The benefits of caloric efficiency and 10 ways to achieve it.

We really like to eat.

We choose restaurants based on portion size.

We work out just to increase our capacity for guilt-free gluttony.

And even when we don't actually like it, we still want it because the food industry employs experts in brain hedonic processing to engineer food products

your brain literally cannot stop craving. As Louis C.K. put it, we don't stop eating when we're full.

We stop eating when we hate ourselves. I'm not immune. In college, they called me Arnold after the pig

from Green Acres, because I could and and did, out-eat anyone.

Linebackers, one and a half times my size were no match.

I love food, but I'm not interested in cramming as much food as I can get away with.

Not anymore.

I've mentioned the concept of the minimum effective dose before, or the smallest dose that

provides the desired outcome or effect.

This applies to exercise, sunlight, to carb intake, and to calories in general.

It's this caloric efficiency that describes my goal for the last dozen years.

How little can I eat and retain or build mass,

have optimal energy, never get sick, and still not go hungry? There are some obvious reasons

to strive for caloric efficiency. One, it's expensive, especially if you eat high-quality

food like pastured animals and organic produce.

Two, it's wasteful. We can eat 4,000 calories a day, but should we? It won't last forever,

especially if it's the quality food described in the previous point. Three, it's unnecessary.

While I could eat 1,000 more calories and probably stay as lean as I am, and perhaps

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