The problem of weight from roots and how to intensify efforts for proactive weight loss
There are many people involved in various weight loss efforts these days.
Indeed, in some parts of the world, it has become the 'default status' - so that you expect anyone you meet to be either enrolled on some diet (and probably struggling to stay on it) or to be using one or another weight loss supplement.
It is not hard to understand the trend when we explore the roots of the weight problem.
The main root cause of the weight loss problem is the fact that our bodies have not evolved in tandem with our recent developments.
The recent past (especially the last two centuries, which is a very short period of time in evolutionary terms) has seen the mechanization of most human tasks.
The average human being today works more with their mind than with their body.
This was hardly the situation a couple of centuries ago when pretty much everyone had to work with their hands to get enough to eat.
Yet it is not just about work, but also other tasks: such as mobility, cleaning, cooking, and pretty much everything else have been mechanized - so that the modern human being has very little to do with his or her (physical) body. People still work, of course, but they mostly do so in the sitting position, which doesn't count as 'work' in physical terms.
Our bodies, of course, weren't designed for this type of life. They were designed for an active lifestyle of hunting and gathering. 'They don't seem to have realized that times have changed.' They still expect us to be out running for prey (or from predators); not knowing that we left the bush so long ago.
In the meantime, another trend has been taking shape, where due to our technological advancement, we are able to produce a lot of food for ourselves.
Unfortunately, our bodies, thanks to their failure to keep in tandem with the changing times, are still inclined to wolf as much of the food as they come across. This is typical bush behavior. You can never be very sure, in the bush, of where the next meal you get will come from.
So you eat as much as you can when you chance upon any food. It is that genetic programming, rather than moral weakness, that is behind overeating which is behind most cases of weight problems.
The body, still unaware of the developments that have taken place, will not only motivate you to eat as much of the food you chance upon as possible but will also try to process as much of it as possible into a storable 'format' (the fat format)and keep it inside to serve as a reserve.
It doesn't realize that the need for such reserves is largely not there nowadays. These reserves keep on accumulating (as you are motivated to eat more, and as you don't get to exercise due to the sedentary lifestyle)...and the end result is a weight problem.
This then leads to the need for a proactive effort to weight loss: understanding our bodies, and the fact that they are still an evolutionarily backward step.
It means resisting the body's urge for you to eat more, because you know that would be maladaptive in today's society when you are very sure where the next meal will be coming from, and where you are very sure that will be back at it (eating) just a few hours down the line.
It also means resisting the body's urge for you to eat more, keeping in mind that you most probably won't have enough time to exercise so as to burn up All food - as would have happened in the fishing collection scenario... It also means taking time to exercise as much as you can, so as to burn the food reserves (in form of fat) that the body inevitably keeps on your behalf. In other words, it means you have to take proactive steps toward weight loss.
Comments
Post a Comment