Speaker 1: Guess what, Mango, what's that? Will do? You remember back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight when Michael Phelps had that
Speaker 1: daily diet that got so much attention because he was
Speaker 1: eating these insane amounts of food. Yeah, he was eating
Speaker 1: something like eight thousand calories a day. You try twelve
Speaker 1: thousand cowers a day during his peak training, he need
Speaker 1: a whole pizza, pound of pasta, three fried eggs, French toast,
Speaker 1: multiple burgers, and it seemed like anything else he could
Speaker 1: get his hands on, which seems so gross but also
Speaker 1: kind of the best thing ever. And during those same Olympics,
Speaker 1: Hussein Bolt reportedly ate forty seven thousand calories worth of
Speaker 1: chicken McNuggets. Yeah, he was eating them with fries for breakfast, lunch,
Speaker 1: and dinner. That seems at less great. Yeah, but wouldn't
Speaker 1: sixteen year old Mango think of it's pretty incredible. So
Speaker 1: I started thinking about this, and I know you've been
Speaker 1: getting back into the tennis, and I've been running a
Speaker 1: good bet these past few years. But I thought, if
Speaker 1: I could just take this to the extreme, I may
Speaker 1: be able to follow a similar diet. Like let's say
Speaker 1: I'm running twenty miles a week, right, now, and I
Speaker 1: just keep doubling up for the next five weeks, I'd
Speaker 1: be running six hundred and forty miles a week by
Speaker 1: the end of this. I'm so excited about this. Then
Speaker 1: I could eat like twelve Chipotle burritos every day and
Speaker 1: still have room for a half dozen Wendy Spicy Chicken
Speaker 1: sandwiches and maybe even a couple of those naked chicken
Speaker 1: choloopas after I run for the border. It's gonna be great.
Speaker 1: But after our research for today's episodes, Science may have
Speaker 1: crushed my dreams again. It turns out there's not quite
Speaker 1: as strong of a connection between exercise and weight loss
Speaker 1: as we once thought. So that's what we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about today. Stupid science. Yeah day their podcast listeners, Welcome
Speaker 1: to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always
Speaker 1: I'm joined by my good friend Man guesh Ticket and
Speaker 1: today we're diving into the topic of exercise, its benefits,
Speaker 1: it's limitations, whether it can actually help us shed some
Speaker 1: unwanted pounds, and if it really makes us healthier people.
Speaker 1: And fear not. We also have a couple of our patented,
Speaker 1: ridiculous quizzes along the way. Who've we got on the
Speaker 1: line today A mango. So we'll be talking to Herman Pontzer,
Speaker 1: and anthropology professor at Hunter College in New York City.
Speaker 1: He's responsible for some truly incredible research on exercise, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna help us get to the bottom of just
Speaker 1: how useful physical activity really is for burning calories. We're
Speaker 1: also going to talk to a couple of personal trainers
Speaker 1: and see if we can whip them into shape through
Speaker 1: the power of our trivia. Right, So, before today's episode,
Speaker 1: I would have told you that exercising is probably the
Speaker 1: best way to lose weight, simply based on the conventional
Speaker 1: wisdom of calories in, calories out. I mean that sounds sensible, right, Sure,
Speaker 1: We're taken calories through what we eat and drink and
Speaker 1: then burn them up through exercise. The more you exercise,
Speaker 1: the more calories you burn, and the more weight you lose.
Speaker 1: It just makes sense, it does. But there are actually
Speaker 1: all these studies conducted over the last few years that
Speaker 1: suggests exercise really isn't an effective way to lose excess weight.
Speaker 1: For example, Dr Timothy Church at the Pennington Biomedical Research
Speaker 1: Center at l s U. He held an experiment where
Speaker 1: hundreds of overweight women were given strict workout regiments for
Speaker 1: six months. The one group of them exercised a little
Speaker 1: over an hour each week, another one for a little
Speaker 1: over two hours, and another for over three hours. There
Speaker 1: was also a fourth group that stuck to their typical
Speaker 1: routine and didn't exercise at all. And against all logic
Speaker 1: and fairness, there was no major difference in the weight
Speaker 1: loss between the women who had exercised and the ones
Speaker 1: who had And how pissed would you be if you
Speaker 1: were that three hour group. In fact, some of the
Speaker 1: women in the exercise groups actually gained weight, which doesn't
Speaker 1: seem fair at all. I mean, they put in the work,
Speaker 1: they deserve a reward. Well, it's funny you should say that,
Speaker 1: because Church actually concluded that the rewards were the problem.
Speaker 1: You know, exercise stimulates appetite, and many of the women
Speaker 1: counteracted their work by over eating afterward. Church suggested that
Speaker 1: it was justified in their minds. Is kind of a
Speaker 1: self reward for all the energy that exerted through exercise. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we hear that sort of thinking all the time, like
Speaker 1: cheat days and junk food rewards for going to the gym.
Speaker 1: But if we're canceling out the calories we burn. Then
Speaker 1: we're probably imagining our workouts to be much more effective
Speaker 1: than they really are. I mean, the Department of Health
Speaker 1: and Human Services recommends people aim for at least thirty
Speaker 1: minutes of physical activity every day, But at thirty minute
Speaker 1: workout that only burns about two hundred calories, and the
Speaker 1: average slice of pizza contains close to like three hundred calories.
Speaker 1: So you can see how the math doesn't quite work.
Speaker 1: It's really just not fair at all. But it isn't
Speaker 1: just those powerful post workout indulgences that counteract calories burned
Speaker 1: through exercise. You know, the things we consume in preparation
Speaker 1: for or even during a workout can also take a toll,
Speaker 1: which is a good point. I mean, those two hundred
Speaker 1: calories you burned during your thirty minutes on the treadmill,
Speaker 1: every single one goes right back into your body thanks
Speaker 1: to that bottle of gatorade or that energy bar you
Speaker 1: might have scarfed down while running right right, And the
Speaker 1: same goes for the eagle or the oatmeal used to
Speaker 1: carbo load before your workout. And we think the energy
Speaker 1: from these meals is going to help us power through
Speaker 1: and burn more calories at the gym, But it's actually
Speaker 1: the calories from those pregame foods that are going to
Speaker 1: get burned off first. And why is that Well, because
Speaker 1: sugar from what you've just consumed will still be floating
Speaker 1: freely in your bloodstream, and it takes muscle tissue much
Speaker 1: less energy to take that sugar than it does to
Speaker 1: burn off the existing fat stores. So your most recent
Speaker 1: meal will always be the first to go during a workout.
