women counteracted their work by over eating afterward. Church suggested that it was justified in their minds. Is kind of a self reward for all the energy that exerted through exercise. Yeah, we hear that sort of thinking all the time, like cheat days and junk food rewards for going to the gym.

But if we're canceling out the calories we burn. Then we're probably imagining our workouts to be much more effective than they really are. I mean, the Department of Health and Human Services recommends people aim for at least thirty minutes of physical activity every day, But at thirty minute workout that only burns about two hundred calories, and the average slice of pizza contains close to like three hundred calories. So you can see how the math doesn't quite work.

It's really just not fair at all. But it isn't just those powerful post workout indulgences that counteract calories burned through exercise. You know, the things we consume in preparation for or even during a workout can also take a toll,

which is a good point. I mean, those two hundred calories you burned during your thirty minutes on the treadmill, every single one goes right back into your body thanks to that bottle of gatorade or that energy bar you might have scarfed down while running right right, And the same goes for the eagle or the oatmeal used to

carbo load before your workout. And we think the energy from these meals is going to help us power through and burn more calories at the gym, But it's actually the calories from those pregame foods that are going to get burned off first. And why is that Well, because sugar from what you've just consumed will still be floating freely in your bloodstream, and it takes muscle tissue much less energy to take that sugar than it does to

burn off the existing fat stores. So your most recent meal will always be the first to go during a workout. But we can always just exercise a little longer, right, I mean, once those preliminary calories are gone, our muscle cells will start tipping away at storage fat for fuel. Well, I mean yes and no. According to some breakthrough research from Herman pons Er, there are a lot of assumptions we've been making about human metabolism that they're not quite right.

So you know, it's true that a longer workout would result in more calories burned and even some from storage fat. But we know there's a limit to how many calories your body will metabolize in any given day. So I'm definitely intrigued. But before we get too far into this, we should probably clarify the basics of metabolism. All right, well I'll let you do that. Go for it, okay. So metabolism is basically the sum of all the processes

that takes place in our bodies. We're talking digestion, respiration, the production of cells, the movement of substances between cells, you name it, and all these processes require energy, which our bodies released from the calories we consume. So even without exercise and other forms of physical activity, we still burned through or metabolize a huge number of calories simply

by being alive. Yeah, exactly. So back to Herman Ponsers World Shattering Research and February's issue of Scientific American, Herman shared findings from his study of the Hadza tribe and rule Tanzania. He and other researchers spent a whole month living with the Hatsa, who were one of the last traditional hunter gatherer cultures left on Earth. It was during this time that Herman and his partners recorded measurements of the daily energy expenditures of a couple dozen tribesmen and women.

So this allowed them to compare the daily calorie burn of a society in which every member is highly active to a Western society like our own and which members are more you know, sedentary. Well, back up a second. You said the researchers measured the hadzas daily energy expenditure. But I'm wondering how they pull that off. Are you really wondering that mango orre you just sensing there's an opportunity here to talk about doubly labeled water? Of course

it is, you know, I love the d LW. Doubly Labeled water is the special water in which the hydrogen and oxygen molecules have been either partly or entirely replaced with heavy isotopes that aren't usually found in the human body. And it's safe to drink this stuff completely. They're stable isotopes, so they're non radioactive. But here's what's great about them. After somebody drinks d l W that's been enriched, researchers

suddenly have this tracking mechanism. Basically, by measuring the concentration found in urine samples, researchers can determine person's daily rate of carbon dioxide production. And since carbon dioxide is a waste product of our bodies energy making processes, calculating how much c O two someone produces in a day is the best way to measure their energy expenditure. That is pretty neat. Yeah, Doubly labeled water has become the gold

standard for measuring how much energy a person consumes. Like, the margin of error is pretty small, and in fact, the only downside is the cost. D LW is expensive, like are we talking smart water expensive or like Fiji water expensive? No, it's so much more than that. Dl W runs researchers about dollars per test subjects. Actually, you

know what this really expensive water reminds me of? And I know that this is totally off topic, but did you know that the federal government actually sells a two jar of peanut butter and there's just six ounces of peanut butter in there. It's like a tiny jar. And it also goes by this incredibly catchy name. Are you ready for it? Standard Reference Material number two, three eights of it. Oh, that sounds delicious, But why is it actually so expensive? Is it more delicious? No, it's the

