Why your body would burn muscle instead of fat..

[kak39]

I don't get why your body would burn/shred muscle instead of body fat. Can someone please list out cases where this would happen and how to avoid?

[eXistenceLies]

I don't get why your body would burn/shred muscle instead of body fat. Can someone please list out cases where this would happen and how to avoid?

Starvation mode tends to burn more muslce than fat. Ill let the pro's chime in. But this is what i always hear. If you eat tooo less of calories and if your protein is way under your body weight.

[kak39]

I think it's hard to get into starvation mode. I read an article about starvation research on people who fast or force themselves to not eat.

3 days for the body to start burning glucose, then ~3 weeks for the boy to enter starvation mode where muscle/organs start getting reduced for energy.

[Eileen]

Muscle takes more calories to maintain than fat does. If your food intake is nil or close to it and you are not exercising, your body will reckon it can lose some of the expensive muscle and should keep the fat. Basically, it thinks you are holed up in a cave somewhere, waiting for the big freeze to thaw.

However, if you are working out, even on low calories, your body will reckon you need the muscle to find whatever food is out there, so it's less likely to burn muscle and more likely to burn fat.

As long as you are using your muscles, your body won't burn it except as a last resort.

[vgbblife]

1. If you aren't lifting heavy enough. Also you really don't need that to do that many sets. I do 2-3 sets per bodypart every 5-7 days on a massive calorie deficit.

2. Intense cardio without the carbs to fuel it. When you run, your body can break down protein for glucose. If you didn't supply your body with the fuel it could start breaking protein for it. I rather let my calorie deficit do all the fat loss, and consume enough carb calories to completely replace every lost calorie that I may lose while jogging. So If im going to burn 300 cals I will try to eat about that much in fruit before my cardio session.

Liss cardio is different, it requires fat energy to fuel it. So if you really want to cut massively on a low carb diet, I feel liss cardio is better.

3. The body is in fat burning mode for too long, especially in a massive deficit. Lyle Mcdonald, author of the Rapid Fat loss book and Ultimate Diet 2.0 recomends a 10-14 diet break eating at maintanance calories and a 150g carb a day minimum. Not only will this help physiologically but it will help reinforce good eating habits important for the long term.

4. Too much stress. This is why a calorie deficit through dieting is more important then working out more. Working out more will create more stress.

5. Eat enough protein. 1-1.25g per pd of lean body mass (lbm).

[iDrive]

Muscle takes more calories to maintain than fat does. If your food intake is nil or close to it and you are not exercising, your body will reckon it can lose some of the expensive muscle and should keep the fat. Basically, it thinks you are holed up in a cave somewhere, waiting for the big freeze to thaw.

However, if you are working out, even on low calories, your body will reckon you need the muscle to find whatever food is out there, so it's less likely to burn muscle and more likely to burn fat.

As long as you are using your muscles, your body won't burn it except as a last resort.

Well said. Exactly this.

[kak39]

Well said. Exactly this.

So..where does protein stand in this? Lets say you are doing workouts that stimulate/tear your muscles. You are getting adequate amount of calories, but not so much from protein. What will your body use to repair the muscle?

[odin673]

Muscle is less essential to survival then fat.

[hodag1]

Anabolism, the phase where muscle is built or repaired, needs a variety of biochemical signals to begin. These include elevated levels of amino acids (especially leucine), an elevated level of insulin (especially in people < 40), and growth hormone. Eating a proper diet handles the first two, and HIIT or heavy weight training upregulates growth hormone production.

Absent anabolism, the body will pick and choose where to get its energy and that is where muscle catabolism happens. Eat right and lift heavy and there will be minimal impact from muscle loss.

The reason body fat is preferentially preserved probably has to do with an evolutionary survival response. If the body is healthy and well nourished, the brain will assume that the body it is in fine shape to hunt or gather more food tomorrow. If the body is not getting enough nutrients, the brain assumes that there are inadequate opportunities to get more food so it sheds muscle and hangs onto fat as a survival mechanism. What was good for the caveman is not good for modern man.

[dragonaut]

When you are in a calorie deficit or a negative energy balance, there is a limit to the amount of calories your body can convert from its fat stores.The magic number is 31 cals/lb body fat/day. Once your calorie deficit is so large that it surpasses that figure your body taps into lean body mass to cover for the difference

for instance, if you are 200 lbs body weight at 20% body fat, you have 40 lbs of fat mass(40x31=1240),so you can have a daily deficit of 1240 cals and your LBM losses will be minimal

when you start losing muscle , is not because your body prioritizes/burns it instead of fat. Adipose tissue is primarily energy reserves for the body in times of famine, what happens is that the deficit is so large that the system can not burn fat FAST ENOUGH, so it turn to lean body mass when the fat turn over is maxed out

that is why morbidly obese people can get away with a monster calorie deficit, eating very little and exercising a lot and virtually lose no muscle(they have a lot of fat mass available). On the contrary relatively lean people can not do that, because their fat sores are drastically reduced

I chuckle when i see 300/400 lb fatass eating 500 cals under maintenance for fear of "losing teh musclez" they could make progress a lot faster considering the huge energy reserves they have...

[M5eludim]

I don't get why your body would burn/shred muscle instead of body fat. Can someone please list out cases where this would happen and how to avoid?

Lifting without consuming enough protein.

[Marine man]

When you are in a calorie deficit or a negative energy balance, there is a limit to the amount of calories your body can convert from its fat stores.The magic number is 31 cals/lb body fat/day. Once your calorie deficit is so large that it surpasses that figure your body taps into lean body mass to cover for the difference

It's not the magic number. That was from a theoretical paper. Not one that's been proven.

[doodyalur]

How do you make one of these threads? Or posts, not exactly sure what you call it.