Speaker 1: But we can always just exercise a little longer, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, once those preliminary calories are gone, our muscle
Speaker 1: cells will start tipping away at storage fat for fuel. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean yes and no. According to some breakthrough research
Speaker 1: from Herman pons Er, there are a lot of assumptions
Speaker 1: we've been making about human metabolism that they're not quite right.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's true that a longer workout would
Speaker 1: result in more calories burned and even some from storage fat.
Speaker 1: But we know there's a limit to how many calories
Speaker 1: your body will metabolize in any given day. So I'm
Speaker 1: definitely intrigued. But before we get too far into this,
Speaker 1: we should probably clarify the basics of metabolism. All right,
Speaker 1: well I'll let you do that. Go for it, okay.
Speaker 1: So metabolism is basically the sum of all the processes
Speaker 1: that takes place in our bodies. We're talking digestion, respiration,
Speaker 1: the production of cells, the movement of substances between cells,
Speaker 1: you name it, and all these processes require energy, which
Speaker 1: our bodies released from the calories we consume. So even
Speaker 1: without exercise and other forms of physical activity, we still
Speaker 1: burned through or metabolize a huge number of calories simply
Speaker 1: by being alive. Yeah, exactly. So back to Herman Ponsers
Speaker 1: World Shattering Research and February's issue of Scientific American, Herman
Speaker 1: shared findings from his study of the Hadza tribe and
Speaker 1: rule Tanzania. He and other researchers spent a whole month
Speaker 1: living with the Hatsa, who were one of the last
Speaker 1: traditional hunter gatherer cultures left on Earth. It was during
Speaker 1: this time that Herman and his partners recorded measurements of
Speaker 1: the daily energy expenditures of a couple dozen tribesmen and women.
Speaker 1: So this allowed them to compare the daily calorie burn
Speaker 1: of a society in which every member is highly active
Speaker 1: to a Western society like our own and which members
Speaker 1: are more you know, sedentary. Well, back up a second.
Speaker 1: You said the researchers measured the hadzas daily energy expenditure.
Speaker 1: But I'm wondering how they pull that off. Are you
Speaker 1: really wondering that mango orre you just sensing there's an
Speaker 1: opportunity here to talk about doubly labeled water? Of course
Speaker 1: it is, you know, I love the d LW. Doubly
Speaker 1: Labeled water is the special water in which the hydrogen
Speaker 1: and oxygen molecules have been either partly or entirely replaced
Speaker 1: with heavy isotopes that aren't usually found in the human body.
Speaker 1: And it's safe to drink this stuff completely. They're stable isotopes,
Speaker 1: so they're non radioactive. But here's what's great about them.
Speaker 1: After somebody drinks d l W that's been enriched, researchers
Speaker 1: suddenly have this tracking mechanism. Basically, by measuring the concentration
Speaker 1: found in urine samples, researchers can determine person's daily rate
Speaker 1: of carbon dioxide production. And since carbon dioxide is a
Speaker 1: waste product of our bodies energy making processes, calculating how
Speaker 1: much c O two someone produces in a day is
Speaker 1: the best way to measure their energy expenditure. That is
Speaker 1: pretty neat. Yeah, Doubly labeled water has become the gold
Speaker 1: standard for measuring how much energy a person consumes. Like,
Speaker 1: the margin of error is pretty small, and in fact,
Speaker 1: the only downside is the cost. D LW is expensive,
Speaker 1: like are we talking smart water expensive or like Fiji
Speaker 1: water expensive? No, it's so much more than that. Dl
Speaker 1: W runs researchers about dollars per test subjects. Actually, you
Speaker 1: know what this really expensive water reminds me of? And
Speaker 1: I know that this is totally off topic, but did
Speaker 1: you know that the federal government actually sells a two
Speaker 1: jar of peanut butter and there's just six ounces of
Speaker 1: peanut butter in there. It's like a tiny jar. And
Speaker 1: it also goes by this incredibly catchy name. Are you
Speaker 1: ready for it? Standard Reference Material number two, three eights
Speaker 1: of it. Oh, that sounds delicious, But why is it
Speaker 1: actually so expensive? Is it more delicious? No, it's the
Speaker 1: wonkiest reason ever. It's the super precise like peanut butter,
Speaker 1: with specific levels of amino acids and fats and carcinogens.
Speaker 1: And it's mostly used for quality controls so companies can
Speaker 1: test their standards against the governments and make sure it
Speaker 1: measures up. But as a result, no one actually eats
Speaker 1: the peanut butter. It's just for lab purposes, which only
Speaker 1: makes me want to try it more like with a
Speaker 1: really cheap jelly. All well, let's get back to D. L. W.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what herman and his partners were
Speaker 1: actually able to learn from having the Hods of tribe
Speaker 1: drink it lay it on me. Well, first, let me
Speaker 1: preface this by saying that the Hods are the kings
Speaker 1: and queens of exercise. Every single day, the men trek
Speaker 1: miles and miles to hunt for game with homemade bows
Speaker 1: and arrows. They scale forty foot trees to hack tree
Speaker 1: limbs with hatchets and gather wild honey. Now, the women
Speaker 1: forage all day for wild berries and other edible plants
Speaker 1: like tubers that they dig out at the ground with x.
Speaker 1: Even the kids of the tribe are put to work
Speaker 1: by hauling pails of water from a mile or more away. Okay,
Speaker 1: so they're seriously active and no one sitting at their
Speaker 1: desks right, definitely not. But what the researchers found was
Speaker 1: that even though the Hadzas lives are far more physically demanding.
Speaker 1: The amount of calories they ate and burned through in
Speaker 1: the day was the same as in Europe and the US,
Speaker 1: and the men went through about twenty six hundred calories
Speaker 1: a day and the women burned through about nineteen hundred.
Speaker 1: According to Herman, we looked at the data every way imaginable,
Speaker 1: accounting for the effects of body size, fat percentage, age,
Speaker 1: and sex. No difference at all, which is insane, isn't it.