wonkiest reason ever. It's the super precise like peanut butter, with specific levels of amino acids and fats and carcinogens. And it's mostly used for quality controls so companies can test their standards against the governments and make sure it measures up. But as a result, no one actually eats the peanut butter. It's just for lab purposes, which only makes me want to try it more like with a

really cheap jelly. All well, let's get back to D. L. W. Let me tell you what herman and his partners were actually able to learn from having the Hods of tribe drink it lay it on me. Well, first, let me preface this by saying that the Hods are the kings and queens of exercise. Every single day, the men trek miles and miles to hunt for game with homemade bows and arrows. They scale forty foot trees to hack tree

limbs with hatchets and gather wild honey. Now, the women forage all day for wild berries and other edible plants like tubers that they dig out at the ground with x. Even the kids of the tribe are put to work by hauling pails of water from a mile or more away. Okay, so they're seriously active and no one sitting at their desks right, definitely not. But what the researchers found was that even though the Hadzas lives are far more physically demanding.

The amount of calories they ate and burned through in the day was the same as in Europe and the US, and the men went through about twenty six hundred calories a day and the women burned through about nineteen hundred. According to Herman, we looked at the data every way imaginable, accounting for the effects of body size, fat percentage, age, and sex. No difference at all, which is insane, isn't it.

I mean that you naturally assume that physically active people would burn more calories, of course, but the research really doesn't bear that out. In fact, they did a follow up study with about three hundred participants and it showed

the exact same thing. The people who were the most active burned the same daily amount of calories as those who were only moderately, and the participants who barely left the couch at all burned about two fewer calories than them, the same amount they would have burned from a mere thirty minutes of exercise. Doesn't seem to suggest that our

metabolisms are like fixed like. It almost seems like there's a preset amount of calories that your body is willing to burn in any given day, and no matter how far you run or how many push ups you do, you won't be able to top that max limit. But my bigger question is this, why doesn't the Hadza hunter

burn more in day than the average office worker. Well, I'm not sure we really have the answer to that yet, but one thing I've seen researches suggest is that our bodies account for the calories burned through physical activity by dialing back on the number of calories we devote to

the background functions that keep us alive. About six of the calories we burn each day go to these unseen or unconscious processes, so it's possible that when our physical activity pushes us beyond that other daily cloric expenditure, our body is just cut back on the calories spin on metabolic processes. This would help even the scales and keep us from exceeding our preset energy budget for the day, which is really cool but also disheartening. Right, no wonder,

I've got this paunch. I feel so betrayed unt I'll take it too hard. So a fixed daily energy expenditure limit is likely, and evolved trade meant to help conserve our fat stores for when we really need them. I mean, imagine if the Hotsa hunters were free to burn through ten thousand calories during a hunt instead of the typical two thousand or so, if they were to come up empty handed, they would have lost five days worth of calories in one with no prospects for replacing them. And

at that rate they're already limited. Fat stores will be depleted in no time, and they'd find themselves on the brink of starvation. Which is a great point but still doesn't make you feel like maybe all that time spent exercising was I don't know, kind of a waste. Well, no, hold on a second, so don't forget that exercise has all kinds of great benefits beyond weight loss. For starters,

exercises fantastic for your heart and blood vessels. It makes your heart contract with greater force and frequency, which increases blood flow leads to less artery clogging. There's also plenty of evidence that exercise helps reduce the risk of some cancers, as well as type two diabetes and cardiovascular disease. But one of my favorite benefits of exercise that often goes overlooked. Not only does it help strengthen your muscles, it helps

strengthen your bones too. Just like muscles, bones grow stronger when they've been made to carry more weight than normal. So your muscles contract during exercise, they apply force to the bones that support those parts of the body. The added force stimulates the bones and causes them to reinforce

themselves by building new tissue, which is really cool. But you know, Will, I'm pretty sure we'd have to forfeit our part time Genius membership cards if we miss the chance to talk about some of the more amazing mental benefits of exercise, like thanks to Fernando Gomez Pinia, a neuro surgery professor at U c l A, we now have some firm evidence of that connection. Namely, we know that exercise increases the number of certain molecules in the

brain that are crucial for cognition. For example, there's one molecule called brain derived I have neurotrophic factor, or b d NF, and that stimulates the growth and survival of brain cells and even helps facilitate communication between them. And there have been some studies on rats that have shown that physical activity boost b d NF levels in the hippocampus, which is a part of the brain that's super important for learning and even memory function, all right, but how

