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  1. #1
    Twist's Avatar
    Twist is offline "AR's Personal Trainer"
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    Lightbulb My body is a thermostat... ?

    I should actually say, "my body is a broken thermostat." That at least is the case for most people.

    I am going to try and explain, very short and simply, why the body is so susceptible to fat gain. Most say, 'it is so easy for me to get fat.' This is true, but it is also the case for everybody else too. With the exception of people with thyroid and other illnesses, humans gain fat easily.

    Everyone has an internal thermometer. This means that the body has a way of regulating EVERYTHING. We cannot begin to understand the complexity of this issue, however we can make some assumptions.

    Humans evolved. Everything is based from this one simple fact. Taking that into account, you must do everything just like the beings you evolved from, to be in top mental and physical health. Our caloric intake was low, on the brink of starvation most of the time. Our protein sources were limited and we were restricted to fruits, vegetables and nuts. So we can conclude from this that the healthy things to eat are protein sources from animals, carbohydrates from minimally processed rice beans vegetables etc, and fats from nuts. Not only did we adapt to this type of caloric intake, but our body also adapted to times when this food is not available. This is where the thermometer comes into play.

    In the past, when we were not able to obtain food from hunting, gathering, farming etc., our bodies had to have a way to slow down the metabolism in order to conserve energy. Turns out the body has a way of doing it, and it works really well... better than we want it too. Humans who are deprived of QUALITY calories undergo changes that I will not get into much detail about (metabolic rate decreases, fat storage increases, energy expenditure decreases, and of course hunger increases). What you do need to know, is that the body overcompensates. Meaning, if it should only slow down to preserve a little fat, it slows down more to preserve extra calories just in case.

    So as you can see, the body is like a thermometer. When the intake is too low, the body slows down the metabolism, when the intake is too high, the body speeds up the metabolism. Much like a thermometer turns on ac or heats the room depending on the temperature set. But here is where we have a problem with our evolutionary path. You see, we never really had a need to turn up the metabolic rate. It was very rare that humans gained unnecessary fat; and if they did, it would be burned up very quickly. Most were on the brink of starvation, eating 60% of their "TDEE." In conclusion, you can see why it is easy for humans to gain fat, but not lose it; because we simply did not develop a mechanism to speed up our metabolism in a necessary way to overcome the effects of poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. The likelihood of starving to death was great, and the likelihood of becoming obese was non-existent. This is why most of our bodies are like broken thermometers.

    But wait there's more... Some may say, "but Twist, you never gain fat." Sure this is true. Many people can eat and eat and eat (fattymcbutterpants) and not gain any weight. Why is this? Well these people tend to have a higher caloric expenditure, severe decrease in appetite following food intake, and a warped perception of actual calories consumed is developed. Basically skinny people move more, eat less, and think they eat more. This is all genetics unfortunately.

    I hope this is explained well enough for people to understand without me getting too into detail. Keep in mind I just finished my gym session and am hungry, cranky, tired, and in need of a fat ass steak and a bowl of rice.

  2. #2
    scotty51312's Avatar
    scotty51312 is offline Transformation Challenge Trainer
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    Excellent explanation. Way to put it in terms everyone can understand.

  3. #3
    gbrice75's Avatar
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    GREAT post Twist! I happen to agree with you on the whole 'eat like our ancestors' ideal. However, let me play devil's advocate here for a minute. There are people who will say "but our ancestors had a very short life expectancy". I personally attribute our current longer life expectancy to advances in medicine, and certainly not diet (we obviously eat a bunch of crap for the most part these days), but others will disagree.

  4. #4
    yannick35 is offline Anabolic Member
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    I am so tired of most of the dumb diets that in the end will get you sick, PH diet where you get your body to be alkaline, atkins and most low carb diets and more.

    My father died of cancer in 2006 and i am highly at risk since my grand father got it too, so i stop eating meat, drank plenty of green tea, and relied on supplement to get my vitamins and mineral. I developed a sever case of anemia and lack of calcium.

    Its quit simple eat when you are hungry try to eat less, portion control and eat good foods. My sport doctor changed my diet completely, got me in unsweetened soymilk (says studies are false about it being dangerous and lowering testosterone ), black strap molasses , i am eating meat again, and yes carbs, grains, rice, veggies and fruits. And feeling a lot better since i cut out caffeine for good.

    And as gbrice75 says and i do agree 110% we do eat a lot of crap, but look at what is available to use everywhere, processed high fat, high carb, crappy calorie packed foods. Worst is that 99% of all people don't know how to check the label before buying food.

  5. #5
    First6's Avatar
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    Agree on the body is like a thermostat. I still think mine is a double wammy though becasue it is not only broken but it talks. Yeah that's right . I hear it all the time saying "don't those cupcakes look so good".
    Seriously though. Nice explaination.