Speaker 1: I mean that you naturally assume that physically active people
Speaker 1: would burn more calories, of course, but the research really
Speaker 1: doesn't bear that out. In fact, they did a follow
Speaker 1: up study with about three hundred participants and it showed
Speaker 1: the exact same thing. The people who were the most
Speaker 1: active burned the same daily amount of calories as those
Speaker 1: who were only moderately, and the participants who barely left
Speaker 1: the couch at all burned about two fewer calories than them,
Speaker 1: the same amount they would have burned from a mere
Speaker 1: thirty minutes of exercise. Doesn't seem to suggest that our
Speaker 1: metabolisms are like fixed like. It almost seems like there's
Speaker 1: a preset amount of calories that your body is willing
Speaker 1: to burn in any given day, and no matter how
Speaker 1: far you run or how many push ups you do,
Speaker 1: you won't be able to top that max limit. But
Speaker 1: my bigger question is this, why doesn't the Hadza hunter
Speaker 1: burn more in day than the average office worker. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure we really have the answer to that yet,
Speaker 1: but one thing I've seen researches suggest is that our
Speaker 1: bodies account for the calories burned through physical activity by
Speaker 1: dialing back on the number of calories we devote to
Speaker 1: the background functions that keep us alive. About six of
Speaker 1: the calories we burn each day go to these unseen
Speaker 1: or unconscious processes, so it's possible that when our physical
Speaker 1: activity pushes us beyond that other daily cloric expenditure, our
Speaker 1: body is just cut back on the calories spin on
Speaker 1: metabolic processes. This would help even the scales and keep
Speaker 1: us from exceeding our preset energy budget for the day,
Speaker 1: which is really cool but also disheartening. Right, no wonder,
Speaker 1: I've got this paunch. I feel so betrayed unt I'll
Speaker 1: take it too hard. So a fixed daily energy expenditure
Speaker 1: limit is likely, and evolved trade meant to help conserve
Speaker 1: our fat stores for when we really need them. I mean,
Speaker 1: imagine if the Hotsa hunters were free to burn through
Speaker 1: ten thousand calories during a hunt instead of the typical
Speaker 1: two thousand or so, if they were to come up
Speaker 1: empty handed, they would have lost five days worth of
Speaker 1: calories in one with no prospects for replacing them. And
Speaker 1: at that rate they're already limited. Fat stores will be
Speaker 1: depleted in no time, and they'd find themselves on the
Speaker 1: brink of starvation. Which is a great point but still
Speaker 1: doesn't make you feel like maybe all that time spent
Speaker 1: exercising was I don't know, kind of a waste. Well, no,
Speaker 1: hold on a second, so don't forget that exercise has
Speaker 1: all kinds of great benefits beyond weight loss. For starters,
Speaker 1: exercises fantastic for your heart and blood vessels. It makes
Speaker 1: your heart contract with greater force and frequency, which increases
Speaker 1: blood flow leads to less artery clogging. There's also plenty
Speaker 1: of evidence that exercise helps reduce the risk of some cancers,
Speaker 1: as well as type two diabetes and cardiovascular disease. But
Speaker 1: one of my favorite benefits of exercise that often goes overlooked.
Speaker 1: Not only does it help strengthen your muscles, it helps
Speaker 1: strengthen your bones too. Just like muscles, bones grow stronger
Speaker 1: when they've been made to carry more weight than normal.
Speaker 1: So your muscles contract during exercise, they apply force to
Speaker 1: the bones that support those parts of the body. The
Speaker 1: added force stimulates the bones and causes them to reinforce
Speaker 1: themselves by building new tissue, which is really cool. But
Speaker 1: you know, Will, I'm pretty sure we'd have to forfeit
Speaker 1: our part time Genius membership cards if we miss the
Speaker 1: chance to talk about some of the more amazing mental
Speaker 1: benefits of exercise, like thanks to Fernando Gomez Pinia, a
Speaker 1: neuro surgery professor at U c l A, we now
Speaker 1: have some firm evidence of that connection. Namely, we know
Speaker 1: that exercise increases the number of certain molecules in the
Speaker 1: brain that are crucial for cognition. For example, there's one
Speaker 1: molecule called brain derived I have neurotrophic factor, or b
Speaker 1: d NF, and that stimulates the growth and survival of
Speaker 1: brain cells and even helps facilitate communication between them. And
Speaker 1: there have been some studies on rats that have shown
Speaker 1: that physical activity boost b d NF levels in the hippocampus,
Speaker 1: which is a part of the brain that's super important
Speaker 1: for learning and even memory function, all right, but how
Speaker 1: exactly does that help the rats? Well, that higher level
Speaker 1: of b d NF actually allowed them to better remember
Speaker 1: how they find their way through underwater mazes, and there
Speaker 1: are tons of studies that suggest that same kind of
Speaker 1: mental improvement from fitness happens in humans as well well.
Speaker 1: A better brain is definitely a nice perk. But there's
Speaker 1: another mental benefit to exercise that I like even more,
Speaker 1: and that's mood enhancement. You probably heard of runners high
Speaker 1: or exercise high, sure, and I've heard of both of those.
Speaker 1: That's the euphoric feeling you get when you're need even
Speaker 1: a strenuous workout, right. And while most people think it's
Speaker 1: caused by endorphins, you know, those dandy neurochemicals that minimize
Speaker 1: pain and stir up feelings of well being, exercise highs
Speaker 1: are actually do more to neurotransmitters serotonin and neuro epinephrin,
Speaker 1: So our bodies pump more of these throughout our nervous
Speaker 1: systems during workouts, which elevates our mood and helps fight
Speaker 1: back feelings of stress and depression. Okay, so maybe our
Speaker 1: bodies aren't quite the turn coats I made them out
Speaker 1: to be. But we've definitely been misinformed about the role
Speaker 1: of exercise and weight loss. How do you think this
Speaker 1: misunderstanding got started? And uh, is there really no basis
Speaker 1: for thinking exercises an effective way to lose weight? Well,
Speaker 1: there's a great questions. But before we exhaust ourselves, but
Speaker 1: we check in with our guests for a little QUIZD.
Speaker 1: So our guest today is partially responsible for our interest
Speaker 1: in today's topic. His research has contributed to a much
Speaker 1: better understanding of the relationship between our daily activity, our
Speaker 1: daily calorie consumption and energy use and calorie burning and
Speaker 1: all of that. And his name just kind of sounds
Speaker 1: like he should have a theory named for him. Herman
Speaker 1: Ponzer welcomed his part time genius. Hi, how you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm doing well? Thank you? See what I mean, Mango,
Speaker 1: I mean, can't you just imagine something called the Herman
Speaker 1: Ponser theory of why we're still so freaking fast? Sounds right? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll see if we can make that happen. So all right, Herman, Well,
Speaker 1: let's just start with your research and Tanzania, I mean,
Speaker 1: which got a lot of attention a few years ago,
Speaker 1: and people are still talking about it. Can you tell
Speaker 1: us why you were studying there and and and just
Speaker 1: let our listeners know about your findings from that research. Sure. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm an evolutionary biologist who's interested in how humans got
Speaker 1: to be the way they are and how the human
Speaker 1: body works from a kind of an evolutionary perspective. Um.
Speaker 1: And of course humans we've all spent the most most
Speaker 1: of our history as hunter gathers. If you go back,
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of thousand years, all of us
Speaker 1: are hunting and gathering, and you know, back two million
Speaker 1: years ago with hunting gathering kind of starts. So we
Speaker 1: have a long evolutionary history of hunting and gathering. Uh.
