Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Lose Weight, and Stay Healthy
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(as of Jun 03, 2025 03:01:45 UTC – Details)
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.
Revealing, irreverent, and always entertaining, Pontzer has written a book that will change how you eat, move, and live.
This audiobook edition contains a downloadable PDF of charts included in the print edition.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Customers say
Customers find the book provides a very enlightening look at metabolism, underscoring the importance of nutrition in weight management and highlighting manifold health benefits of exercise. Moreover, the writing style receives positive feedback, with one customer noting it explains difficult concepts very clearly. Additionally, the book is worth reading and re-reading, with entertaining anecdotes throughout. However, the technical content receives mixed reviews, with some customers noting it’s not technical enough for serious researchers.
