It is a commonly held fact that to lose weight you must utilise a suitable exercise program and dietary plan. However, members of the general public have never had this process works explained to them at the most fundamental level. I am going to use the evidence of the world's most famous scientist to show how calories work during metabolism. The man in question was a doctor of high achievement, but I'm not talking about Dr Atkins or any experts of the television. I'm talking about a doctor, not of medicine but of physics, mainly Professor Albert Einstein. I will demonstrate how any physical system can be analysed using the theory of relativity including the human body and environment.
Everyone is taught about Einstein's most famous equation E=MC² in high school. However, the meaning of this equation is rarely broken down into a way that is made easily understandable. Although relativity is notoriously difficult to understand and a full understanding of the applications of the theory would take lifetime to understand, the basics of the equation are actually quite simple. So please, don't be put off by the term relativity as Albert Einstein said about himself said,” it is more important to be curious than intelligent” so let's explore.
Okay, let's get started. General relativity is a mass- energy equivalence formula let me explain what that means the E = energy, the M = mass and C² represents a constant parameter. In one sentence, that is the basics and all you really need to know the purposes of this article. Still confused? Well, lets remove the constant parameter which is the C² part of the equation we are left with e=m (or energy = mass). As Einstein put it himself “mass and energy are essentially a like; they are only different expressions of the same thing”. This means that energy is convertible into mass and vice versa.
Well, that's all very well, you might think but how can this information help me maintain or lose weight? Isn't relativity all about the big bang, nuclear power and black holes and various other things which go boom and I don't really understand? Well, that's certainly a valid response, but unfortunately, if you are thinking this you'd be wrong and here's why, the energy equivalence formula and can be applied to all forms of energy assessed over any duration or scale (it has universal application, quite literally at least above atomic scale, but that’s another article).
Let me tell you a little bit about the humble calorie it’s one of those terms we learn in high school, but just like relativity we very rarely have it explained to us in any meaningful way. A calorie is a unit of energy, food energy to be precise; it is the amount of energy that must be applied in the form of heat to a gram of water order to raise its temperature by 1°C. For the purposes of dietary assessment a calorie is the main measure of both food intake and energy expenditure during exercise, as such the calorie is used by nutritional scientists and exercise physiologists to assess diet and exercise. To put it simply your body composition is the sum total of the amount of energy you consume in the form of food, divided by the amount of energy you expend during exercise.
Human bodies metabolise food (MASS) to convert it into useful calories (ENERGY) for all our bodily functions and any excess calories are stored in adipose tissue (or as it is more commonly known body fat).Adipose tissue is a storage form of calories as is muscle glycogen.
There are two simple methods for losing weight, summed up by comedian Billy Connolly put simply” move more and eat less” .Of course this isn't exacting but the general principle is correct and energy intake and utilisation needs to be balanced in order for weight to be maintained. As Einstein himself put it “the mass of a body is not a constant in varies with changes in its energy”.
The thing is we need to be exacting in any conversion process (such as metabolism) and for that we need a measure. Returning to relativity, the measure is the square root of the speed of light or C² to express it in simple terms. In the example of relativity, the speed of light is simply used as a measure of the conversion of energy (it is a measure of motion in terms of relative duration). All measures in the physical sciences are either dimensional (length, width and high) or durational (time). In practice, there are practical measures which can assess energy use in the body (were processes happen at various rates, but not the speed of light in a vacuumas in relativity!).
Metabolism is an active process related to energy. It doesn't just happen in the digestive tract, but in every cell in the body. All living cells contain a substance known as ATP. This energy source within cells acts as a battery and the food we take in allows the batteries to be recharged (through a recycling process known as the kerbs cycle). ATP is also the chief energy currency of lean tissue (muscle mass). There are two types of muscles in his human body involuntary muscles (such as those of the digestive system) and active muscles (in the musculoskeletal system). ATP is utilised in every type of active bodily activity, and the amount used will be initiated on the basis of the intensity and duration of activity.
In the muscles energy currency is the substance ATP which is the battery of energy within the cells. There are two broad terms used to assess the intensity of exercise. These are short duration, anaerobic exercise (meaning without the use of oxygen) and long duration aerobic exercise (meaning with the use of oxygen). Both aerobic and anaerobic exercise, utilise calories, in order to recharge the ATP battery.
