I have been listening the Mystery Case from Episode [NODE=“297”]Is it safe to discuss sandwiches here?[/NODE] and one detail bothered me. I also read the Pontzer’s book and listened a number of time on BB and other podcasts about how long term energy expenditure doesn’t go up significantly even for elite endurance athletes. So, in the mystery case, we heard that this young male skier by eating around 2300 kcal per day, was eating around 1500 kcal too little which was causing chronic fatigue etc. I am aware that consumed and estimated daily calories is not something that is totally precise, however, I can’t seem to understand how it is possible to have that high daily need for calories? Is it like his maintenance level without physical activity “by design” is much higher, like 3500 kcal or something. Or I didn’t understand the Burn book, and it is possible to have maintenance level at 2000 kcal without physical activity, and it is possible to increase long term energy expenditure by 50+% by participating in a physical activity.
In the short term, we can see big increases in energy needs. A recent study looking at a female cyclist showed energy needs of > 7500 Cal/d. As you’d expect, she was not able to keep up with this energy expenditure and was at a deficit during the race (and lost weight). There is some evidence showing a possible limit to dietary intake in the 3x BMR range. Theoretically, this would cap energy expenditure regardless of additional activity (as part of a constrained energy model).
Long term, energy expenditure doesn’t go up as much as we’d predict from the amount of additional activity. There are variations in how people respond based on genetics, type of activity, diet, and more.
In general, I think long-term exercise ranging from 1 to maybe 3-times the current physical activity guidelines add a little to total daily energy expenditure. but far less than is seen in the short term, which is less than one would predict by measuring energy expenditure during exercise.
Thanks for the clarification and excuse this nonsense linking the other topic in the opener. I just wrote hashtag episode number, and he magically generated a link to the other topic.
I was wondering how that got there. Too funny!