not about calories its about carbs...

[J1n]

So i'm in a meeting at work and i normally don't talk about diet or working out with anyone there but one of my coworkers starts to talk about oh i ate to many carbs today blah blah blah. and there all like yeah carbs are bad this its hard to lose weight but you got to cut out those carbs.

so i tell them its not about carbs its about calories. i said eat all the carbs you want just watch how many calories your taking in... you have to eat less calories then you burn to lose weight.

they were like hahahha your so silly.

One of them even workouts out all the time but is really ignorant when it comes to diet. she says "i think there is a big difference between white bread and whole wheat". she meant as in if you eat wheat bread vs white bread you body will look better.

i just looked at them like ok..... thinking yeah thats why your fat.

[MEDITATE]

ur diet cannot and shouldnot consist of access carbs than what ur body needs,like if ur RDA is 2500 cals a max of 50% carbs should be induced to ur diet and if that would be considered abit over the scale,now any amount >55 ~ 60% will be turned to fat k,unless ur training consists of strict aerobic training.

[artsar]

when it comes right down to it a calorie deficit is the goal. But it seems to drop weight quick low carb diets work.

This lady at my work always chimes in about diets too. Now i'm not the thinnest person in the world, but I have dropped a bit and am back on my diet so atleast I am seeing results. Some people just need to stop acting like experts when they get no gains in a year.

[mpipes]

ur diet cannot and shouldnot consist of access carbs than what ur body needs,like if ur RDA is 2500 cals a max of 50% carbs should be induced to ur diet and if that would be considered abit over the scale,now any amount >55 ~ 60% will be turned to fat k,unless ur training consists of strict aerobic training.

Carbs don't get stored as fat and if you're in a calorie deficit, it doesn't matter how many carbs you eat, your body can not create fat from thin air.

[Al Swearengen]

So i'm in a meeting at work and i normally don't talk about diet or working out with anyone there but one of my coworkers starts to talk about oh i ate to many carbs today blah blah blah. and there all like yeah carbs are bad this its hard to lose weight but you got to cut out those carbs.

so i tell them its not about carbs its about calories. i said eat all the carbs you want just watch how many calories your taking in... you have to eat less calories then you burn to lose weight.

they were like hahahha your so silly.

One of them even workouts out all the time but is really ignorant when it comes to diet. she says "i think there is a big difference between white bread and whole wheat". she meant as in if you eat wheat bread vs white bread you body will look better.

i just looked at them like ok..... thinking yeah thats why your fat.

you can't really make a broad statement like carbs are good or bad for everyone because it wont hold water. carbs mean little to some folks but a lot to others so we just have to find out for ourselves if carbs work for us or not and go from there.

[Danger_Close]

Carbs don't get stored as fat and if you're in a calorie deficit, it doesn't matter how many carbs you eat, your body can not create fat from thin air.

I was always under the impression that if you eat carbs without eating protein with it, it will indeed be stored as fat. Is that not true?

[Djin]

I was always under the impression that if you eat carbs without eating protein with it, it will indeed be stored as fat. Is that not true?

If you're in a caloric defiency, how does your body store fat?

[Irongoat]

For me carbs are evil. I struggled for years. I did low calorie, low fat, high protein. Finally I dropped my daily carbs to under 20 grams, ate 3,200 calories, and the fat just melted away.

[RattlesnakeDTOM]

...thinking yeah thats why your fat.

This is why they are fat.

[mpipes]

I was always under the impression that if you eat carbs without eating protein with it, it will indeed be stored as fat. Is that not true?

Not true.

In a calorie deficit, the body simply can not store anything as fat. You need an excess of food intake in order to store fat, which doesn't happen when dieting.

Nutrient combining theories are absolutely bogus. Food takes 3-5 hours to empty from the stomach then 12-24 or more hours to run through the intestines. It doesn't matter how you combine what you eat, everything is getting absorbed simultaneously through the gut.

Lastly, the pathway for carbs to be stored directly as fat (aka: de novo lipogenesis) is extremely limited. It requires chronic overfeeding of carbs, which means eating above maintenance calorie intake levels - which isn't going to happen if someone is dieting, otherwise they're not really dieting, plus an extremely low level of dietary fat intake.