Aerobic and anaerobic exercises are not polar opposites, but part of a broad exercise continuum, which makes use of three distinct recycling systems order to power, muscular action: respiration of oxygen to carbon dioxide , phosphocreatine to pyrvate and ATP to ADP . During long duration exercise (distance running, cycling swimming) we rely more on the conversion of oxygen to carbon dioxide (respiration takes place in the cells mitochondria as well as in the lungs). During moderate duration exercise (a round of boxing, running 400 metres) we rely more on the conversion of lactate acid back to pyruvic acid during the kerbs cycle, during short duration exercise (weightlifting, long jump) we rely on ATP being quickly converted into ADP.A mixtures of these fuels are used, at every exercise intensity. Although one system of energy utilisation is emphasised at any given duration a combination metabolism and respiration refuels the whole body at every scale from whole body to cellular processes.
What determines the intensity of any exercise is the work rate and duration of the activity. That is to say, short duration, high-intensity exercises and long duration low intensity exercises will burn the same amount of calories if the work rate is the same (the work rate is the sum of duration and intensity of effort). Going back to Einstein's famous equation we can see, that it can be used as an assessment of the energy conversion process within a given time-frame used in all physical occurrences (above atomic scale) which can be assessed by their duration and magnitude of the effects.
The magnitude of the effective exercise is a measure of work rate divided by duration which determines the intensity of exercise effort. You need to establish the right level of intensity for any given individual to exercise at and this requires a level of assessment which goes beyond the scope of this article (but is easily assessed by an exercise physiologist). Described broadly, however, if the exercise level is set at an exceptionally high-intensity compared to one's muscular and cardiovascular output the effects can be detrimental, if the intensity is set to low there will be no measurable effect and if the intensity is just right there will be a improvement in function (improved fitness). The whole process is rather like Goldilocks and the porridge it’s all about finding the right level of effort for the individual. For the novice and intermediate exercisers undergoing this level of conditioning at high-intensity is in fact unnecessary. Too much discomfort experienced in the short duration of time could be compared to the effects of time dilation in relativity in that it may seem that during an intense short exercise bout your agony has been infinitely prolonged!
As far as the dietary approach to weight maintenance is concerned, when all else is equal, a diet containing low GI carbohydrates is superior to a diet containing high GI carbohydrates for reducing fat storage preserving your metabolic rate and maintaining healthy insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. To put it another way, if you maintain the correct energy balance by consulting the glycemic index of carbohydrates you are unlikely to gain weight and should avoid the complications of adult onset type 2 diabetes (which is associated with clinical obesity and lowered glucose tolerance and insulin insensitivity). One also needs to consume a diet low in saturated fat and good quality protein sources where the energy balance of calories consumed does not exceed calories utilised a long with an adequate supply of micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals) and adequate hydration (water).
Now, you may wonder where environmental sustainability comes into all this.
Well, the human body is a structure where mass and energy are converted effectively over a given duration and the same could be said for the environment. In both cases, assessment and application of energy requirements to suit different needs requires careful thought and management. Maintenance and stability are two sides of the same coin ,in fact they are the same thing when applied to motion, (just ask any unicyclist!) they are always framed in any physical system by the conversion of mass into energy, and vice versa. At the present time, we extract from our environment mainly, non-renewable energy sources. Reserves that have been built up in gas oil and coal over millions of years. These are all types of biomass, plants which once lived which are now used as an energy reserves from dead matter. We can also harvest biomass from renewable sources this is analogous to our bodies two types of energy storage with there our bodily tissues the fat stores are of finite, limited resource which can be depleted but ATP is a renewable resource, which can be replaced through adequate functioning of metabolism and respiration.
This is our use of fossil fuels is similar to an individual relying on fat stores for energy it cannot be sustained needs carbohydrates to power muscular contractions. However renewable sources of energy are much more energy-efficient and like the functioning of the kerbs cycle within metabolism. Treatment of the environment, with investment in improved technology will give far higher energy yields than we have experienced using fossil fuels. Arthur C. Clark defines levels of civilisation, not by their cultural idiosyncrasies, but by their use of energy. If you look at our own history we have gone from burning coal fires to burning oil to using the nuclear fusion within a couple of centuries. Each yields a higher percentage of energy per unit of mass. The elements themselves that is to say the potential energy in the environment (the wind, waves and solar power) all have the potential as renewable energy sources as do reusable bio fuel and plug in hybrid cars. All these sources help reduce carbon emissions and cut down on green house gases with the environment. These technologies may seem new to people in are present era but we only have to look back to the Industrial Revolution to see the use of wind and water power to fire an industrial expansion and improvement in the standard of living.
As we have seen, relativity is a description of energy transfer over a given duration. An understanding of energetic process can be applied, to any physical system. Relativity is by no means the last word on this. But it does have a far reaching ability to be applied in principal to living systems, such as, the human body and the planetary environment as a whole.