Stress, behaviour and energy

The energy cost of stress: appetite, food quality and the demands of coping

Stress can alter cellular energy use while disrupting eating. Some people lose their appetite; others eat more or choose differently. What does that mean for adequate fuelling?

Cellular energy and physiology

ATP does more than supply energy

Protein solubility offers a useful extension to the energy-currency explanation of ATP, without replacing its established energetic role.

Cellular energy and physiology

Cell water: an active environment, but how structured?

Water–protein interactions matter. Their existence does not establish that most cellular water is immobilised or that a particular diet restructures it.

Cellular energy and physiology

The sodium–potassium pump: the energy cost of electrical readiness

Artificial membranes are not living cells. A critical examination of what reconstruction can demonstrate, what it leaves out, and how to assess Ling’s alternative.

Cellular energy and physiology

How do we know mitochondria make ATP?

Reconstitution, molecular rotation and competing explanations: examining the evidence behind energy coupling.

Metabolism and function

Fuelling changes expenditure: why energy needs are not fixed

Overfeeding experiments show an adaptable expenditure response—and the limits of that adaptation.

Metabolism and function

Metabolic rate and longevity: capacity, stress and the cost of illness

Higher resting expenditure can accompany greater oxidative capacity—or fever, catecholamine activity and tissue loss. The cause matters.

Metabolism and function

Recovery is more than replacing calories

Muscle energy markers and force can recover on different timelines. Adequate fuelling matters, but it is not the only part of recovery.

Metabolism and function

Phosphate, kidneys and ageing: what the mouse experiment can tell us

A genetic rescue experiment raises an important mineral-regulation question, but does not establish a universal low-phosphate diet.

Brain energy, sport and research

Brain lactate: backup fuel, ageing and the sporting threshold

Why useful fuel, persistent accumulation and a sporting test result need different interpretations—and why fuelling matters more than chasing a low lactate number.

Behaviour, books and research

Predictability, control and manageable demands

Knowing what comes next and having a meaningful choice are different forms of support.

Behaviour, books and research

One meal does not ruin the day

Dietary rules can create a second problem after the meal: abandoning the plan or trying to compensate for it.

Behaviour, books and research

When rest does not feel restful

Leaving work and recovering from its demands are not always the same event.

Behaviour, books and research

Why stress changes the habits we fall back on

Knowing what you want to do and being able to act on it under pressure are different problems.

Behaviour, books and research

Hunger after weight loss: why willpower is an incomplete explanation

Appetite is an outcome worth measuring, not an inconvenience to remove from the story.

Behaviour, books and research

When food tracking helps—and when it becomes another demand

A useful record should help someone understand their needs without making every meal a test.

Behaviour, books and research

Why exercise can feel harder after a mentally demanding day

Mental fatigue can change performance without demonstrating a large extra calorie expenditure.

Behaviour, books and research

Having the skill: why pressure can change access to ability

Performance reflects the task and the setting as well as what someone knows how to do.

Behaviour, books and research

Autism, communication and the social setting

Information accuracy, comfort and connection are different outcomes—and all deserve attention.

Behaviour, books and research

Recovery can mean learning safety, not erasing the past

Why reassurance, memory and returning to activity do not always move at the same pace.

Behaviour, books and research

Does calorie restriction always worsen wellbeing? The CALERIE counterpoint

Taking dietary distress seriously also means examining trials in which participants reported benefits.

Research perspective

Beyond the scales: strength, ageing and measuring function

A grip-strength study raises a useful question for nutrition research: what happens to the person’s capabilities, alongside their body mass?

Research perspective

Mitochondrial signalling, lipid oxidation and ageing

A cellular-ageing study connects mitochondrial signals with membrane fats—and complicates the idea that more energy production is always better.

Research perspective

Endurance exercise, red blood cells and recovery

The demands of a long race reach beyond the calorie counter. What can red-cell research tell us about recovery?

Room to Be Yourself · Research perspective

Mental fatigue, stress and energy needs

A demanding day can be exhausting without much movement. What does the research actually tell us about its energy cost?

Controlling Intuitive Appetite · Research perspective

Childhood adversity and the energy of muscle

What a study of older adults can tell us about life experience, ATP production and the limits of a metabolic explanation.

Controlling Intuitive Appetite · Research perspective

Stress, anxiety and mitochondrial pathways

Why cellular energy belongs in the discussion of stress—and why blood-cell gene expression is not a diagnosis of brain energy deficiency.

Controlling Intuitive Appetite · Research perspective

Body size does not tell the whole energy story

Healthy underweight adults had higher-than-predicted resting expenditure—but also lower intake and activity. All three findings matter.

Controlling Intuitive Appetite · Research perspective

Mitochondrial electron flow and immune readiness

A mechanistic study shows why mitochondrial function involves cellular regulation as well as ATP production.

Controlling Intuitive Appetite · Behaviour and fuelling

Appetite, autonomy and the limits of compliance

An eating plan should help the person live well. Understanding hunger and learned behaviour gives us better questions than whether someone obeyed the rules.

Consistent Eating · The EPK framework

There is no magic diet: make consistency possible

An extract from Consistent Eating, followed by a practical answer: build a pattern that nourishes you and can be repeated.

Consistent Eating · The EPK framework

Resting needs are not your whole day

From the first edition’s activity table to today’s wearable estimates: how to use energy numbers without counting the same calories twice.

Consistent Eating · The EPK framework

Not every kilogram has the same energy needs

An original Consistent Eating figure explains why body mass gives useful context—and why kcal/kg is not a universal metabolic score.