exactly does that help the rats? Well, that higher level of b d NF actually allowed them to better remember how they find their way through underwater mazes, and there are tons of studies that suggest that same kind of mental improvement from fitness happens in humans as well well. A better brain is definitely a nice perk. But there's another mental benefit to exercise that I like even more,

and that's mood enhancement. You probably heard of runners high or exercise high, sure, and I've heard of both of those. That's the euphoric feeling you get when you're need even

a strenuous workout, right. And while most people think it's caused by endorphins, you know, those dandy neurochemicals that minimize pain and stir up feelings of well being, exercise highs are actually do more to neurotransmitters serotonin and neuro epinephrin, So our bodies pump more of these throughout our nervous systems during workouts, which elevates our mood and helps fight back feelings of stress and depression. Okay, so maybe our bodies aren't quite the turn coats I made them out

to be. But we've definitely been misinformed about the role of exercise and weight loss. How do you think this misunderstanding got started? And uh, is there really no basis for thinking exercises an effective way to lose weight? Well, there's a great questions. But before we exhaust ourselves, but we check in with our guests for a little QUIZD. So our guest today is partially responsible for our interest

in today's topic. His research has contributed to a much better understanding of the relationship between our daily activity, our daily calorie consumption and energy use and calorie burning and all of that. And his name just kind of sounds like he should have a theory named for him. Herman Ponzer welcomed his part time genius. Hi, how you doing. I'm doing well? Thank you? See what I mean, Mango, I mean, can't you just imagine something called the Herman

Ponser theory of why we're still so freaking fast? Sounds right? Yeah, yeah, we'll see if we can make that happen. So all right, Herman, Well, let's just start with your research and Tanzania, I mean, which got a lot of attention a few years ago, and people are still talking about it. Can you tell us why you were studying there and and and just

let our listeners know about your findings from that research. Sure. Well, I'm an evolutionary biologist who's interested in how humans got to be the way they are and how the human body works from a kind of an evolutionary perspective. Um. And of course humans we've all spent the most most of our history as hunter gathers. If you go back, you know, a couple of thousand years, all of us are hunting and gathering, and you know, back two million

years ago with hunting gathering kind of starts. So we have a long evolutionary history of hunting and gathering. Uh. Not many populations hunt and gather anymore, um, but that makes sort of understanding how they're lifestyles and they're you know, their physiology works all the more important because we think it's a really important sort of uh touchstone for understanding how our bodies work, even in our weird environments today.

So in northern Candonia, there's a population called the Hotza, who are one of the last um populations on Earth that still hunt and gather regularly, so they don't have any crops or domesticated animals or vehicles or guns or machines or anything like that. They wake up every morning and go off and hunt wild game and gather wild plant foods, just like you know all of us, did

you know, just a few generations ago. Uh. And so there's this really amazing and cool and generous and wonderful population to work with to try to understand how that lifestyle affects the way our bodies work. And one of the fundamental things we wanted to understand was how many calories they burned every day, because we thought, well, they're

so active. We know they're extremely active, but they've burned tons more calories every day than we do here in you know, in the US and Europe another kind of westernized societies. And what we found instead, to our huge surprise, was they burned the same number of calories every day as you and I do. Wow. So if they were wearing a fitbit or something like that, would it, I mean, it would tell them that they had burned probably thousands more calories than they actually had. Is that true or

they're right? Yeah, the fit that would tell them the same lies that it tells you, which you know, however active you are determines how many calories you burned. So we know from other studies that we've done since that they just to confirm our intuitions there. Uh, and this is obvious to anybody who's worked with these With these folks, Uh, they are incredibly physically active, sort of like three to

five times more physically active every day than the average westerner. Um. And yet despite that, they're still burning in the same number of calories as we do. So you know, they're also really healthy. They have really healthy hearts and immune systems, they don't have diabetes or anything like that. We think the physical activity is a big part of that. So it's important for their health, but it's not what keeps

and um, you know, sort of protected from obesity. Yeah, and that's a big part of what we're trying to remind our listeners of today is just because there's not this as strong of a connection as we might have thought between exercise and weight loss, they're obviously very real

benefits to doing the exercise that we do. Yeah, that's a really important point because you know, when we came out with this study and said, hey, look, these hunter gather folks who are important to understand our history and and how our bodies work. Um, and we thought that they would burn so many work couties and then the

rest of us do. Turns out that that's not true. Um. The response that we got was, you know, emails from out of the blue saying, you know, you're destroying the world because you're telling people not to exercise, right, And of course that's not what we were saying at all. You still to exercise, It's still important for your health. It's just that it doesn't work the way that we thought it worked, which was the exciting and fun part of the science. You know, something that's been puzzling to us.

