Work With Your "Caveman" to Control Your Weight

The human body is an amazing thing,  It is equipped with a system to keep us alive in primitive times.  In our high-tech world sometimes this design works against us.  Back when we were living in caves it was literally feast or famine.  When there was food, there was usually a lot of it.  It didn't keep well so we ate it when we had it.  What the body could use was converted into energy.  What the body couldn't use was eliminated as waste, and what the body could possibly use later was stored as fat.  This fat also helped to keep us warm in a cold and damp cave.

When there wasn't any food (and that could be awhile) our bodies converted the stored fat into energy to keep us alive.  When our primitive ancestors went hungry for short periods of time (long periods did them in) their bodies went into starvation mode. This held onto every calorie for as long as possible and kept them alive until the next meal.

Now fast forward to modern times.  Our bodies still work the same way as our caveman ascestors, but our circumstances are very different.  When we overeat, our bodies still use what they need for energy and stores the rest as fat.  The problem is we rarely have to convert that stored fat to energy.  When was the last time you skipped a meal because you didn't have access to any food? Compare that to the number of times you have overeaten and you can figure out why we are always struggling with our weight.

So now you decide, "hey I need to lose some weight".  So you cut down on your calories. The trouble is, our primitive bodies read this as, "uh oh we're starving", and hold onto every calorie.  So you might as well just give up and eat more ice cream, right?  No. The secret is that it's all a numbers game.   Meet me back here in a few days and I'll show you in my next post how to use your BMR, your activity level and your calorie intake to work with the caveman instead of against him!