I was at a party on Sunday and chatting to a friend.
He observed just how big my youngest son, aged eight, is now.
My friend asked how much my youngest ate.
“A lot,” I replied.
“It’s mind-blowing how much he can put away sometimes.”
He was saying he wished that his 5-year-old son would eat more because he’s not growing as much as he felt he should be.
I pointed out that his son eats a perfectly normal amount.
Charlie just eats twice as much because he’s twice the size.
“He’s not big because he eats a lot; he eats a lot because he’s big.”
This highlights a significant principle: when it comes to **eating more for size**, our energy requirements are dictated primarily by our size and our activity levels.
Most of the variations outside of that come from differences in body composition—two people of the same weight don’t necessarily have the same amount of fat, muscle, and so on.
Variations outside of that are very minimal.
All the controlled studies ever done back this up.
It’s tempting to think that it’s unfair if someone has higher energy requirements than us (i.e., can eat more food than us).
But it’s actually completely fair.
There’s a consistent, universally applied reason for it.
It would be unfair, and extremely odd, if someone was twice the size and twice as active but didn’t need any more energy to make that happen.
Ultimately, our energy requirements are what they are.
We can either take in more energy than we need and have it be stored within body fat.
Or have the appropriate amount and maintain where we are now.
Or take in less to elicit withdrawal of energy from stores (aka “lose weight”).
If you’re interested in seeing more tips on nutrition and fitness, or if you’d like to check out success stories of our members, I encourage you to visit our Google Business Profile. There you can also read reviews or leave your own!
Much love,
Jon ‘I was a large child too’ Hall
P.S. It’s www.myrise.co.uk/apply when you’ve had enough of lone-wolfing it and are ready to accept proven help in making relatively easy and lasting changes to our eating habits (and the results that come from that)!
