We have this idea that if we want to lose weight, we join a gym on January 1st, we start
我们会有这样的想法 如果我们想减肥 我们就在一月一号加入一个健身房 我们开始
working out regularly, and eventually we’ll slim down.
定期的运动 最终我们将瘦下来
Well, here’s some bad news. I read more than sixty studies on this, and
这里有一些坏消息 我看过不止六十个跟这个相关的研究报告
it turns out exercise is actually pretty useless when it comes to weight loss.
结果表明对减肥来说锻炼是非常没有用处的
Dr. Kevin Hall at the National Institutes of Health has done some of the most important studies
国立卫生研究院的凯文哈儿博士做了关于锻炼和减肥的研究 这些研究是该领域最重要的研究之一
on exercise and weight loss We need to rebrand exercise … exercise isn’t
我们得重新定义锻炼
a weight loss tool per se, it’s excellent for health, it’s probably the best single thing
锻炼本身不是一个减肥的工具 这对健康是非常好的 这可能是除了戒烟外
that you can do other than stopping smoking to improve your health.
你能做的最好的来改善你健康的方式
But don’t look at it as a weight loss tool. Exercise will definitely help you live a longer,
但别把它当做减肥的工具 运动肯定可以帮你活得更长
happier life…. It’s just not the best way to lose weight. And the reason has to
生活更愉悦 它不是最好的减肥方式 理由与
do with how our bodies use energy. You may not realize it, but physical activity
我们的身体如何使用能量有关 你可能没有意识到 但是身体运动
is actually a tiny component of your daily energy burn.
确实是你每天能量消耗的很小的一个组成部分
There are three main ways our bodies burn calories.
我们的身体燃烧卡路里主要有三种方式
These include your resting metabolism, so that’s how much energy your body burns just
这包括你的静息代谢 也就是为了基本生存需要所消耗的能量
for its basic functioning, just to keep you alive, basically.
基本上只是为了让你活下去
The other part of energy expenditure is the thermic effect of food, and that’s just
另一个能量消耗是食物产热效应 那就是
how much energy is required to break food down in your body.
需要多少能量来分解你身体中的食物
The third part of energy expenditure is physical activity.
第三种能量消耗的方式是体育运动
For most people, physical activity – that’s any movement you do, only accounts for about
对大多数人来说 体育运动——包括你做的任何动作 都只占了大约
10 to 30 percent of energy use. So the vast majority of energy or calories
10%-30%的能量消耗 所以你每天大部分能量或者卡路里
you burn every day comes from your basal or resting metabolism, over which you have very
的消耗来自于基础代谢或者静息代谢 对此你
little control. While 100% of your “calories in” are up
基本不能控制 虽然摄入多少卡路里100%由你做主
to you, only up to about 30% of your “calories out” are in your control.
你却只能掌控30％的卡路里消耗量
One study found that if a 200-pound man ran for an hour, 4 days a week for a month, he’d
某项研究发现 假设其他条件相同 如果一个两百磅的胖子
lose about 5 pounds at most, assuming everything else stays the same.
坚持每周有四天跑步一个小时 一个月后他最多减下5磅
And everything else doesn’t stay the same! Researchers have found we make all kinds of
事实上其他条件不可能保持相同 研究人员发现
behavioral and physiological adaptations when we start increasing the amount of exercise
当我们开始增加每天的运动量时 我们的身体会采取各种各样的行为的和生理反应来适应
we’re getting every day. For one thing, exercise tends to make people
首先 锻炼易于让人
hungry. And I’m sure you know the feeling: you
感到饥饿 我敢确信你了解这种感觉
go for a spinning class in the morning, and then by the time you eat breakfast you’re
你早上去参加一个动感单车课程 然后等到你吃早餐时
so hungry you maybe double the size of the portion of oatmeal you normally eat.
你就会非常饿 你可能会吃平时吃的燕麦片的两倍量
There’s also evidence to suggest that some people simply slow down after a work out,
同样有证据显示有些人在锻炼后很容易懈怠
so if you went running in the morning you might be less inclined to take the stairs
所以如果你在早上跑步了 你可能更不倾向于上班时爬楼梯
at work. These are called “compensatory behaviors”
这叫做补偿行为
— the various ways we unknowingly undermine our workouts.
——各种各样在不知不觉中渐渐削弱我们的锻炼效果的行为
Researchers have also discovered a phenomenon called metabolic compensation. As people start to
研究人员同样发现一个叫做代谢补偿的现象 当人们开始
slim down, their resting metabolism can slow down.