So, provided your calorie intake is at a level that allows you to lose fat, and you're getting the required protein to help maintain LBM, there is no reason to fear carbs.

[gjohnson5]

If you're in a caloric defiency, how does your body store fat?

Survival Mechanism. Muscle loss (gluconeogenesis) and metabolic reduction due to malnutrition.
It depends on how much of a caloric deficit that you happen to be in and how much energy your are expending.

Set within reason , then no, you shouldn't store fat. If the deficit is major , then yes , your body will metabolize it's own structures for survival.

[mlalahoi]

Slow down there guys, the reason people like to go low-carb or no-carb is so that the weight lost comes mostly from fat and not from muscle. I don't think anyone thinks that carbs will magically turn into fat even on a deficit. The idea is that people believe they can have greater control over WHERE THE LOST WEIGHT COMES FROM, ie what your body is using for energy when it is in a caloric deficit, when on a low-carb diet.

[mike_az_21]

I believe in a lot of cases it's all about balance.

Also not all carbs/calories are created equal. ie. carbs from fruit or vegatables are not really the same as eating crappy sweet foods.

Just my thought.

[Djin]

Survival Mechanism. Muscle loss (gluconeogenesis) and metabolic reduction due to malnutrition.
It depends on how much of a caloric deficit that you happen to be in and how much energy your are expending.

Set within reason , then no, you shouldn't store fat. If the deficit is major , then yes , your body will metabolize it's own structures for survival.

I'm not talking about starving yourself. I'm talking about roughly 500 calories or so. Yes, I understand HOW it can hold onto fat when you're starving, but we're not talking extremes. Are we? Please don't take things and blow them way out of context.

[MAGnitude]

For me carbs are evil. I struggled for years. I did low calorie, low fat, high protein. Finally I dropped my daily carbs to under 20 grams, ate 3,200 calories, and the fat just melted away.

how the hell did u get 3,200 cals in a day with only 20 grams of carbs a day?

[gjohnson5]

I'm not talking about starving yourself. I'm talking about roughly 500 calories or so. Yes, I understand HOW it can hold onto fat when you're starving, but we're not talking extremes. Are we? Please don't take things and blow them way out of context.

You asked the question and I answered it.
Yes the body can store fat on a caloric deficit.

[J1n]

you can't really make a broad statement like carbs are good or bad for everyone because it wont hold water. carbs mean little to some folks but a lot to others so we just have to find out for ourselves if carbs work for us or not and go from there.

actually i can because it is a fact. its science... keep using your broscience all you want. calories are calories.

i was on keto i was taking in about 2000 - 2200 cals. i was only losing around 2 lbs a week. i did that for about a month. i went back to a regular diet with carbs and eat around the same amount of cals and i was still losing the same amount of fat. the only difference was that when i was on keto i lost strength and had keto side effects (bad breath, moody, low energy the first few days, ect.)

[Djin]

You asked the question and I answered it.
Yes the body can store fat on a caloric deficit.

But most people on these forums don't starve themselves like the people are in thrid world countries. That's my point I'm getting across. I see you took it to the next level.

[brandonsfit]

But most people on these forums don't starve themselves like the people are in thrid world countries. That's my point I'm getting across. I see you took it to the next level.

No, I took your original question the same way. We are not talking about a specific group of people here this conversation is about generalities. Fat can be stored while in a calorie deficit, question answered.

[gjohnson5]

But most people on these forums don't starve themselves like the people are in thrid world countries. That's my point I'm getting across. I see you took it to the next level.

Stop sidestepping the issue. You asked a theoretical question and and were clearly proven wrong
And actually you are wrong on the starvation point as well. Many people go on fasts for certain periods of time either for religious or longevity reasons. Many people believe fasting will flush toxins from the digestive system....

[NorwichGrad]

There's so much garbage info out there. I also have family members who believe in the "carbs are bad" mentality; and I also have family members who believe in the "eat low fat so you don't get fat" mentality. The funny thing is that there are fat representatives in both sides of these beliefs.

