EI – EO = Energy Balance (EB)
Your body weight is usually relatively stable if the Energy Input (EI) and Energy Output (EO) remain about equal. Your Energy Input includes all food and alcohol consumed and Energy Output includes all exercise and physical activity (dedicated, workplace and incidental).
If your Energy Input is greater than your Energy Output it will result in a positive energy balance producing a weight gain.
EI > EO = EB+ (Weight Gain)
Consequently, a weight loss will occur if your Energy Input (EI) is less than your Energy Output (EO).
EI < EO = EB- (Weight Loss)
Good nutrition and healthy eating through conscious awareness by using your nutritional journal and moving daily will help you to maintain your EB. Obviously, if your goal is to reduce weight for more energy, vitality and better health, your EI needs to be less than your EB to achieve weight loss.
Your hormones and the health of your thyroid also affect the functional capacity of your body, how optimally it works and can dictate, to some extent, your metabolic rate and body weight stability. Sustained high levels of Cortisol, the stress hormone brought on by prolonged stress can cause the metabolic rate to slow down to conserve energy, encouraging the body to store fat and often effecting mental processes.
Your metabolism is responsible for all chemical reactions necessary to maintain life.
Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are all used to produce energy through conversion to a molecule called Adenosine Triphospate (ATP). ATP is your body’s energy currency. Muscle cells only have enough stored energy (ATP) for three seconds of intense activity.
Regeneration of stored energy is critical and there are three ways to re-generate ATP – ATP-PC, lactic and aerobic. All work together to produce energy across the spectrum of human movement with the primary energy source determined by intensity and duration of movement as highlighted below:
- Anaerobic system – the first and second energy sources (ATP-PC and Lactic systems) are used by the body as the primary energy system for the first 0 – 120 seconds of any physical activity
- Aerobic system – the third energy source is used as the primary energy source after the anaerobic system ceases from two minutes plus of physical activity:
- This system provides more ATP than the other two systems but at a slower rate
- Almost all low-level energy production is aerobic metabolism and is derived mostly from fat breakdown
- As intensity increases, carbohydrates become more involved as a fuel source
- Protein is only used aerobically in extreme conditions
All of these are affected by dietary practices. Our bodies have an unlimited ability to store fat and will store carbohydrates as fat if they are unused as an energy source. We are however, unable to store protein which is why some fad diets promote a high protein intake. Contrary to popular belief, the longer a person has been training the less protein they need as the body becomes more efficient at processing it (protein synthesis).
Eliminating alcohol from your diet can dramatically improve your chance of weight loss, especially if you replace it with water! Your body will burn alcohol first above all other food sources due to the body’s awesome attempts to eliminate the acetate (produced by the conversion of alcohol to acetate in the liver) thereby inhibiting fat metabolism.
Exercise is an important constituent in controlling the impact of stress on your body. Adrenalin and the growth hormone (GH) work together to help your body cope with strenuous exercise, directly stimulating and accelerating fat metabolism (lipolysis) thus controlling and reducing stress. In fact, post exercise the stress hormone reduces dramatically.
