If you think our metabolisms are slow, think again.

A new study comparing the Hazda community, a group of hunter-gatherers located in Tanzania, with Western Society has proven that although we live more of a sedentary lifestyle, our metabolisms are still at the same rate.

Traditionally the Hazda community lives off of the meat that they hunt and bring home, eating absolutely no processed food, and hunting on foot with bows and arrows. 30 participants from the community agreed to have a GPS attached to them as they went about their daily routine of gathering and finding food. The GPS measured the energy expenditure as the Hazdas traveled throughout the day.

In fact, even though total energy expenditure did vary considerably by age, gender and by body size, as anticipated, when the researchers looked at men of the same age who each weighed, say, 130 lbs., there was no discernible difference by lifestyle group in total daily energy expenditure.

Those tests were compared to men and women living in the U.S., Europe, Bolivia, Nigeria, and Gambia. Interestingly enough, although the Hazdas expended more energy physically, their metabolism rates were at the same rate of other societies.

The authors conclude in their study that “The similarity in [total energy expenditure (TEE)] among Hadza hunter-gatherers and Westerners suggests that even dramatic differences in lifestyle may have a negligible effect on TEE.”

Read more here.

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