There are 5 voluntary tasks that we as humans must do to keep the body alive. These are 1) drink fluids, 2) eat food, 3) sleep, 4) go to the bathroom, and 5) dress to maintain body temperature. The body has internal alarms set for all of them – 4 of which are loud and physically uncomfortable and one with a mute button that we tend to use way too often.
Thirst, fatigue, urgency, and sweating/shivering are cues that force us to respond almost immediately yet hunger is a cue that can be ignored. This is because the body has a back-up system that just slows us down to conserve the limited number of calories we give it when we skip meals or significantly limit them. Ironically, eating is the only voluntary task that lets us store excess. It’s impossible for the body to store excess fluid, sleep, pee/poop, or heat (in a healthy way) and yet when the body doesn’t receive adequate calories, it only gives up a small amount before going into a mode or state that prevents the body from giving up any more body fat.
When calories are plentiful, however, the body doesn’t initially ramp itself back up but rather is inclined to store as much as it can just in case the starvation period re-occurs. It’s how the body has survived generations between periods when food wasn’t always available and when it was plentiful. These periods, however, would be weeks apart allowing the body to gradually lean down then more quickly bulk back up. Nowadays, the periods between not eating enough and eating plenty are only hours apart which doesn’t give the body enough time to “gradually lean down” but always gives the body enough time to ‘quickly bulk up’. In other words, if we don’t keep our calories consistent on a daily basis, i.e., yo-yo our calories, the body’s back up system kicks in to slow us down – physically, mentally, and emotionally – and stores excess calories (usually in the form of belly fat) as a safety measure.
When using the Balance Factor app to track your calories and BF’s, the goal is to be consistent! When you start eating enough calories everyday to support your body’s needs, the dots on the Calorie graph stop fluctuating above and below the green zone. When your calories stop fluctuating, your ideal Balance Factor becomes very obvious and all of sudden you find yourself in a fat-burning zone. After that, it’s just coasting until you arrive at your ideal size and never look back.
