Are we doomed by our genetics to gain fat? Is your inner
caveman causing your waistline to expand? What can we do
to work with our ancestry and not against it?
It is important to know why we get fat. Once you know the
underlying reasons behind fat gain, you can take that
information and apply it to fat loss. Knowing why something
happens is the first step towards changing the result.
The one major reason we get fat is that we put in more than
we burn off. This may be an overly simplistic view but it's
also a very liberating one. It shows you that if fat gain
is not that complicated, fat loss is not necessarily that
complicated either.
But what are the origins of our body's amazingly efficient
fat storage mechanisms? In a nutshell, why do we gain fat
so easily?
Your Inner Caveman
Our earliest ancestors did not go to the supermarket to hunt
for food. They didn't point at a cave drawing with a Big
Mac on it when they were hungry. They did not sit at a desk
all day. They didn't drive everywhere they went. In fact,
fast food had to be chased down before it outran you!
The daily life of the earliest humans, whom we owe our
genetics to, was consumed with getting enough food to
survive. In order to eat, they had to either hunt it or
gather it. As you can imagine, this burned a lot of calories.
With the start of agriculture, people no longer had to hunt
down or forage for their food. They could stay in one place
and grow it. Animals were domesticated. They could sell this
produced food to others in return for other goods or
services. This is known as the Agricultural Revolution and
it was the start of our society as we know it.
Agriculture became the primary means of food production in
the world. The story changes during the 1900's, however. As
we progressed as a society, manual labor was no longer
required of most people. Machines were starting to take over
more of the hard labor jobs. This led to less and less
physical activity by a growing number of people. It was the
start of the modern obesity epidemic.
To sum it up: these days food is plentiful and easy to get
and physical activity is no longer a part of daily life.
Thank Your Ancestors
The human body of 50,000 years ago when we were hunter/gatherers is exactly the same as the human body of today. Our
body had successfully adapted to continuous cycles of feast
and famine. How did it adapt? It adapted by developing
extremely efficient fat storage capabilities.
By storing large amounts of fat whenever possible, the body
would protect itself against the inevitable famine to come
when food was scarce. By storing up large amounts of energy,
our ancestors could survive the harsh conditions and thrive.
In winter conditions, it would often come down to survival
of the fattest, not fittest.
Our bodies are still programmed with this desperate need for
storage even though, due to highly available food supplies,
we don't really need it anymore. This is the reason you can
often put on fat quite easily but have a hard time taking it
off. Your body is protecting itself against the famine that
it thinks is coming.
Compound this need for storage with reduced physical
activity and readily available, calorie-dense foods and you
have the recipe that has resulted in rampant obesity in our
society today.
Diet = Famine
If you've ever been on a diet you've probably experienced
that quick weight loss when you first start then the gradual
slowdown and sometimes complete stop in progress that comes
after a few weeks.
You can thank your ancestors for this one too. When you
dramatically reduce your calories, such as when you begin
a diet, your body starts using up the stored fat quickly.
Your metabolism is still high and you are losing weight.
The trouble is, your body can't distinguish between the lack
of available food known as famine and the voluntary reduction
in food known as dieting. To your body "diet = famine." After
a short period of time, your body will go into a panic state.
You are losing your energy stores too fast and your body will
do everything it can to slow down or put a stop to it.
- The first thing that will happen is that your metabolism
will slow down. You won't burn as many calories during the
day, regardless of how much you are eating or exercising.
- The next thing that will happen is that your body will
step up its burning of muscle tissue. Muscles are very
metabolically active and require a lot of calories to
maintain. Your body knows this and, in its effort to
reduce the drain on its energy supplies, will start
destroying muscle tissue. Your body will metabolize your
muscle into energy in order to hold onto its fat stores.
This vicious cycle will continue every time you further
reduce calories in order to compensate for a slower
metabolism. Your body will slow your metabolism down even
more and destroy more muscle tissue to reduce energy usage.
How do we avoid this problem?
There Are A Number Of Ways To Approach It:
- Reduce your calories slowly. If you are trying to lose
fat, don't slash your food intake rapidly. This will throw
your body into a panic, causing it to grind your metabolism
to a halt.
- Mix up your caloric intake. Don't eat the same things
in the same amounts every day. Eat a little more on some
days and a little less on other days. It's what you do in
the long term that will really affect your results.
- Exercise. Since most people don't actually have to
exercise as part of their daily life, you must take the
initiative and make it a point to exercise regularly. It
helps by burning calories and giving your body the stimulus
to preserve muscle mass (it's the old principle of "use it
or lose it" at work).
- Reduce your intake of processed foods. Your body is not
readily equipped to efficiently process Twinkies. Try to
stick to foods that are closer to their natural state, such
as whole grains, lean meats, etc.
Remember, your body is an extremely efficient fat-storing
machine but, with the right knowledge, you can very easily
work with your biology and not against it and get the results
you want.
BetterU@fitstep.com
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