When we set out on a task voluntarily, whichever the objective might be, we naturally want to do it in the most efficient way possible, and this is going to depend on the knowledge we have on the subject and the tools we know as effective and productive.
Science has been based in history and observation in its majority to generate the results of understanding we have today of the millions of interconnected systems not only of in Earth but the Universe, and this methodology applies more than we can imagine to everything we do in life.
Let’s consider for a moment who are and where we come from to give a bit of context to our capacity and conditioning as a species.
Human Nature
In the last decades a disconnection seems to have been created between the daily routine and the natural human functioning, it has even become a mockery in popular culture where our sedentarism is illustrated through time to our current state.
This reality should be seen for the impact it has in our performance as a species, inexorably dependent of the environment. Referring to our history as humans, I want to bring up just a couple of the most important elements that molded us to what we still are at a biological level.
During this prehistorical time the behavior and lifestyle was basically the same, and our recent change of environment doesn’t even reach a second in the evolutionary clock, this means that the mechanics to which we adapted physically are still the same of our ancestors of more than 100,000 years ago.
The agricultural revolution started to change our activity approximately 10.000 years ago, but not as much as we might think. The real revolution to change our levels of physical activities is more recent and dates to about 200 years ago with the industry.
Without delving into all the changes that this radical modification generated in our society, we can agree that it lowered the physical activity we were used to as the complex organism we are.
I can’t leave out that this has been a blessing in myriad aspects for society, freeing human labor for more creativity and an explosion in science and technology, but I digress.
The interesting piece in perspective is that even today, with the aid of machinery, a worker in the agricultural sector could have an activity level that doubles that of a lean and “active” person in our society. I want to repeat this in other words:
A field worker has a physical activity that may double some of ours that maintain a relatively lean and muscled physique.
The biggest problem? Our sedentarism. In some societies like the one I live in, where the weather can be uncomfortable, you drive everywhere and walk nowhere.
This in conjunction with a tendency to sit or lay down the rest of the day, is a terrible concoction for the appropriate functioning of the body.
Physical capacity
Perhaps the most amazing thing to discern with this window to the past is of what the human body is capable of.
Evidently our body didn’t evolve to have a constant calorie balance through regular meals and rest more than 70% of the time on a chair or bed, any group that adopted these behaviors would have possibly ended extinct in a few years given the difficulties to obtain food.
The reality is that our body has adapted to be much less predictable in terms of calorie expenditure and considerably more active, it was a matter of life or death.
Our incessant movement was in fact a special factor, coupled with a sense of curiosity to explore, to populate the whole Earth way before the advent of agriculture.
The body evolved to move: walk, jump, run, climb, carry materials, packages and tools over long distances among many other activities not only to survive as an individual but as a community or group.
Have you ever been sitting at the computer for hours, and when you get up you feel tired? Or been all day laying in bed or the couch and you feel exhausted? It’s a backwards idea right? Simplifying the reason, it’s your body suffering from a position that it didn’t evolve to be at for long periods of time.
Now, I’m not saying we should all get up now and go craft a spear and go running with it, my point is to show what the body has been designed to do on a common day and put it in direct contrast with our current daily activities.
While procuring food is not the task it used to be in the past, our body doesn’t know it and continues to need that movement at which it adapted to, the physical impulse of our ancestors.
In our current society there are actually several groups of people that undergo serious physical demands, in the orders of 10,000 to 20,000 calories in a day. From athletes to firefighters there is a host of examples of what the body is capable of, hence why their conditioning has to be so attuned with the natural state of a human body.
Fortunately, not only do we have artificial methods to simulate this so needed activity in a controlled, safe and efficient manner, but we also have the science that helps us understand which is the most effective way to optimize those stimuli in favor of our health and well-being.
A funny distorted notion is to think that physical exercise can help us be healthier, when in reality all is doing is reconnecting us with the proper functioning of our body, and as a result makes us more resilient and less vulnerable to disease. Think of it as a way to normalize our capacity as humans.
