If I do sport on a calorie deficit how does my body recover?

marsthebboy
marsthebboy Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi I've been pondering this for days.

So I train breakdancing seriously but due to a binge eating problem have always been overweight.

I have dropped a lot of weight (feel fantastic) and have just some more pounds to go. Although I feel great I'm wondering: If I train dance vigorously (2 hours a day) and eat a calorie deficit for weight loss, granted the combination of the above is getting my weight off fast but how is it that I feel so good and have so much energy. Where is my body finding the energy to both recover from training and give me energy bursts to carry on training if I am on a deficit? Where does this energy come from? Hormones? Magic? I don't get it..

Replies

  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,399 Member
    If you're still active and training, along with losing weight, you're probably just seeing the benefit of retaining most of your muscle but having less mass to move. If your training is too intense, being in a deficit might slow your recovery, but usually only if your deficit is still somewhat aggressive.

    And I personally think you get used to the new energy levels of being in deficit, and don't "miss" the extra energy. But for me sometimes just a day or two of eating at maintenance calories puts me back in personal best form for cardio and such... the extra calories are noticed fairly easily in extra energy.
  • marsthebboy
    marsthebboy Posts: 10 Member
    Hi @robertw486.
    You're actually right. The energy I have is a lot more 'mellow' than the energy I had when I was constantly stuffing my face! But this much more grounded energy seems a lot healthier than before.

    I just don't understand how the body works regarding energy. I think I'm getting confused about what the body uses as fuel.

    E.g. If I'm using 1800 calories for just living (BMR) then another 800 for dance. That's 2600 calories just to be ME with no exercise taken into account.

    So if I'm eating 2100 calories a day. I'm losing ''500 calories'' every day. If my body is running at -500 fuel how does it heal my muscles and have energy the energy to dance for 2 hours everyday? Or is that not how the body works? Or is it just getting this fuel from my body fat?

    Like if a car has negative gas/petrol, how does it carry on running?

    Thanks for your patience.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    In addition to what other smart folks said, this is where macros come in.

    Macros aren’t directly relevant for weight loss, but they are relevant for health. When you are building muscle, the specific process involves creating tiny tears in your muscle that your body repairs. It is the repair process that makes your muscles stronger. When you eat protein, your body breaks the protein into its component amino acids, then uses those amino acids to repair your muscles. This is why it’s important to get enough protein even in a deficit.

    Another thing you may mean by getting energy for your workouts is glycogen. If you’re working out for two hours at a time, you’re depleting the body’s stores of glycogen (which provides quick energy), and the body uses carbs from your food tor replenish it. As long as you’re getting proper nutrition, your body should be able to replenish its glycogen after each workout.

    Finally, the other place energy is coming from is your fat stores. If you are eating at a moderate, reasonable deficit, then by definition you are putting less fuel into your body than it needs. The body makes up the difference by breaking down stored fat for energy.

    Again assuming your deficit is not too aggressive and you are getting proper nutrition, you shouldn’t expect to be tired while in a deficit. However, your athletic performance might not be as strong as it would be if you were eating at maintenance. Depending on your macros, for example, you might have fewer carbs available for quick energy.

    I think there’s also something to be said for adrenaline and the psychological effects of exercise. Both of those can make people feel more energetic, as can just having less weight to move during your activity.

    Finally, it’s a little concerning that you describe your weight loss as rapid. How rapidly are you losing, and what’s your height and current weight? You sound like you don’t have a lot left to lose, so your weight loss shouldn’t be rapid at this point. That could mean your deficit is overly aggressive, which would put you at risk for getting inadequate recovery nutrition.
  • robertw486
    robertw486 Posts: 2,399 Member
    marsthebboy wrote: »
    Hi @robertw486.
    You're actually right. The energy I have is a lot more 'mellow' than the energy I had when I was constantly stuffing my face! But this much more grounded energy seems a lot healthier than before.

    I just don't understand how the body works regarding energy. I think I'm getting confused about what the body uses as fuel.

    E.g. If I'm using 1800 calories for just living (BMR) then another 800 for dance. That's 2600 calories just to be ME with no exercise taken into account.

    So if I'm eating 2100 calories a day. I'm losing ''500 calories'' every day. If my body is running at -500 fuel how does it heal my muscles and have energy the energy to dance for 2 hours everyday? Or is that not how the body works? Or is it just getting this fuel from my body fat?

    Like if a car has negative gas/petrol, how does it carry on running?

    Thanks for your patience.

    The extra fuel comes from using up your body fat stores.

    You use both carbs and fats as fuels for most of your awake hours. The lower the intensity, the more your body uses fats, the higher the intensity, the more the body biases towards using carbs. In your car comparison, think of it as a hybrid car, with one of the energy sources (fats) being very large, unless you are an extremely lean person.

