″ [1] Somewhat to my own shame, I must admit to ignoring my own observations in this department—even after I saw no discernible effect on my weight or my musculature from aerobic exercise and strength training 2 hours a day 3 times a week, I didn’t really start believing that the virtue theory of metabolism was wrong [2] until after other people had started the skeptical dogpile.”
I am extremely skeptical of this portion, it would imply that Eliezer’s body functions differently then literally every other person (myself included) I have ever known to make a serious attempt at working out.. 2 Hours 3 times a week? How long did you try this?
The fact that people respond to exercise differently to weight training and exercise non uniformly depending on their genetics and other factors is no big surprise. But showing no gains at all is something altogether.
I can think of several questions I would ask about the study you linked. For example: “In the combined strength-and-endurance-exercise program, the volunteers’ physiological improvement ranged from a negative 8 percent (meaning they became 8 percent less fit) ” implies to me that the researchers didn’t control for a host of other factors.
Anecdotes ARE data. Especially a life time of several of them all accumulating in one way.