From Nick Nilsson
Author and Publisher of BetterU News
http://www.fitness-ebooks.com

I know generally you're not supposed to laugh at your own jokes
but that line just cracks me up...I get a great visual from it.

And it's also a very instructive visual because it instantly
shows you the ridiculousness of the state of most people's
nutrition these days and just how far we've diverged from eating
natural foods.

It is critically important to know why we get fat. Because once
you know the underlying reasons behind fat gain, you can take
that information and apply it to actually LOSING that fat.
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
and absolutely acheiveable.

So...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 didn't fry up a bison then supersize
it. They did not sit at a desk all day. They didn't drive
everywhere they went.

Fast food meant you had to chase it down before it got away!

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 required as a part of daily life.


Thank Your Ancestors

Genetically, the human body of 20,000 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 (or dry seasons when gathering and wild game
was scarce), it would often come down to survival of the FATTEST,
not the 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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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).

4. Reduce your intake of processed foods. Your body is not
readily equipped to efficiently process Twinkies (those things
could survive a nuclear war). Try to stick to foods that are
closer to their natural state, such as lean meats, fruit,
veggies, etc. If your great-grandma wouldn't recognize it, don't
eat it.

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.

Nick

P.S. If fat loss is a goal of yours, I've got something here you
might be interested in. Vince DelMonte (I have to say, the guy is
a just a product machine) has put together a program along with
his wife-to-be Flavia for getting in shape for their wedding.

It's not a radical fat loss program for advanced trainers, just
fyi. It's more targeted for beginner to intermediate people,
looking to drop weight for a specific event. It's good, basic
info that provides a solid framework for achieving weight loss in
a sensible fashion.

They're offering this program right now for a 62% discount (till
midnight tonight) and donating 50% of the proceeds to the
Canadian Food Bank (great cause). Check it out here:

http://www.fitstep.com/goto/1/wedding-workout.htm

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