Speaker 1: Not many populations hunt and gather anymore, um, but that
Speaker 1: makes sort of understanding how they're lifestyles and they're you know,
Speaker 1: their physiology works all the more important because we think
Speaker 1: it's a really important sort of uh touchstone for understanding
Speaker 1: how our bodies work, even in our weird environments today.
Speaker 1: So in northern Candonia, there's a population called the Hotza,
Speaker 1: who are one of the last um populations on Earth
Speaker 1: that still hunt and gather regularly, so they don't have
Speaker 1: any crops or domesticated animals or vehicles or guns or
Speaker 1: machines or anything like that. They wake up every morning
Speaker 1: and go off and hunt wild game and gather wild
Speaker 1: plant foods, just like you know all of us, did
Speaker 1: you know, just a few generations ago. Uh. And so
Speaker 1: there's this really amazing and cool and generous and wonderful
Speaker 1: population to work with to try to understand how that
Speaker 1: lifestyle affects the way our bodies work. And one of
Speaker 1: the fundamental things we wanted to understand was how many
Speaker 1: calories they burned every day, because we thought, well, they're
Speaker 1: so active. We know they're extremely active, but they've burned
Speaker 1: tons more calories every day than we do here in
Speaker 1: you know, in the US and Europe another kind of
Speaker 1: westernized societies. And what we found instead, to our huge surprise,
Speaker 1: was they burned the same number of calories every day
Speaker 1: as you and I do. Wow. So if they were
Speaker 1: wearing a fitbit or something like that, would it, I mean,
Speaker 1: it would tell them that they had burned probably thousands
Speaker 1: more calories than they actually had. Is that true or
Speaker 1: they're right? Yeah, the fit that would tell them the
Speaker 1: same lies that it tells you, which you know, however
Speaker 1: active you are determines how many calories you burned. So
Speaker 1: we know from other studies that we've done since that
Speaker 1: they just to confirm our intuitions there. Uh, and this
Speaker 1: is obvious to anybody who's worked with these With these folks, Uh,
Speaker 1: they are incredibly physically active, sort of like three to
Speaker 1: five times more physically active every day than the average westerner. Um.
Speaker 1: And yet despite that, they're still burning in the same
Speaker 1: number of calories as we do. So you know, they're
Speaker 1: also really healthy. They have really healthy hearts and immune systems,
Speaker 1: they don't have diabetes or anything like that. We think
Speaker 1: the physical activity is a big part of that. So
Speaker 1: it's important for their health, but it's not what keeps
Speaker 1: and um, you know, sort of protected from obesity. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's a big part of what we're trying to
Speaker 1: remind our listeners of today is just because there's not
Speaker 1: this as strong of a connection as we might have
Speaker 1: thought between exercise and weight loss, they're obviously very real
Speaker 1: benefits to doing the exercise that we do. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a really important point because you know, when we came
Speaker 1: out with this study and said, hey, look, these hunter
Speaker 1: gather folks who are important to understand our history and
Speaker 1: and how our bodies work. Um, and we thought that
Speaker 1: they would burn so many work couties and then the
Speaker 1: rest of us do. Turns out that that's not true. Um.
Speaker 1: The response that we got was, you know, emails from
Speaker 1: out of the blue saying, you know, you're destroying the
Speaker 1: world because you're telling people not to exercise, right, And
Speaker 1: of course that's not what we were saying at all.
Speaker 1: You still to exercise, It's still important for your health.
Speaker 1: It's just that it doesn't work the way that we
Speaker 1: thought it worked, which was the exciting and fun part
Speaker 1: of the science. You know, something that's been puzzling to us.
Speaker 1: And this really isn't related exactly to the HODSA, but
Speaker 1: you know, you remember during previous summer Olympics when you
Speaker 1: see all these stories on Mike Phelps and his daily
Speaker 1: diet and Michael Phelps questions, I knew it was exactly
Speaker 1: so yeah, you had to know it was coming. So
Speaker 1: so just I mean, and again that's this is called
Speaker 1: the Ponser effect. So, um so, the the insane amount
Speaker 1: of food that he would eat in order to keep
Speaker 1: up with his fitness regiment. I mean, how was he
Speaker 1: not super fat during this process. Yeah, well so there's
Speaker 1: two I guess there's at least two pieces of this.
Speaker 1: One is that, um, Michael Felts is not a normal
Speaker 1: human and uh that's obvious if you watch him swim
Speaker 1: and how fast he is an amazing as he is
Speaker 1: an athlete. Um. And so you know what he's doing
Speaker 1: during those those workout you know cycles where he's burning
Speaker 1: ten talent colories. By the way, he's actually measured how
Speaker 1: many calories he's bringing during these cycles. So we don't
Speaker 1: really know. You see numbers thrown around like eight thousand
Speaker 1: calories a thing, um, which maybe it is true. Um.
Speaker 1: We know that if you look at like a Tour
Speaker 1: de France cyclist like is happening right now, um, or
Speaker 1: where you look at Michael Phelps during or another Olympic
Speaker 1: athlete during these really intense training and competition times, that
Speaker 1: for a few weeks or even you know a couple
Speaker 1: of months, your body can burn tons more calories than
Speaker 1: the would be normal. Um. What we don't know is
Speaker 1: what are the limits to that. I don't think Michael
Speaker 1: Pelps can burn it susan colories a day forever. I
Speaker 1: think that you know, his body would break down. Um.
Speaker 1: And I think that you know, he can do that
Speaker 1: during certain periods. And the other piece of this is that,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a reason that not everybody's Michael Phelps.
Speaker 1: And it might well be that people who are flexible
Speaker 1: enough and they're metabolic rate to to sort of be
Speaker 1: able to handle that huge influx are the people who
Speaker 1: end up being Olympic athletes, you know. Um. And I
Speaker 1: think the third thing I'd say is it just goes
Speaker 1: to show you, um, you know, we we think of
Speaker 1: I think sometimes the paleo diet folks imagine these elite
Speaker 1: athletes as being kind of indicative of what our path
Speaker 1: was like, right Like if we were only if we
Speaker 1: only exercise like Michael Phelps, we'd all be back in
Speaker 1: the sort of state of nature. Um. And in fact,
Speaker 1: people like Michael Felts are way on the extreme of
Speaker 1: of beyond what's what's normal for any human society anywhere.
Speaker 1: The cycial activity levels extremely too, extremely high. Well, I
Speaker 1: feel like we've been ponsored. So it's time to turn
Speaker 1: the tables here and put into the test. We're gonna
Speaker 1: play a little quiz with herman here. What's our quiz
Speaker 1: called today? Mango. It's called real, vintage diet or something
Speaker 1: we just made up. All right, So this is a
Speaker 1: pretty simple game. We're going to read you a list
Speaker 1: of diets and you're going to tell us if they're
Speaker 1: real or whether we just made them up. Does that
Speaker 1: sound sound good to you? Herman? All right? Here we
Speaker 1: go five questions. The first one the seven day milk diet,
Speaker 1: real or made up? Um, I'll tell you this. A
Speaker 1: guy ran across the US in two other drinking almost
Speaker 1: drinking milk and almost nothing else. So I want to say.
