Bodies Ability to Deal With Excess Calories?

[DsDhBxracer13]

I'll start with a little history of myself. I started lifting about 1.5 years ago. I was never scrawny 5'11" around 188lbs, and I've always had abnormally big legs probably genetics, but also partially because of year of mountain bike racing. I started lifting for one to get stronger and bigger, but I also read that muscle burns more calories then fat, and I figured by adding muscle I would in turn lose some of my fat because my body would be burning more calories at a stand still. The only thing I changed in my diet over this 1.5 year period was adding some supplements, mainly whey protein, but I also took a couple cycles of creatine. Today I've added around 25lbs of muscle to my frame and have not lost a pound of fat. Again like I said I never changed my diet except for adding whey. My weigh didn't ever change before, so that means I was presumably eating that exact right amount of calories to change my body weight. So if I continued eating the exact same amount of food but was now loaded up with 25lbs of extra muscle shouldn't I lean out a bit.

Fast forward to now. A week ago I decided to sit down and put some real meal plans together to really help me lose weight. I eat the same thing for 7 days and the change it, and I'll say a week in I feel great. What I did find while putting these meals plan together was how much I was actually eating before. At the very least 4000 calories a day, and probably upwards of 5500 calories or so on other days. Now right now with my weight my BMR is 2133 calories, and with the Harris Benedict method (I train a solid hard 5-6 days a week) I would be using an average of 3,413 calories a day. So that is at my current weight and daily exercise regime. Now I don't know how accurate this is, but for years that means I've been eating way more calories then my body uses, which means I should have been gaining weight this entire time. Instead I've been able to put some muscle on, but the amount of fat I have on my body as maintained the same.

Now with my current eating plan, I'm feeling good, eating 300-1000 calories under my average caloric usage(according to the Harris Benedict formula) and really feel that I'm going to shed some pounds. My training is 3 days of lifting a week and 2-3 days of brazilian jiu-jitsu. I've yet to lose any strength yet, and am continuing to train as if I work eating like a horse, and I am still seeing gains in strength. So assuming that I am able to lose the weight I want, about 15 pounds, can I go back to my original ways of eating. Do you think my body will continue to I guess just push out the excess stuff.

So after all that writing I guess my question is this. Obviously it doesn't hold true for all people, but for some if you eat excess calories does your body just push it out, get rid of it, so that it does not affect your body weight. I've only had one time in my life where I really gained weight, freshman year of college, and that's because I was hardly getting and exercise, and was drinking about 15 beers a night and eating a 3/4 pound bacon cheeseburger with fries at 3 in the morning 5 nights a week. Does ones body strive to maintain a certain body fat or weight. If anyone could shed some light on this that would be great.

[DsDhBxracer13]

Bump.

[fitSF]

Where are the Calories coming from is what is important. Could you detail some of the foods you are eating? What are your sleeping patterns like? Are you taking caffeine or any other supplements?

[skuZZitude]

Some people can eat up to 20 calories per lb and not gain weight... like some ectomorphs literally need to eat 25 calories per lb or more to see constant gains. It sounds like you're almost a mesomorph in the sense that you can put on muscle very easily, but yet it's hard for you to shed fat. You are probably destined to be around 215lbs (mesomorph build). Just like ectomorph's are *probably* never going to look like Arnold (I know some ectomorph's have become massive, so ecto's don't jump on me), it's unlikely that a mesomorph will ever look like Brad Pitt without totally sabotaging their diet. Indeed a double edged sword. Seems like everyone wants to be someone else. The ecto's want to be bigger and stronger, and the meso's want to be lighter with more flexibility/agility

Good luck to you sir maybe someone will be able to give you some answers!

[BrotherBrown]

And us Endomorphs would take either one. :-P

[mpipes]

The metabolism adjusts to calorie intake over time. If you eat more calories, the metabolism slowly up-regulates itself and if you reduce calories, the metabolism slows in response. The thing is, it doesn't increase/decrease at the same rate you change calorie intake. If you increase calories substantially and immediately, you'll gain some weight immediately but at some point the gain will level off. It's the same thing when you reduce calories, drop them substantially and you will lose weight until the metabolism adjusts itself, then you won't lose anything until you drop them even more.

Also, I don't put much stock in the whole ecto, meso, endomorph thing when it comes to calorie intakes and weightloss/muscle gain.

On paper following all the "rules" I am an Endomorph all the way yet I can lose weight eating 4,000-5,000 calories per day if I choose to live the lifestyle of an ectomorph. Ectos are thin and have to eat a lot to put on muscle because by their very nature, they are very active every waking second of the day and *never* sit down to rest for anything. Endos are the way they are because of their lifestyle choices - they *choose* not to exercise - they *choose* jobs that stick them behind desks all day - they *choose* to take rests or kick back and relax often. If the average endo would spend a whole day mimicking an ecto's activity every second, by the end of the day the endo would be flat out overwhelmed and exhausted.