Why Does It Matter?

The bioenergetic theory of health focuses on cellular energy creation. If a person's cells create enough energy, their body can support all the functions needed for optimal health. If there is not enough energy, some functions have to be down-regulated, and overall health suffers. There are two primary dietary components that are important to creating an excess of cellular energy: 1) eating foods that promote cellular energy creation, while avoiding foods that inhibit it, and 2) eating enough food to provide cells with all the fuel they need to create ample energy.

Many people follow and promote calorie restriction for better health and weight loss. The idea of eating less underlies many diet and health strategies. These semi-starvation diet plans all lead to the same place: under-nutrition and a lack of the appropriate fuels and co-factors needed to create energy and enhance health.

How Much is "Normal"?

Today, the typical recommendations for normal calorie intake are about 2,000 to 2,500 calories per day. Most people assume these recommendations are based on controlled studies and experimentation. This is not the case; in fact, there is surprisingly little evidence for these recommendations.

In the early 20th century the standard recommendations for calorie intake were much higher. Women were advised to eat a minimum of around 2,800 calories per day, plus more if they were active. The baseline recommendation for men was as much as 3,500 calories per day, and went up from there based on activity level. Most health advocates were trying to push people to eat more, rather than less.

At that time, obesity and chronic disease levels were much lower than they are now. People were maintaining their weight and health while eating far more than is recommended today. The bioenergetic explanation for this is that most people were eating pro-metabolic foods. Polyunsaturated fats were not eaten in large quantities, highly processed food additives were not widely available, and ruminant animal products (beef, milk, cheese, etc.) were a larger percentage of people's calories. These and other factors enabled people to convert food to energy at a much higher rate. Less food was stored as fat, and more cellular energy was created to support health and avoid chronic disease.

Fasting & Under Eating

When a person fasts or under eats for a significant period of time, their body doesn't have enough fuel to support all its functions, and some functions must be down-regulated. This problem is only worsened if the person already has some level of metabolic dysfunction. Research shows that under-eating can lead to a host of chronic health conditions, including:

• Organ shrinkage -- Organs such as the heart, liver and spleen have been shown to shrink by more than 50% during long periods of under-eating, with a corresponding loss of function.
• Muscle wasting -- If fuel from food is lacking, the body will break down protein for fuel, leading to loss of both skeletal muscle and smooth muscle. This will occur in a substantial caloric deficit, regardless of the amount of protein ingested. Eating enough is critical for muscle development.
• Intestinal distress -- The intestines lose their ability to move food (motility), and become thin and leaky. These issues in turn lead to bacterial toxins getting back into the bloodstream, further eroding energy creation and causing inflammation.
• Water retention (edema) -- As the body loses muscle, organ size and fat due to chronic under eating, it attempts to replace the structure provided by those elements with water, leading to edema even while losing weight.
• Reproductive issues -- Research shows participants who under-ate lost sexual desire and experienced a dramatic lowering of sexual and reproductive hormone levels and sexual function (including amenorrhea and PCOS in women, and erectile dysfunction in men).
• Psychological issues -- Both human and animal test subjects fed in a caloric deficit showed a decrease in cognitive ability, and increases in "brain fog", anxiety, moodiness and depression.

These conditions do not require dramatic restriction in calories, such as long-term fasting. The most extensive human controlled study on under-eating showed that men eating 1,500 calories per day for as little as eight weeks exhibited these symptoms. After 24 weeks, these conditions were seen in all the men in the study, with profound negative effects on overall health.

Eat More Of The Right Foods, Slowly!

The bioenergetic theory of health is focused on a holistic approach that increases cellular energy and overall metabolism. Rather than trying to eat as little as possible, the goal of a bioenergetic diet is to eat as much pro-metabolic food as one's metabolism can support, so that one's cells can create as much energy as possible.

If someone is coming from a calorie-restricted diet, most practitioners recommend first changing one's diet to favor pro-metabolic foods. As cellular energy production increases, slowly increase calories -- while always eating only pro-metabolic foods -- so that the body always has all the fuel it can use. A person coming from a high-calorie, unrestricted diet is advised to change their food quality to more pro-metabolic foods, but not to dramatically lower their calorie intake immediately. Rather, raise or lower caloric intake slowly over time depending on whether they are gaining or losing weight. In both cases, one should be trying to find the highest level of calories of pro-metabolic food one can eat without significant weight gain.