Speaker 1: I want to say true, because full a lot of
Speaker 1: good stuff for you. That sounds terrible, Yeah, it's true.
Speaker 1: In nine seventies, pamphlet put off by the California Milk
Speaker 1: Advisory Board advised eating less and drinking milk with every meal. Wow,
Speaker 1: that sounds horrible, and then running just sounds then run
Speaker 1: across the country, all right. Number two the sexy pineapple diet,
Speaker 1: which happens to come from Denmark. Um, the sexy pineapple diet.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say there's no but there's no way. I
Speaker 1: studied people, and to tell you about people is no
Speaker 1: human culture. Pines, pineapple sexy. I'm gonna say no to
Speaker 1: the s this is actually true? And where did this
Speaker 1: come from? Yeah, buzz, we had found this diet book
Speaker 1: for nineteen seventy and the Chicago Tribune it actually reviewed
Speaker 1: it and they panned it, saying, if you're ready to
Speaker 1: be miserable about something, this diet guarantees twenty four hour dismay.
Speaker 1: So here we go, alright, one out of two, number three,
Speaker 1: Chowder through the thirty day Chowder, Power diet, Chowder through
Speaker 1: the thirty day Chowder Power Diet. I just I don't
Speaker 1: want that to be true, so I'm gonna say no.
Speaker 1: You know, Mano, I don't know how many skills you have,
Speaker 1: but this is one of your skills to make up
Speaker 1: things like this that just sounds so real. So yes,
Speaker 1: this is this is in fact fault. Right, Yeah, it's false.
Speaker 1: There was a tune around the clock diet for a while.
Speaker 1: Tune around the clock. Alright, so he's two for three.
Speaker 1: Let's see the next one. Skinny like Lincoln the Gettysburg
Speaker 1: ration diet um fault because Lincoln was skinny because he
Speaker 1: was he had a condition. I think I don't think
Speaker 1: he was skinny because I would he ate. I'm yeah, right.
Speaker 1: So the last one here, he's three out of four
Speaker 1: the Drinking Man's Diet. Do you have any deep held
Speaker 1: on this? I mean man side and I got to
Speaker 1: be give me detailed to kind of gives it away,
Speaker 1: doesn't it. Um? So so tell me nothing, tell me nothing, um. True,
Speaker 1: Absolutely true, It's true. I like that. You didn't need
Speaker 1: any more detail, but we'll give you a little. It
Speaker 1: was subtitled how to Lose Weight with Minimum Willpower and
Speaker 1: it was basically in nineteen sixties Atkins Diet. It was
Speaker 1: based on eating steak and drinking nothing but whiskey. All right,
Speaker 1: Well that's pretty impressive. So so how's herman done today?
Speaker 1: Herman did an incredible four for five, And in addition
Speaker 1: to our harder than admiration, we're actually gonna send him
Speaker 1: a copy of a book we found called Help Lord
Speaker 1: the Devil Wants Me Fat, a scriptural approach to trim
Speaker 1: and attractive bodies. That's gonna be a great prize. Well, Herman,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us today. Thank you. It
Speaker 1: was a lot of fun. You're listening to part time
Speaker 1: genius and we're talking about the surprising truth behind exercise.
Speaker 1: So mego before the break I was wondering who to
Speaker 1: blame for the fact that exercise has sort of become
Speaker 1: synonymous with weight loss in our minds. Any ideas on that.
Speaker 1: You're asking me to name names, I actually am. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I did some digging, and while it might be a
Speaker 1: little unfair to lay the entire blame for a widespread
Speaker 1: cultural misunderstanding on one individual, there's no denying that John
Speaker 1: Mayor makes a pretty good scapegoat. I'll take it. So,
Speaker 1: who is who is? John Mayor? Said? Well, John is
Speaker 1: this French American scientist and nutritionists who did some high
Speaker 1: profile research on the physiology of hunger and metabolism during
Speaker 1: the mid twentieth century. In fact, thanks to his breakthrough
Speaker 1: studies on rats, babies, and school girls in the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 1: Mayor became the first researcher to make a connection between
Speaker 1: exercise and weight loss. He showed that the less physically
Speaker 1: active a person was, the more likely they were to
Speaker 1: be overweight. All right, hold on, so you're saying that
Speaker 1: prior to Mayor, nobody thought that burning calories through exercise
Speaker 1: might result in weight loss. Yeah, it sounds so crazy,
Speaker 1: but that line of thinking was unpopular in the scientific
Speaker 1: community before Mayor came along. In fact, during the nineteen thirties,
Speaker 1: some scientists actually argued that bed rest was the most
Speaker 1: effective way to treat a beast patients, not exercise. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine this a are you guys going to hike
Speaker 1: without me? And my doctor says I need to shut
Speaker 1: a few pounds. I'm just gonna lie right here right.
Speaker 1: It sounds like one of those crazy diets or miracle
Speaker 1: cures you sometimes hear about that you know never actually works.
Speaker 1: But back to Mayor. He actually served as an advisor
Speaker 1: to both the White House and to the w h O,
Speaker 1: which made him a top name in nutrition and one
Speaker 1: of the most influential figures in the public health sphere
Speaker 1: thanks to the connections he made between exercise and weight loss.
Speaker 1: The idea of getting fit took off in the sixties
Speaker 1: and seventies, which led to this uh thriving jim industry
Speaker 1: and a cultural obsession with working out as a way
Speaker 1: to lose weight and to live healthier, and it clearly
Speaker 1: snowballed from their Obesity rates have risen dramatically over the
Speaker 1: last few decades is more and more of the population
Speaker 1: began trading jobs on farms and in factories for these
Speaker 1: desk jobs. It probably made sense to conclude that this
Speaker 1: more sedentary lifestyle was the cause of all that weight gain, right,
Speaker 1: But today's scientists, no, that's not the full story. It's
Speaker 1: actually a case of mixing up cause and effect. People
Speaker 1: aren't overweight because they're inactive. They're inactive because they're overweight.
