'Pontzer's findings have huge implications for our attitudes to exercise, diet and public health' Mark Webster, Sunday Times A myth-busting tour of the body's hidden foundations from a pioneering evolutionary biologist 'Public health strategies stubbornly cling to the simplistic armchair engineer's view of metabolism, hurting efforts to combat obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and the other diseases that are most likely to kill us' Herman Pontzer's ground-breaking research has revealed how, contrary to received wisdom, exercise does not increase our metabolism. Instead, we burn calories within a very narrow range: nearly 3,000 calories per day, no matter our activity level. In this book, he draws on twenty years of cutting-edge science to take a closer look at what happens to the energy we consume. Burn explores the ways in which metabolism controls every aspect of our health - from fertility to immune function - and reveals the truth about the dynamic system that sustains us. Filled with facts and memorable anecdotes, this book will change the way you think about food, exercise and what really matters for your health.

A groundbreaking tour of the overlooked science of human diversity

Real diversity isn’t skin deep. Over the past 100,000 years, as humans expanded into every biome on the planet, our bodies and our cultures have been fine-tuned to our local environments. Our ability to adapt is at the heart of being human and the engine of our diversity.

As an evolutionary anthropologist working with human populations around the globe, Herman Pontzer has conducted research that reveals the wonder of our biological diversity, documenting the connections between lifestyle, landscape, local adaptations and health. In this book, he takes us on a tour of the human body and the surprising ways in which it survives in an uncertain world: from the Andean groups who have developed increased lung capacity to the Sama divers who have larger spleens.

With so much variation that can be handed down genetically, for better or worse, the way we understand our biology and its interplay with our cultural environments holds huge importance for how we understand our world and one another, including the biggest questions of our day, such as the health impact of social inequality. Eye-opening and profound, Adaptable is a revolutionary reappraisal of an overlooked science.