Don't Live to Eat but Eat to Live
The title sounds easy right? Eat to live, don’t live to eat. Simple enough. So why do I go to the park and half of the people I see are overweight or severely obese? Why are their kids fat? Why do my coworkers have fat rolls that hang off the back of their chairs? It’s a question I have asked myself over and over again. There have been many theories as to why people are fatter today than they were 100 years ago. Now you can choose to believe the BS about good calories and bad calories or that we are fatter because we don’t eat like our ancestors.
You can also choose to believe that calories don’t matter and we are fat because of the processed junk food we consume so much of. By taking a look at fat people, we can make the most probable assumption that they consume more calories than they expend. So, if you are in tune with what happens when energy intake is greater than expenditure, you know the excess energy is stored as body fat or contributes to LBM gain under certain situations.
Why is this important? A long time ago when we had to chase down our food and stab it with a sharp object, storing fat was essential for survival as it could be days or weeks before we might feast again. So after I expended all of that energy hunting down the kangaroo, you can bet your sweet loin cloth I am going to sit and stuff myself for the next few days. Now some of that ingested energy went to preserving lean body mass but a lot of the excess was shuttled right into my fat cells. Thankfully we have the ability to store fat, otherwise I wouldn’t be here today writing this article.
So here is what I have noticed. While it’s not revolutionary, it’s not something we think about much.
We are Emotional Eaters
Many of us are emotional eaters. We sometimes eat to relieve stress and find comfort in eating certain foods. While I have not looked at statistics, I am willing to bet those of us at high stress jobs are more likely to be overweight than those in less
You can also choose to believe that calories don’t matter and we are fat because of the processed junk food we consume so much of. By taking a look at fat people, we can make the most probable assumption that they consume more calories than they expend. So, if you are in tune with what happens when energy intake is greater than expenditure, you know the excess energy is stored as body fat or contributes to LBM gain under certain situations.
Why is this important? A long time ago when we had to chase down our food and stab it with a sharp object, storing fat was essential for survival as it could be days or weeks before we might feast again. So after I expended all of that energy hunting down the kangaroo, you can bet your sweet loin cloth I am going to sit and stuff myself for the next few days. Now some of that ingested energy went to preserving lean body mass but a lot of the excess was shuttled right into my fat cells. Thankfully we have the ability to store fat, otherwise I wouldn’t be here today writing this article.
So here is what I have noticed. While it’s not revolutionary, it’s not something we think about much.
We are Emotional Eaters
Many of us are emotional eaters. We sometimes eat to relieve stress and find comfort in eating certain foods. While I have not looked at statistics, I am willing to bet those of us at high stress jobs are more likely to be overweight than those in less