Herman Pontzer is an
evolutionary anthropologist at
Duke University
Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
, where he is
associate professor
Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''.
In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...
of
evolutionary anthropology
Evolutionary anthropology, the interdisciplinary study of the human evolution, evolution of human physiology and human behaviour and of the relation between hominids and non-hominid primates, builds on natural science and on social science. Vari ...
and
global health
Global health is the health of populations in a worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems th ...
. He is best known for his research into human
bioenergetics
Bioenergetics is a field in biochemistry and cell biology that concerns energy flow through living systems. This is an active area of biological research that includes the study of the transformation of energy in living organisms and the study o ...
.
Constrained Daily Energy Expenditure Model
In the context of the
exercise paradox
The exercise paradox, also known as the workout paradox, refers to the finding that physical activity, while essential for maintaining overall health, does not necessarily lead to significant weight loss or increased calorie expenditure. This pa ...
(where weight-loss was not a direct outcome of all the calories burned), Pontzer helped develop a theory of human metabolism where the total amount of a human's energy expenditure (calories) is not the additive linear sum of the individual's metabolic parts (e.g., calories burned during
basal metabolism
Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the rate of energy expenditure per unit time by endothermic animals at rest.. In other words it is the energy required by body organs to perform normal It is reported in energy units per unit time ranging from watt ( ...
, expenditure of energy for movement, reproduction, digestion, immune system, etc.), instead it is a model whereby daily energy expenditure begins linearly and then plateaus off at some tipping point, suggesting some evolved constraint in the total energy expended in a human's day.
This new model is called the
constrained daily energy expenditure model.
Books
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References
Duke University faculty
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Human evolution theorists
Pennsylvania State University alumni
Harvard University alumni
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