Food is primarily meant to provide energy for your body to work. If this is in doubt try not to eat anything for a while and you will feel your energy decrease dramatically.
So why is food converted to fat instead of energy?
The body stores energy in a dense form so you can carry it more easily. If you were back in the caveman’s days, why not just eat a whole cow and store that cow somewhere in your body and use it as needed? Because the cow is too heavy and if you are attacked again, you can’t run away because you are carrying a cow!
Fat is more dense. It contains the same amount of POTENTIAL energy in a smaller space. So that makes it easier to carry around. When you go for periods of failed hunts you have fat to supply energy over time. Especially with all the work you are doing hunting and gathering. It is another way of expressing the extreme efficiency of your body. But the caves are gone and we don’t hunt and gather anymore.
Our hunting and gathering consists of foraging through the fridge and checking to see if the beer is cold enough. It is a slightly different amount of work expended compared to chasing, killing, skinning, carving, preparing, and storing a buffalo.
We are mostly sedentary now. But the problem here is that even when people eat less to match the reduced amount of caloric expenditure they still get fat. That is where it gets frustrating, illogical, hopeless and depressing for you.
IF YOU ARE EATING LESS, WHY ARE YOU STILL FAT?!?! The reason is that your nervous system is getting signals that no energy is needed. When your nervous system gets signals that no energy is needed like in caveman’s days, it will store food as future, condensed energy – fat.
If your nervous system gets the signal that energy is being used up then it will get food and fat and not change it to fat but convert it directly to usable energy that is not stored.
Your energy needs to be quickly available for when you need it. Fat takes a long time to convert to real live energy to be used right now that you can feel. So does food.
So what your body does is it gets food and converts it to a molecule called ATP that carries A LOT of energy that is ready to be released very quickly. These molecules are stored inside the cells and potential energy ready to go very quickly.
When you get a surge of energy, it is these molecules getting broken apart and releasing a lot of energy right away.
What is it that causes the release of energy from ATP inside the cells? WATER. Two twins equal in every way can sit in front of the computer all day spending the same amount of energy, but you can make one twin produce more energy by supplying the cells with enough water to split the ATP molecules and release energy.
When the energy is released, there is an undersupply of ATP molecules in the cells. The body, being very efficient, needs to replenish the ATP molecules in the cells. ATP is created and recreated from the food that is eaten and the fat stored in the body. But that only happens if ATP is needed.
The other twin did not release as much energy. So therefore less ATP is needed to replenish the supply. So if this twin eats the same amount of food as the other twin, lesser portions of the food will be converted to ATP and the rest will be converted to and stored as fat.
By allowing water to go into the cells and stay there long enough to split the ATP energy is released. Subjectively you will feel this as feeling more alert, vital, focused and energetic. Without water in the cells you feel dehydrated – tired, lack of focus and lethargic.
That is the difference between being hydrated and dehydrated.
But for the purposes of this site and your weight loss goals, the main difference is WEIGHT LOSS! When you are hydrated on a cellular level you BURN FAT!
There are two responses here: “Great! I’ll start drinking more water!” or “That’s doesn’t make sense. I drink water all day. I carry a 1.5 littler bottle and drink all day and I am not feeling more energetic and I am definitely not losing weight!”
Water does not operate alone. The definition of hydration is water and minerals inside the cells of the body. That means that water has to adhere to something or combine with something. If there is nothing there for water to combine with it does not stay in the cells and is eliminated. In other words, a person can drink a lot of water and have very little of it go into the cells.
People have actually had heat strokes while drinking a lot of water! The reason is that the water did not go into the cells where it was needed due to a lack of minerals. What alone is not enough for effective cellular hydration!
The missing link is MINERALS. Minerals cause water to move in AND out of the cells. They also cause water to stay in the cells long enough to spark its metabolism and release energy.
To learn more about Dr. Matar and the Pasadena Weight Loss Center, please visit their website: http://www.pasadena-weight-loss-center.com or call (626) 844- 4686. The Pasadena Weight Loss Center is located at 774 N. Lake Ave in Pasadena.