What type of vehicle do you drive? A car, SUV, pickup truck? What size gas tank does it have? If you’re like me and own a hybrid car, maybe your gas tank is only 10 gallons. But if you own a large pickup truck, maybe your gas tank holds 25-30 gallons! Have you ever wondered why it’s creator designed it that way? In general, it’s because they determined that based on the FUEL EFFICIENCY of the vehicle (factors include size of the engine, weight of the vehicle, etc.), and in order to get a reasonable distance without filling up (200-400 miles), they needed the vehicle to hold X amount of gallons of fuel. Therefore, if a vehicle only gets 10 miles per gallon, it most likely has a 25-30 gallon gas tank. Makes sense right?
How does this analogy translate to our bodies? Some of us are larger in size and stature (similar to a pickup truck for vehicles), and require more fuel to get a reasonable level of performance out of our bodies. For example, if someone is 6’ tall and weighs 220 lbs, their fuel requirement may be in the neighborhood of 2500 calories per day just to live! Then there are other people who are naturally smaller, more FUEL EFFICIENT and require less fuel to get a similar level of performance. An example would be if a person were 25 years old, 5’ tall and 100 lbs, perhaps they only require 1200 calories per day to get by. The point is, we all have unique calorie requirements similar to how our cars have unique fuel requirements. The car manufacturer created the vehicle with a certain capacity in mind due to the size of the vehicle and the power of the engine. But can we do anything to a vehicle to improve its performance duration? Let’s discuss.
Can we increase the organic capacity of a vehicle to hold fuel? No. But, we can choose to add an emergency reserve (i.e. an extra gas can) in the back of the vehicle. It seems it is less commonplace now than when I grew up, but many people still choose to keep an extra 2-5 gallon gas can in the back of their vehicle in the event they run out of gas. This is similar to someone who wants to add a few more calories to their diet in the event that fuel is not available for an extended period of time. A typical example? A marathon runner who is carb-loading prior to a race in order to replenish glycogen levels and have the maximum amount of energy available for the race. Now getting back to the gas can analogy…would it make sense for someone to hold 50 gallons of extra fuel in the back of their hybrid car? No. Why? Because they already have a fuel efficient vehicle that can go long distances, so only a couple additional gallons is necessary for an emergency. Additionally, an extra 50 gallons is about 400 lbs of additional weight that the vehicle has to hold! That is a lot of additional weight for a small engine to pull! The result of adding that extra weight is that the vehicle will not accelerate as quickly, won’t be able to break as quickly, and you will hurt the fuel efficiency of the vehicle because it will have more difficulty pulling the additional weight! It will even create additional stress on the frame of the vehicle long term! Adding all the fuel isn’t good for our bodies either! If your daily energy requirement is 2000 calories and you eat 5000 calories consistently, you will gain weight, decrease the efficiency of your body to use the fuel is has organically, and will even begin to hurt the structure (joints, bones, etc.) of your body. Now, if you have a big event coming up in the next 24-72 hours, will an extra 500 calories per day hurt you? No. But it’s all about putting the right amount of fuel in your body consistently that you are created to hold naturally without hurting the performance of your vehicle! This principle also applies to putting too little fuel in your vehicle. Let’s say for instance you have an upcoming drive of 300 miles but you only put enough fuel in your vehicle to make it 200 miles. What happens? Either you will need to stop and fuel up again or you will embarrassingly run out of fuel and be that person on the side of the road asking for help! Similarly, if you don’t plan out your daily food requirements or just “wing it” and eat less calories than you need, your performance will decrease and you will run out of energy! This is why it is important to:
- Know your basal metabolic rate (BMR) (how many calories your body needs per day just to live)
- Plan out how many calories you will need today
- Put the right fuel in your vehicle (this will be a topic for another day)
If you don’t know your BMR, plan out your calorie requirements, or put the right fuel in the body, then you’re just “winging it” with the only vehicle you will ever have on this earth. If you need help with your diet, are looking to lose weight, or just want to know what to do for optimal performance, please reach out to me.
Have a great week!
Richard Fitzgerald 