--- title: Here's Proof That People Are Wired To Be As Lazy As Possible description: Trying to lose weight? Your nervous system is working against you by minimizing your calorie burn, finds a new study about walking canonical: https://time.com/4027942/lazy-walking-exercise/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-10T16:00:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:57.093Z article:section: Health og:title: Here's Proof That People Are Wired To Be As Lazy As Possible og:description: Trying to lose weight? Your nervous system is working against you by minimizing your calorie burn, finds a new study about walking og:url: https://time.com/4027942/lazy-walking-exercise/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd5f0706c2d05230/69877a0606f2c1c7bb333670/lazy-inactivity-exercise.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Lazy Inactive Exercise og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Proof That People Are Wired To Be As Lazy As Possible twitter:description: Trying to lose weight? Your nervous system is working against you by minimizing your calorie burn, finds a new study about walking twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd5f0706c2d05230/69877a0606f2c1c7bb333670/lazy-inactivity-exercise.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Proof That You Are Wired To Be Lazy > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: The Truth About Fat [Watch (HLS stream): The Truth About Fat](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/uYGhfNfS.m3u8) (5:15)  _Published 2014-06-12. When you want to lose weight or get healthy, what is the first thing you would normally cut from your diet? If you said fat, you're not alone_  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Sep 10, 2015 4:00 PM UTC  Mid adult man sitting on sofa using computer game control Mid adult man sitting on sofa using computer game controlGetty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Sep 10, 2015 4:00 PM UTC When you have one free evening and two competing impulses—to work out and to binge watch—which do you usually follow? You’ll be relieved to hear that choosing the couch is only human. Humans are inherently lazy, which may be a trait left over from our ancestors’ days of conserving energy for the next hunt. Unfortunately, a small new [study](http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2815%2900958-6) published in the journal _Current Biology_ finds that even when we do choose to move, our bodies naturally do it in the most economical way possible—which is bad news for anyone trying to lose weight. Science has already proven that our bodies naturally choose the most efficient way to walk, at a speed and step length that limits the number of calories we expend. What’s not known is whether the nervous system—responsible for movements like walking—continuously optimizes movement, in real time, to use the least amount of energy possible. “If your nervous system is working against you you’re trying to keep your calories burned as low as possible,” says study co-author Max Donelan, professor of biomedical physiology and kinesiology at Simon Fraser University in Canada. “And that’s indeed what we found.” **MORE**: [Sitting Is Killing You](http://time.com/sitting/) In the new research, the researchers outfitted nine people in a sort of motorized leg brace designed to disrupt the normal way people walk by adding resistance to their knee joints. The people in the study then walked on a treadmill while the researchers measured how their gait adapted to the device. In just minutes, they found that people changed the way that they walked in a way that conserved the most calories—even very small amounts. “The nervous system is capable of doing this energy optimization and does it below the level of your conscious awareness to such a fine degree,” says Donelan. “This is the first real strong evidence that the nervous system even has the ability to do that.” Though they only studied walking, the researchers think that the nervous system’s tendency to hoard calories applies to many movements. “This is good news if you’re an athlete,” Donelan says. “You’d like your body to be helping you move as cheaply as possible if you’re trying to win a race so you have as many energy reserves as you possibly can.” But if you’re exercising to sweat off calories, it’s not great news, he says. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4027942/lazy-walking-exercise/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4027942/lazy-walking-exercise/"},"headline":"Here's Proof That You Are Wired To Be Lazy","datePublished":"2015-09-10T16:00:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:04:57.093Z","description":"Trying to lose weight? 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