Trial reportPloS one2012
Hunter-gatherer energetics and human obesity.
Trial report in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 125 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
125 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 352 citations in OpenAlex.
- Combined diet and physical activity effects on health-related outcomes in people with overweight or obesity: an overview of systematic reviews.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Dietary Transitions and Health Outcomes in Four Populations - Systematic Review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Pooled it
- Total energy expenditure in adults aged 65 years and over measured using doubly-labelled water: international data availability and opportunities for data sharing.Nutrition journal · 2018Pooled it
- Primate energy input and the evolutionary transition to energy-dense diets in humans.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Pooled it
- The Comparison of the Effects between Continuous and Intermittent Energy Restriction in Short-Term Bodyweight Loss for Sedentary Population: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Controlled Trial.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Trial
- Longitudinal and cross-sectional evidence that daily resting and activity energy expenditures are independent in humans.The Journal of physiology · 2026Article
- The Ketogenic Diet in Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity: A Narrative Review of Clinical Evidence.Nutrients · 2026Review
- The associations between resting and total energy expenditure, physical activity, and thyroid hormone levels in adult females.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- From scarcity to ultra-processed foods: a conceptual analysis of how their properties interact with characteristics of food intake regulation mechanism.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Physical activity and cardiometabolic health across an extreme lifestyle gradient.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2026Article
- Why Do Black Women Have a Higher Obesity Prevalence Than White Women in the United States?Demography · 2025Article
- The Endocrinological Basis for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: An Evolutionary Perspective.Endocrinology · 2025Review
- Why did Bob stop losing weight? We need to talk about energy expenditure compensation.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Neandertal Cold Adaptation: Technological, Anatomical, and Physiological Responses to Cold Stress in One of Our Closest Fossil Relatives.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Physical Activity and Irritable Bowel Syndrome: The Role of Evolutionary Mismatch in Chronic Disease Risk.American journal of biological anthropology · 2025Article
- Energy expenditure and obesity across the economic spectrum.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Muscle forces and the demands of turning while walking.Biology open · 2025Article
- Resting metabolic rate and energy efficiency in response to an intensive 84-day combat-swimmer training in the German Armed Forces.European journal of applied physiology · 2025Article
- Definition and diagnostic criteria of clinical obesity.The lancet. Diabetes & endocrinology · 2025Review
- Energetic Value of Women's Work: Assessing Maternal Energetic Costs From Acorn Foraging.American journal of biological anthropology · 2025Article
65 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Western lifestyles differ markedly from those of our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and these differences in diet and activity level are often implicated in the global obesity pandemic. However, few physiological data for hunter-gatherer populations are available to test these models of obesity. In this study, we used the doubly-labeled water method to measure total daily energy expenditure (kCal/day) in Hadza hunter-gatherers to test whether foragers expend more energy each day than their Western counterparts. As expected, physical activity level, PAL, was greater among Hadza foragers than among Westerners. Nonetheless, average daily energy expenditure of traditional Hadza foragers was no different than that of Westerners after controlling for body size. The metabolic cost of walking (kcal kg(-1) m(-1)) and resting (kcal kg(-1) s(-1)) were also similar among Hadza and Western groups. The similarity in metabolic rates across a broad range of cultures challenges current models of obesity suggesting that Western lifestyles lead to decreased energy expenditure. We hypothesize that human daily energy expenditure may be an evolved physiological trait largely independent of cultural differences.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.