by Bethany Brewer

Created on: March 04, 2009

Loosing weight isn't an easy thing, and surprisingly enough, it isn't supposed to be. For nearly all of human history people have been hunters and gatherers, turning to the land and the seasons to feed them. When the game grew scarce and the harvests were thin, humans relied on the fat stores they had developed in times of plenty. Gaining weight has been an evolutionarily sound process for millions of years. It is only in the last few centuries that it has turned against us.

Humans are coded to crave sweet and starchy things. Foods like fruit or potatoes were staples of our ancestors exactly because they are easily stored as fat. The body knows what will do it the most good, and in a 'feast or famine' existence, an abundance of such foods was prized.

In today's world, with a fast food joint on every corner, there is more than enough feast. For possibly the first time in human history, it is insanely simple for the common man to procure food whenever he needs it. Not just any food, but the types of food that were reserved for kings in days past.

So, what kinds of food are most popular with modern humans? Again, fast food, which is often laden with extreme amounts of fat. Loads of starchy pastas, large helpings of meat, and all kinds of sweets and chocolate. This isn't indicative of people's inability to curb excess, but rather the inevitable outcome of an equation that is now extremely unbalanced. We have been bred from time immemorial to work, sweat and if necessary bleed to feed our families and ourselves. The man of several centuries ago couldn't pop down to the corner store for a bite. He had to expend energy to hunt, till, or gather. Most of us no longer have to worry about neither hard physical labor nor weathering famines.

The key to loosing or maintaining weight is to recognize that since most of us do much less physical work than our ancestors, we must modify the amount of food we consume to reflect that. It isn't easy, we have millions of years of evolution telling us that we need that donut to stave off starvation next winter. Our bodies are just a little behind the times. Try sticking to smaller portions of meat - around the size of a palm - and filling up with much more vegetables than pasta or rice. It might do some good to count calories for a few months, just to see what the proper amount looks like. Exercise always helps, not just with loosing weight, but also with maintaining an all-around healthy body. It isn't by any means a fast method, and definitely not easy, but our bodies also have a way of accepting changes, and adjusting it's functions accordingly. In this instance, it adjusts by letting go of fat stores.

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