I understand food wasn’t always so abundant, and humans were well served to store excess consumed energy as fat for later use. What I don’t understand is why the body keeps storing fat to the point where a person becomes morbidly obese and it puts their entire health at risk. Why isn’t there a point where the body just let’s the extra calories pass through without saving for later?
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Your body treats the problem of too much energy the way you handle the problem of too much money — it’s just not a concept you’re equipped to deal with so you just stash as much of it away as possible in case you need it later.
And if your supply of money gets cut off – because say you lost your job – your first move isn’t to empty out your savings. You don’t know how long it’s going to be until you get paid again, so your first move is to cut spending and try to get more money so your reserves last as long as possible. Your body does the same thing — it doesn’t know your last meal wasn’t the last one for a very long time, so if you get hungry it cuts energy spending (you get tired and slow down) and you start looking for more energy (you get hungry). That’s why you can’t just stop eating until you burn off your fat reserves — your body is trying to keep you alive by making those reserves last as long as possible.
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