Diet and Exercise Evolution: Adaptation (part I) -- Theory

Written by David McCormick


Adaptation isrepparttar most important weight loss concept you can learn. The human body adapts torepparttar 138174 pressures it is put under withrepparttar 138175 goal of prolonging life. Your body wants to survive as long as possible, and it will adjust its internal workings quickly if it is presented with changes. So, everything that happens to you - especially things that happen regularly, like eating habits, sleep cycles and general activity - will have two effects on your body. 1) An immediate effect inrepparttar 138176 short term, then 2) forrepparttar 138177 long term, your body will adapt to it to better performrepparttar 138178 next time. It is this adaptation that most people forget about.

Mind-Body Split Your mind perceives changes to your environment through your eyes and other senses, that's how you understandrepparttar 138179 world around you. But your organs and cells can only perceive changes inrepparttar 138180 demands made on them andrepparttar 138181 kinds of nutrients they get in your blood. Whetherrepparttar 138182 stimulus comes fromrepparttar 138183 world (a virus enters your body) or from you (you decide to takerepparttar 138184 stairs instead ofrepparttar 138185 elevator),repparttar 138186 cells in your body will react so thatrepparttar 138187 next time that event happens,repparttar 138188 cells can handlerepparttar 138189 situation better. Inrepparttar 138190 case ofrepparttar 138191 virus, your body creates antibodies. Inrepparttar 138192 case of takingrepparttar 138193 stairs, your body upsrepparttar 138194 endurance of your leg muscles.

Your thoughts have little effect on what happens in your body atrepparttar 138195 level of your organs, and even less atrepparttar 138196 level of your cells. You are always in mental control of your muscles except for built-in reactions, and you can consciously take control of your breathing. However, none of your other systems can be consciously controlled. That's why you can't will yourself thin. So, never mistake by doing something that you "intend" to lose weight, but instead think of how your body will adapt to your performingrepparttar 138197 action.

The Factory You can think of your body as a factory: The boss (your brain) can see whererepparttar 138198 finished product is going, and how much profit to make. Butrepparttar 138199 workers can't see allrepparttar 138200 accounting papers orrepparttar 138201 costs of materials or evenrepparttar 138202 customers. The workers (your cells) only see that they're being asked to work on a certain task, at a certain rate of pay, for a certain number of hours, and so on. That's what makes a difference to them. The factors that directly affect them and their job arerepparttar 138203 only things that will affect how they do their job.

Ifrepparttar 138204 boss of this company needs more production or more profits, he can't just tellrepparttar 138205 workers to work harder. That never works! He could raise their pay, or give them more breaks, or just put some music overrepparttar 138206 intercom. There are many ways to communicate to your workers, but you have to sendrepparttar 138207 message that hasrepparttar 138208 right effect. What about givingrepparttar 138209 workers fewer breaks so that they'll have a better output? They're not wasting time, after all! But we all know that workers need breaks or else they slow down, get tired, get angry, and maybe quit fromrepparttar 138210 stress. The same applies to lowering wages. The bad boss thinks that he can make more money if he pays his workers less. Asrepparttar 138211 boss ofrepparttar 138212 cells in your body, you shouldn't just eat less, because that's like loweringrepparttar 138213 salary of your working cells. You have to get your cells to adapt inrepparttar 138214 direction you want, andrepparttar 138215 tactics to do that may not be obvious. You have to dorepparttar 138216 cellular equivalent of improving morale and increasing worker satisfaction.

Diet and Exercise Evolution: Adaptation (part II) -- Examples and Practical Advice

Written by David McCormick


Understandingrepparttar theory of adaptation (see previous article, Adaptation I) will give yourepparttar 138173 tools to evaluate your diet and daily routine. If you have any question about whether something is good for you, always examine bothrepparttar 138174 immediate effects andrepparttar 138175 adaptation effects equally. This article will look at various examples of adaptation and practical advice based on this important theory.

Walking Is walking for a long time a good way of losing weight? Look at it this way:repparttar 138176 direct effect is that calories are burnt over that period, and you will by using your fat stores for fuel because it is aerobic exercise. So that's a positive: you're burning calories, and as long as you don't eat too much food, you're losing weight. But what will berepparttar 138177 adaptation? You're telling your body that you will need to walk for a long amount of time to find food. So, how will your body adapt to make you a better walker? Expending energy faster? Burning fat easily? NO WAY. If you need to walk throughrepparttar 138178 savanna for a long time, you want your body to conserve as much energy (fat) as possible and retain as much water as possible. This isrepparttar 138179 opposite of your goal, you will not lose weight inrepparttar 138180 long-term, so it is not an optimal solution.

Sprinting

What about high-intensity exercise? The immediate effect is to burn calories in your blood, but there isn't enough time to start burning fat. Your muscles may burn with lactic acid, and you can't keep it up for very long. That isn't too good, because you won't burn as many calories as you did walking. But isrepparttar 138181 adaptation going inrepparttar 138182 correct direction? Your body will try to make you a better runner by making calories available to you at a moment's notice to fuel your run (burning fat faster), and will try to get rid ofrepparttar 138183 fat that is slowing you down. This is a great adaptation.

The best advice regarding exercise for weight loss in accordance with adaptation is this: warm up by doing a fast walk for 10-15 minutes, so that your body goes into a fat-burning mode. Then, turn uprepparttar 138184 intensity as high as you can and speed throughrepparttar 138185 next 10-15 minutes. This can be running, climbing stairs, bicycling or whatever activity you like. I recommend a stationary bike becauserepparttar 138186 risk of falling or hurting your joints is minimized. If you do this before breakfast, you're also training your body to use stored energy (fat) instead of energy from food in your stomach.

If You Could Be an Animal...

If your physique could resemble an animal's, which animal would you choose? Try to ignore symbolism, and just pick an animal whose body composition you'd like to approach. Many men would choose a lion and many women would choose a gazelle. These animals have adapted to getrepparttar 138187 bodies they have, and their adaptation, like yours, is based on how they behave day to day. So how do these animals behave? We can't compare their diets, because a gazelle is a herbivore, a lion is a carnivore, and humans are omnivores. However, we can look at their exercise needs.

A lion, to get food, has to sprint for up to 5 minutes until it grabs its prey, which is usually pretty big. When it does, it wrestles with it for up to 10 minutes, flexing all its muscles and changing positions, putting all its force againstrepparttar 138188 other animal that is resisting with all its might. This builds muscular strength and size and eliminates body fat.

A gazelle spends a lot of time eating, but each mouthful is tiny. It takes a long time to eat, and never gorges. Whenrepparttar 138189 grass all around it is bare, it bounces off to another place to find food or water. The gazelle is highly alert because it is vulnerable to attack, and often twitches or fidgets to make sure it can escape quickly. When it is attacked, it runs (bounces) incredibly fast for up to 20 minutes until it is safely out of danger. This activity makes it long and slender as an adaptation to its environment.

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