And this really isn't related exactly to the HODSA, but you know, you remember during previous summer Olympics when you see all these stories on Mike Phelps and his daily diet and Michael Phelps questions, I knew it was exactly so yeah, you had to know it was coming. So so just I mean, and again that's this is called the Ponser effect. So, um so, the the insane amount of food that he would eat in order to keep up with his fitness regiment. I mean, how was he

not super fat during this process. Yeah, well so there's two I guess there's at least two pieces of this. One is that, um, Michael Felts is not a normal human and uh that's obvious if you watch him swim and how fast he is an amazing as he is an athlete. Um. And so you know what he's doing during those those workout you know cycles where he's burning ten talent colories. By the way, he's actually measured how many calories he's bringing during these cycles. So we don't

really know. You see numbers thrown around like eight thousand calories a thing, um, which maybe it is true. Um. We know that if you look at like a Tour de France cyclist like is happening right now, um, or where you look at Michael Phelps during or another Olympic athlete during these really intense training and competition times, that for a few weeks or even you know a couple of months, your body can burn tons more calories than the would be normal. Um. What we don't know is

what are the limits to that. I don't think Michael Pelps can burn it susan colories a day forever. I think that you know, his body would break down. Um. And I think that you know, he can do that during certain periods. And the other piece of this is that, you know, there's a reason that not everybody's Michael Phelps. And it might well be that people who are flexible enough and they're metabolic rate to to sort of be able to handle that huge influx are the people who

end up being Olympic athletes, you know. Um. And I think the third thing I'd say is it just goes to show you, um, you know, we we think of I think sometimes the paleo diet folks imagine these elite athletes as being kind of indicative of what our path was like, right Like if we were only if we only exercise like Michael Phelps, we'd all be back in

the sort of state of nature. Um. And in fact, people like Michael Felts are way on the extreme of of beyond what's what's normal for any human society anywhere. The cycial activity levels extremely too, extremely high. Well, I feel like we've been ponsored. So it's time to turn the tables here and put into the test. We're gonna play a little quiz with herman here. What's our quiz called today? Mango. It's called real, vintage diet or something we just made up. All right, So this is a

pretty simple game. We're going to read you a list of diets and you're going to tell us if they're real or whether we just made them up. Does that sound sound good to you? Herman? All right? Here we go five questions. The first one the seven day milk diet, real or made up? Um, I'll tell you this. A guy ran across the US in two other drinking almost drinking milk and almost nothing else. So I want to say. I want to say true, because full a lot of

good stuff for you. That sounds terrible, Yeah, it's true. In nine seventies, pamphlet put off by the California Milk Advisory Board advised eating less and drinking milk with every meal. Wow, that sounds horrible, and then running just sounds then run across the country, all right. Number two the sexy pineapple diet, which happens to come from Denmark. Um, the sexy pineapple diet. I'm gonna say there's no but there's no way. I studied people, and to tell you about people is no

human culture. Pines, pineapple sexy. I'm gonna say no to the s this is actually true? And where did this come from? Yeah, buzz, we had found this diet book for nineteen seventy and the Chicago Tribune it actually reviewed it and they panned it, saying, if you're ready to be miserable about something, this diet guarantees twenty four hour dismay. So here we go, alright, one out of two, number three, Chowder through the thirty day Chowder, Power diet, Chowder through

the thirty day Chowder Power Diet. I just I don't want that to be true, so I'm gonna say no. You know, Mano, I don't know how many skills you have, but this is one of your skills to make up things like this that just sounds so real. So yes, this is this is in fact fault. Right, Yeah, it's false. There was a tune around the clock diet for a while. Tune around the clock. Alright, so he's two for three.

