Brainpower

Did you know your brain burns about 300 calories a day to function properly? And your liver requires 200 calories a day, your heart and kidneys need at least 440, not to mention all of the other organs, tissues, and muscles in your glorious body. 

Another fun fact - when you sleep, you burn about 50 calories an hour. When you are just sitting you burn calories at a rate of 75 an hour. This is just an average, some of you are burning way more than that in your busy lives. 

So, check this out - if you sleep for 8 hours at 50 calories an hour, that is 400 calories overnight. If you sit still and don’t do any major thinking for 16 hours a day, at 75 calories per hour, that would be 1200 calories. So if you didn’t move for 24 hours, just sleep and sit, you need 1600 calories to support your body functions! Astonishing! 

I went down this calorie rabbit hole with a client last week. She came into my office after school and I could tell she was having trouble focusing on our conversation. I excused myself, then brought a basket of snacks and a water for her. She said she was starving and had skipped lunch. When I asked why, her answer was “prom” with a head tilt. I looked at her with loving, understanding, frustrated-at-our-society, been-there-myself eyes. I get it. We all do. Many of us have a messed up relationship with food and our bodies. 

While she was snacking and I was waiting for her brain to regain function, I googled ‘how many calories does your brain require to function?’ Harvard Medical, National Institutes of Health, and the UK all have studies published saying our bodies need at least 1,400 to 1,600 calories a day just for baseline organ function. 

We were both amazed as I rattled off the numbers I shared with you at the beginning of this email. She and I both had no idea what our bodies needed to function. I’m halfway through my life and have never considered what my brain, liver, heart, and kidneys actually needed to keep me alive. 

As she was on her third bag of trail mix, I could see her eyes brighten. I literally watched her cognitive function return. We spent the rest of the session talking about how she could thrive if she eats and that feeding her body was an act of self-compassion. I challenged her to triple the amount of protein she normally eats. I’m sharing this with you because she texted me a few days later saying she felt more energy than she had in a long time. She said she was feeling like a zombie and now she felt alive again. I asked her permission to share this with you. 

How many of us are not eating enough for our body to properly function? How would you feel if you had more energy during the day?

You deserve energy. You deserve to thrive.

Eat for fuel. Eat for your brain function. 

Here are some high energy foods that will give you a boost this week:

bananas, eggs, oatmeal, quinoa, sweet potatoes, fish, almonds, greek yogurt, lentils, chicken, spinach, dark chocolate, shrimp, black beans, protein powder smoothies - you can google more ideas for lean protein, high energy foods

I want your organs to be fed so you can be the awesome person you are here to be. Let’s stop starving ourselves and start living with more energy!

Eat, move, thrive!