Nutrition
A recent epidemic, especially in the past couple of decades, is the increase in obesity. I know this sounds like a broken record at this point (and I know I’m dating myself here, plus I leave it to the new generation to figure out what that meant), but how we got to this point is relevant and can’t be ignored.
In the harsh conditions that our ancestors lived, food availability wasn’t constant, and there were periods of time when abundance allowed us to overconsume, our energy storage mechanism was fine tuned to not waste much of it, it was our reserve tank to which we would probably have to resort to in the days to come as scarcity approached.
This availability and scarcity of food possibly maintained us in a general state of bodyweight homeostasis. Clearly the modern abundance has deformed this balance and caused that the constant intake of food maintains our storage system activated.
Couple this with the abundance of refined foods that activate our reward system in the brain, in complicity with their low cost and practical affordable aspect, has made them a part in the excessive consumption to our real needs.
We basically eat for pleasure and not for necessity, and once again the industry benefits from this weakness to provide us with more of what satisfies us.
The hedonic behavior towards food is part of our culture more than ever, where processed foods dominate our diets, cooking has become an undesired chore for the common people, at best we let other people cook for us, and in the worse case we let the industry do it.
Turns out that these third parties seek to sell what is more palatable and not the most nourishing nor balanced meals.
With time and research, we’ve learned that foods high in fats and refined carbohydrates (of fast digestion) are the ones that provide more taste, often creating an addiction reaction to said foods.
It makes sense, they are perhaps the culinary compounds with the highest calorie density, our brain doesn’t know that there’s a supermarket full of food and of easy access to us, it’s still programmed as if we were still in the jungle or in the desolate lands of the north or the desert, and any abundance of high energetic value is welcomed because a scarcity is always a threat.
Thus, the industry provides us with a wide array of packages rich in calories, and our brain doesn’t know that we have upgraded to a species in total control of our environment, it’s a subconscious activity.
Now add in the fact that we are social creatures, whose tendency is to share with food and drink both special and trivial moments, and we have a situation of unnecessary high and constant consumption for our bodies.
Obesity is a more complex topic that I can give myself credit of understanding, and it would really be cynical to say that these are the only reasons why there is so much of it.
Certainly, they are some of the main elements that we know are involved in promoting it, but some of the intricate mechanisms are still being studied and researched. However, we know that at a fundamental level it’s the result of an imbalance in energy balance over long periods of time, and it’s a good indication to start working on individual solutions.
Taking action
Physical activity as formal exercise is an excellent way to attune the body to a better functioning, but not at all the only way to increase our lost capacity. In fact, for some people it may not be feasible to program training sessions for several reasons, the best idea is to find any type of activity they like and enjoy doing.
As I mentioned earlier, walking has become to a lot of people something avoidable at any cost, reintroducing this basic movement daily whenever possible is of great help, not only as a planned exercise but as a mentality in general.
When possible, it’s better to go on foot than driving, park far from the store you are going to (and you also reduce the chances of some idiot scratching your car), instead of having a meeting with someone for a conversation, invite them for a walk if it’s plausible, be creative. Surely there is some other activity you can enjoy doing, find it and make an effort to habituate to it.
On the other side, the foundation of a diet is in the simplicity of yesteryear. Today there is much more variety that diverts us from the basics, to find the tasty and palatable.
Remember grandma, and how she used to tell you to eat your veggies? Well it turns out she was wiser than you thought. It’s not a sexy idea, but the essentials are still in consuming whole foods, like our ancestors, at least for 80% of our meals.
There’s a good advice I heard some time ago, when going grocery shopping to a supermarket: stay in the periphery of the store and away from the aisles. Next time you go do it and you’ll see what I mean 😉
Finally, consider giving a chance to weightlifting training, it’s perhaps the most efficient way to change your body composition, which is invaluable for your health. Losing weight without a doubt improves your health, but if you lose muscle by not implementing resistance training routine, the results may not be that great. For that I hope this website can help you become always a better you.
Thanks for reading, questions are always welcomed in the comments.
One last thing, if you enjoyed this article and it was beneficial to you, consider sharing it with the links below.