BT 2 - Why Energy Matters
Number two in my series on Bioenergetic theory in which I go through the basics in as simple a way as I can.
( 3 - 5 Minute Read )
Bioenergetic Theory 2 - Why Energy Matters
As we learned in Bioenergetic Theory 1, we, and our health, are FAR more than our genes, and environment, including our food, our work, our relationships, our community support, and our connection to the outdoors, impact our health significantly more than our genetic makeup does, which is why people living in traditional societies tend to live much healthier lives than we do.
But how exactly does our environment influence our health? It does so by affecting our cellular energy, and when cellular energy generation becomes inefficient, our capacity to resist stress and repair our bodily structure diminishes.
“The key idea was that energy and structure are interdependent, at every level”
—Ray Peat,Phd
When we lose the capacity to generate energy efficiently, the structures of the body from the mitochondria right up to the lungs, liver, heart, skin, and muscles, eventually begin to give out because of the lack of energy flowing through them.
It may not seem obvious, but lowered energy generation is directly tied to;
Cold hands and feet (1)
Depression (2)
Chronic fatigue (3)
Low libido and fertility (4)
Dementia and Alzheimers (5)
Diabetes (6)
Cancer (7)
And so much more - In fact we could say that inefficient energy generation is behind every single state of disease or poor health, which includes viral, fungal, and bacterial infections as well, because when we are generating energy well, we can quickly muster responses against invaders (8)
What IS efficient energy generation?
Let’s get this out of the way first - Calories are NOT energy!
When we consume food it is (hopefully) converted by our mitochondria (cellular powerhouses) into energy, also known as Adenosine Triphosphate, or ATP for short. It is this ATP that the body can then put to use doing all sorts of things, like;
Powering the brain and cognitive function
Allowing our muscles to contract and relax
Building muscle, hair, and skin cells
Keeping us warm and pumping our blood
Creating sperm, eggs, and hormones
Essentially every single process that happens in the body happens because there is ATP with which to make it happen, and when it runs out, or stops being efficiently created from food, we run into trouble.
In the Bioenergetic understanding this happens because structure (our bodies and everything that happens inside them) are utterly dependant on the energy created by our mitochondria for their function, and in the absence of sufficient energy the structures that depend on that energy begin to fail, first the mitochondria themselves, and then eventually the organs and other systems that rely on those mitochondria.
But if we eat enough we have energy…right?
Many people believe that sufficient calories equals sufficient energy, which can lead to thoughts like;
Calories in/calories out are responsible for weight gain
I’ve eaten enough calories, therefore I shouldn’t be hungry
The food I eat doesn’t matter as long as I’m eating enough
Unfortunately for us, none of the above are true.
Even if it were the case that calorie in/calories out was all that mattered, truly calculating that is practically impossible, as it is dependant what kinds of food we are eating, our hormonal profile, our history, and many other variables.
It is completely possible to eat until you want to throw up and yet still be hungry, because if you are not converting that food to energy the body still senses a deficit.
Simply lowering calories, or carbs, will lower your metabolic rate further and further in order to conserve what little energy you have less, and when you start eating again it can take a long time for it to improve again. This means that using calorie restriction as a path to weight loss will initiate a compensatory mechanism in the body to slow your metabolism and make your energy generation even less efficient. (9)
Essentially, all problems of ill health, disease, and sickness come not from a lack of food, but from a lack of energy, which is impacted in various ways.
No one ever got fat, sick, or diseased from an excess of energy!
What this means practically
For one thing this means that if we are looking for either weight loss or healing from disease, the worst way to go about it is through either restriction of calories or through restriction of carbs.
When we start restricting and lowering our intake of calories and carbs, several things tend to happen;
Our adaptive hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline, increase (10)
Our psychological and mental health suffers, even from simply tracking our diet (10, 11, 12)
Thyroid hormone, and thus metabolism, drop, causing rebound weight gain and various other problems (15, 16)
Upon lowering calorie intake we begin to lose weight, though that can also come from increased cortisol and hence muscle, as well as fat loss. Many studies looking at this will often see good results in the beginning and thus declare calorie/carb restriction to be “great!”.