Let's see the next one. Skinny like Lincoln the Gettysburg ration diet um fault because Lincoln was skinny because he was he had a condition. I think I don't think he was skinny because I would he ate. I'm yeah, right. So the last one here, he's three out of four the Drinking Man's Diet. Do you have any deep held on this? I mean man side and I got to be give me detailed to kind of gives it away, doesn't it. Um? So so tell me nothing, tell me nothing, um. True,

Absolutely true, It's true. I like that. You didn't need any more detail, but we'll give you a little. It was subtitled how to Lose Weight with Minimum Willpower and it was basically in nineteen sixties Atkins Diet. It was based on eating steak and drinking nothing but whiskey. All right, Well that's pretty impressive. So so how's herman done today?

Herman did an incredible four for five, And in addition to our harder than admiration, we're actually gonna send him a copy of a book we found called Help Lord the Devil Wants Me Fat, a scriptural approach to trim and attractive bodies. That's gonna be a great prize. Well, Herman, thanks so much for joining us today. Thank you. It was a lot of fun. You're listening to part time genius and we're talking about the surprising truth behind exercise.

So mego before the break I was wondering who to blame for the fact that exercise has sort of become synonymous with weight loss in our minds. Any ideas on that. You're asking me to name names, I actually am. Yeah. Well, I did some digging, and while it might be a little unfair to lay the entire blame for a widespread cultural misunderstanding on one individual, there's no denying that John Mayor makes a pretty good scapegoat. I'll take it. So,

who is who is? John Mayor? Said? Well, John is this French American scientist and nutritionists who did some high profile research on the physiology of hunger and metabolism during the mid twentieth century. In fact, thanks to his breakthrough studies on rats, babies, and school girls in the nineteen fifties, Mayor became the first researcher to make a connection between exercise and weight loss. He showed that the less physically active a person was, the more likely they were to

be overweight. All right, hold on, so you're saying that prior to Mayor, nobody thought that burning calories through exercise might result in weight loss. Yeah, it sounds so crazy, but that line of thinking was unpopular in the scientific community before Mayor came along. In fact, during the nineteen thirties, some scientists actually argued that bed rest was the most effective way to treat a beast patients, not exercise. Can you imagine this a are you guys going to hike

without me? And my doctor says I need to shut a few pounds. I'm just gonna lie right here right. It sounds like one of those crazy diets or miracle cures you sometimes hear about that you know never actually works. But back to Mayor. He actually served as an advisor to both the White House and to the w h O, which made him a top name in nutrition and one of the most influential figures in the public health sphere thanks to the connections he made between exercise and weight loss.

The idea of getting fit took off in the sixties and seventies, which led to this uh thriving jim industry and a cultural obsession with working out as a way to lose weight and to live healthier, and it clearly snowballed from their Obesity rates have risen dramatically over the last few decades is more and more of the population began trading jobs on farms and in factories for these

desk jobs. It probably made sense to conclude that this more sedentary lifestyle was the cause of all that weight gain, right, But today's scientists, no, that's not the full story. It's actually a case of mixing up cause and effect. People aren't overweight because they're inactive. They're inactive because they're overweight. It's harder to stay active when you weigh more, so many people just don't. Well, it makes sense because it points back to the real culprit behind the obesity epidemic,

and that's diet. We really have an obscene amount of food options today, and thanks to lifestyles that are more sedentary compared to previous generations, we have plenty of opportunities to over indulge on all of that variety, and we take full advantage of this. For instance, researchers at Harvard

conducted to surveys on food consumption. One was in the mid nineteen seventies and then a second in the mid nine es, and they found that although the number of calories expended didn't change significantly in that time period, the number of calories consumed in a day increased by two hundred and sixty eight calories for men and a hundred and forty three for women. Yeah, it really does sound like our unfettered access to affordable, no muss prepared foods

has taken a toll on our waistlines. I mean, we're constantly surrounded by food, and according to Brian wantsonk uh Cornell, researcher who studies how we eat, we eat the amount of food we do mostly because of what's around us. In his book Mindless Eating, Brian writes, we overeat not because of hunger, but because of family and friends. Packages and plates, names and numbers, labels and lights, colors and candles, shapes and smells, distractions and distances, cupboards and containers. This

list is almost as endless as it's invisible. I think he was just showing off his illiterative ability. That was impressive. So it's not so much that are less active lifestyles have made us gain weight, but that we've developed the bad habit of filling that downtime with mindless eating brought on by food cues. Exactly. It's the reverse principle of out of sight, out of mind. Brian calls it insight in stomach creative. This guy is just full of them,

