The headphones are too small. For "best results" nothing about the headphones should ever touch any part of your ear. The soft foam padding should surround your ear making a seal with your skull. The 'clamping force' may also be too tight if you get headaches. The desired clamping force should enough to keep everything in-place if you briskly turn your head side-to-side but loose enough to dislodge if you try to turn your head quickly.

Without a real metric/measurement I'd compare it to the 'normal' speed you turn your head to do a should-check-before-turning on a calm sunday drive, vs the 'Quickly twist and look if the monster is still chasing me' shoulder-check.

After 5 seconds you should be able to 'feel' the headphones at all. They should stop existing and you are left with the sweet blissful embrace of your favorite music.

I own two larger pairs of headphones. I haven't had issues with clamping force. I agree with the sentiment they shouldn't rest on your ears. The largest pair I can go 10 hours with no complaints

Yeah, in the modern era, I can't understand how on-ear headphones made it out of the lab. Walkman days: sure. Today? DIWhy?

I used to have this issue with a lot of headphones, and then I tried Sony's noise canceling (the WH-1000XM3) and they are massively more comfortable. I feel like an ad but I just wanted to share since I was surprised by how much more comfy they were.

It's stupid how comfortable and how good the NC are on the XM3. I traded my XM2 with friends XM3 on a long flight to try them out for about an hour. The difference was night and day. I almost bought a pair myself when we landed.

Simple problem, simple solution - buy headphones with bigger earcups. Larger headphones like the AKG K701, the Sennheiser HD650 and the Beyerdynamic DT880 are extraordinarily comfortable, even for all-day wear.