If the brain recognizes that we are not active and is storing tons of excess fat, why won’t it start to expel it if it’s causing health issues? I feel like the brain should understand that humans shouldn’t be 600 lbs and it should realize that it doesn’t need to store all of that potential energy
In: Biology
>I feel like the brain should understand that humans shouldn’t be 600 lbs
This is the divide between the “smart” side of our brain, and the “animal” side of it, the part that runs our bodily functions and base instincts. And the thing about that animal part of us is that it’s been programmed *really* hard by the process of evolution to do the things that keep us alive in the short term; it’s not about long-term decisions.
Obesity in humans (for the most part) is a really recent issue. For most of the hundreds of thousands of years that “humans” have existed in one form or another, starvation was a constant worry for the entire population, and so the processes that our body follows to take extra food energy and store it as fat are there to ensure our survival between times of plenty and times of famine. Those processes don’t go away because we can rationally think “I don’t need more food right now.” They’re hardwired into the fabric of our being, and the thinking side of us can’t affect that any more than thinking “I don’t want to pee” will stop us from having to pee.
People who can get to 600 lbs generally have other problems besides just their body storing fat – often glandular issues or mental disorders that affect the way that they eat and store fat. But we can’t actively think our way out of storing fat any more than we can think our way out of getting hungry or needing to sleep – they’re programmed functions of our bodies.
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