10 Awesome Facts You Didn’t Know About Your Body

Your body is many things: a mechanical device, a walking
chemistry set, a sustainable life form, and an ever-
changing biological phenomenon. There’s a lot to know
about the body. Were you aware of these ten amazing
facts?
1. For every pound of fat gained, you add seven miles of
new blood vessels.
New tissue needs blood supply, so your vascular system
expands to accommodate it. This also means your heart
must work harder to pump blood through the new
network, which may reduce oxygenation and nutrient
replenishment in other tissues. Lose a pound? Your body
will break down and reabsorb the unneeded blood
vessels from the previous tissue.
2. Muscle tissue is three times more efficient at burning
calories than fat.
This is why possessing more muscle should be a training
goal for most people. More muscle = more calories
burned = less fat = being more fit looking. Simple goals
and simple math.
3. You are taller in the morning than in the evening.
When you crawl out of the sack in the morning you are
at your tallest. On average, you are approximately one
half inch taller when you wake in the morning, thanks to
excess fluid between within your spinal discs. While you
are sleeping, these fluids replenish. During the day your
body has to deal with the stress of standing, so the discs
become compressed and the fluid seeps out. This results
in you losing a small amount of extra height.
4. Your stomach manufactures a new lining every three
days to avoid digesting itself.
As a part of the digestive process, your stomach secretes
hydrochloric acid (HA). HA is a powerful corrosive
compound also used to treat various metals. The HA your
stomach secretes is also powerful, but mucous lining the
stomach wall keeps it within the digestive system. As a
result it breaks down the food you consume, but not your
own stomach.
5. Your body produces enough heat in only thirty minutes
to boil a half-gallon of water.
Your body is the epitome of a study on the laws of
thermodynamics. You produce heat from all that is going
on – exercise, metabolizing food, maintaining
homeostasis – and as you sweat, exhale, excrete, and
urinate (lovely thoughts, all of them).
6. Human bone is as strong as granite, relative to
supporting resistance.
Would you believe a matchbox-size chunk of bone can
support 18,000 pounds? Compared to concrete, human
bone is four times greater in support strength.
7. Your skin is an organ.
Just like the liver, heart, and kidneys, your outer
covering is an organ. An average man has enough skin
on his body to cover approximately twenty square feet.
For an average woman it is approximately seventeen
square feet. Approximately 12% of your weight is from
your skin. And, your skin replaces 45,000+ cells in only a
few seconds. It’s constantly growing new skin and
shedding old skin.
8. By the age of eighteen your brain stops growing.
From that age forward it begins to lose more than 1,000
brain cells every day. Only two percent of your body
weight is occupied by your gray matter, but is uses up to
20% of your overall energy output (it needs
carbohydrates). Your brain works continuously and
never rests, even when you’re asleep. Aside from
producing REM dreams, your brain works overtime to
replenish its ability to function normally during your
daytime waking hours.
9. There are more than 600 individual skeletal muscles
and 206 bones in your body.
If all 600+ muscles contracted and pulled in the same
direction, you could lift over twenty tons of resistance.
Additionally, the adult skeleton is composed of 206 bones,
but at birth an infant skeleton contains approximately
350 bones. Over time, some of the 350 bones fuse
together and eventually grow to the 206 adult figure.
10. You need to consume a quart of water each day for
four months to equate to the amount of blood your heart
pumps in one hour.
Additionally, over a lifetime, at your normal (resting)
heart rate you will have pumped enough blood to fill
thirteen oil super tankers. To further expound on this
fact, on average, your heart beats 40,000,000 times per
year. Doing the math, over your lifetime (both men and
women averaged), that results in 2,600,000,000
heartbeats (two billion, six hundred million). This does
not even factor in your increased heartbeats due to your
love of exercise.
Article originally appeared on BreakingMuscle.com