Remember the evolutionary chart hanging up in your classroom as a kid.  It showed the evolution of man from a small, slumped over chimp-like being to an image of a much taller man walking upright and proud.  

Now I’m not smart enough to make any judgments on the validity of the chart, however I did make note of one thing -- that dude’s in pretty good shape --  the man I mean, not the chimp.

Let’s compare his lifestyle to ours and see who “naturally” would be in better condition, weight-wise.

The caveman rises at dawn and begins to hunt for food - no fridge, had to find it fresh!  He hunts by trekking through rough terrain, sneaking around and finally killing whatever he can get close enough to, with whatever he can throw or hit it with.   Then, he drags it all the way back to “caveman camp”, where his wife likely greets him with “what took you so long?”

While the caveman is working hard, his lean body is burning calories -- the same as it does for you and I.  This “metabolism” is burning fat as fast as he can accumulate it, hence his fitness.

Now let’s look at the average 2009 man’s early morning routine.

2009 man rises at just after dawn.  After showering, he goes to the fridge to get a cold glass of orange juice (likely processed and containing more calories from sugar than he’s aware of).

2009 man then gets in his car and drives a short distance to a donut shop where he proceeds through the drive-thru and orders 2 jelly rolls and a large vanilla coffee (about 2000 calories).

Then it’s off to work.  “Whew it’s tiring sitting in front of this computer all day”!

Get the picture?  Our bodies , through evolution, were designed to burn calories like the caveman.  He’s on the go all day, killing dinner, collecting wood, building fires -- he’s busy. Whatever he can consume in calories during the day is burned  off quickly through his activity.  

If he had a great day on the hunt, he may consume more calories than he burned.  If so, the human body is designed to convert and store these left-over calories as fat.  They would be saved and later used as fuel for him when food was more scarce.

The human body has not changed since that time.  Our bodies still convert extra calories and stores them as fat.  What has changed is agricultural advances and technological advances.  

Because of technology, we rely on machines to do what we used to do by hand -- reducing our over all daily activity.  So, we use less calories and burn less fat.  Look at obesity rates over the past 50 years and you’ll notice a rise like Wall Street has never seen.

Food is abundant now.  The average person can’t throw a cheese-steak without hitting a fast-food restaurant.  And the processed foods we consume from grocery stores are not much better.

Doesn’t it make sense that if our bodies are designed to use calories and burn fat in a certain way, we need to obey and work within that system?  We know we have to press the gas pedal or the car won’t move.  Nobody stomps on the gas and does a “burn out”.  If you want to lose weight and burn fat, you have to work with the system we’re given.

So, let’s learn from the caveman.  Stay busy, burn calories and pay attention to what your consuming.  And the next time you’re watching TV. and that insurance commercial comes on -- you know, the one with the caveman sitting in the stands watching basketball.  Feel sorry for him, after he leaves the game he’s still got to go find and kill dinner.

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