The first law of thermodynamics tells us that, since energy cannot be created nor destroyed, then the difference between the energy entering into a system and the energy leaving a system must be accounted for by the energy within the system.
That is, if more energy enters into the system than leaves it, then we know that energy must have accumulated within the system.
We can easily translate this to meet the system that is the human body:
If more energy enters into the body than leaves it, then we know that energy must have accumulated within the body.
That is, if we consume more calories than we expend, we will gain weight.
This is all directly from the first law of thermodynamics and, therefore, we can hold it as truth.
Question, though: what happens when we want to tinker with this energy balance to address a specific problem?
This is an essential question that we need to answer before playing around with any potential solution. That is, what we need to do is get clear on a safe and effective approach to thinking about addressing the problem of healthy energy balance (which includes weight loss if necessary)
So, what happens when we want to create a change in the energy within the system?
Moreover, what happens when we want to create a specific change in the energy stored within one particular sub-system of a complex system?
Let’s call upon a particularly relevant example: what happens if our goal is to achieve sustained fat loss because fat has been previously stored in excess in different sub-systems that make up the human body?
Well, if that’s the goal, then we need to dive much deeper into physiology, something that is difficult to do when looking with such a zoomed out perspective.
For example, we could zoom into one specific tissue (e.g. subcutaneous white adipose tissue) which is the body’s primary site of fat storage. By looking at this one tissue and its interaction with other sub-systems (biomolecules, cells, tissues, and organs), we can think about energy balance within this particular sub-system.
As we do, it is useful to think about overall energy balance across this system:
- how much energy is entering subcutaneous adipose tissue (via sugars and lipids)
- how much energy is being released (as fatty acids)
But when we do this, we create a problem in that we can no longer see the rest of the body. This can be a problem because, if we take action aimed at addressing this particular sub-system, then our actions may negatively impact other systems (the liver or the brain, as two examples).
To prevent this problem from manifesting as health problems in your life, it’s important to keep other sub-systems in mind. This is why I always take care to zoom back out to think about the entire body:
That’s the practice:
- Think about how your decisions address the entire body.
- Zoom into specific sub-systems to achieve more specific results.
- Take care to zoom back out to think about the bigger system that is your entire body.
Over time, you can learn about how your decisions impact specific sub-systems supporting your body through the lens of different frameworks.
For example, up above we take a look at energy balance as on framework that can be applied to any particular system (e.g. the entire body or subcutaneous adipose tissue). Elsewhere, we could look at how the liver functions as a master metabolic regulator to achieve energy balance across different forms of energy (proteins, fats, sugars, ketones). Note, I did this in a video over on Instagram if you care to learn more about the liver now.
Get the idea?
Good, because that’s what we are going to continue doing as we move forward.
Recap:
Energy (calorie) balance can be a useful framework to help us understand what must happen to achieve the particular goal that is achieving a healthy lipid balance (which may include weight loss).
However, when applying energy balance to the human body, we have to be careful to ensure to things:
- That we aren’t getting hyper-focused on any particular system
- That we aren’t getting hyper-focused on this one framework.
Human metabolism is complex, and if we want to lose weight and/or maintain a healthy weight, we need to understand more of this complexity.
Let’s move forward doing this by expanding our perspective to include important mechanisms and pathways at play.