21 Days

I read something (in passing) in Galloway's book on running while I was cataloging it yesterday. It suggested that the body takes 21 days to adapt to changes. I thought about it, and realized I already knew that. Twenty-one days is how long both of my Reiki Masters told me to practice daily to adapt to the change. Twenty-one days is the usual check-back time for physical therapy. I'm sure there are a number of other things, but about three weeks seems like a baseline adjustment period for the human body.

Early on in my journey, I was almost accidentally programming my self to not adapt, so that I continued to burn calories inefficiently – ie. My body kept using more fuel than it needed and I lost fast. More recently, I've been planning my high and low weeks based on reaction to the scale and circumstance, and guess what...my body is adapting and becoming more efficient – which isn't what I want!

I know that all sounds counter-intuitive, but it's true. The human body is an adaptive machine. When it is working at high efficiency, it uses less fuel to get more done, or, to put it in car terms, it gets a higher gas-millage. In order to lose weight, it helps to keep the body running at a low efficiency, thus burning more fuel (calories) to get less done. A high metabolism is low fuel economy.

Now, because the human body adapts, you have to keep it guessing. This is where the whole 21 day thing comes in. Since it takes 21 days for the body to adapt, switching up the routine on that schedule will keep the body guessing. So, feed it less for 18 days or so then startle it with more. Work it more for two weeks, then give it a break. Keep the switch-ups happening about every 21 days.

Right now, all of the above is theoretical for me. Looking back on my journey, I can see that that was working for me in the past. I'm going to keep working with this theory for a while and see what happens. I'm also using it to look at progress: 21 day progress chunks will give me interesting information.