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  • Burn

  • New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Lose Weight, and Stay Healthy
  • Written by: Herman Pontzer
  • Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
  • Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (41 ratings)

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Burn

Written by: Herman Pontzer
Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
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Publisher's Summary

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.

©2021 Herman Pontzer (P)2021 Penguin Audio

What the critics say

"A wide-ranging romp through evolutionary biology, physiology, and anthropology, Burn will make you question what you think you know about metabolism and your waistline." (Stephan Guyenet, PhD,  author of The Hungry Brain)

"Burn is science writing at its best: big ideas, wild and often hilarious stories from the field, and deft explanations. The result will reshape what you thought you knew about how our metabolisms work." (Alex Hutchinson, New York Times best-selling author of Endure)

"An absorbing, instructive lesson for anyone concerned about their health." (Kirkus starred review)

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

what a freekin' rigamaroo

pay attention to calories. that's it. this book is incredibly longwinded. its like listening to grandpa Simpson trying telling a story.

i enjoy anthropology and thinking alternatively about nutrition, but this book only provides a curnal of new information and rehashes it six ways from Sunday.

just eat high quality whole food and monitor your calories baised on wether you want to lose weight or not. thats it. there you go. save your money.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

very interesting read/listen. well narrated

very interesting read/listen. well narrated and an interesting take on key contributors to human evolution and of our future sustainability. one key item to note for listeners is that this book focuses on most people's general metabolic processes and only lightly touches on sustainable metabolic changes for fat burning in the endurance athletes studies (as it was outside it's scope of study) so Dr Maffetone and Attia's work with usuing MAF as a guide for building fat burning endurance may be an excellent supplementary read. all being said, this is very informative and a well laid out way to become educated in the complexities of our bodies and adaptive basal metabolic rates, as well as probably the best explanation of the cause of our obesity epidemic I've encountered yet.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

This book must be a mandatory read in schools.

The energy expenditure is an objective way for understanding our past, making the right decisions in today's life and planning our future survival as species. The author has done an amazing job explaining how it all works.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

on fire!

this wasn't the book I thought it would be. it was better! I liked the science and context. I liked the connection between energy and climate. in some ways this book was reminiscent of "Guns, Germs and Steel" but about kilocalories.

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