hyun_seoul said:

Pet owner bonus of training: my dog is also losing weight because we're walking 2-3x more than before.

This is exactly what I could not find anywhere else. Printing the relevant bit and taking it with me.

From the other side of the consultation, briefly. It helps to say which part of this you are uncertain about. A precise question gets a precise answer; a general one gets everybody’s favourite anecdote.

sarah_TO said:

If two explanations both fit, the useful question is which one predicts something the other does not.

I read this differently. The confidence in this thread is running ahead of the evidence, and I would rather the uncertainty were stated than smoothed over because it is unsatisfying.

One concrete data point for the thread. The boring version of this is the one that works, and the boring version is: measure a baseline, change one variable, wait, measure again under the same conditions. Nobody wants that answer and it is still the answer.

Moderator note: good thread. Keeping it here rather than moving it, because the question is general enough to be useful.