When people think about health, they often reduce it to numbers. Calories in. Calories out. Macros. Steps. Blood pressure. Resting heart rate. While these metrics have value, they fail to answer a more fundamental question. How well does your body manage its energy?
More fundamentally, is the way we measure the body’s energy accurate? Actually not.
The Human “Calorie”
A calorie is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius.
This has very little to do with the metabolism of protein, carbohydrate or fat in a human body. It was a Weslyan scientist, Wilbur Olin Atwater, who conducted experiments for the FDA, in 1879-1882, on the digestibility of fish (and lean meats). He placed carefully weighed food in a bomb calorimeter (a metal container), and measured how much of the heat he supplied was absorbed by the food. This became the modern-day dietary guidelines for our food- calories/gram chicken etc.
Atwater was the first to point out that all the assumptions he was making, in his experiments, were not valid in the human body. He maintained that his work was not quantitatively accurate and should NOT be used for metabolic studies.
Dr. Bomi Joseph understands this very well and sees the human body as a giant, complex, biochemically fueled energy system. Every biological action has an energy cost. Every breath, every movement, every thought – even every bite of food – requires energy to process, convert, and store. True health, he believes, depends on how little energy you expend to do significant work. Less healthy people expend a lot of energy to do menial tasks. Very healthy people expend very little energy doing difficult tasks.
This perspective reframes how we approach fatigue, illness, exercise, and even nutrition. It moves us away from sheer output and toward conservation, optimization, and sustainability.
Evolution Was Efficient- The Fittest Survived
Our ancestors were focused on surviving. And not focused on maximizing effort. They were focused on conserving it. Let’s take a simple example in the natural world – water to quench thirst. They could not live near the river banks because all the predators came there to drink. For safety, they had to live in the high ground, in caves or sheltered rocks. When they were thirsty, they had a long walk to water. And water was very heavy to carry back, and they did not have utensils.
They were constantly moving. Survival favored efficiency. Movements were purposeful. Food was scarce. Sleep was essential. Stimulation was minimal. The body adapted to do more with less.
Dr. Joseph points out that our DNA is still wired for that environment. We are designed to eat what grows in the soil, what hangs from trees, and what can occasionally be hunted or foraged. We are not programmed to process dozens of food choices per day, across cultures and cuisines. We are not designed to sit at a desk under artificial light for hours, followed by scrolling through endless digital content into the night.
In short, our biology has not caught up to modern life. The result is widespread energy dysregulation. People feel drained not because they are doing too much, but because their systems are overwhelmed by input and deprived of alignment.
The Dynamic Body Machine
Dr. Joseph points out that swaths of industries focus on the energy spent by a body in motion. The gym industry is built around this concept. Dr. Joseph says that this the wrong way to look at things. “It is the amount of energy spent by the body while doing nothing that is the key measure of health.”
He explains that the body is never in a static state. It is either improving or regressing. “If you think it is steady, you are regressing, you just don’t know it.” He draws a comparison between the body and a car engine. “You want your body to be an 800 Horsepower, 12-cylinder engine, and not a 20 Horsepower, single stroke rotary engine.”
The 800 Horsepower, 12-cylinder engine body burns significant energy sitting still. But it can power up and do significant work, with minimal effort. The body that is a 20 Horsepower, single stroke, rotary engine, burns very little energy sitting still, and strains and burns a lot of energy doing minimal work.
Training your body to go from a 20 HP to a 800 HP engine involves consistency, repetition, and a gradual progression upward. This takes time and is usually a lifelong commitment. Dr. Joseph plans to detail this out in another article.
Energy Leaks in the Modern Lifestyle
Dr. Joseph highlights that most modern health problems are not caused by infectious diseases (Covid was an exception). 84% of deaths today are caused by degeneration of the body over time. They are caused by a low horsepower engine frittering away energy without realizing it. Poor sleep, artificial stimulation, chronic stress, processed food, and addictive behavior, each one leaks energy from the system.
