Did you know that moving more, regardless of when or for how long at a single time, results in more total calories burned per day?
Physical activity doesn’t just affect your body while you’re moving. Research shows it can boost the total energy you burn each day, even after your workout ends.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looked at how being active changes the body’s overall “energy budget” — basically, how energy gets divided among all the body’s functions.
The scientists found that moving more increases total daily energy use without the body cutting back elsewhere.
How the Body Handles Energy
For a long time, researchers have debated whether the body treats energy like a fixed allowance or a flexible system.
One idea was that if you burn calories during exercise, the body saves energy somewhere else to compensate.
The other idea suggested that energy use can expand, letting total daily calorie burn rise along with activity.
This study aimed to figure out which scenario is closer to reality.
Tracking Total Calories Burned
The team measured total energy expenditure — how many calories participants burned in a day —across people with very different activity levels.
Participants drank special forms of oxygen and hydrogen and gave urine samples over two weeks.
By measuring how much of each isotope was lost, researchers estimated carbon dioxide production and total energy use.
They also used waist-worn sensors to track movement in all directions.
The study included 75 people 19 to 63, ranging from mostly inactive to ultra-endurance athletes.
No Evidence the Body Cancels Out Exercise
The results were clear: Moving more meant burning more total calories.
The body didn’t seem to cut energy use in other areas.
Essential functions like breathing, blood circulation and regulating body temperature kept running at normal energy levels, even as activity increased.
In other words, exercise isn’t “cancelled out” by the body somewhere else.
More Activity, Less Sitting
The researchers also noticed that people who moved more tended to spend less time sitting.
It’s simple: More movement usually means less inactivity.
You should always strive to reduce sitting time. Have you ever tried standing while watching the news on TV?
This is more doable than you might think. It can easily become a habit. Try it!
What This Means for You
These findings back the idea that being physically active really does boost overall calorie burn, supporting the “additive energy” model.
Scientists say more research is needed, especially since the study sample was small, to see if certain people or situations might show energy compensation, but for now, we know that moving more adds up.