and it's a serious problem. For example, if you have cookies or chips sitting out on your counter, there's a strong chance you'll weigh about eight pounds more than a person who doesn't. Oh wow, we really are that suggestible, aren't we. Yeah, and it gets much worse. Soda is one of the big examples that gets brought up as a contributor to rising ob CD rates, and it looks

like that's for a good reason. Apparently, if you keep soda on hand in plain sight, like front and center in your fridge, you're gonna weigh on average twenty five pounds more than a person who doesn't. Okay, you're just scaring me now, my god. So we've got to figure out a way to keep our weight in check. And it's clear now that exercise alone isn't going to cut it. Still, I don't want to write off weight loss through exercise completely like the nineteen thirties type. So let's try to

make sense of how to really maximize its benefits. Great, but before we get into that, let's break for quiz. Welcome back to part time Genius. So here we are Mango four chiseled bodies all in one room, or rather rather two personal trainers and two podcasters. I think yeah, but there's a twelve pack between the four most I'm with you on that. So, so who do we have us in with us in studio today? Mango, We've got Janet Wortz and Mario Jordan's from the form Athletic Club

in Pont City Market right here in Atlanta. That is just right downstairs from us. So welcome guys, thanks for having us having us. All right, So we were just talking before before we started out that, Mario, you were telling us a little bit about your your breakfast regiment every single day. What is it that usually? Um, it's basically two cups of old meal and six hard boards. It's basically, so say, okay hard Well, you didn't say that before because I was gonna ask if we're doing

this like Rocky? So no, no, yeah, have you have you ever done that? Can't do it? Okay, it's horrible. I don't do scrambled eggs or yeah, you're always horrible. How about you? Janee? Do you how many do you have? Eight eggs? Oh? No, probably throughout the day I could, but um, generally I'll have about four egg whites, sometimes one whole egg and either protein pancake or ezekio bread oatmeal. It just takes so long to eat for me, so

I really don't know how Mario gets through. And actually with the hard boiled eggs, I have this problem where I used to when I would travel a lot and I would stop in and grab a couple of hard boiled eggs real quick, and I would eat them too fast, and I just knew that I was dying because I couldn't breathe, like you're choking up because they're so dry. Does that ever happen to you? Sometimes? Most of them? I mean it depends on how long you cook it.

Something just overcooked and it will be watching. Yeah, this actually speaks to what we've been talking about today. That is important as exercises. Clearly, diet is very important. That's why these two are in such great shape because they're not exactly slacky. Now do you guys have your cheat days or how does that work for you guys? Um? For me, I prep my food um pretty much weekly, whether it's for seven days or three days. And then yes,

I do cheat. I'm human. I actually work out and eat right, so I can't eat it like that's one of the things I do. So yes, okay, how about you. I'm the same way. Um, I have cheap meals here and there, that Derito's Loco stock, uh, milkshakes from Chick fil A good, those are insane. That's my advice right now. Yea, mine is case so Mexican food in case. All right. Well, I know you guys have put yourself through a lot as as as personal trainers, and you work really hard

every day. I don't think you've ever seeing anything like you're going to see with today's quiz, though, Mango, what are we putting them to the challenge with? Today? We're gonna play a game called real Exercise fat or nonsensical equipment we just made up? All right? So this game is super easy. We're gonna read you six questions and you just have to tell us if the gym equipment we're talking about is real or something we made up.

You got it, got it, all right. So because we know you like a challenge, we're gonna put you against one another, all right, So, Janey, we're gonna let you go first. Now. The first one is and I'll read you the tagline along with it. Okay, it's Hawaii chair. If you can sit, you can get fit. This is promising you can lose weight the Hawaiian way. This electric seat keeps your hips and bottom moving and a constant hul emotion and you as you answer phones and file paperwork.