These are not obvious drains. They do not produce pain. But over time, they leave the body in a state of persistent depletion. Fatigue sets in. Hormonal cycles become irregular. Digestion slows. Visceral fat appears. Mood swings abound. Eventually, chronic degeneration follows.
What makes this more dangerous is that many people adapt to the low energy dissipation of a low horsepower engine. They normalize it. They stimulate with caffeine, sugar, drugs or late-night entertainment. They do not realize that the solution is not to stimulate a low Horsepower body, but to train the body to higher Horsepower levels.
Movement as a Return on Investment
In the traditional fitness world, success is measured by volume and intensity. More reps. More intensity. More steps. More time in the gym. But Dr. Joseph invites people to relax, and trust his process.
This diagram shows the profile of a runner who had reached a rut. He was training hard, and burning out, and not making progress. Dr. Joseph asked him to tone it down. He then told him to go on relaxed one hour per day runs, where his maximum heart rate was not to exceed 130 beats. This was about 60% of his maximum intensity. “This is fairly easy”, the runner said.
“I want you to run 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes in the evening, six days a week”, Dr. Joseph said. “That is even easier”, the runner replied. Dr. Joseph plotted his progress and in a year his pace had improved from 6 miles an hour to 7.3 miles an hour, a remarkable 22% increase. “My results are stunning” the runner texted him. “Your recommendations for achieving them were just opposite to what the gym trainers and other experts told me.”
Dr. Joseph explains the principle behind this. The body gets used to repetition. As the person was running consistently, and repeatedly, at the pace of 6 miles/hour, his maximum heart rate reduced from 130 to 126. In 16 weeks, he was running at a pace of 6.4 miles an hour to maintain his maximum heart rate at 130. In 32 weeks, he was running at a pace of 6.9 miles/hour to maintain a maximum heart rate at 130. In 48 weeks, he was running at a pace of 7.3 miles/hour to maintain a maximum heart rate at 130. He was running 22% faster, and feeling just as comfortable as he was when he was running 6 miles/hour. “It takes time. In this case, he was expending the same amount of energy running 7.3 miles/hour as he was running 6 miles/hour. But he had a more powerful body that was expending far more energy sitting still now.”
When the goal is metabolic efficiency, the body that powers it should be stronger. It should circulate blood, elevate oxygen, and sharpen the mind with less effort. This is why Dr. Joseph recommends consistent, “progressive”, low-intensity training throughout the day. Twenty minutes in the morning and twenty in the evening. It keeps the body primed without triggering stress pathways. The key is to gradually increase the complexity of the workouts to keep developing the tissue in the body. “Your cardiovascular system, VO2 max, tendonous explosion, joint strength etc., better be a lot stronger ten years from now, if not, you’ve just wasted your time,” says Dr. Joseph.
Nutrition as a Form of Energy Clarity
Food should be a source of energy, structural components to build tissue, trace elements, vitamins, hormonal ligands and undigestible matter known as insoluble fiber. Natural food, from our ancestral past, contained all of this. Even the undigestible insoluble fiber is of critical importance. It acts as a physical broom that cleans the colon. Natural foods cause a very gradual rise in insulin and the maximum insulin levels reached are rarely above 60 µU/ml. Unfortunately, humans have marketed and sold ultra-processed foods where the insulin spikes rapidly to levels over 200 µU/ml. This is extremely unhealthy. Often deadly, when it happens repeatedly every day for decades.
Spikes in sugar, heavy fats, artificial additives, and excessive variety all confuse the system. Dr. Joseph believes that biological simplicity is the cornerstone of nutritional health.
He advises returning to foods that match our genetic memory. Seasonal fruits. Root vegetables. Nuts. Seeds. Leafy greens. Wild-caught fish. Lean proteins. Not too many options. Not too many combinations. Just enough variety to provide the necessary nutrients without overwhelming digestion.
