Eating less is more realistic than exercising more: The main cause of obesity in modern people is overeating.

Professor John Speckmo of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland said that calorie consumption in 1980 was not much different from now, but the average calorie intake now is 3,500 calories, an increase of one-third compared to the 1980s.

Over the past 25 years, the average adult male has consumed 1,380 calories per day, while the average female has consumed 950 calories per day; there has been no significant change in calorie consumption.

He corrected, "The surge in obesity is not entirely due to reduced exercise, but rather to overeating."

Therefore, he believes that controlling food intake is more realistic for people than exercising.

He added, "Because our bodies have a tendency to maintain stability, the more we exercise during the day, the less active we will be at night."

In the past, people often read books or listened to the radio after dinner. However, as time has passed, more and more people now choose to watch TV or go back to their computers. But the number of calories people consume in the past and present has not changed much.

One hour of intense exercise can burn 300 calories, but this is only equivalent to 10% of a person's daily calorie intake, or the amount in a small sandwich.

He further emphasized: "If a person with a body mass index of 35 wants to lower their index, they need to exercise for 4 to 5 hours every day and basically need to stick to it for life to prevent a rebound. Reducing food intake by 30% can achieve the same effect."

Professor Herman Pontzer of Hunter College, City University of New York, conducted a comparative study of Hadza hunter gatherers from northern Tanzania, Africa, who live by hunting in the wild, with office workers in the United States and Europe. The study primarily measured their daily energy consumption and published the findings in PLOS ONE, a journal of the Public Library of Science, in 2012.

The results of a survey on changes in body shape showed that the energy consumption of the Hadza tribe is almost equal to that of office workers in the United States and Europe.

This comparative study of people living different lifestyles strongly refutes the theory that reduced physical activity (energy expenditure) leads to obesity.

Therefore, it is necessary to emphasize again that obesity is not a matter of exercise, but rather caused by the amount of food consumed.

It can be said that "regardless of lifestyle, the amount of energy consumed by humans is similar," which shows that the process of energy consumption in the human body is very complex.

If physical exercise consumes more energy, it will reduce the amount of energy used by the brain for functions such as movement and digestion in order to maintain balance.

Of course, this does not mean that exercise is not important for health. The Hadza people expend more energy on physical activity every day than people in modern Western society. As a result, fewer people in the elderly suffer from chronic diseases such as heart disease.

These experimental results suggest that there seems to be no definitive answer to the question of weight loss methods, but one thing is very clear: eat less and exercise more.

From now on, don't blindly believe in those flashy but impractical weight loss methods. We need to find a weight loss method that suits us, and basically there's only one.

Don't follow other people's standards for food intake and exercise. Even if you encounter setbacks, try it yourself and then choose the method that best suits your body.

Blindly following others to try so-called weight loss methods will not only fail to produce significant results, but may also harm our health.

Start your weight loss journey at 40 here!

Various methods and variations of weight loss

1. Weight loss in the 1930s and 1940s

Weight loss during this period was very haphazard and involved numerous methods.

Smoking as a way to lose weight and the lemon-maple syrup diet ("lemon juice + chili + maple syrup") were very popular at the time.

However, these methods lack any real scientific basis.

The Detox diet, which evolved from the above method, has recently become very popular. However, long-term use of this method can lead to a series of serious side effects such as muscle loss, while short-term use can cause side effects such as fatigue, nausea, dizziness, and dehydration.

2. Weight loss in the 1950s

During this period, some absurd weight loss methods began to emerge.

With the bestseller status of Charlie W. Shedd's "Pray Your Weight Away" in 1957, weight loss gradually began to incorporate prayer as a method, and a large number of books related to prayer were published, with prayer therapy, which was believed to be effective for weight loss, becoming increasingly popular.