Your midbrain instincts and patterns is programmed for to protect you from the dangers of a hunter gatherer life where daily survival came down to avoidance of the three major causes of death-starvation, predators and hypothermia or freezing to death.
As our midbrain evolved, many instinctual patterns developed in response to these threats. So we have patterns which are really robustly designed to protect us against them. Fortunately, in the modern first world, we longer have to worry about starving, freezing, or being eaten.
Unfortunately, our midbrains don't know this.
Fat storage was a tried and proven method to provide some insurance for the body to handle these threats Primitive man resided in an environment where there was never a stable predictable supply of food If you did not know whether you would eat tomorrow, having spare fat storage on your body would help keep you alive during the lean times. The more fat you had on your body, the longer you could go on without eating. Similarly, if you were trying to survive exposure in the cold winter without the benefit of shelter, having a layer of fat would also act as insulation. Fat protects you from the cold.
But being fat had its disadvantages too in the hunter gather world. It makes you more vulnerable to predators. In this case extra fat is a liability because the more excess weight you carry, the slower you are. And more likely to be taken by a big teethed predator. This mind mid brain also has patterns and instincts that tap this fat reducing mechanism too, and it is this pattern we will leverage to help us get to our preferred weight.
Our instincts are hard wired into our mid brain, all those hunter gatherer instincts that tell us to search for safety, eat everything in sight except ourselves and our young. So, the one of the first steps in controlling your weight and body is to understand that it's not about will power, or circumstance. Rather than competing with our own "caveman brain" instincts to keep you alive, all you need to do is understand why your body wants to be fat, how it protects itself and then eliminate/or satisfy those reasons. Eliminate these heritage patterns and triggers that your body wants to be fat and it will want to be thin.
The truth is your hunter brain doesn't want to you to be fat in order to hurt you. The only reason your body gains weight is because the mental patterns in the mid brain think it is in your best interest to gain weight. But as soon as you identify the triggers and you start addressing them, everything will adjust to give you the body that you want with minimal change to your lifestyle.
Now the midbrain and body have for the most part evolved together and work together to provide body functions and feedback stimuli. I.e. when our blood glucose drops a little we trigger the hunger reflex in the brain and go out searching for satisfaction for these cravings. This in my case usually meant a cheese burger.
As far as your mid brain is concerned, it is there to use tried, true and tested patterns to ensure your survival. Your Midbrains instincts have responses that make perfect sense to it. All you have to do is understand your body's responses and work with them. You have to convince your Midbrain, using its language and its reasoning, that your choices aren't' going to make you unsafe.
If we wish to change these we need to use the forebrain to hack into our midbrain and change those instinctual routines. Whilst at the same time removing our at least reducing the impact of the feedback stimuli making weight control in line with your bodies instinctual programs.
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