Very interesting read. I for one can attest that i never got headaches or inflammatory issues until i become more sedentary with desk jobs.
I think it'll be interesting in the future to see how this science interplays with personal health recommendations on a case by case basis. For example, it reminds me of the gym rat who died because he didn't take his flu seriously and kept working out instead of resting. Using this theory, it would suggest at that time, his body did in fact need those calories to fight the virus and not respond to muscle micro-tears from exercise. But in other cases, like someone in the early stages of a neurodegenerative disorder, I wonder what would be the recommendation as far how to attempt to guide your bodies energy use. A lot of times, the inflammation from fighting things is worse than the thing itself. Definitely food for thought.
I was thinking more about this today and I wonder what it means (or could mean) to what I like to call, "The Rest-Industrial Complex." You know...that new-ish identity and commodified market that is preaching rest as a means in and of itself. If our bodies will expend about the same amount of energy irrespective of what we do, then our choice in the matter seems to be where we'd prefer the energy to be spent (relatively as there are minimum requirements for different organs, etc). To me, this fundamentally challenges the idea of rest (which I'm differentiating from sleep) to be less of a choice towards not expending energy but a choice to expend energy in whatever activity you choose to be restful. And if that is the case, then rest is a useless term that negates itself as you are in fact not resting at all...you are actively doing something with some part of your body...even if it's just using your brain to imagine things.
This scientist busts myths about how humans burn calories—and why
existential1 wrote
Very interesting read. I for one can attest that i never got headaches or inflammatory issues until i become more sedentary with desk jobs.
I think it'll be interesting in the future to see how this science interplays with personal health recommendations on a case by case basis. For example, it reminds me of the gym rat who died because he didn't take his flu seriously and kept working out instead of resting. Using this theory, it would suggest at that time, his body did in fact need those calories to fight the virus and not respond to muscle micro-tears from exercise. But in other cases, like someone in the early stages of a neurodegenerative disorder, I wonder what would be the recommendation as far how to attempt to guide your bodies energy use. A lot of times, the inflammation from fighting things is worse than the thing itself. Definitely food for thought.