Is this something we made up? Or was this a real exercise fad? Oh god, I really I watch a lot of infomercials. Yeah. Um, I'm gonna say that it's real. It is real, a one for one so you really like move around moves. It moves your bottom around like it's so crazy as this is how Hawaiian. Alright, Mario, alright, she's one up on he. Here we go the human slink a sizer because you're slinky, shouldn't have all the fun. So this is building off the slinky craze of the

nineteen fifties. This rubber suit and helmet with a spring on it was made to help obese obese kids somersault downstairs while shedding away the pounds. Is this a real exercise fad or equipment we made up? Uh, I'm gonna say it's they're so good at this. It is something we made up. Mang goes a threat on this He's pretty good at making these things up, all right. Number three, This is back to you, Janet. The mulby revolving hammock

guaranteed to make your spine young. This young hammock treated your body like the net and slowly spun you around for better back health and weight loss. Is this a real exercise fat or something we made up? I was trying to visualize it, and I couldn't even visualize that. So I'm gonna say it's made up. We finally have a wrong answer. They're not perfect. We thought this is a real exercise fat and super bizarre. A picture of this. Number four, Mario, this was back to you air shorts

great for shedding body moisture. These versatile, inflatable shorts were supposed to bake your stomach, thighs, and bottom, causing you to sweat as you worked out or wandered about town. Is this a real exercise fat or something we made up? Uh? As ridiculous as it sounds, let's say it's real ridiculous.

The pressure is on. Okay, I think this is a two pointer, though, if I'm not mistaken, if I'm reading the rules correctly, the official rules of our game here okay, tag suit, the it new way to weight loss, A weighted suit you can wear as you run around playing adult tag with your friends. Just don't stay on base. Is this a real fat or something we made up? A real thing? Oh no, it's equipment we made off. She didn't see as I was trying to make eye contact.

All right, here we go. Now this one, actually, unfortunately Mario comes with a penalty if you miss it of negative one. So let's see. So the pressure is on the game. One last one. This one is called Twist in Tone, the exerciser that's fun, easy and works. Basically, it was a plastic lazy Susan that you could stand on while doing the twist. Totally worth the five dollars and cents. Real fat or something we made up? It's real?

Oh I remember seeing something like that. Oh wow. All right, we'll tell us how our contestants have done here today, Mango well as all ways, first place wins a handwritten note from us to your mom or boss, singing your praises. So Mario, that's coming your way. And because we don't want anyone going home empty handed, Jane, you're getting a pair of hander pants. The number one underwear inspired gloves on the market today. Well, thank you guys so much

for joining us today on Part Time Genius. Thank you for having us. So we were talking before about how we've been conditioned over the last fifty years or so to associate exercise with weight loss and what has turned out to be a fairly unhealthy way. Yeah. I mean, a lot of people start workout routines because they expect the pounds to just melt off based on everything we've

been told about how to stay fit. But when that doesn't happen as much as we expect, and the payoff seems too slow or too little for the amount of effort, well, then it's good body or gym membership exactly. And that's the real shame. So many of us put unhealthy pressure on ourselves as a result of these unrealistic expectations that we put on an exercise, and the end result is often that we blame ourselves and just give up on

losing weight altogether. And that also causes us to miss out on the very real mental and physical benefits of regular exercise. So let's try to help avoid that. Mango. Let's put the true effectiveness of exercise for weight loss into perspective. Okay, Well, first off, I think we should say that the main reason why a lot of people's exercise routines go could put is the same reason why sixty of diet or is returned to their original weight

within three years. As diet and behavior expert Charlotte Markey told Scientific American, people think too much about short term goals and don't think enough about sustainable changes. If you're going to lose weight, you have to change your behaviors for the rest of your life for otherwise you gain it back. And that's not a sexy message because it seems daunting. Yeah, it does. And does she have any suggestions on what kind of lifelong they aavioral changes people

might actually be able to stomach. Yeah, it's all about sustainability. So for example, people don't have to completely cut out entire food groups or ice cream or anything like that. But we should strive for small scale changes that we stick to, like dropping a soda or two from our daily diet so we can cut a few hundred calories from our intake, or staying on the lookout to avoid mindless eating. Well, I think that's the kind of sustainability

is what we should aim for with exercise too. I mean, once you stop thinking about the physical activity primarily is a way to lose weight, it frees us up to add exercise into our routines and enjoyable ways that will be less likely to give up on totally. And despite all we've learned about the limitations of calorie burning through workouts, there actually are some ways to use exercise to help

us with our weight loss efforts. Like what. Well, for one thing, exercise helps distract us from our food cravings. It gives people something else to concentrate on, and there are some forms of exercise that can help maximize the amount of weight you lose from fat rather than muscle. Well, that's a good point. So we've mostly been talking about exercise in broad terms, but it's worth mentioning that most forms of exercise fall into one of two broad groups.