    And just as with most hybrid vehicles, they work better with both energy sources available to them. Performance would suffer if one or the other didn't exist. In similar fashion, if a person doesn't eat enough, fat stores alone will only give them limited amounts of energy.


    I also agree with the others above that speed of weight loss does have an impact. As you lighten up, keeping the same deficit might find you with less energy, dietary shortages, etc. Using percentages as you lose weight keeps things more in balance, and brings you closer to the end goal of eating to maintain the weight you are at once you are down to the weight you want to be.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    Everybody has given you some great answers. I was going to say dinner if what's already been said, but don't need to.

    I'll just add that as your body adapts to exercise, one thing that happens is you get better at "producing" energy. Your mitochondrial density goes up, your blood has more plasma to transport more oxygen, etc.

    There's a balance, exercise can be exhausting and fatiguing. But it sounds like this is something you've done for a long time, and probably built up to. If you'd just started doing 2 hard hours out of the blue, it would take more energy than your body can cope with.
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
    You're car analogy isn't quite right. You have 2 tanks, one of them is a spare tank.

    In this situation the car (you) has a spare gas tank (fat) which is magic. Each day you add fuel (food) to the main gas tank (body) to use throughout the day. If you put more fuel in the main gas tank than you use that day, it takes the unused fuel and stores it in the spare tank. On the other hand if you put less fuel than you need into your main tank than you use during the day it then starts to take the extra fuel that has been stored in the spare tank and uses that.

    So, if each day you put in just a little bit less fuel into your main tank all the extra fuel stored in the spare tank will slowly go down (you'll lose fat).
  • marsthebboy
    marsthebboy Posts: 10 Member
    apullum wrote: »
    In addition to what other smart folks said, this is where macros come in.

    Macros aren’t directly relevant for weight loss, but they are relevant for health. When you are building muscle, the specific process involves creating tiny tears in your muscle that your body repairs. It is the repair process that makes your muscles stronger. When you eat protein, your body breaks the protein into its component amino acids, then uses those amino acids to repair your muscles. This is why it’s important to get enough protein even in a deficit.

    Another thing you may mean by getting energy for your workouts is glycogen. If you’re working out for two hours at a time, you’re depleting the body’s stores of glycogen (which provides quick energy), and the body uses carbs from your food tor replenish it. As long as you’re getting proper nutrition, your body should be able to replenish its glycogen after each workout.

    Finally, the other place energy is coming from is your fat stores. If you are eating at a moderate, reasonable deficit, then by definition you are putting less fuel into your body than it needs. The body makes up the difference by breaking down stored fat for energy.

    Again assuming your deficit is not too aggressive and you are getting proper nutrition, you shouldn’t expect to be tired while in a deficit. However, your athletic performance might not be as strong as it would be if you were eating at maintenance. Depending on your macros, for example, you might have fewer carbs available for quick energy.

    I think there’s also something to be said for adrenaline and the psychological effects of exercise. Both of those can make people feel more energetic, as can just having less weight to move during your activity.

    Finally, it’s a little concerning that you describe your weight loss as rapid. How rapidly are you losing, and what’s your height and current weight? You sound like you don’t have a lot left to lose, so your weight loss shouldn’t be rapid at this point. That could mean your deficit is overly aggressive, which would put you at risk for getting inadequate recovery nutrition.

    No my weight loss has never been dangerous. I have been at 80kg (176lbs I think) for a while now. My aim is to lose just a little bit more to be slightly lighter.

    I estimate my weight loss to be around 0.3 - 0.5 pounds a week at current.

    Thanks so much!
  • marsthebboy
    marsthebboy Posts: 10 Member
    Danp wrote: »
    You're car analogy isn't quite right. You have 2 tanks, one of them is a spare tank.

    In this situation the car (you) has a spaszre gas tank (fat) which is magic. Each day you add fuel (food) to the main gas tank (body) to use throughout the day. If you put more fuel in the main gas tank than you use that day, it takes the unused fuel and stores it in the spare tank. On the other hand if you put less fuel than you need into your main tank than you use during the day it then starts to take the extra fuel that has been stored in the spare tank and uses that.

    So, if each day you put in just a little bit less fuel into your main tank all the extra fuel stored in the spare tank will slowly go down (you'll lose fat).

    This was literally the clearest, easy to understand analogy ever. Thanks.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    Danp wrote: »
    You're car analogy isn't quite right. You have 2 tanks, one of them is a spare tank.

    In this situation the car (you) has a spare gas tank (fat) which is magic. Each day you add fuel (food) to the main gas tank (body) to use throughout the day. If you put more fuel in the main gas tank than you use that day, it takes the unused fuel and stores it in the spare tank. On the other hand if you put less fuel than you need into your main tank than you use during the day it then starts to take the extra fuel that has been stored in the spare tank and uses that.

    So, if each day you put in just a little bit less fuel into your main tank all the extra fuel stored in the spare tank will slowly go down (you'll lose fat).

    Thanks for that. :smile:

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