Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Why Eat Energy?

Basal Metabolism

Basal Metabolism is "The energy expended to maintain an awake, resting body that is not digesting food."1

This includes:
The Cardiovascular System needs energy to keep the blood flowing throughout our body.

The Respiratory System needs energy to keep the oxygen flowing in and the carbon dioxide flowing out.

The Integumentary System (skin) needs it to keep our body temperature in a Balanced zone.

The Nervous system needs it for its communication network.  Without Energy we couldn't receive stimuli or respond to them.

The cells of all the body systems need it to build and rebuild body tissue.  They also need it to pay for the body's "garbage man" in the removal of waste products inherent to the continuous building, breaking down, and rebuilding processes.

That all takes up about 60-70% of the total amount of Energy we expend.

Each of us has a different Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).  Some of us have faster BMRs and others have slower.  

If we weigh more overall, our rate will be faster.  If we have a higher percentage of lean body mass, which includes everything but our fat storage, our rate will be faster.  This is bone, muscle, and internal organs.
BMR decreases the older we get, partly because our lean body mass decreases.  We can prevent much of this decrease from happening if we EXERCISE! : )

 BMR also decreases when we decrease how much we are eating.  (no fair.)

Thermic Effect of Food (TEF)

The Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) is the Energy our body uses to digest our food.  It is everything that is involved in making it available for Basal Metabolism or Physical Activity or for storage.
We actually burn about 10% of our total Energy intake when we eat.

Physical Activity

The remaining 20-30% of the Energy we consume is used in Physical Activity.  Physical Activity is anything from fidgeting to working out.  The more strenuous the activity, the more calories burned.  The longer we engage in an activity, the more calories we burn.  This means we don't necessary have to segment out a time in our day to exercise.  We can make the whole day about moving faster and spending more time in activities that burn more calories.

Energy Toxicity

Maybe not all of us want or need to burn more calories, but the majority of us do.  Here are the obesity stats for the last 50 years in the US of A.  The last two rows give some additional worldwide stats.

Year
Percent of adults Obese in US
1960
13.4 %
1990
23 %
2012
34 %
Worldwide 2012
1.5 billion total overweight
500 million of these are obese
Projection 2015
2.3 billion total overweight
700 million obese




http://www.healthhabits.ca/2013/03/25/super-scary-obesity-statistics/
Today 68% of adults in the US are overweight or obese.  The increase in weight has been attributed to the modernization of our world. Most of us don't have to do as much Physical Activity just to stay alive.  Others do it for us and we pay for it with our desk jobs.  Scientists are calling it an epidemic and have come up with the name Globesity. 

Special Note for Coloradans:  In 2009, Colorado had the lowest rate of obesity in the US at 10-14%.  The rest of the US was between 20 to over 30%.  But it looks like by 2013, we're climbing higher like the rest of the country (see the CDC Map above).

The issue with being overweight is that it is a major cause of disease states such as:
  • Hypertension
  • Dyslipidemia (for example, high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, or high levels of triglycerides)
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Coronary heart disease
  • Stroke
  • Gallbladder disease
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
  • Some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)2
75% of adults don't exercise.  That was a staggering statistic for me to hear.  Most of us need to make more of a conscious effort to get up and move.  That doesn't mean we have to run and jump and do all manner of high impact, high intensity sports.  If we walk at 1.7/mph wherever we go, we will burn 100 to 150 more calories per hour.  If we spend less time sitting and more time moving around, we will burn more calories.  It's the accumulation of total Energy spent in a day that creates an Energy deficit.

One reassuring FACT for those of us who consistently eat a balanced amount of energy and exercise regularly but still don't lose weight is that GENES PLAY A SIGNIFICANT ROLE--75% IN DETERMINING BODY WEIGHT.  All we can do is EAT RIGHT and exercise IN BALANCE.  That creates Energy Balance within our body.  And that's all we need to worry about. 

Energy Deficiency 

Even though 34% of adults are overweight, that leaves 66% that are not.  And a very small percentage is actually underweight.  Watch this incredibly interesting video on what happens to our body and our psychology when we don't get enough Energy in us.


The interesting thing I would like to point out is that we could experience starvation-like effects even if we are overweight.  We may have plenty of Energy stored in our body but if we don't have the vitamins and minerals it needs, we will feel physiologically hungry.  Since our cells are very good at communication, if they are in need of something that is in short supply, they will send signals that will stimulate our desire to eat.  Have you ever eaten a full meal and still felt hungry afterwards?  Making sure we get the recommended daily intake of all the vitamins and minerals is a foundational step to reducing the desire to overeat.  Selecting foods that are empty of nutrients will leave us feeling both full and empty at the same time.

Energy Sources 

We get our Energy mostly from Carbohydrates and Fats.  Our body can convert Protein into Energy if eaten in excess or if we don't have enough from Carbohydrates and Fats.  In fact, if we don't get enough Carbs in, we can't even burn fat.  Carbs are broken down into glucose (simple sugars) which is then used to create ATP.  ATP is the Energy the cells use to function.  In order to burn fat, glucose is needed to start the whole fat-burning system.

The Numbers

BMI is a measurement to see if you are underweight, within a normal range, overweight, or obese.  Calculate your BMI:

Weight (lbs)/height (in)2 X 703

The little 2 (if you don't know) means squared.  Multiply your height times itself.

Adults 
  • <19 Underweight
  • 19-25 Healthy
  •  25-30 Overweight 
  • >30 Obese
To learn more about BMI go to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website.

Children and teens need to calculate their BMI differently.  Here is a website for them:  Children and Teens BMI. 

Teens 
  • <5% Underweight 
  • 5% -85% Healthy 
  • 85-95% Overweight 
  • >95% Obese
You can also measure your waist circumference and see where you stand against these standards.  We increase the risk of disease when our waist circumference and BMI are:

Women
>35 inches + BMI 25-34.9 kg/m2  

Men
>40 inches + BMI 25-34.9 kg/m2

This is not about looks.  It is about where we store our fat.  If we have an apple shaped body (as opposed to a pear shaped body) we tend to store our excess fat around our abdominal organs.  This location of fat storage has been shown to be a greater cause for disease states such as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and high cholesterol.

To know how much Energy you should be getting, calculate your Estimated Energy Requirements.

All information for this post was obtained from:   

1Visualizing Nutrition, Everyday Choices, 2nd edition by Mary B. Grosvenor and Lori A. Smolin

2The Center for Disease Control

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