Research has just shown that the average couch potato burns almost as much energy as those energizer bunnies the hunter-gather types of long ago.
So stock up on your favorite snacks and scan the research this weekend while you watch all the exciting action as the world's greatest sporting event gets underway this Saturday. You will be surprised to learn you Fitbit is actually lying to you.
For the contrarian view which suggests that if exercise itself does not actually suddenly kill you (which it might) it is not impossible that it might have some benefits in helping ward off or reduce the severity of a number of ailments (extra large bag of popcorn with added butter recommended before tackling this erudite piece)
Reaching for one's wallet does burn calories. What an enlightening article. I do burn many calories on my fifty trips to the kitchen each day and sitting at a computer for hours must burn calories as well. But I'm still not sure why I need to store calories in this fat hanging from me, for when will I need all that stored energy. Then again, struggling to move all this fat around must burn quite a few calories. Yet what I do everyday in order to burn calories is rather boring, and chasing and killing wild animals would probably be much more enjoyable provided that it's not detrimental to my health.
Probably, if you are a serious gym user there are ways to tone your body and build muscle and also get some "good feeling" from the effort. At something like 3,500 calories/lb, it is hard to use the gym for weight control.
Just tweaking calorie intake a little will get the same result and may be more effective in the long run.
Of course, there may be a sense of "guilt" that motivates you to use a gym membership you have paid for. That same sense of guilt works the opposite way with the pack of cookies or the apple pie you picked up at the supermarket.