Mind Blown - A Brief History Of Obesity!
posted on: July 15, 2017. posted in: Weight loss, Nutrition
Once upon a time there were our hunter gatherer ancestors.
They died a lot.
Usually of STARVATION.
The ones who survived?
The ones who were really good at storing excess fat, which could be used as fuel during times of famine.
Every time a famine came along, causing them to EAT LESS to save food and EXERCISE MORE to find food, their brains activated a kind of "famine survival mode" forcing them to binge eat and store all those precious calories as life saving excess fat.
In other words...
The combination of EATING LESS (famine), whilst also MOVING MORE (searching for food), was the signal to the brain that it should elevate appetite and cravings, to increase the starving hunter gatherer's motivation to seek out and binge on life saving, starvation preventing calories.
"Uh oh! We're eating less, but moving more, creating a huge caloric deficit! We need to fill this deficit with precious calories or we'll starve to death! Famine survival mode activated! Time to binge!!"
So when you understand human history, you realise that binge eating is actually a life saving adaptation, and nothing to do with weakness or lack of willpower. And as you probably know already, it was an anti-starvation adaptation that would be permanently wired into our DNA for generations to come.
But then less than 100 years ago something amazing happened. Farming, technology and food processing ensured that famines were thing of the past in the first world, as high calorie, processed foods became cheap and abundant.
People ate more.
People started to get a little bit fatter.
And the early slimming industry was born.
The solution to obesity they were told?
EAT LESS and EXERCISE MORE.
The exact behaviour that triggers our "famine survival mode", that anti-starvation adaptation, which forces us to binge eat and gain more weight and fat over the long term to protect us from starvation.
The Weight Watchers...
The Slimming Worlders...
The SlimFasters...
The LighterLifers...
The Calorie Restrictors..
The Treadmill Pounders...
They all started to behave exactly as though a famine was coming.
EATING LESS and EXERCISING MORE.
Doing hours of activity, with little to no fuel coming in, as though food supplies were scarce and hunting took longer.
And of course, their brains didn't know it was the 20th century. Their brains thought it was time to prepare for famine! So it activated that anti-starvation adaptation designed to make them BINGE!
After a hard day on the diet...
They'd BINGE at night.
After a hard week on the diet...
They'd BINGE on weekends.
After a hard month on the diet...
They'd BINGE on holiday.
And their body locked those binge calories in their fat cells, ensuring that every binge topped up their famine survival supplies.
The truth about obese people?
Years of dieting and binge eating has turned them into highly adapted, famine survival machines! Which means obesity isn't a disease of those who OVER EAT. It is an adaptation triggered in those who repeatedly UNDER EAT.
Aka DIETING!!!
Little did the dieters realise that the very diets they desperately clung onto for weight loss, were the very diets causing them to gain weight.
Diet and binge.... Diet and binge... getting fatter and fatter with every diet/binge cycle they complete.
But they kept on going back to the diets.
WHY?!
Because for a short period of time...
They DO work.
They DO help people lose weight.
They DO make people lighter.
Just as any famine would.
But they aren't just losing fat. They're losing water and muscle, just as you would during famine, because diets are famines and famines starve the body and starvation is the stimulus telling our brain...
"WE NEED TO BINGE AND GAIN FAT!"
________
Rebelfit's message to the yo-yo dieters?
Every diet you do, every low-calorie weight loss plan you try, no matter how good the initial results, is a ticking time bomb, increasing your appetite, cravings, binge eating and ability to store fat longer term.
Diets are famines.
And famines train our bodies to get better at storing fat.
Think about it!
Fat exists to help us survive famines! If there were no famines, there would be no need for excess fat! So the more fat you have, the more your brain thinks you are at risk of starving in a famine... because you diet all the time!
If you want to lose weight and bodyfat, and get leaner?
Stop starving your body.
Start nourishing your body!
Convince your brain there's no famine.
And your brain will convince your body...
There's no need for all that excess fat.
Liam
p.s. Don't forget, if this post made sense to you, and if you finally understand how dieting makes you fatter, please SHARE IT!
