It’s generally accepted that exercise is a key element of losing weight. But this long-held view has been called into question in recent years – with no shortage of articles and podcasts claiming it’s a myth that exercise increases your metabolism and helps you burn calories after you work out.
The central tenet of these reports is that the amount of calories we burn each day is somehow constrained. This hypothesis was first proposed in 2012 by the evolutionary anthropologist Herman Pontzer. He posited that as you increase your daily energy expenditure (calories burned) through physical activity, your body will find ways to cut back on energy expended on other biological processes – such as your resting metabolism. This leaves your overall daily energy expenditure unchanged.
