Fitness straight forward

HUMAN BODY IS THE GREATEST MAGIC OF THIS UNIVERSE

Perturbed by the shape or state of your body ? Suudenly, launching yourself on painful diet missions and fitness regimes? Not getting any results thereafter? Have you ever wondered why? The shape, functioning and mechanism of human body is a result of millions of years of evolution. Whatever shape the body is taking is because of this functioning and evolution which was primarily built to ensure survival. You can not defeat things deeply rooted in your cells and genes without even knowing them.

EVER WONDERED Why you ate so much during your teen age and still did not become fat? Why only a painful and tight gym routine is required to be fit? We follow the instructions of a gym trainer and stay fit till the time we are following that course. Few days after we stop going to gym, our body starts sliding down to the previous shape. We get trapped into eating supplements, fancy diets and expensive gym routines.

NO NEED TO BECOME A DOCTOR There are medical courses, specializations and super specializations which can make you read and study a whole lot of syllabus about human body. Fortunately we don’t need to study all that to keep ourselves functioning well. To understand and repair a puncture in your car, you dont need to study the whole manufacturing and material of the tyre. But you need to know the type of tyre (tubeless or tubed) and method to unfix and fix it back.

MOMENTUM To be able to rise your interest in this magical science of human body, metabolism and biology, you need to gain some momentum in the form of curiosity about the very body you dwell in. Just think of the minor things in your body as to why they are functioning the way they are. Why hair have a particular colour, thickness, type and place of growth? Why nails regenerate but not teeth? Why there is fever? …………and finally the golden question ” Why am I Fat ?”

BASICS The basics that we need to understand on our way of fitness are few and enlisted as follows:-

• EVOLUTION (FAT GAIN AND FAT LOSS MECHANISM )
• CARDIO VASCULAR SYSTEM
• HORMONES
• MUSCULAR SYSTEM
• SKELETON SYSTEM
• ENERGY CHANNELS
• DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
• NUTRITION
• ACTION OF INSULIN, CORTISOL AND GHRELIN
• STRESS
• HIGH GLYCEMIC V/S LOW GLYCEMIC FOODS
• MUSCLE HYPERTROPHY
• NERVOUS SYTEM
• IMMUNE SYTEM
• HUNGER AND CRAVING
• FOOD ENVIRONMENT
• DISCIPLINE, DEDICATION AND ROUTINE
• AGE
• Calories v/s Nutrition

EVOLUTION AND SCIENCE OF FAT STORAGE

A horse can run fast as well as long distances, a snake carries poison to kill its prey, a lion hons 2.5 inches blade sharp claws, a dog carries canines, a lizard can slurp down its prey to be dissolved by the low pH acid. A human’s only power seemingly is a brain. But we ignore the most important thing – endurance. Humans can walk or run 100kms or more and still be able to carry out the tasks. Humans’ weapon is this endurance. Humans used to chase a wild goat for entire day, not let it rest or eat or drink water. The wild goat gives up and falls prey.

From where is this vast enrgy drawn? Answer is fats. Our bodies have evolved to store fat around all the organs. When the food was limited, walks were longer and survival was difficult, this stored fat helped us survive. So we understand that fat is being stored for some emergency. This is somewhat wrongly perceived notion. The fat is not for an emergency that may be faced at some point of time. It was a daily affair!!.

How many times in your day to day life, do you feel as if you have been starving or hungry. Leave apart starving, even hunger has become a scarce thing in the routine of breakfast , lunch , dinner with two tea breaks in between. Sweetened tea at 0700hrs, breakfast at 0900hrs, tea break at 1100hrs, Lunch at 1400hrs, tea break again at 1600hrs , evening snacking , dinner and bed time snacking!. There is no time when are bodies will actually be hungry, leave apart burning fat.

Storing – When we eat a food, the sugar levels in the blood start rising because of absorption of nutrients and carbs by the digestion. Because of this sugar spike, a hormone comes into play – Insulin. Insulin starts sending this sugar disssolved in the blood to- muscles, to be precise -to cells to be finally stored as glycogen. When this storing process is complete and there is no more space left with the muscles to store glycogen, insulin still does it task of bringing down spiked sugar levels to normal by depositing extra sugar in blood as Fats.

Burning – When we have not eaten for long or we have utilised the glycogen stored in muscles through any way, another hormone jumps into action- Ghrelin. Ghrelin starts hunger signal to the brain and also stimulates utilisation of stored fats till the time food is available. Ghrelin also inhibits the release of insulin during this period to maintain the blood sugar levels.

Evolution has attained such a sophisticated system for us to store and burn fat on daily basis. Provide we give a chance to our body, we can be free from excess fat in the body.

Exploiting the knowledge is essential in order to gain advantage. The hunger window between two meals has to be extended. On simpler terms, wait for the hunger to kick in. Workouts should be performed in the ghrelin state to reap the benefits.

CRUX – Best meal timings are Breakfast(0900hrs), Lunch(1400hrs) and Dinner(2000hrs) with no snacking in between. Workouts, walks or exercise should be performed before breakfast. If workout has been missed in the morning, breakfast can be skipped and an early lunch(1200hrs) can be eaten followed by early dinner (1900hrs).

Stay tuned for the composition of these meals and how to avoid snacking……