Minify fat or build muscle - as simple as school physics

Minify fat or build muscle - as simple as school physics

Do you remember how we were taught: "Energy can neither be generated nor destroyed - it can only be converted"?

“The energy balance refers to the tendency of the entire energy in a system to remain in balance.

Every difference or every delta between the total energy supply and the total energy consumption over a certain period of time changes the body's energy storage by the same amount. ”

Mathematically speaking,

Energy input = energy output + stored energy

• If the energy supplied is GREATER THAN the energy released, the stored energy increases.

• If the energy supplied is lower than the energy cast, the stored energy decreases.

• If the energy supply is equal to the energy output, then there is no change in the stored energy.

Angry. Just right?

So what does that have to do with losing weight or muscle building?

Actually, it has everything to do with it. The appearance of your body- the muscle and fat distribution on your body- is strongly influenced by your energy balance.

If your energy intake is higher than the energy tax ...

You are in an energy surplus or a calorie surplus. What does your body do with this excess energy? Any energy that it cannot burn through activity or body heat is stored in the body to use it at a later date. It can be stored either as a muscle or as a fat or as a combination of both. We come back right away.

If your energy intake is lower than the energy tax ...

You are in an energy deficit or a calorie deficit. This means that your body is not receiving enough energy or calories to support all the calorie-consuming activities required of it (exercise, physiological function, fidgeting, operating the remote control, etc.). In these cases, the body draws on its existing reserves – the fat and muscle stored in your body – to provide the additional energy needed to make up for this deficit.

So basically they start to understand why energy and thus calories (the basic energy dimension for those among them who have forgotten their physics) are so important when it comes to changing the appearance of their body. I've already said it and I say it again - if you want to change your appearance, you have to start manipulating calories.

You don't have to count you - you don't even have to know what you are all the time - but you have to do a damn ensure that you manage this calorie balance, or you only waste your time.

Energy inflow

So - energy supply - is basically all the energy you consume in the form of food and drinks. This includes everything you have - we speak of food, juices, drinks and alcohol. Every single thing that you consume contributes to the total energy intake - everything besides water. Water has no calories and therefore you could drink a billion liters of water and have no additional calories on the energy input page.

All foods and drinks that you consume generally come from one of four components or a combination of it.

• Carbohydrates that produce 4 calories per gram

• Proteins that produce 4 calories per gram

• Fats that produce 9 calories per gram

• Alcohol produces 7 calories per gram.

So if you analyze the macros (these are the components mentioned above) in everything you eat, analyze and add up the calories produced by you, you will receive your entire energy consumption or energy intake.

Energy output

Energy levy - refers to the entire energy that is burned by the body in calories. There are four main paths on which the body burns calories.

1. Cessation of physics - called BMR or RMR: The body is the largest consumer of calories - no surprise - and this is referred to as BMR (basal metabolism) or RMR (restriction). This is basically the energy that the body needs to stay alive and keep normal physiological functions going. It makes sense, right? Your brain, your heart, kidneys, etc. - even the blood flow through your arteries - all of this requires energy, nothing happens automatically - and all this energy consumption is summarized as BMR/RMR. The larger your body, the higher your RMR - that also makes sense - because bigger things need more energy to perform the same function.

2. Food digestion: The process of digestive duty requires enough energy to be called up by itself. Basically, the body needs energy to make it easier to break down, digestion, absorption and excretion of food - and the amount of energy required varies quite a bit, depending on what you eat. This is referred to as the thermal effect of food. Typically, highly refined and processed foods need very little energy for digestion and are therefore slightly absorbed. Natural foods have more fiber and therefore need more energy for processing. And among the macros, fat has the lowest thermal effect, while protein has the highest thermal effect. This means that you can manipulate the amount of energy you consume - simply by checking what you eat. For this reason, when trying to lose weight, you are advised to consume natural food with a high protein content, as you force your body to burn more energy to digest food - and therefore leave less energy for storage than fat.

3. Exercise Activity: This is the simplest component – ​​it refers to the energy you burn during exercise. Any form of exercise – whether running or swimming or lifting weights – burns calories – and that's what most people focus on when they're trying to lose weight.

4. Non-exercise activity: This is the fourth and last part of the energy tax on the equation. And it is the most frequently overlooked part of the puzzle - it refers to all the energy that we burn outside the gym! We tend to forget that, before we are in the gym or wherever we do sports, we still have a life to live. And all of this requires energy - this includes climbing stairs, house cleaning, office work - and many unconscious activities such as to struggle with your legs when reading a book, etc. This is very different from person to person - some people are quite sedentary and do not burn many calories, but small, hyperactive, thin people tend to burn massive amounts of energy in this way - these are people who do not seem to be able to eat much, do not seem to train, But apparently never gain. This is because your activity levels go through the ceiling outside of training.

