Eric Roberts argues that high-intensity, long-duration workouts aren't necessarily best for weight loss because the body compensates by reducing activity elsewhere, reclaiming 200-300 calories of the workout's burn. The real factor is your overall energy budget, not just calories burned during exercise.
If I asked you, what is the best exercise for weight loss? You'd probably say whatever burns the most calories. Because if you burn more, you'll lose more, right? Not exactly, because your body has a budget. Imagine you get a daily paycheck of energy. Your body divides that paycheck across everything— breathing, digesting food, fidgeting, walking around. When you go crush a 60-minute high-intensity class or run, you just cashed a huge chunk of that paycheck at once. Your body has to cut spending everywhere else. This means you sit more, move less. Your body burns less calories. So that 500-calorie workout you did, your body might claw back 200 to 300 calories, like reducing your movement and your calorie burn the rest of the day.