However, long term use of the stress system tends to shut down our ability to efficiently generate energy, which over time increases our stress levels, impacts our sleep, predisposes us to heavy rebound weight gain, and shreds our muscles.
On top of this, as most people may already know, chronically elevated cortisol levels are highly correlated with almost every disease and sickness state known to man.
Eating less is not the route to health - Optimising your energy generation IS
In my next post I will be looking at exactly what is going on when we stop producing energy effectively, and exactly what we mean, biologically, when we talk about STRESS, and what stress really IS.
Re.Generate Courses - Check out my courses on restoring energetic capacity.
Further Reading
Articles
It All Comes Down to Energy - Jay Feldman article
Mitochondria and Mortality - Ray Peat, Phd
When Energy Fails - Ray Peat, Phd
How to Heal Your Metabolism - Kate Deering
References
1 - Gustafson C. Denis Wilson, md: Low Body Temperature as an Indicator for Poor Expression of Thyroid Hormone. Integr Med (Encinitas). 2015;14(3):24-28.
2 - Hage MP, Azar ST. The Link between Thyroid Function and Depression. J Thyroid Res. 2012;2012:590648. doi:10.1155/2012/590648
3 - Tomas C, Brown A, Strassheim V, Elson JL, Newton J, et al. (2018) Correction: Cellular bioenergetics is impaired in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. PLOS ONE 13(2): e0192817.
4 - Saran S, Gupta BS, Philip R, et al. Effect of hypothyroidism on female reproductive hormones. Indian J Endocrinol Metab. 2016;20(1):108-113. doi:10.4103/2230-8210.172245
5 - Paula I. Moreira, Cristina Carvalho, Xiongwei Zhu, Mark A. Smith, George Perry, Mitochondrial dysfunction is a trigger of Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Molecular Basis of Disease, Volume 1802, Issue 1
6 - Sivitz WI, Yorek MA. Mitochondrial dysfunction in diabetes: from molecular mechanisms to functional significance and therapeutic opportunities. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2010;12(4):537-577. doi:10.1089/ars.2009.2531
7 - Coller HA. Is cancer a metabolic disease?. Am J Pathol. 2014;184(1):4-17. doi:10.1016/j.ajpath.2013.07.035
8 - Ayres, J.S. A metabolic handbook for the COVID-19 pandemic. Nat Metab 2, 572–585 (2020).
9 - Leah M. Kalm, Richard D. Semba, They Starved So That Others Be Better Fed: Remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota Experiment, The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 135, Issue 6, June 2005, Pages 1347–1352
10 - Tomiyama AJ, Mann T, Vinas D, Hunger JM, Dejager J, Taylor SE. Low calorie dieting increases cortisol. Psychosom Med. 2010;72(4):357-364. doi:10.1097/PSY.0b013e3181d9523c
11 - https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/low-carb-and-womens-hormones#TOC_TITLE_HDR_3
12 - Brinkworth GD, Buckley JD, Noakes M, Clifton PM, Wilson CJ. Long-term Effects of a Very Low-Carbohydrate Diet and a Low-Fat Diet on Mood and Cognitive Function. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(20):1873–1880. doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2009.329
13 - https://goodness.me/body/365651/the-link-between-sleep-and-carbohydrates
14 - Tomiyama, A. Janet & Mann, Traci & Vinas, Danielle & Hunger, Jeffrey & Dejager, Jill & Taylor, Shelley. (2010). Low Calorie Dieting Increases Cortisol. Psychosomatic medicine. 72. 357-64. 10.1097/PSY.0b013e3181d9523c.
15 - Wadden TA, Mason G, Foster GD, Stunkard AJ, Prange AJ. Effects of a very low calorie diet on weight, thyroid hormones and mood. Int J Obes. 1990 Mar;14(3):249-58. PMID: 2341229.
16 - Koppeschaar HP, Meinders AE, Schwarz F. The effect of a low-calorie diet alone and in combination with triiodothyronine therapy on weight loss and hypophyseal thyroid function in obesity. Int J Obes. 1983;7(2):123-31. PMID: 6408016.