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August 20, 2021 66 mins
A conversation with Evolutionary Anthropologist Dr. Herman Pontzer, Phd. He received his PhD from Harvard University now an associate professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University. He is the author of a new book Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Lose Weight, and Stay Healthy.

We have a conversation about what an evolutionary anthropologist does. We discuss his book Burn and the cost of energy, the variables of daily energy expenditure, metabolism and what is a “calorie” in scientific terms. We touch on the 3,500 caloric deficit rule to lose 1 pound and what we should understand about the metric.

We talk about the diet and activity of early hominins, the differences between humans and the other great apes, and the downside of living in our evolved bodies in modern times including tribalism, obesity and cardio-metabolic disease.

We talk about Dr. Pontzer’s research after studying a modern-day hunter gatherer community called the Hadza in Tanzania and how the conclusions of the research lead to the concept of constrained total daily energy expenditure. Dr. Ponzer describes the implications for those with weight loss goals.

About Herman Pontzer, PhD
https://scholars.duke.edu/person/Herman.Pontzer

Herman Pontzer, PhD Twitter:
https://twitter.com/HermanPontzer

BURN by Herman Pontzer, PhD:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D8JYQD6/

Consider contributing to the Hadza Fund:
https://www.hadzafund.org/


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