Your brain wants you to be fat
Just one taste of the "good stuff" can take you back to the jungle of 100,000 years ago.
If during the day you are able to find the energy and motivation to stay away from sweets, pastries, hot pretzels or God knows what other delights…
You know very well what happens when you get home in the evening.
After a hard day’s work and running errands, after putting the kids to bed, all you want is to relax a bit.
You know, indulge yourself in a moment of pleasure.
It is then that your guard is down and temptations will overrun your brain.
You had a taste. Now it’s difficult for you to stop.
Maybe all day long:
you have been disciplined, you kept your diet clean, you have avoided the dozens and dozens of temptations like a pro.
you have walked, you have taken the stairs into and out of the subway, maybe you have even been to the gym.
you have done everything by the book.
But at 10 PM, in the evening, it’s that one packet of biscuits that brings you to your knees.
You’ll have the usual, classic snacks: pretzels, peanuts, hazelnuts, cookies, rice crackers, popcorn, nachos, chocolate, wafers, chips, candy.
🏆 SAD Tip: 100 grams of any snack you can think of contains an average of 450-500 calories.
✅ FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS
Scientists have been studying weight loss for hundreds of years.
The only clinically proven weight loss method to date is: eating fewer calories (energy) than your body needs.
Men are usually taller than women and have at least 50% more muscle mass.
The larger an animal is and the more muscle it has, the higher its calorie needs are.
You realize that a man weighing in at 90 kg, who also has some muscle will have a calorie consumption (daily calorie requirement) that is much higher than the one of a sedentary woman of 57 kg and 1.6m tall.
A 90 kg man who is 1.85m tall (like me) and who has a somewhat active routine can have a calorie requirement of up to 2,400 calories.
The reality is that a sedentary woman* of 57 kg and who is 1.6m tall can have a calorie requirement of 1,400 calories.
Men, if you have extra pounds:
go easy on the bread, fries, sweets, beer.
walk for an hour every day;
go to bed a little earlier.
And within one year you can lose 40-50 kg without doing anything special.
For men, losing weight is embarrassingly easy. You don’t believe me?
Support my publication, throw in the money so I can tell you the exact same thing in the premium section as well…
So from here on, this article is for you, ladies.
✅ LADIES, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU
Here's what it means to be static:
you roll out of bed and into the car;
you sit in a chair for 8-10 hours at the office;
you roll back into the car;
you get home and eat something on the run;
you sit on the couch to clear your head;
you crawl back into bed.
Basically, for most people, this is pretty much the reality.
You lay in bed, sit in the car, sit at the office, sit on the couch and then back to bed.
Unfortunately, we have reached an extreme level of a sedentary lifestyle without realizing it.
Many people basically sit in a wheelchair for 99% of the time and only get up to get coffee or pick up a package from the door.
We are happy that:
we have Uber coming in front of our building;
groceries are delivered to our doorstep;
books, clothes and shoes are delivered to the Pick-up Box 50 meters from home.
We are happy to save time, but somehow paradoxically, we have less time than ever.
After millions of years of stress and uncertainty, we have finally (for the past 50 years) found food, comfort and warmth.
But unfortunately the settings of our brains are the same they were a few hundred thousand years ago.
✅ THE BRAIN
The brain loves staying warm, eating high-calorie food and comfort because it does everything in its power to make us feel good.
I'm going to explain why:
The brain is a miserable grinch, the stingiest damn bastard you've ever met.
Our brain is like the millionaire who leaves the restaurant without leaving a tip.
The brain is genetically designed to find routines that will help you make the biggest savings.
Examples:
taking the car or an Uber instead of walking for 30 minutes;
using the TV remote instead of getting up;
sitting down (instead of standing or walking) if you have to wait somewhere or while the kids are in sports, piano or English class;
taking the elevator or escalator instead of taking the stairs;
ordering food instead of cooking;
ordering groceries online instead of going to the supermarket;
using an Airfryer instead of a traditional oven (it cooks faster, no more washing the trays);
asking your kids to do various chores for you.
The brain loves to help you save calories (energy). It doesn't want you to move around too much.
✅ THE CALORIE RUSH
After hundreds of millions of years of searching for food and starving, the brain has developed some interesting settings when it comes to food.
Maybe in the old times you could find some extra protein: maybe insects, a grasshopper, a fish, a rabbit, some eggs, an animal on a leash.
The major problem was that wild animals had/have a low fat percentage.
Lean protein will alleviate hunger, but energy for survival comes from eating fats.
Fat is energy.
For this reason, homo sapiens have hunted all large mammals with a lot of fat in record time.
Carbohydrates also represent energy: potatoes, carrots, chickpeas, lentils, beans, corn, fruits, honey.
Up until 10,000 years ago, people were still at the "whatever" level: they ate whatever they could gather, fish or hunt.
Homo sapiens were constantly searching for "high energy" food every day.
Fruit was scarce, maybe only available for a few months during the year; they were small; they quickly went rotten. There were years when no fruit was produced.
Think about it: until the invention of agriculture, there really was no way to store energy for rainy days or for the winter.
There were no freezers, there were no grains (a fabulous source of energy that doesn’t easily perish).
The brain is simply genetically designed to frantically search for energy (carbohydrates or fats).
For this reason:
we love a fatty steak, but we reluctantly eat chicken breast or tuna;
we love fatty cheeses, but we act like that cat when we get low-fat cheese;
we love fruits, but we frown at vegetables.
Our nutritional choices are (also) genetically influenced.