I'm not against high-carb or low-carb. Like the OP said, the key is creating a caloric deficit in order to lose the fat. The other factor is being able to use food as drug to maximize the effect of fat loss. I do keto, modified low carb, modified high carb, zig zag, and isocaloric. Everything works until it stops working, then try something else. The body becomes its own function, so it's important to change every now and then. But the bottom line is that I always make sure that my caloric intake does not exceed my maintenance requirement.

Yes, OP, you are absolutely right. That is why your coworkers are fat. It's sad for them, really.

[ZidaneValor]

Stop sidestepping the issue. You asked a theoretical question and and were clearly proven wrong

Actually, he wasn't.

Survival Mechanism. Muscle loss (gluconeogenesis) and metabolic reduction due to malnutrition.
It depends on how much of a caloric deficit that you happen to be in and how much energy your are expending.

Set within reason , then no, you shouldn't store fat. If the deficit is major , then yes , your body will metabolize it's own structures for survival.

Once you hit a severe deficit like you said, metabolic reduction is reduced. Therefore, you are no longer at a deficit because your body doesn't expend as many calories per day so it can survive. That is why the body can store fat again, because your daily caloric needs have dropped so severely.

[Djin]

Stop sidestepping the issue. You asked a theoretical question and and were clearly proven wrong
And actually you are wrong on the starvation point as well. Many people go on fasts for certain periods of time either for religious or longevity reasons. Many people believe fasting will flush toxins from the digestive system....

Fine, whatever. I don't really care. Seriously...

[patkoch]

No, I took your original question the same way. We are not talking about a specific group of people here this conversation is about generalities. Fat can be stored while in a calorie deficit, question answered.

Fat cannot be stored in a caloric deficit are you kidding me?????

[mpipes]

No, the body CAN NOT store fat when it's in a deficit.

Where's the fat gonna come from when there's not any energy provided for it to become fat in the first place?

Metabolic slowdowns can slow the rate of fat loss but they never outpace it. Even if someone does a starvation diet at 50% of maintenance and their metabolic rate drops 25%, they're still at a high deficit and they're still going to be burning fat, and a substantial amount of it at that.

Fat is there for the purpose of sustaining the body through times of famine. The body is NOT going to fight tooth and nail trying to hang on to something it's designed to use as fuel when there's no other energy coming in.

[vipergq]

No, the body CAN NOT store fat when it's in a deficit.

Where's the fat gonna come from when there's not any energy provided for it to become fat in the first place?

Metabolic slowdowns can slow the rate of fat loss but they never outpace it. Even if someone does a starvation diet at 50% of maintenance and their metabolic rate drops 25%, they're still at a high deficit and they're still going to be burning fat, and a substantial amount of it at that.

Fat is there for the purpose of sustaining the body through times of famine. The body is NOT going to fight tooth and nail trying to hang on to something it's designed to use as fuel when there's no other energy coming in.

This thread is so full of FAYL....

NO it is not possible to store Fat during a calorie deficit technically, BUT during major calorie deficits, unless you are getting proper muscle stimulation, nutrition and macros, it is VERY likely you will lose a disproportionate amount of muscle to your fat levels whiuch in the end will RAISE your bodyfat percentage.


So in short, the answer is Yes, Macros DO matter for strength, performance, body composition, general health, ect....

but NOT for WEIGHT.

[Pho3NiX]

No, the body CAN NOT store fat when it's in a deficit.

Pardon me but to me the problem is how you know you are in a Calorie deficit for sure ? The second question is how would you define starvation ?

The thing is the body have adaptive thermogenesis. If you eat 10Kcals a day more than you "move". After a year you would by your logic gain a full lb of fat. You wont. Your body is able to adapt it's energy consumption by a small margin under normal circumstances. I will not throw number out of the blue because i need to check them but it's in the order of 10% of your metabolic rate.

Then the other problem is the efficiency of the "voluntary dietary intake" as a way to measure what you have eaten (aka food logs / fitday / etc). If you use a scale you are probably at least 1-5% off... it goes way worse if you eye-judge the portions.

It's probably even harder to log correctly the calories spent...

All things equals if you log a small Calorie deficit, you probably have anywhere between a few Kcals over and a bigger Calorie deficit. This situation will probably change from day to day without you changing anything. Heck it may even change hourly in a day.