Speaker 1: It's harder to stay active when you weigh more, so
Speaker 1: many people just don't. Well, it makes sense because it
Speaker 1: points back to the real culprit behind the obesity epidemic,
Speaker 1: and that's diet. We really have an obscene amount of
Speaker 1: food options today, and thanks to lifestyles that are more
Speaker 1: sedentary compared to previous generations, we have plenty of opportunities
Speaker 1: to over indulge on all of that variety, and we
Speaker 1: take full advantage of this. For instance, researchers at Harvard
Speaker 1: conducted to surveys on food consumption. One was in the
Speaker 1: mid nineteen seventies and then a second in the mid
Speaker 1: nine es, and they found that although the number of
Speaker 1: calories expended didn't change significantly in that time period, the
Speaker 1: number of calories consumed in a day increased by two
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty eight calories for men and a hundred
Speaker 1: and forty three for women. Yeah, it really does sound
Speaker 1: like our unfettered access to affordable, no muss prepared foods
Speaker 1: has taken a toll on our waistlines. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: constantly surrounded by food, and according to Brian wantsonk uh Cornell,
Speaker 1: researcher who studies how we eat, we eat the amount
Speaker 1: of food we do mostly because of what's around us.
Speaker 1: In his book Mindless Eating, Brian writes, we overeat not
Speaker 1: because of hunger, but because of family and friends. Packages
Speaker 1: and plates, names and numbers, labels and lights, colors and candles,
Speaker 1: shapes and smells, distractions and distances, cupboards and containers. This
Speaker 1: list is almost as endless as it's invisible. I think
Speaker 1: he was just showing off his illiterative ability. That was impressive.
Speaker 1: So it's not so much that are less active lifestyles
Speaker 1: have made us gain weight, but that we've developed the
Speaker 1: bad habit of filling that downtime with mindless eating brought
Speaker 1: on by food cues. Exactly. It's the reverse principle of
Speaker 1: out of sight, out of mind. Brian calls it insight
Speaker 1: in stomach creative. This guy is just full of them,
Speaker 1: and it's a serious problem. For example, if you have
Speaker 1: cookies or chips sitting out on your counter, there's a
Speaker 1: strong chance you'll weigh about eight pounds more than a
Speaker 1: person who doesn't. Oh wow, we really are that suggestible,
Speaker 1: aren't we. Yeah, and it gets much worse. Soda is
Speaker 1: one of the big examples that gets brought up as
Speaker 1: a contributor to rising ob CD rates, and it looks
Speaker 1: like that's for a good reason. Apparently, if you keep
Speaker 1: soda on hand in plain sight, like front and center
Speaker 1: in your fridge, you're gonna weigh on average twenty five
Speaker 1: pounds more than a person who doesn't. Okay, you're just
Speaker 1: scaring me now, my god. So we've got to figure
Speaker 1: out a way to keep our weight in check. And
Speaker 1: it's clear now that exercise alone isn't going to cut it. Still,
Speaker 1: I don't want to write off weight loss through exercise
Speaker 1: completely like the nineteen thirties type. So let's try to
Speaker 1: make sense of how to really maximize its benefits. Great,
Speaker 1: but before we get into that, let's break for quiz.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to part time Genius. So here we are
Speaker 1: Mango four chiseled bodies all in one room, or rather
Speaker 1: rather two personal trainers and two podcasters. I think yeah,
Speaker 1: but there's a twelve pack between the four most I'm
Speaker 1: with you on that. So, so who do we have
Speaker 1: us in with us in studio today? Mango, We've got
Speaker 1: Janet Wortz and Mario Jordan's from the form Athletic Club
Speaker 1: in Pont City Market right here in Atlanta. That is
Speaker 1: just right downstairs from us. So welcome guys, thanks for
Speaker 1: having us having us. All right, So we were just
Speaker 1: talking before before we started out that, Mario, you were
Speaker 1: telling us a little bit about your your breakfast regiment
Speaker 1: every single day. What is it that usually? Um, it's
Speaker 1: basically two cups of old meal and six hard boards.
Speaker 1: It's basically, so say, okay hard Well, you didn't say
Speaker 1: that before because I was gonna ask if we're doing
Speaker 1: this like Rocky? So no, no, yeah, have you have
Speaker 1: you ever done that? Can't do it? Okay, it's horrible.
Speaker 1: I don't do scrambled eggs or yeah, you're always horrible.
Speaker 1: How about you? Janee? Do you how many do you have?
Speaker 1: Eight eggs? Oh? No, probably throughout the day I could,
Speaker 1: but um, generally I'll have about four egg whites, sometimes
Speaker 1: one whole egg and either protein pancake or ezekio bread oatmeal.
Speaker 1: It just takes so long to eat for me, so
Speaker 1: I really don't know how Mario gets through. And actually
Speaker 1: with the hard boiled eggs, I have this problem where
Speaker 1: I used to when I would travel a lot and
Speaker 1: I would stop in and grab a couple of hard
Speaker 1: boiled eggs real quick, and I would eat them too fast,
Speaker 1: and I just knew that I was dying because I
Speaker 1: couldn't breathe, like you're choking up because they're so dry.
Speaker 1: Does that ever happen to you? Sometimes? Most of them?
Speaker 1: I mean it depends on how long you cook it.
Speaker 1: Something just overcooked and it will be watching. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: actually speaks to what we've been talking about today. That
Speaker 1: is important as exercises. Clearly, diet is very important. That's
Speaker 1: why these two are in such great shape because they're
Speaker 1: not exactly slacky. Now do you guys have your cheat
Speaker 1: days or how does that work for you guys? Um?
Speaker 1: For me, I prep my food um pretty much weekly,
Speaker 1: whether it's for seven days or three days. And then yes,
Speaker 1: I do cheat. I'm human. I actually work out and
Speaker 1: eat right, so I can't eat it like that's one
Speaker 1: of the things I do. So yes, okay, how about you.
Speaker 1: I'm the same way. Um, I have cheap meals here
Speaker 1: and there, that Derito's Loco stock, uh, milkshakes from Chick
Speaker 1: fil A good, those are insane. That's my advice right now. Yea,
Speaker 1: mine is case so Mexican food in case. All right. Well,
Speaker 1: I know you guys have put yourself through a lot
Speaker 1: as as as personal trainers, and you work really hard
Speaker 1: every day. I don't think you've ever seeing anything like
Speaker 1: you're going to see with today's quiz, though, Mango, what
Speaker 1: are we putting them to the challenge with? Today? We're
Speaker 1: gonna play a game called real Exercise fat or nonsensical
Speaker 1: equipment we just made up? All right? So this game
Speaker 1: is super easy. We're gonna read you six questions and
Speaker 1: you just have to tell us if the gym equipment
Speaker 1: we're talking about is real or something we made up.
Speaker 1: You got it, got it, all right. So because we
Speaker 1: know you like a challenge, we're gonna put you against
Speaker 1: one another, all right, So, Janey, we're gonna let you
Speaker 1: go first. Now. The first one is and I'll read
Speaker 1: you the tagline along with it. Okay, it's Hawaii chair.
