Is it possible to get fatter in an energy deficit or leaner in a surplus? And why the picture on the poster is complete nonsense?
The energy balance is simple, but not straightforward. As a rule, an excess of energy leads to a set of fat, and a lack of it leads to its loss, but this is not the only option. Now I will try to explain in simple terms why a calorie deficit does not always lead to fat loss and can even increase its amount, is it possible to lose fat with an excess of calories and why muscles grow in a deficit, and all this without violating the law of conservation of energy. And yes, it’s not about drinking too much water, eating salt or going to the toilet, but about qualitative fat-muscle changes.
Energy vs weight
Principle energy balance often equated with weight balancelike the picture below:
On one side is consumption, on the other is activity and metabolism. What is more, the weight of the body tends there.
In fitness, this equates to the rules that you have to be in an energy surplus to gain muscle mass, and you have to be in an energy deficit to lose fat.
The logical fallacy is that not all body weight corresponds to stored energy. Body weight can be changed without changing energy intake and expenditure, and here are some of the simplest examples:
By switching to a keto diet, we will significantly reduce body weight, while not being in an energy deficit. The body will lose water as a result of low carbohydrate intake and electrolyte imbalance.
Foods that cause bloating and water retention in the body can also lead to weight gain without excess calories.
Not to mention diuretics, menstrual cycles, medications, changes in mineral intake, colon cleansing, creatine, etc.
Although the examples demonstrate that the connection between the incoming energy and body mass is sometimes absent, they are not entirely correct, because in fact, this is the removal from the body of substances (mainly water) that carry mass, but do not provide energy, so it would be wrong to take them into account in the balance equation.
Let’s move on to more complex examples. There are many ways to change your weight and body composition (replace fat for muscle) while staying in energy balance.
For example, you can grow muscles in an energy deficit.
Many argue that muscle growth in a deficit of incoming energy is impossible, while there are dozens, if not hundreds of studies where people lose fat and build muscle.
Both old and young; both healthy and unhealthy; men, women, obese, thin – all of them can achieve body recomposition. Even on mediocre training programs with a crappy diet with sub-optimal protein intake. Even older men and women over 60 usually gain about 2 kg lean body mass for the same fat loss in 12-16 weeks workouts.
AND trainedAnd highly trained athletes show the same.
A little lower I will try to depict how this is possible, but first I will write:
If an energy surplus were a necessary condition for protein synthesis and building lean body mass, we would not be able to heal from injury or illness in an energy deficient environment (when it cannot forage), which would obviously be an evolutionary disaster!
You can gain total body weight in an energy deficit!
It sounds strange, but in conditions of energy deficiency, you can gain not only muscles, but also the total body weight. Can’t believe it? Here study, where one group lost 1.1 kg of fat, but gained 1.7 kg of muscle mass. The other group lost 0.9 kg of fat while gaining 1.4 kg of muscle mass. Both groups maintained a calorie deficit, became leaner, but gained lean body mass faster than they lost fat, which caused them to become heavier by 0.6 and 0.5 kg, respectively. And they were old people.
Although, research is not required here. This can be found in the domestic use of fitness, when a losing weight person connects strength training to speed up the process and immediately stops losing weight.
It’s a combination rookie effect (when the muscles are still sensitive to the load and have a high anabolic response) + slight energy deficit (because the dieter is usually inconsistent and periodically backs off from the diet to mitigate his deficit). Everything leads to the fact that fat stores are burned to replenish the lack of external energy, muscles grow, adapting to the training stimulus, and body weight is maintained.
This is due to the fact that fat releases a huge amount of energy, and lean body mass (which includes muscles, organs, bones, etc.) has much less energy per 1 kg than fat.
Thanks to my beloved Kevin Hall we will knowthat the density of energy substrates in the body differs from the usual Atwater coefficients, where proteins and carbohydrates give 4 kk per 1 g, and fats 9 kk.
Glycogen \u003d 4207 kk / 1 kg;
Protein \u003d 4708 kk / 1 kg;
Fat \u003d 9441 kk / 1 kg;
Dry body weight \u003d 1816 kk / 1 kg.