瘦身时 他们的静息代谢会慢下来
So the amount of energy you burn while at rest is lower.
所以你在休息时消耗能量的数量要少一些
That means this bar might shrink as you start to lose weight.
那意味着当你开始减肥时静息代谢可能会减少
There’s still a lot of research to be done, but one study from 2012 is particularly interesting.
仍然有许多研究需要做 但来自2012年的一个研究特别地有趣
They went out into the middle of the Savannah in Tanzania to measure the energy burn among
他们进入坦桑尼亚的大草原中部去测量
a group of hunter gathers called the Hadza. These are super-active, lean hunter-gatherers.
哈扎猎人部落的能量消耗 这些人非常活跃 是很瘦的捕猎者—采集者
They’re not spending their days behind a computer at a desk.
他们不坐在电脑后消耗时光
And what they found was shocking. What we found is that there was no difference at all.
他们发现测试的结果令人震惊 我们发现测试结果没有任何区别
So even though the Hadza have a much more physically active lifestyle, they weren’t burning any more
所以即使哈扎人有一个更倾向于体力活动的生活方式
calories every day than adults in the
他们每天燃烧的卡路里也不比美国和欧洲的成年人多
US and Europe. Somehow the energy they used for physical
他们身体活动消耗的能量莫名其妙地
activity was being offset or conserved elsewhere. So how do they stay slim? They don’t overeat.
被抵消或者在别处被保存 那么他们是怎么保持苗条的呢 他们不过度饮食
We can undo the calories that we burn off in exercise pretty quickly.
我们可以很快抵消我们在锻炼中消耗的卡路里
It would take about an hour of running to burn off a Big Mac and fries.
燃尽一个巨无霸和薯条的能量需要跑一个小时的步
You’d have to spend about an hour dancing pretty vigorously to burn off three glasses
你必须花大概一个小时非常精力旺盛地跳舞来消耗
of wine you might drink with dinner. An hour of cycling really intensely on exercise
在晚餐时喝的三杯红酒 在固定式健身脚踏车上狂骑一个小时实际上
bikes to burn off about two doughnuts. That’s why exercise is best seen as a healthy
消耗大概两个甜甜圈的热量 那就是为什么锻炼最好被看作是一个
supplement for a strategy that’s focused on food.
对仅专注于食物的减肥策略的健康补充
But despite extremely high obesity rates in the US, government agencies continue to present
但是尽管美国的肥胖率非常高 政府机关仍旧提出
exercise as a solution … as do companies with a real interest in
锻炼作为解决的办法 因为
making sure we keep eating and drinking their products.
确保我们一直买他们的食物和饮品确实关系到企业切身利益
Since the 1920s, companies like Coca-Cola have been aligning themselves with the exercise
从二十世纪二十年代起 像可口可乐这样的公司一直在与锻炼信息结盟
message. The idea here is that you can drink all these
观点是只要你努力锻炼
extra bottles of soda as long as you work out. But as we’re seeing, it doesn’t work like that.
你就可以喝所有这些额外的苏打水 但正如我们所见 这并没有奏效
Actually burning off those extra calories from a can of soda is really, really hard.
事实上消耗掉一罐苏打水的卡路里真的是非常非常难
We have an obesity problem in this country, and we shouldn’t
这个国家存在着肥胖问题 我们不应该
treat low physical activity and eating too many calories as equally responsible for it.
认为缺乏体育活动和摄入过多的卡路里对此负有同样的责任
Public health policymakers should really prioritize improving our food environment
公众健康决策人应该真的将改善我们的食物环境放在首要位置
to help people make healthier choices about what they eat.
来帮助人们对他们吃什么做出更健康的决策
It’s not impossible to lose weight through exercise,
通过锻炼减肥不是不可能
it’s just a lot harder. And we need to recognize how that works.
只是难得多 我们需要认识到运动减肥的工作原理
If you do go to the gym, and you burn all these calories, it takes you a long time to do so
如果你真的去了健身房 你需要耗费很长的时间
and you put in a great amount of effort,
以及很大的精力才能消耗所有摄入的卡路里
you can erase all of that in five minutes of eating a slice of pizza.
吃一小片的披萨的五分钟就足以抹去之前所有的努力
Relative magnitude is actually quite surprising, and most people don’t fully appreciate that.
相对量实际上是非常惊人的 大多数人却没有完全领会到这点