http://graphics8.nytimes.com/video/players/offsite/index.html?videoId=100000004122971

Anthropologist Herman Pontzer:

The data show that you won’t see big weight loss just from exercise alone, that you also have to change your diet.

So, we are considerably more active than we were 20 years ago … Between 1988 and 2006, frequency of leisure time physical activity increased 47–120%.” But we still weigh more.

And even though the hunter-gatherer Hadza are more active than us, they don’t burn more calories.

If you look across a global sampling of populations, we see the same energy expenditures even though we know the physical activity levels are very different.

I’ve been saying this for a few years now. Yet this idea that exercise can burn off excess weight seems unshakable. Why?