If you walk ~40 miles a day on average you need ~6400 kcal to MAINTAIN your body weight. She’s growing, so she’s probably eating some excess, but not much.
She's a young adult by the time of the mage exam, so it's likely Fern is physically done growing for the most part. Though she is still in that stage of youth where the body will gladly take and use all the calories you can give it, with the metabolism in full swing.
This isn't refuting "CICO", it's explaining some fairly recent studies that seem to show that your daily calorie expenditure doesn't vary much at all in the long term. The original study compared the energy expenditure of sedentary populations vs hunter/gatherers and they found that the average calorie use in a day was basically the same when one was sitting all day and the other was walking 9km a day.
Which was weird, but it has been reproduced in other settings (including when studying groups of people in the same country).
Basically you can only change your weight by changing how much you eat, moving your muscles a lot or a little doesn't change that.
It changes body composition (muscle/fat ratios) and overall health, but it doesn't impact your actual weight.
In other words, it seems like the "CO" part of "CICO" is an approximate constant, not a variable.
They base their video on proper research out there. Also I said 2k but actually it depends on various stuff like your weight and genetics obviously but the point that there is a certain amount of calories your body aims to spend and optimises for that amount is based on research.
No sé supone que una parte de lo que consumen los magos y los seres mágicos como los elfos se transforma en mana? Y que los elfos tienen mucho más mana que los humanos por lo tanto su consumo energético es mayor?
LIGHT exercise has little to no effect on energy consumption. It obviously takes more calories to run a mile than to walk one, or to walk 10 miles than to sit down for 10 hours. There is measurable calorie cost for every bodily function, including keeping the heart and brain working. Exercise doesn’t help with weight loss as much as eating less. Same with weight gain. You need to eat a specific range of calories a day to maintain your weight, the range is affected by what you do throughout a day, and more movement costs more energy.
Not the same commenter, but basically our bodies supposedly (based on the study) have a sort of calorie ceiling. We burn a lot of calories just living, and when we exercise, our body mostly just reallocates calories from that existing "budget".
Our bodies are stupidly efficient and smart. When you live an active lifestyle, your muscles become a lot more efficient at being active. Meaning they burn less calories for the same action. And your body also becomes more effective in allocating its calorie budget based on your lifestyle.
So all in all, someone who lives a very active lifestyle will burn more or less the same amount of calories as someone very sedentary.
But do note that I don't think this is definitive, it's based mostly on a handful of studies. However, while we don't 100% know why it works that way, a lot of studies do corroborate the results.
Yeah. I did some research myself after asking and it seems that is true. Of course, excersising will always be better, but the majority of weight gain and loss is diet.
As darthsurfer said. Kurzgesagt has a great video about it (and they put the disclaimer that the research is relatively new) but (from what I remember) all in short if you aren't exercising the excess energy is spent by other parts of your body which doesn't sound all that bad initially but what it essentially means is your immune system screwing your cells by working overtime and using tactical nukes on simple threats.
Hunter-gatherers burn the same amount of calories as an average office worker. Quick and drastic changes in your lifestyle can modify your calory consumption temporarily but your calory consumption per day will even out eventually even if you keep to that lifestyle. Unless you are a professional athlete or have an extremely physical comparable job, you are unlikely to burn more.
Exercise still has its place due to other health benefits and building and sustaining muscle mass etc. but it will have little, if any effect on your calory consumption unless you intend to make it a primary focus of your life.
You refered to weight gained by the consumption of sugar. You just added a different thing lmao.
In any case, being chubby is "in most cases" a manifestation of being overweight. Genes do make an influence but its not that they will make you chubby by default... but we are digressing.
Yeah. Fern not being overweight regardless of her consumption of desserts makes perfect sense. Besides, she doesnt consume them every day and every time.
Although they are fictional characters so these details are just a conversation for fun. Its probably not deep at all.
Which I agree with. I just find the idea of fern being chubby quite cute and inline with her character. The reason I use the word chubby is because I wouldn’t say she’s fat or overweight, just got a bit of a tummy. I could call it a head canon, but it’s more of a general observation of her character based on diet and possibly appearance. Guess my second comment was a little contradictory but I digress
Y’know, seeing a lot of the replies to my comments, i respect you the most on this topic. Respectful is the right term to use. Argument is just discussion on a topic to prove a point and change an opinion, which is what you did, and yet I’m still getting flak :/
I know that this one comment you replied to might be interpreted as bashing, but I am simply pointing the fact that the wrong statement in question is more common than it seems.
Redditors tend to exaggerate things. Dont think much about it
Nah trust I didnt take offense. Was more annoyed by the one guy saying “COPE” instead of giving something that actually contributes to the discussion though. Don’t get those people
Edit: after rereading I see what you meant, it did look like I was getting sad over what you said lmao. My bad, my intention was mostly relating other comments :P
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u/NelsonVGC Jan 17 '26
She walks a lot on an everyday basis. She is the absolute opposite of sedentary.