I will try to validate my assumptions with you.
Do you agree with the following three statements?
- The laws of thermodynamics applies to the human body as a whole, but they also applies to all systems inside our body and even to all cells individually.
- Our internal systems are all regulated in big part by our whole hormonal soup (not just insulin).
- These systems are also independent of each other, including adipose tissue. So if what regulates them is not in order, they will not react properly.
Until we have agreed on these statements we will not understand each other. If you do not agree, please let me know what your version of the facts is.
I will assume for now that you do agree.
Now our hypothesis says that obesity is a symptom of a problem in the regulation of our adipose tissue.
Here is how this works. Let's say you eat a good satisfying meal. Once this energy is in the blood stream, it is available to be taken up by the cells of your body, including your fat cells. Normally, a meal will give you enough energy to function until the next meal. Your liver (via glycogen from glucose) and your fat cells (via fatty acids) gather a great deal of energy a short time after the meal. This energy will be used in between meals.
Our body tries extremely hard to maintain our total energy at the same amount. So when your reserves starts to get under a certain point. You will start to get hungry. When you eat your next meal, you will eat until you are not hungry anymore. If you eat less or there is not enough food, then you will stay hungry for a while and if there are still no food coming, your body will start compensating. It could slow down and/or you could become fatigued and won't feel like moving too much. This will prevent you from using too much of your reserves. It's a simple evolutionary survival tactic.
Of course, even with this mechanism, you still need to use some energy. So gradually, you will use some energy mainly from the glycogen and to a lesser extent from the fat cells. Once there is no glycogen left, your muscles will start to be broken down to create glucose and your fat cells will provide energy too.
Once you start eating again, your body's priority will be to replenish these reserves to their nominal level. So whether you force feed or underfeed yourself, your body will do what it needs to do to bring back your energy reserves to their nominal levels. If you force feed a runner, once the food is digested, he won't be able to stand in place. He will definitely feel the need to get up and go running. Because his body is efficient at making available the ingested energy to his muscles, instead of storing it. Of course, if you prevent that person from moving, he will fatten up. But only temporarily, until he is allowed to move again, then he will quickly shed the extra pounds.
Now, if your fat cells are not regulated properly, weird effects could happen. They could store energy and be reticent to release the stored energy. This is where insulin can play a central role. If for some reason insulin stays too high all the time, your fat cells will have a hard time releasing their energy. This is what happens to people who are insulin resistant for instance.
So whatever is deregulating your fat cells could result in them storing energy but not releasing it properly in between meals.
When this happens, there is less energy available for the rest of your cells. You will have to compensate one way or another. You will be hungry faster, so you will eat more often and/or eat more at the next meal.
Your total energy is going up, but you did not start eating more for this to happen, you had to eat more or expand less for this to happen. In this case, the cause of your obesity is not overeating or lack of exercise, it is a deregulated homeostasis.
I hope this explains a bit more our point of view. Before we can go on to discuss any possible metabolic advantage, we must first agree on the way the human metabolism works.
So what are your thoughts?
Patrick
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