Are we adequately fuelled? Calories, body mass and the historical record

What modern US dietary surveys and the famous US–Soviet calorie comparison can tell us about energy per kilogram—and what they cannot.

Less body fat does not always mean better metabolic health

What a rare genetic disorder reveals about fat storage and mitochondrial function.

Low-fat diets: carbohydrate source matters

A mouse experiment comparing sucrose with starch raises a specific dietary-composition question.

Dietary fat, brain inflammation and mood

A mechanistic mouse study connects lipid signalling with behaviour.

Fat oxidation is not the same as body-fat loss

Controlled feeding evidence, metabolic adaptation and the limits of DCA claims.

PUFA tracking: what cellular research can tell us

The rationale and limits of an optional dietary-fat target.

Carbohydrate intake can change cortisol metabolism

A human crossover study separates dietary composition from weight change.

Fasting, hair regeneration and energy supply

A tissue-specific response that deserves attention beyond the weighing scale.

Cortisol signalling depends on tissue and context

Why a local hormone increase can accompany an improvement.

NAD precursors and evidence for energy support

What a small combination-supplement trial can and cannot establish.

Under-fuelling, cortisol and the persistence of hunger

What human experiments reveal about restriction, stress and the biological effort of maintaining weight loss.

Enough energy, available carbohydrate and better performance

Why avoiding under-fuelling and supporting carbohydrate use are related but distinct questions for EPK.

Fat type, storage location and ageing: beyond the scales

What human studies reveal about liver fat, subcutaneous stores and changing fatty-acid composition during weight loss and ageing.

Carbohydrate, fat and EPK: what an overfeeding experiment can tell us

A controlled feeding study raises a question for EPK: can equal energy per kilogram produce different metabolic responses?

Mitochondria, stress and the energy to function

What Martin Picard’s research contributes to EPK: fuel supply, cellular utilisation and the energetic cost of stress.

How often do diets fail - and what does failure mean?

Adherence, weight regain and the burden of restriction are different questions. The evidence supports asking all three.

What starvation research reveals about restrictive dieting

Metabolism, hunger, behaviour and recovery in The Biology of Human Starvation — and what they mean for EPK.

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment: energy, behaviour and recovery

Keys and colleagues documented the consequences of prolonged semi-starvation. Later reanalyses help frame questions about appetite and metabolic adaptation.

Sapolsky, stress and energy: what belongs in EPK research?

Stress biology helps explain why behaviour depends on physiological and social context. It does not reduce every stress response to insufficient calories.

Can under-fuelling disrupt sleep?

Human evidence links some forms of energy restriction to disturbed sleep, but the response depends on the exposure and population.

Energy availability and testosterone: why the response is not a single cutoff

Human studies connect under-fuelling with hormonal and functional changes, while showing why testosterone is not a calorie gauge.

Sleep can change what is lost during a calorie deficit

A controlled human experiment connects sleep with body composition during dieting—and gives EPK a more specific recovery question.

Everyday movement changes how the body handles a meal

Short walking studies connect activity patterns with glucose regulation, without equating acute glucose changes with long-term fat loss.

Low-fat diets show why burning fat and losing fat are different

Controlled feeding studies help explain why fuel selection, food intake and body-fat change need separate measurements.

Mitochondrial function means more than burning calories

Exercise adaptation and lactate use show why energy throughput, useful work and cellular function must be distinguished.

Does mental work change appetite or calorie expenditure?

Cognitive effort, food intake and energy expenditure are separate outcomes. Measuring each can make the brain-energy question more useful.

Why a kilogram of body weight does not have one energy cost

Body mass provides a useful scale, but age and tissue composition affect what an energy-per-kilogram value means.

Energy per kilogram in performance and elite sport

Why total intake, exercise expenditure and fat-free mass must be measured separately.

Energy needs from gestation and birth to older age

A lifespan map that separates maternal needs, growth, resting metabolism and total daily requirements.

Energy per kilogram in disease: why one number is insufficient

Cancer, older-age care and critical illness illustrate different uses of weight-based estimates.

Where 25 kcal/kg/day is described as a minimum

Clinical intake guidance and measured resting metabolism offer distinct reference points for EPK.

Why sustaining a calorie deficit can become difficult

Appetite feedback helps explain adherence problems without making diet failure inevitable.

Low-carb performance and resting metabolism need separate tests

Reduced exercise output does not automatically mean a lower resting metabolic rate.

Ageing changes strength as well as muscle mass

Tracking lean mass alone can miss substantial losses of functional capacity.

Healthspan needs outcomes beyond metabolic rate

Mobility and disease risk help test whether an energetic change is beneficial.

What exceptional longevity can tell us about resting metabolism

Exceptional longevity raises a useful question, but the available RMR evidence needs careful interpretation.

What would make EPK a useful research measure?

A testable question connecting energy intake, fuel switching and human function.

What human studies add to the EPK question

Six relevant PubMed papers, including findings that support, qualify and challenge the proposed mechanisms.

Fat oxidation is only part of the question

Why EPK research needs to distinguish fuel supply, oxidation and the ability to change fuels.

Mitochondrial membranes need a more precise fat story

What cardiolipin and lipid–protein research can contribute to EPK.

From sleep pressure to cognitive aging

Promising mitochondrial questions, with important gaps between experimental models and human outcomes.

Immune capacity involves more than ATP

A dendritic-cell study refines the proposed Proportional Danger Theory.