Okay, great - so what?

Now that the whole theory is cleared out - what does that mean for you? Simply. If you want to change your body's appearance, you have to make changes to the energy balance.

If you want to lose weight - reduce the energy supply or increase the energy output or do both. So that means eating less food (energy supply) and/or moving more (energy output). This is forced to use the body to use its existing stored energy (stored as fat and muscle tissue) in order to restore the energy weight weight.

If you want to increase, increase the energy supply or reduce the energy output or do both. What does that mean? - Eat more (energy supply) and/or move less (energy supply). This forced the body to convert the additional/excess energy as stored energy (stored as fat and muscle tissue) in order to restore the energy level weight- because energy cannot be destroyed or generated, but only converted!

Well, when you lose weight you just want to lose fat, not muscles. I mean you could lose both if you wanted, but:

1. It is less aesthetic to be only thin - most people want to be slim and look fit, not like a sack full of bones.

2. The more muscles you have in your body, the higher your RMR (energy output) will be, which means that you can eat more, whatever is beautiful, right?

So, to make your body concentrate on fat burning instead of concentrating muscle burning - you need to let your body know that the muscles are important - do this by training and eating protein. Training requires muscle tissue, and your body will recognize that he has to keep the muscle tissue intact to lift loads (exercise) - and every muscle that is lost in energy is replaced by the protein that you consume. Now they start to understand why people say that it is so important to lift weights when they try to lose weight and not make cardio all the time. Muscle tissue should be preserved.

Similarly – When you gain weight, you want to gain muscle, not fat.

You do this by training and eating protein. The same principle at work - the energy surplus that gets into the body is preferably directed towards muscle growth to support all the heavy lifting that you try to do with your body.

Exceptions from the rule

Okay - so you remember, as I said at the beginning of the article that the energy balance rule would work for 99% of all people? Who doesn't it work for?

Typically, the only people who seem to have a problem are to lose/gain weight while manipulating the energy balance, people with major problems with their hormonal function. One of the greatest culprits is a faulty thyroid function, but there are others. For example, when people are exposed to a high level of stress, they produce a hormone called Cortisol that also messes up. However, it is not the case that the energy balance equation does not apply to you(Because it is so, it is a basic law of thermodynamics)-Only other factors play a role that change the efficiency of the energy in/Energy Out model.

Another situation is where they see extremely obese people who seem to eat very little and still become thicker. Why that? Because they are special snowflakes, as their mums always told them?

No - it is because these people are so sedentary and their bodies are covered with so much fat that their energy output is even lower than their apparently low energy supply. Think about it. If you were eating 1000 calories in one day (not much) and only 800 calories during the day through the various channels (RMR, digestion, etc.) - they would still increase weight.

To quote someone whose work I recently read,

"Physics is not just a good idea, children. It is the law."

Last words

So - if you try to lose weight in the new year - before trying a new -fashioned diet or nutritional supplement or spending a lot of money on a special program or spending hours in the gym ...

• Think of your energy balance. Do you stay in the deficit?

• Do you train (and burn 200-300 calories), but eliminating this deficit by eating shit that adds 1000 additional calories?

• Do you pay a lot of money for special nutritional supplements and protein powder and fat loss pills, but still eat so much that you remain calorie -neutral?

• You swap 1 glass of cola (140 calories, mainly from sugar coal hydrates) against 2 glasses of orange juice (220 calories, also from sugarboboboohydrates) and still do not decrease? What a surprise (sarcasm if you missed it)

For the guy who tries to build muscle ...

• Do you kill it in the gym and beat protein shakes, but stay in the calorie deficit or neutral? Remember that protein not only provides 4 calories per gram, but is also very expensive to digest and your body burns more energy if it is only digested - which affects your calorie balance.

• Do you constantly complain that you eat a lot, even though it is actually only a high volume of eating?

• Do you eat enough and train - but then you burn a lot of calories when cycling or playing basketball after the gym - and then ask yourself why you don't grow?

So - to summarize it - if you try to lose weight or build muscle - your first goal should be to get your energy balance in the right place - in a place that supports your goal.

Once you have that under control, THEN and ONLY THEN should you start thinking about the other things like type of diet, type of exercise, frequency of exercise, supplements, etc.

And even - when it comes to food and movement - there is an order of the importance of things - do not concentrate on the little things and ignore the larger, more important things. Read the articles that I wrote (left in the resource box below) so that you can find out exactly what you have to concentrate on to achieve results.

This is - that is the simple math behind body transformation, and it is what works for 99 % of them.

And the chances are good that you are among the 99 %, even though your mother told you that you are something special.

Peace.

Inspired by Nikhil Moorthy