Unexpectedly, body fat is 5.2 times more caloric than muscle, which means that the energy of burned fat can be enough to cover the energy needs of the body, and to build muscle mass, even in a deficit of incoming energy.
This is exactly what is not taken into account in those pictures (like the very first one in this publication), which are usually added to articles about losing weight. Everyone writes about the balance of incoming and outgoing energy, but they forget about the presence of a huge amount of energy in the body. Therefore, I drew my picture and now I will show where the attack on common sense was prepared.
Here we have a person who ate 3000 kk and spent 3300 kk. This means that an energy deficit has been created. It will cover the lack of energy with internal reserves. In the presence of a training stimulus, the muscles are likely to remain intact or even grow. Excess glycogen will be used, but they will be depleted fairly quickly. The fat remains.
Suppose our person weighs 88 kg, of which 74 kg is dry weight (or 134384 kk) and 14 kg fat (132174 kk).
It is interesting to note that 14 kg of fat provides the same amount of energy as 74 kg of dry mass. In total, it turns out 266558 kk. Already, our incoming 3000 kk against the background of 266558 does not look so impressive, and the assumption that the lack of some (even daily) 300 kk can disable muscle growth sounds completely unconvincing.
By burning 1 kg of fat, the energy received is enough for us to fully cover the costs of activity, metabolism and heating, compensate for the half-eaten 300 kk, and for the rest, after excellent training, build up another 3.4 kg of muscle. And as a result, weigh more by 2.4 kg, while losing 1 kg of fat. We ate 3000 kk out of 3300 kk of consumption, having made up for most of the costs, 300 kk of the deficit decreased from us, reducing the total energy value of the body from 266558 kk to 266258 kk, without violating the first law, but this does not prevent us from distributing internal energy reserves in a different way. advantage of the dry mass.
True, the body uses not only fat for energy, but also glycogen and proteins, the consumption of which we compensate for incoming food during the day. But both glycogen and protein are 2.3 and 2.7 times more caloric than dry weight, which again does not cause problems with gaining weight in an energy deficit under certain conditions.
The bottom line is this: energy did not appear out of nowhere and did not disappear into nowhere, but in her body it became less by 300 kk, muscles grew, fat went away, and body weight became more.
Can you lose fat in excess energy
Maybe someone will easily agree that muscles grow in a deficit, but losing weight in a surplus is some kind of surplus.
Given the above, you can lose fat with an excess of energy. True, this requires gaining muscle 5.2 times faster to compensate for the energy that the body receives from fat oxidation.
This is extremely difficult to achieve, but under certain conditions, you can be in excess of energy, lose fat and grow muscle.
You can also gain fat in conditions of energy deficiency
By the same logic, you need to lose muscle (or lean mass) 5.2 times faster than you gain fat, and then you will gain fat in an energy deficit.
This state of affairs is more realistic than the previous one. Some poor weight loss results can be partly explained by this effect. Someone, going on a strict diet in order to lose weight quickly, in compliance with a strong deficit of incoming calories, in the absence of a protein norm and strength training, can lose some weight, but gain more fat, which is why losing weight makes the appearance only worse.
Despite the lack of incoming energy, so much energy is released inside the body that it has nowhere to go, so it will be stored in fat. And again, contrary to the pictures about calories in calories out, but not contrary to the law of conservation of energy, fat is stored when there is a lack of energy.
Otherwise, if your nutrition program is not frankly poor, this can only happen if you have stopped training, you have serious health problems, or you are taking serious drugs with a narcotic effect.
Therefore, when losing weight, it is so important to monitor the protein norm and resort to strength training, or you can become even fatter than you were before losing weight.
Outcome.
Yes, in practice, body weight and overall energy levels are highly correlated in untrained people over the long term, but there are many ways to change your weight or body composition while staying in energy balance. Yes, this requires special difficult conditions for everything described above to turn into reality, but physiologically this is possible.
Proteins and fats are metabolized constantly, at every moment of time, and even now, reading this post, you can become drier for a short time even with an excess of energy, it’s just that the effect does not accumulate and remains without visible manifestation, or does not appear for a long time (remember that very morning, when you look a little drier than usual, and the abs are even somehow visible).
There are many strategies to improve body quality and they are not always limited to weight loss, diets and a calorie deficit.
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