If in a single day you have a Calorie surplus at some point then end the day with a deficit will you possibly store fat ?

|----

I'll make an example case I believe you'll store fat.

I suppose you are on a small calorie deficit *as reported by a log*.
Then you eat tons of very fast GI sugar. You are not anywhere near of after a workout. At this point of the day you are mostly passive, watching TV.

After a small time you then eat saturated fat in big proportion with some more fast sugar. All is ok from a Cal log point of view.

|--

Now the thing is that fast sugar will increase your insulin very fast.
The thing is that the body is calibrated to take apple for example.
So when it see that much concentration of sugar it believe you have eaten 100 apples. It'll raise the insulin accordingly.

However you did not eat that much apple and the insulin now pump the normal blood sugar into the cells. You are now in hypoglycemia (not enougth sugar). The body realize it's error and will make slowly start to destroy the insulin. However you still have a lot.

Now are you Starving yourself ? That is a very tough question. But the blood sugar say so.

Now come in the delicious saturated fat. One of the most stable biological molecule. Only animals have the technology to make such a thing. It's mean to be a reserve so it's very hard to degrade. In fact it's one the very last molecule your body will try to use as a energy source, it's that just to stable to bother. Anyhow you have taken simple sugar with it so it's no question there's better source of energy available.

Now remember that insulin... It will probably take care of making that saturated fat for your reserve. Oh you do not get fat under deficit... unless you are starving yourself. It's a great thing your blood sugar say so!

|---

Now it's all theoretical, and you probably will never notice extra fat from that one time as, as I said you body is able to adapt a bit. (? la cheat meal)

However try to just count calories be on a deficit and eat 80% fast sugar and 20% saturated fat. What you eat IS important

|---


I like the low on fast gi carb approach because the food that are either high in protein, high in fat or high in fiber are the food that make you feel full. Then I add veggies because it's very hard to overeat some of them. And also there's more in nutrition than body composition.

At the end of the day yes it's the cal deficit that is important. But eating junk then using a log to try to figure out your gain is not a very functional way of doing things. So all is important.

[B_BLENDER]

This is why they are fat.

tasty

[Al Swearengen]

actually i can because it is a fact. its science... keep using your broscience all you want. calories are calories.

i was on keto i was taking in about 2000 - 2200 cals. i was only losing around 2 lbs a week. i did that for about a month. i went back to a regular diet with carbs and eat around the same amount of cals and i was still losing the same amount of fat. the only difference was that when i was on keto i lost strength and had keto side effects (bad breath, moody, low energy the first few days, ect.)

well if that were true then we wouldn't have hypoglycemic and on the other end of the spectrum diabetics now would we. btw you contradicted yourself with your own statements 1 being if a calorie was just a calorie then why did you loose strength going on keto?

was also wondering why the rudeness?

[Irongoat]

how the hell did u get 3,200 cals in a day with only 20 grams of carbs a day?

easy I ate 6 jumbo eggs with 4 slices thick cut bacon and 4 sausages for breakfast (roughly 3 carbs). For the rest of the day I had turkey breast (0 carbs), chicken breasts-thighs-legs-wings (0 carbs), steaks (0 carbs), hamburger meat 80/20 (0 carbs), hot dogs (0 carbs), Italian sausages (0 carbs), salmon, tuna (fresh and canned), sashimi, all have zero carbs. Whey protein (post workout-roughly 6 grams of carbs for 2 servings ON Gold), I snacked on beef jerky (1 gram per serving), pork rinds (0 carbs), and cheese (provolone has 0 carbs). I logged down everything I ate, the time, nutritional info from the package and weighed the portions. It felt really weird at first eating like this (eating so much in volume, calories and fat) I was apprehensive that this would work, but it did. I ate every six hours till I was full. Some days just to throw in a little shock to the system, I even went up to 4,500 calories. I easily ate 12 oz. of steak, 6 chicken thighs, or 24 wings, with no problem. My diet ends this Friday, I 'll be off for a week then I'll be back on. I started at 255 lbs, 28% BF. I am down to 198 @ 14%. A great tool I found was the daily plate at Livestrong.com. It is a great way to keep track of your daily intake.