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May 30, 2014
Q. How would the energy you expend per day compare to that of someone in a traditional hunter-gatherer society?
A. A Hadza hunter-gatherer of eastern Africa typically weighs about 103 pounds and expends about 2,200 calories per day, whereas a typical Westerner weighs 160 pounds and expends about 2,500 calories, according to Herman Pontzer and colleagues in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” So, not surprisingly, the physically active forager burns more energy per pound (21 calories per pound versus 16), though a modern sedentary type burns more overall — presumably to sustain and lug around those extra pounds. The researchers also found that, adjusted for body mass, primates as a whole (including humans, apes and monkeys) burn energy significantly more slowly than do other mammals. It seems that humans (and their evolutionary kin) live life in the slow lane — no doubt, part of the reason why we mature, reproduce and age slowly, and live much longer than a mammal of our size has any right to expect.
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