A new reality

# Chapter 87

The post for another day . . . from yesterday.

As you get healthier and stronger and thinner and faster and better looking, the math starts to work against you in an ever increasing curve. Like I said yesterday, I can consume 900 calories, exercise to the tune of 1600 calories burned, and still gain two pounds on pretty much any given day. The instruments are lying and the math is lying and this is reality, or at least at first glance this is reality. But after observing this for a couple of decades, there are more subtle things going on and THIS is reality.

So first of all face the fact that as you get healthier stronger thinner and better looking, your body gets far more efficient. Far far more efficient. This efficiency increase is what makes it feel like you ate 900 calories, exercised 1600 off, and gained 7000 calories worth of weight in the same day. Do not let this discourage you. While it vastly limits how much and how fast you can lose weight, it also means you are healthier stronger thinner and better looking.

Second of all, you eat more than you realize. Unless you write down and weigh every single thing you put in your mouth each day, you and I are part of the 99% of people out there who significantly underestimate our daily calorie intake. You don’t believe me? Well it is easy to disprove if I am in error. Just weigh and write down everything you eat in a day and you will see. Personally I prefer to eat my peanut butter straight out of the jar, than weigh and write it down. Combine this factor with the above paragraph and the results are skewed even more.

Thirdly of all, you are burning far less calories than your Apple Watch or any other gadget is telling you if you have been doing this for any length of time. Refer to the “first of all” paragraph above. Congratulations! You can now do greater feats than ever before, burning far less calories. And let’s face it, your body is working less, because it takes less energy to propel my 157 pound body up a hill, than it did to propel my 227 pound body up the same hill.