Why is skipping a meal worse than begin morbidly obese?
By: Reinoud Schuijers
Tags: Health, Culture, Lifestyle, Food, Self Improvement

What happens when you eat

Contrary to popular belief, eating is not like tanking gas. For long, we did not know better as to believe that you load your body with energy, and then you use that energy whenever you need it.

Science tells a whole different story. Eating is not merely about taking in energy — it’s much more about sending and receiving signals. When you eat, depending on what type of food you eat, your body receives a signal to store energy. It enters a state in which it stores energy (and actively avoids burning energy). This state peaks and then slowly wears over a period of a couple of hours. Nearly every type of food sends this signal, but generally speaking sweet and starchy foods send the loudest signals. I’m talking about things like pasta, donuts, candy, sugary soft drinks, rice, and potatoes, to name a few.

The stronger the signal, the longer and more deeply the body will enter the energy-storing state. As you might have guessed, eating a little bit of something sends a weaker signal than eating a lot of the same thing.

So, in terms of signaling, two donuts is worse than one — not just because of the caloric difference, but mainly because of how deeply your body will go into the energy-storing state, and how long it will stay there.

The problem with eating often

Eating often results in your body entering and trying to leave the energy-storing state throughout the day. But right when it’s about to leave that state, new food is introduced and the body is pulled back into the energy-storing state.

This is today’s dietary norm. We eat from the moment we wake until shortly before we go back to bed, only to sleep and start the cycle all over again. During all that time, our bodies hardly get a chance to leave the energy-storing state and burn some body fat instead.

The underlying metabolical processes are much more complex than this, but the point is clear: our bodies need down-time from food — more than just the time we spend asleep — in order to be able to leave the energy-storing state and burn some body fat.

What happens when you don’t eat

When you don’t eat, the signals that make your body enter the energy-storing state fade away and eventually die out. This causes your body to slowly shift from burning energy directly from food to burning stored energy: body fat.

In addition, in the absence of the energy-storing signal, your body eventually enters a state that encourages fixing cells and cleaning up waste throughout your body.

This is why fasting has often been associated with cleansing. If you do not eat for some time, your body cranks up maintenance significantly.

Energy abundance

Another, much more noticeable thing that happens when you don’t eat is that you become incredibly alert. This is one of those things that is hard to believe for most people. The general belief is that in order to feel energized, you need to actively fuel your body.

However, if this was the case, our species would not have stood a chance throughout history. It’s much more logical for our bodies (and brains!) to become more active and focussed in the absence of food.

Higher alertness significantly increases your chances to find something edible, or catch prey, whereas lethargy and drowsiness would do quite the opposite.

From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes a lot more sense to feel more present and alert in a fasted state, than to become tired and lethargic.

Where the energy to power all this focus and alertness comes from? Body fat. Any healthy adult is carrying around at least 90,000 calories worth of body fat. An overweight person might even be carrying around 250,000 calories of fat, or more.

That’s at least 45 days of pure energy in any healthy adult, right there.