Exercise and other Metabolic factors play a very minor role  That... was unexpected. I would think that exercising burns calories (albeit a few) and that the long term effect of exercise is in increase in metabolism (for example, I've heard it said that increasing muscle mass increases your basal metabolic rate). So your comment is interesting, where did you hear that? I'm not trying to discount you, I'm just trying to learn. Edit: my ignorance rests on not realizing the number of calories exercise burns. I never really had to look it up, so I didn't know.