On Jan 31, 2010, at 4:07 PM, Trish Leon wrote:
>
> I am trying to answer a question posed by a non-paleo eater  
> regarding the amount of physical activity a hunter-gathering person  
> may have had daily.
>
> My friend posited that the reason a hunter-gatherer was fit and  
> could metabolize a mainly protein/fat diet was because their daily  
> life required the expenditure of massive calories, and that their  
> metabolism was therefore honed to that specific diet. She further  
> questioned my daily activity levels, which honestly are not very  
> high - certainly nothing compared to a paleo hunter. In fact, I  
> strongly dislike organized exercise and refuse to participate in  
> it. I walk, I garden, I play concert piano and organ 3-4 hours a  
> day...I don't ride a bike or lift weights. I do hike infrequently,  
> and swim when the opportunity presents itself.


Trish,

Thanks for asking this question.  I have done a bit of research of  
late on this very subject.  I believe that there was pretty wide  
variation in hunter gatherer activity patterns -- with some groups  
relying on what is in effect long distance running to obtain their  
fat and protein and some groups doing intense hunting followed by  
days of what might look to us as laziness.  And that was by and large  
the able bodied, mature males.  Females, being the primary gatherers  
(yes, there are exceptions, but they are rather few and far between,)  
appear to have had different patterns involving less intense activity  
spread out over longer periods of time.  Similar I suppose, to your  
patterns.

I choose the intense exercise pattern followed by days of rest.  What  
is clear to me is that one, male or female, old or young, can obtain  
an astonishing degree of physical fitness with very little exercise a  
week.  My current workout takes me 12 minutes a week.

One word on calories.  The whole caloric calculus is a bit of a  
fallacy.  Why?  Because a calorie is derived by taking a bit of food  
and literally burning it in an instrument called a bomb calorimeter  
to determine how much energy it contains.  The body doesn't work like  
that and will selectively store as fat, use for tissue building or  
nutrient replenishment, "burn" for energy, or even sometimes  
eliminate food by and large without even using it.  It all depends on  
macronutrient composition and the body's preferred means for  
obtaining energy at the moment.  So a calorie is not a calorie.

The second thing I'll say on calories is that one can really be led  
astray by focusing on them.  Focus first on getting your body into a  
state of food awareness by eating purist paleo.  You will then be  
attuned to signals of what you need and what you won't.  Good health,  
including weight loss, will follow.  You'll never need to look at how  
many calories this or that food item might have.

Jim Swayze