He also emphasizes rhythm. Eating at regular intervals. Chewing slowly (at least 30 chews each mouthful). This allows the slow developing gastric hormones to catch up with the incoming food. Avoiding emotional or distracted eating allows us to refuel without stress. After eating, the blood rushes into the visceral area to enable digestion. This is the time to relax and let the body replenish energy. These practices not only conserve digestive energy but also help reset the body’s hormonal and metabolic signals.
Mental Energy Is Physical Too
One of the most misunderstood elements of the energy economy is mental output. The brain never sleeps. The average brain is 1.8% of the body’s mass. And it consumes 25% of its daily energy. Thinking, planning, worrying, scrolling, reacting – all of these activities drain energy. That is why mental fatigue often is more exhausting than physical fatigue.
Dr. Joseph encourages people to treat mental energy with the same care they would give to physical exertion. “You are born with a mind that is a wild horse. It will take you for an exhausting ride every day. It’s your job to break down and tame that wild horse, if you want to live a relaxing life.” It starts with controlling your thoughts for a few seconds. When you master that, try having no thoughts for a minute. “It’s like doing pushups. It takes consistent and repeated practice. I focus my mind on my breath. I have to give it something to do” says Dr. Joseph. Reduce digital input. Limit multitasking. Engage in real-world tasks that create flow instead of friction. Meditation, journaling, and breathwork are not luxuries. They are tools to control and tame the wild horse that is the mind.
When you restore mental clarity, you free up energy that was otherwise trapped in anxiety and distraction. That energy becomes available for healing, repair, and productivity.
Sleep as Metabolic Banking
No conversation about energy is complete without talking about sleep. Sleep is not rest. It is recovery. It is when the body builds, reallocates resources, clears waste, rebuilds tissue, and regulates hormones. It is a metabolic bank where energy is recouped and stored for the next day.
Dr. Joseph emphasizes sleep discipline. Go to bed at the same time. Wake at the same time. Keep the room cool and dark. Avoid blue light. Avoid stimulating conversations before bed. The body craves rhythm. When you respect that rhythm, energy flows more freely during waking hours.
Poor sleep, on the other hand, creates a cascading failure. “Every day of poor sleep is a progressive day of less recovery. At some point you cannot function” says Dr. Joseph. It leads to poor decision-making, reduced physical endurance, emotional reactivity, and lowered immune function. No supplement or superfood can make up for a broken sleep cycle.
Conservation Over Stimulation
The health industry often pushes people to “do more.” More supplements. More workouts. More hacks. But Dr. Bomi Joseph believes that better health begins with doing less, more precisely. He teaches people to focus on conservation, not stimulation.
“Shred what binds you. Don’t work around it.” This means cutting out the excess. Eliminating energy leaks. Simplifying routines. Being intentional. By reducing friction and honoring biology, the body begins to reset. Energy becomes stable. Moods become lighter. Vitality returns.
This is not about restriction. It is about clarity. When you remove what does not serve you, what remains begins to thrive.
Designing an Efficient Life
Health is not just how you look or what your labs say. It is how much energy you bring into each day. Can you move easily? Can you think clearly? Can you dictate instead of reacting?
Dr. Joseph believes that the answer lies in design of the personality. “The brain is the physical mass. Then there is the mind, which is the center of thought. From this evolves a personality.” People can sense a personality designed for energy balance. One that is aligned and not forced. There are personalities who live a life with natural movement, natural food, deep sleep, meaningful work, and restorative connection.
This design is not complicated. It is ancient. And it is available to anyone willing to respect their biological evolution more than their cravings.
Spend Wisely, Live Fully
Energy is not infinite. There is no body that is 100% efficient. It loses energy all the time. Some more than others. Energy is a currency. Every day you spend it. Every decision is a transaction. You can invest it in your health, or you can leak it through distraction and imbalance.
Dr. Bomi Joseph’s philosophy teaches us that health is not about having more. It is about using what you already have, wisely and deliberately. The body knows how to thrive. You just have to stop draining it.