Speaker 1: If you can sit, you can get fit. This is
Speaker 1: promising you can lose weight the Hawaiian way. This electric
Speaker 1: seat keeps your hips and bottom moving and a constant
Speaker 1: hul emotion and you as you answer phones and file paperwork.
Speaker 1: Is this something we made up? Or was this a
Speaker 1: real exercise fad? Oh god, I really I watch a
Speaker 1: lot of infomercials. Yeah. Um, I'm gonna say that it's real.
Speaker 1: It is real, a one for one so you really
Speaker 1: like move around moves. It moves your bottom around like
Speaker 1: it's so crazy as this is how Hawaiian. Alright, Mario, alright,
Speaker 1: she's one up on he. Here we go the human
Speaker 1: slink a sizer because you're slinky, shouldn't have all the fun.
Speaker 1: So this is building off the slinky craze of the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties. This rubber suit and helmet with a spring
Speaker 1: on it was made to help obese obese kids somersault
Speaker 1: downstairs while shedding away the pounds. Is this a real
Speaker 1: exercise fad or equipment we made up? Uh, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say it's they're so good at this. It is something
Speaker 1: we made up. Mang goes a threat on this He's
Speaker 1: pretty good at making these things up, all right. Number three,
Speaker 1: This is back to you, Janet. The mulby revolving hammock
Speaker 1: guaranteed to make your spine young. This young hammock treated
Speaker 1: your body like the net and slowly spun you around
Speaker 1: for better back health and weight loss. Is this a
Speaker 1: real exercise fat or something we made up? I was
Speaker 1: trying to visualize it, and I couldn't even visualize that.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna say it's made up. We finally have
Speaker 1: a wrong answer. They're not perfect. We thought this is
Speaker 1: a real exercise fat and super bizarre. A picture of this.
Speaker 1: Number four, Mario, this was back to you air shorts
Speaker 1: great for shedding body moisture. These versatile, inflatable shorts were
Speaker 1: supposed to bake your stomach, thighs, and bottom, causing you
Speaker 1: to sweat as you worked out or wandered about town.
Speaker 1: Is this a real exercise fat or something we made up? Uh?
Speaker 1: As ridiculous as it sounds, let's say it's real ridiculous.
Speaker 1: The pressure is on. Okay, I think this is a
Speaker 1: two pointer, though, if I'm not mistaken, if I'm reading
Speaker 1: the rules correctly, the official rules of our game here okay,
Speaker 1: tag suit, the it new way to weight loss, A
Speaker 1: weighted suit you can wear as you run around playing
Speaker 1: adult tag with your friends. Just don't stay on base.
Speaker 1: Is this a real fat or something we made up?
Speaker 1: A real thing? Oh no, it's equipment we made off.
Speaker 1: She didn't see as I was trying to make eye contact.
Speaker 1: All right, here we go. Now this one, actually, unfortunately
Speaker 1: Mario comes with a penalty if you miss it of
Speaker 1: negative one. So let's see. So the pressure is on
Speaker 1: the game. One last one. This one is called Twist
Speaker 1: in Tone, the exerciser that's fun, easy and works. Basically,
Speaker 1: it was a plastic lazy Susan that you could stand
Speaker 1: on while doing the twist. Totally worth the five dollars
Speaker 1: and cents. Real fat or something we made up? It's real?
Speaker 1: Oh I remember seeing something like that. Oh wow. All right,
Speaker 1: we'll tell us how our contestants have done here today,
Speaker 1: Mango well as all ways, first place wins a handwritten
Speaker 1: note from us to your mom or boss, singing your praises.
Speaker 1: So Mario, that's coming your way. And because we don't
Speaker 1: want anyone going home empty handed, Jane, you're getting a
Speaker 1: pair of hander pants. The number one underwear inspired gloves
Speaker 1: on the market today. Well, thank you guys so much
Speaker 1: for joining us today on Part Time Genius. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having us. So we were talking before about how
Speaker 1: we've been conditioned over the last fifty years or so
Speaker 1: to associate exercise with weight loss and what has turned
Speaker 1: out to be a fairly unhealthy way. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: a lot of people start workout routines because they expect
Speaker 1: the pounds to just melt off based on everything we've
Speaker 1: been told about how to stay fit. But when that
Speaker 1: doesn't happen as much as we expect, and the payoff
Speaker 1: seems too slow or too little for the amount of effort, well,
Speaker 1: then it's good body or gym membership exactly. And that's
Speaker 1: the real shame. So many of us put unhealthy pressure
Speaker 1: on ourselves as a result of these unrealistic expectations that
Speaker 1: we put on an exercise, and the end result is
Speaker 1: often that we blame ourselves and just give up on
Speaker 1: losing weight altogether. And that also causes us to miss
Speaker 1: out on the very real mental and physical benefits of
Speaker 1: regular exercise. So let's try to help avoid that. Mango.
Speaker 1: Let's put the true effectiveness of exercise for weight loss
Speaker 1: into perspective. Okay, Well, first off, I think we should
Speaker 1: say that the main reason why a lot of people's
Speaker 1: exercise routines go could put is the same reason why
Speaker 1: sixty of diet or is returned to their original weight
Speaker 1: within three years. As diet and behavior expert Charlotte Markey
Speaker 1: told Scientific American, people think too much about short term
Speaker 1: goals and don't think enough about sustainable changes. If you're
Speaker 1: going to lose weight, you have to change your behaviors
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life for otherwise you gain
Speaker 1: it back. And that's not a sexy message because it
Speaker 1: seems daunting. Yeah, it does. And does she have any
Speaker 1: suggestions on what kind of lifelong they aavioral changes people
Speaker 1: might actually be able to stomach. Yeah, it's all about sustainability.
Speaker 1: So for example, people don't have to completely cut out
Speaker 1: entire food groups or ice cream or anything like that.
Speaker 1: But we should strive for small scale changes that we
Speaker 1: stick to, like dropping a soda or two from our
Speaker 1: daily diet so we can cut a few hundred calories
Speaker 1: from our intake, or staying on the lookout to avoid
Speaker 1: mindless eating. Well, I think that's the kind of sustainability
Speaker 1: is what we should aim for with exercise too. I mean,
Speaker 1: once you stop thinking about the physical activity primarily is
Speaker 1: a way to lose weight, it frees us up to
Speaker 1: add exercise into our routines and enjoyable ways that will
Speaker 1: be less likely to give up on totally. And despite
Speaker 1: all we've learned about the limitations of calorie burning through workouts,
Speaker 1: there actually are some ways to use exercise to help
Speaker 1: us with our weight loss efforts. Like what. Well, for
Speaker 1: one thing, exercise helps distract us from our food cravings.