  6. #6
    gbrice75's Avatar
    gbrice75 is offline AR's Diet Pimp! ~HOF~
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    Speaking of double wammy's, I got screwed TWICE in the genetics department.

    I can easily put on bodyfat (more inclined than most people I believe) and have a very tough time getting rid of it, yet I have an AWFUL time putting on lean mass, and lose it very easily and quickly. That's FVCKED!

    Most fatties usually have no problem adding muscle, you just can't see it because they're fat. I'm a fat guy (ok not at this moment) who can't seem to add LBM, but the fat goes on overnight! FML!!!

  7. #7
    SlimmerMe's Avatar
    SlimmerMe is offline ~Knowledgeable Female Extraordinaire~
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    Like a wood stove...add a log....burn a log....
    NO logs....no burn
    Too many logs? gotta keep burning

  8. #8
    First6's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SlimmerMe View Post
    Like a wood stove...add a log....burn a log....
    NO logs....no burn
    Too many logs? gotta keep burning
    I like this.
    but I add....More logs than you can burn...backlogged.

  9. #9
    SlimmerMe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by first6 View Post
    i like this.
    But i add....more logs than you can burn...backlogged.
    exactly!

  10. #10
    yannick35 is offline Anabolic Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by gbrice75 View Post
    Speaking of double wammy's, I got screwed TWICE in the genetics department.

    I can easily put on bodyfat (more inclined than most people I believe) and have a very tough time getting rid of it, yet I have an AWFUL time putting on lean mass, and lose it very easily and quickly. That's FVCKED!

    Most fatties usually have no problem adding muscle, you just can't see it because they're fat. I'm a fat guy (ok not at this moment) who can't seem to add LBM, but the fat goes on overnight! FML!!!
    Same here, my main problem is back in 1990 when i met this bodybuilder who was my age and told me if i wanted to gain mass i needed to eat 6 times per day 1000 calories per meal, well i did just that, i was 18 at that time and 165 pounds, after a year of doing that i finally reached 205 pounds, problem is that i guess i just slowed down my metabolism and now at around 214 pounds unless i do a sick and severe diet i cannot lose weight, and like you i put on too much fat very fast. Worst me and GF just got back from a cruise all you can eat 24h a day.......

  11. #11
    gbrice75's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by yannick35 View Post
    Same here, my main problem is back in 1990 when i met this bodybuilder who was my age and told me if i wanted to gain mass i needed to eat 6 times per day 1000 calories per meal, well i did just that, i was 18 at that time and 165 pounds, after a year of doing that i finally reached 205 pounds, problem is that i guess i just slowed down my metabolism and now at around 214 pounds unless i do a sick and severe diet i cannot lose weight, and like you i put on too much fat very fast. Worst me and GF just got back from a cruise all you can eat 24h a day.......
    Wow, 6k calories/day is alot! Did you at least put on some muscle? Something else must've been wrong though; eating 6 times a day shouldn't SLOW your metabolism. Assuming you were eating standard 3 times a day before, it should actually have sped it up. Strange.

    I hear you on the all inclusives - me and the wife just went to a resort in Mexico back in July - all you can eat AND drink... and when I start drinking... ugh. I haven't been right since!

  12. #12
    Twist's Avatar
    Twist is offline "AR's Personal Trainer"
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    It is not that you guys can't put on muscle, as evident by your profile pic gbrice, its that muscle has a limit to how much you can put on. It is a very very slow process to put on muscle. LB said a pound a week tops, that sounds right to me. Look at fireguy, me, lb etc. There are many guys on here who stay lean and have decent muscle, but a lot of us don't 'bulk" the way lot's of newbs do. If you bulk and gain 2-3lbs per week, that's probably over 2/3 fat.

    So now figure GB you have been doing this for like only 2 years right? So you have to figure that you should only have a max of 24lbs of extra muscle on you. Because beginners make better gains I would say 30-35lbs of muscle max. BUT, that is only if you did things 100% correctly. I mean workouts were perfect, diet was perfect, and training was perfect. Now we know that is not the case. But even so you went from 37%bf to 18%bf while gaining a bunch of muscle. So I would say that you (and almost everyone else) CAN gain muscle and CAN lose fat. You just have to do it right.


    As I tried to explain the body has never had a reason drastically speed up fat burning, only a reason to slow down fat burning. So pretty much everybody is in the same boat. You can consciously act like the "skinny" guys if you want to. Everytime you sit at a desk (all day) move your legs, fidget with your arms, and don't eat shit but one big meal all day. That is pretty much how most of the skinny guys stay so skinny even though the eat (or claim to but don't) a ton of food. Constantly moving and not constantly eating.

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