mmalabanan
Almost all of us include having a healthy diet on our list of New Year’s resolutions. But unknown to many, humans are programmed to break this resolution during the first few months of the year.
A study carried out by researchers from Exeter University revealed that humans actually have the natural drive to put on weight rather than lose it. Using a series of mathematical equations to verify whether animal’s bodies have evolved to stock a certain amount of weight over thousands of years, their findings showed that it is actually more dangerous for animals, including humans, to be too thin rather than be fat.
Moreover, they also found that the tendency to put on weight gets stronger during winter months to ensure survival. To arrive at this conclusion, the researchers came up with a computer simulation that showed that the tendency to top up fat stores. Moving less was more frequently observed during winter. This is because food is hard to come by at this time for animals so they usually stock up on fat and hibernate.
Dr. Andrew Higginson explained, “All animals, including humans, show seasonal effects on the urge to gain weight. Storing fat is an insurance against the risk of failing to find food, which for pre-industrial humans was most likely in winter. This suggests New Year is the worst possible time to start a new diet.”
Based on the findings of the study, researchers suggest that people must wait until April or May before dieting.
