Another Interesting Theory

So I am reading a book that is just blowing my mind. Very interesting. It is by an evolutionary biologist who has spent the last ten years with "hunter gatherers" in Africa. He notes that by and large they have very little cancer, heart disease or other chronic health problems.  They pretty much exercise most of the day while out hunting or with women doing home type work.

His theory: we all believe that excess energy will be turned into fat... but what if some of it isn't? Let's say that we need 1500 calories per day and we eat 2000 calories - constantly. Sure 400 of it may be turned into fat... but 100 will be used by the body before the excess is turned into fat.  It is this chronic excess energy that causes bad things in the body: simply because the body has excess energy and has to do something with it. 

So what does it do? Increases inflammation, increases cell proliferation, causes an overactive immune system, and who knows what else? Essentially we should not be running on an excess energy situation each day.  The excess energy causes the body to have to do something with it - and that something may not be a positive thing.  

This is my commentary but IMHO this makes sense.

• It is well known that Calorie Restriction improves health, longevity, and biomarkers across all species...
• Exercise also has been shown to to improve health, longevity, and biomarkers across all species. But sometimes it doesn't... perhaps due to overeating?
• Part of his theory is what what you really need energy for are "big ticket items" like reproduction. Well, it is well known that people start having health issues in their 40s and 50s... when your body downshifts and no longer needs the energy for reproduction.  I have long stated that if menopause MUST mean something and we should listen to its apparent demand that we eat less... here is some evidence that failure to heed its warnings about less energy will cause problems. 
• Diet interventions that invariably cause less energy to be eaten (or increase the energy needs of the body) are more likely to result in health. E.g., fasting, keto, etc.
• Many diseases of modern calorie excess imho have evidence of an "overactive" body. Sink tags, Acanthosis nigricans, even uterine fibroids - etc. Does your body make these because it has to do something with the excess energy? Are these signs that your body has energy excess? 

What is most interesting about it is that it is kind of like a toggle... when you are younger you have massive energy needs... so you very rarely are in energy excess. But as you age you have less and less energy needs, and, you eat by and large the same (or more) you flip over to a chronic energy surplus which causes complete havoc with the body. 

Another part of his book that is interesting is that he has done extensive studies on it and it turns out that exercise does NOT increase your Total Daily Energy Expenditure.  This is another reason why we have all messed up so badly. He has measured the TDEE with these hunter gatherers and it the same as any person in the modern world. He has also studied it with animals... apes - and a captive ape in a zoo has by and large, a similar TDEE to an ape in the wild.  This number is determined by YEARS of evolution and factors like famine and reproduction. You cannot increase it substantially on a short term basis. 

So you see, people who are exercising may believe they can eat more than they really should be eating.  They may believe they burned off 2000 calories per day because they went to the gym, but they didn't and eating 2000 calories gives them excess energy that they didn't need.