Speaker 1: It gives people something else to concentrate on, and there
Speaker 1: are some forms of exercise that can help maximize the
Speaker 1: amount of weight you lose from fat rather than muscle. Well,
Speaker 1: that's a good point. So we've mostly been talking about
Speaker 1: exercise in broad terms, but it's worth mentioning that most
Speaker 1: forms of exercise fall into one of two broad groups.
Speaker 1: So we've got aerobic type exercise like running, biking, swimming, rowing, etcetera,
Speaker 1: which helps strengthen your heart and build stamina, and then
Speaker 1: anaerobic exercise such as weightlifting or sprinting, which helps increase
Speaker 1: lean muscle mass. Right, and both types of workout will
Speaker 1: burn fat and help you lose a little weight, But
Speaker 1: studies have found that aerobic training does provide the advantage
Speaker 1: in terms of most weight and fat burned. So if
Speaker 1: you're looking for the best way to burn the most
Speaker 1: fat and the least amount of time, aerobic exercises probably
Speaker 1: the way to go. That's true, but I wouldn't trade
Speaker 1: in your barbells for running shoes just yet. If sustainability
Speaker 1: really is the goal, it's not a bad idea to
Speaker 1: gain some extra lean muscle. The research shows that an
Speaker 1: increase in muscle can speed up your resting metabolic rate,
Speaker 1: plus booster strength, and even lead to a better night's sleep.
Speaker 1: So if you're really in it for the long haul,
Speaker 1: the best strategy is probably do a little bit of both,
Speaker 1: which sounds like a smart plan. And other thing I
Speaker 1: always wonder about is fitness trackers like garments and Tom
Speaker 1: Tom's and fit fits. Lots of people swear by them
Speaker 1: and they're everywhere nowadays. Like I even saw that McDonald's
Speaker 1: was giving them away in happy Meals last year and
Speaker 1: what had to have have been one of the most ironic promotions.
Speaker 1: So everybody has these things drapped to their risks, But
Speaker 1: did they really help us lose weight or to come
Speaker 1: any healthier. Well, you know, we recently had a listener
Speaker 1: asked a similar question. So I did some digging, and
Speaker 1: it turns out not really. I mean, there isn't a
Speaker 1: ton of long term research yet on the effects of
Speaker 1: wearable fitness technology. It hasn't yet been around long enough.
Speaker 1: But most of the short term studies have found that
Speaker 1: wearing fitness trackers only lead to a small boost and
Speaker 1: physical activity, not nearly enough to lead to any improvements
Speaker 1: in overall health. And what's worse, one study found that
Speaker 1: when people were given the option of wearing a fitness
Speaker 1: tracker or not, the people who chose to wear it
Speaker 1: actually lost less weight than those who didn't know. It
Speaker 1: was seven points seven pounds compared to the thirteen pounds
Speaker 1: of those who went to cliss Which isn't exactly a
Speaker 1: bringing endorsement, no, but it's not completely a lost cause.
Speaker 1: I mean, keeping track of steps and calories can be
Speaker 1: a useful motivator for some folks, provided they don't take
Speaker 1: that success as an excuse to reward themselves with their
Speaker 1: extra large pizza. Right, and uh, we've seen how that goes, right,
Speaker 1: So fitness trackers can definitely be a helpful weapon in
Speaker 1: the never ending battle of the bulge. But just like
Speaker 1: exercise or dieting, they're no guarantee of weight loss on
Speaker 1: their own. Well, I don't know about you will, but
Speaker 1: I'll just talk about exercise has me feeling a little competitive.
Speaker 1: Where do you say we go toe to toe in
Speaker 1: the part time genius? All right, I'm ready when you
Speaker 1: are a mango m Yeah, alright. So here's a tip
Speaker 1: that comes straight from one of America's favorite fitness gurus, Barbie.
Speaker 1: In slumber Party, Barbie came to your place with a
Speaker 1: diet book in hand, and the only tip in it
Speaker 1: don't eat terrible. Uh though, here's one that's even worse,
Speaker 1: the tapeworm diet. Back in the early twentieth century, diet
Speaker 1: pills filled with tapeworms were sold over the counter with
Speaker 1: the promise that you could eat more and still lose weight.
Speaker 1: And of course, when the baby tapeworms grew up to
Speaker 1: be like these twenty five foot monstrosities and started causing
Speaker 1: things like meningitis and dimension in their hosts, the government
Speaker 1: decided that the weight loss through worms was overrated, and
Speaker 1: they banned the pills. Diet coke might not be that
Speaker 1: much better for you than regular coke, but it certainly
Speaker 1: is lighter. While I can of coke will sink in water,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of like a bulldog, diet coke actually
Speaker 1: floats more like a hot dog. I'm glad you put
Speaker 1: the dog and just really helps you understand what floating is.
Speaker 1: My favorite exercise item from the seventies is the Sauna
Speaker 1: exercise suit, which looks nothing like a suit. It's more
Speaker 1: like a tinfoil marshmallow man contraption that promised to help
Speaker 1: you shed pounds as you just went about your daily business.
Speaker 1: Calvin Coolige's main exercise in the office was through an
Speaker 1: electric horse, kind of like a mechanical bull. He'd write
Speaker 1: it three times a day on various settings, from saunter
Speaker 1: to gallop, but the regiment sounded so silly he kept
Speaker 1: it a secret until it accidentally bucked him from the
Speaker 1: saddle and had to be put down by an electrician.
Speaker 1: So that's pretty good. But here's a great tip from
Speaker 1: the seventeen hundreds, if you want to lose weight, stay
Speaker 1: away from swamps. In seventy seven, a so called scientist
Speaker 1: named Thomas Short observed that beast people seemed to live
Speaker 1: near swamps, so it was important. Work on the matter,
Speaker 1: titled The Causes and Effects of Corpulents naturally suggested there
Speaker 1: was only one smart way to lose weight, move away
Speaker 1: from swamps. Yeah, that swamped. It makes a whole lot
Speaker 1: of sense. I think I gotta give you the title
Speaker 1: on this when congratulations, Mango. I think that's it for
Speaker 1: today's show. Thanks so much for listening, a mango, This
Speaker 1: show got me inspired. Want to go for a run?
Speaker 1: Absolutely not, Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is
Speaker 1: a production of how stuff works and wouldn't be possible
Speaker 1: without several brilliant people who do the important things we
Speaker 1: couldn't even again to understand. Kristin McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 1: Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
Speaker 1: mixy sound thing. Gary Rowland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 1: Gay Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
Speaker 1: Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams
Speaker 1: and Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears.
Speaker 1: Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard, we
Speaker 1: hope you'll subscribe. And if you really really like what
Speaker 1: you've heard, maybe you could leave a good review for us.
Speaker 1: Do we do we forget Jason? Jason who