The brain is genetically designed so that when we find high-energy foods (carbohydrates or fat) it allows us to eat more.
For this reason, we’ll eat:
less chicken breast and more beef steak;
less turkey ham, but more bacon;
less low-fat cheese but more blue cheese / cheddar;
fewer vegetables, but more fruit.
Do you know what you don't really find out there in the wild?
Carbohydrates + fat together.
Meat, fish, organs, eggs, fish eggs – these do contain fat (but no carbohydrates);
Vegetables, fruits, root vegetables, legumes, grains, pseudo-grains, honey – these do contain carbohydrates (but no fats).
There are only a few foods out there in nature that naturally contain both carbohydrates and fats.
These are…
Today this article is paywall free.
These are:
milk;
nuts and seeds;
beech nuts, acorns and cashews.
Do you still eat cashews and still expect to lose weight?
Well, THAT makes total sense.
Milk contains lactose which is a carbohydrate.
With the help of lactAse (an enzyme), the human body breaks down lactOse into glucose and galactose (which is further broken down into glucose).
Keep reading in order to understand why you love milk, peanuts, pistachios, cashews and nuts.
✅ ABOUT COCAINE (NUTS)
The most important mission of the brain is to keep you alive at all costs.
Whether you want it or not, the brain will help you do the following:
breathe without realizing it;
have a constantly perfect level of minerals, vitamins, glucose, hormones, oxygen in your blood without doing anything special;
get wounds, organs, muscles and bones repaired by themselves without you doing anything.
Your brain makes decisions for you.
And when you put roasted peanuts in your mouth, your brain goes into fibrillation mode.
It's like winning at those slot machines in Las Vegas - just like you see in the movies.
For a moment, your brain forgets that it's the year 2024 and the fact that a 300-gram bag of peanuts contains 1,500 calories and costs 2 Euro.
The moment you put those roasted peanuts in your mouth, your brain thinks for a moment that you’re still in the jungle 100,000 years ago and you suddenly found God.
The brain momentarily activates certain genetic sequences that whisper in your ear:
If you're just a little bit like me and you feel your hands shaking when you open a bag of peanuts…
I want you to know that it's not your fault that you're greedy or an "a-hole lacking self-control" like those people who do nothing and remain slim think.
That's the "natural" way to behave.
✅ JUST A BUNCH OF ANIMALS
Your instinct tells you to tear open that bag and eat everything like a famished animal.
If you're home alone with no one seeing you, it's quite likely that you occasionally do just that.
How do I know?
Because I’ve been fat since childhood I've - sometimes even obese. I've lost 20-30 kilos dozens of times.
The most weight I've lost was 47 kilos in 24 months when I was 18 years old.
From 125 to 78 kilos.
Not only do I know, but I also understand you perfectly. Because that's what I used to do myself.
✅ PARTY LIKE AN ANIMAL
If I'm at a party or something, and there are peanuts on the table, my brain says:
Eat them all now and make sure no one else gets their dirty paws on them.
That's just in my head, of course. Do you know how it looks from the outside?
When peanuts show up, the resistance struggle begins.
✅ THE REPTILIAN BRAIN
From what I understood from research, our brains were developed in layers – just like an onion.
The innermost part (the brown one at the bottom) is the reptilian part, the part responsible for survival:
give me the food or I'll kill you (oh and what a cool chick you have).
The part that’s closer to the surface (the beautifully colored one at the top) is the critical thinking part, which goes like:
I won't vote for the extremist guy, I will raise my pinky finger when drinking coffee, I will take my woman out for dinner and a movie instead of jumping on her directly.
The reptilian brain tells me: kill everyone and eat those peanuts now!
The newer brain: you're a gentleman, take the cup of coffee, raise your pinky finger and pretend you don't see the peanuts.
The reptilian brained entourage will tell you: come on, just take a couple peanuts, a couple of peanuts never killed anyone.
The newer brain will say: are you crazy? If I put 2 peanuts in my mouth, all hell will break loose and I won't be able to stop.
The reptilian brain: I'm dying here, just get your hands on those stupid peanuts!
The newer brain: you know you walked today, you did your exercise routine, the figures on the scale look decent, you still have to lose weight but overall you're fine.
The reptilian brain: oh man, the nachos are here!
The newer brain: come on, just today, it's a special occasion after all. But wait, what did Valentin say is better, nachos or peanuts?
The reptilian brain: get those snacks or I'll smack you!
The newer brain: it was between nachos and popcorn. But based on volume, I think nachos are better.
The pizza is here!
The reptilian brain: ataaaaaaaackkk!!!
The newer brain: RIP.
✅ HOME ALONe
And then you get home. You’re bloated, swollen and disappointed.
You just had peanuts and pizza, you also had 2 glasses of wine afterwards and you also ate some cake.
You ruined today too. You open the cupboard to get a glass and see the jar.
The Nutella jar.
Your reptile brain: I can still eat sweets!!!
The new brain: oh well, what does an extra teaspoon matter anyway, considering all the junk I ate today…
15 minutes later, after having watched some Netflix, the jar is finished.
✅ SIMPLE SOLUTIONS
Head for the party already well-fed, with proteins in your veins and with a bowl of vegetables already in your stomach. Maybe eat 2 more apples on the way there.
You don't have junk food in the house because you know your apartment is not a garbage dump.
You don't drink alcohol because you respect yourself and maybe you don't like to smell like a British pub.
See? Sometimes being an extremist helps.
But having an underdeveloped brain and voting for reptilians certainly never did anyone any favors.
Thank you for your attention...