So we've got aerobic type exercise like running, biking, swimming, rowing, etcetera, which helps strengthen your heart and build stamina, and then anaerobic exercise such as weightlifting or sprinting, which helps increase lean muscle mass. Right, and both types of workout will burn fat and help you lose a little weight, But studies have found that aerobic training does provide the advantage

in terms of most weight and fat burned. So if you're looking for the best way to burn the most fat and the least amount of time, aerobic exercises probably the way to go. That's true, but I wouldn't trade in your barbells for running shoes just yet. If sustainability really is the goal, it's not a bad idea to gain some extra lean muscle. The research shows that an increase in muscle can speed up your resting metabolic rate, plus booster strength, and even lead to a better night's sleep.

So if you're really in it for the long haul, the best strategy is probably do a little bit of both, which sounds like a smart plan. And other thing I always wonder about is fitness trackers like garments and Tom Tom's and fit fits. Lots of people swear by them and they're everywhere nowadays. Like I even saw that McDonald's was giving them away in happy Meals last year and what had to have have been one of the most ironic promotions.

So everybody has these things drapped to their risks, But did they really help us lose weight or to come any healthier. Well, you know, we recently had a listener asked a similar question. So I did some digging, and it turns out not really. I mean, there isn't a ton of long term research yet on the effects of wearable fitness technology. It hasn't yet been around long enough.

But most of the short term studies have found that wearing fitness trackers only lead to a small boost and physical activity, not nearly enough to lead to any improvements in overall health. And what's worse, one study found that when people were given the option of wearing a fitness tracker or not, the people who chose to wear it

actually lost less weight than those who didn't know. It was seven points seven pounds compared to the thirteen pounds of those who went to cliss Which isn't exactly a bringing endorsement, no, but it's not completely a lost cause. I mean, keeping track of steps and calories can be a useful motivator for some folks, provided they don't take that success as an excuse to reward themselves with their

extra large pizza. Right, and uh, we've seen how that goes, right, So fitness trackers can definitely be a helpful weapon in the never ending battle of the bulge. But just like exercise or dieting, they're no guarantee of weight loss on their own. Well, I don't know about you will, but I'll just talk about exercise has me feeling a little competitive. Where do you say we go toe to toe in the part time genius? All right, I'm ready when you

are a mango m Yeah, alright. So here's a tip that comes straight from one of America's favorite fitness gurus, Barbie. In slumber Party, Barbie came to your place with a diet book in hand, and the only tip in it don't eat terrible. Uh though, here's one that's even worse, the tapeworm diet. Back in the early twentieth century, diet pills filled with tapeworms were sold over the counter with the promise that you could eat more and still lose weight.

And of course, when the baby tapeworms grew up to be like these twenty five foot monstrosities and started causing things like meningitis and dimension in their hosts, the government decided that the weight loss through worms was overrated, and they banned the pills. Diet coke might not be that much better for you than regular coke, but it certainly is lighter. While I can of coke will sink in water, you know, kind of like a bulldog, diet coke actually

floats more like a hot dog. I'm glad you put the dog and just really helps you understand what floating is. My favorite exercise item from the seventies is the Sauna exercise suit, which looks nothing like a suit. It's more like a tinfoil marshmallow man contraption that promised to help you shed pounds as you just went about your daily business. Calvin Coolige's main exercise in the office was through an

electric horse, kind of like a mechanical bull. He'd write it three times a day on various settings, from saunter to gallop, but the regiment sounded so silly he kept it a secret until it accidentally bucked him from the saddle and had to be put down by an electrician. So that's pretty good. But here's a great tip from the seventeen hundreds, if you want to lose weight, stay away from swamps. In seventy seven, a so called scientist named Thomas Short observed that beast people seemed to live

near swamps, so it was important. Work on the matter, titled The Causes and Effects of Corpulents naturally suggested there was only one smart way to lose weight, move away from swamps. Yeah, that swamped. It makes a whole lot of sense. I think I gotta give you the title on this when congratulations, Mango. I think that's it for today's show. Thanks so much for listening, a mango, This show got me inspired. Want to go for a run?

Absolutely not, Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of how stuff works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even again to understand. Kristin McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy mixy sound thing. Gary Rowland does the exact producer thing.

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