Thinner By Choice - Preview

2. It's All About Change

3. How the Machine Works
    The Ultimate Equation
    Feeding Your Metabolism
    The Weight-Creep Syndrome
    Low-Fat Is Not Low-Cal
    The Old Binge Weekend
    In a Nutshell

4. The Science of Eating
    Macronutrients: The Big 3
    Using and Storing Energy
    Pace Yourself
    Always Include Protein
    The Right Proportions
    The Evolutionary Perspective
    The Caveman's Adaptive Mechanisms
    The Common-Sense Solutions
    The Magic of Fiber
    What to Drink?
    A Little More Effort
    In a Nutshell

5. The "E" Word
    Exercise Is Not Just About Burning Fat
    Begin by Moving More
    Boost Your Metabolism
    How Much Exercise Is Needed?
    Aerobics or Weights?
    Hitting a Plateau
    Just Do It - With a Buddy
    In a nutshell

6. Tips and Tricks
    Emotional Eating
    Talk Yourself Out of It
    Chew Your Food
    The 6-Minute Rule
    Get Enough Sleep
    Drink Water
    Drink Green Tea
    Use a Smaller Plate
    Weighing Yourself
    Manage Your Stress

7. The 10 Golden Rules

8. Epilogue - Choosing Change

Appendix A - High-Fiber Foods
Appendix B - Meal Suggestions
    Breakfast ideas
    Snacks
    Lunches
    Suppers
    Use your imagination
Appendix C - References

You are browsing
pages from chapter 4.

The Evolutionary Perspective

Humans have been on this earth for approximately one million years. Over the millennia, they have adapted to their environment just like any other living species on the planet.

Well... almost. Unlike other living species, humans were able to use their intellectual superiority to get around some of nature's challenges without actually adapting. When it got cold during the Ice Age, animals that had a slightly thicker fur or more fat on them were able to survive better than their peers and continued to procreate normally while those without these attributes suffered greater hardship and did not procreate as well. As a result, from one generation to the next, the species tended to change gradually, favoring individuals who had the most useful attributes for the environmental conditions of their time. This, in a nutshell, is the Theory of Evolution.

Meanwhile, humans just threw on an animal's skin over themselves and continued to survive without having to evolve much.

As the centuries progressed, humans not only managed to work around the various challenges thrown at them by Mother Nature, but actually started adapting the environment to themselves, rather than the other way around. When it got too cold, they warmed up their residences with fire, then later with oil and electricity, thus making their environment pleasant again. When it got too hot, they invented air conditioners. When prey became too agile to catch, humans didn't evolve into faster hunters, they simply raised slow-moving cattle.

We, as humans, have stopped evolving a long time ago. We simply found ways around it.

This has important implications when it comes to our ideal diet: our bodies are still optimized for the type of diet a caveman would have lived on: fruits, berries and vegetables throughout the day, and a little meat whenever the tribe made a kill. This is how our bodies work best.

However, with the agricultural revolution a few centuries ago, new ingredients found their way into the mainstream diet, ingredients which never existed in centuries past. Suddenly, products made from refined flour started appearing, including pasta, breads and breakfast cereals. All those are carbohydrates, which our body needs, but they are made from processed grain which our bodies are not expecting because this is not what our ancestors would have found in nature.