For the first few years, the body is growing rapidly and needs extra energy in the form of calories that you ingest from time to time.
At around age 20, the body reaches its maximum growth potential. Your organs are fully developed and your height stops increasing. The extra energy needed during the growth phase is no longer required.
Let us assume that you need 2000 calories per day to maintain good health. Assuming that you eat only 1% extra, you are ingesting 20 calories extra every day. This gets converted to fat and stored as a thin layer beneath your skin (as subcutaneous fat) or in the belly region (as visceral fat). In 365 days, you would be ingesting 20x365 = 7,300 calories extra. 3,500 calories of excess calories ingested get converted into one pound of fat. Therefore, the weight of the vast majority of people keeps increasing by 1 kg per year.
The incremental weight gain may not be noticeable year on year. But over a 20 or 30 year period, you would have put on 20 or 30 kgs weight. Remember that your organs were already fully developed and had stopped growing. Each organ will now have to support your body with the extra weight. That puts a lot of strain on the organs and they keep becoming weaker. As a result:
1. You become more and more sedentary in life
2. Your VO2 Max (the maximum amount of oxygen that you can breathe in one minute) keeps decreasing by 1-2% every year
3. Your muscle mass keeps decreasing by 1-2% every year
4. Your bone mineral density keeps decreasing by 1-2% every year
Health-span is the period in time when you enjoy good health. To enjoy a longer Health-span you have to minimize the annual decline or maintain (or even slightly increase) your VO2 Max, muscle mass and bone mineral density year on year.
Just one slice of bread may have 20 calories. By not eating that extra slice of bread, you will be able to enjoy better health for a longer period. Even if you had that extra slice, you could burn it off by walking for a few minutes or climbing up a few flights of stairs.
To enjoy good health throughout your life, you need to do the following things:
1. Keep your Circadian Rhythm in sync with the movement of the sun. The digestive power of your body starts developing after sunrise and keeps increasing as the sun reaches its highest point around noon. Then it keeps decreasing till sunset. Therefore, it is very important that you eat all your meals during that period.
2. Drink only water from sunset to sunrise on the following day. Drink about 250 ml of water 10-12 times in a day to keep your body hydrated. You may have 500 ml of warm water as soon as you wake up. It will help facilitate better bowel movement.
3. Do strength training or yoga for about 30 minutes and walk 10,000 steps throughout the day. Swimming or cycling are also good. Spend at least 30 minutes in the sun every day. Do some Pranayama or breathing exercises.
4. Meditate for at least 5 minutes 2 or 3 times a day. It will help you in reducing your Cortisol levels and stress.
5. Sleep for 7-8 hours every night. If the food that you have eaten is fully digested before bedtime, you will sleep peacefully. And only when you sleep on an empty stomach, you body will be able to heal itself. Remember that your body can do only one thing at a time – it can either digest the food that you have eaten, or it can heal itself. It cannot do both.
Nature has bestowed us with a wonderful body that can heal itself and remain healthy. You only need to provide a conducive environment for it do so. If you take good care of your body (and mind), your body (and mind) will ensure that your Health-span is almost as long as your life-span.
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