Digestion, energy, and fat storage for dummies

WARNING, this may get a little long.

So here is a simple primer for people who don't really understand why we have to eat the way we do in order to lose weight. This is a highly "dumbed down" explaination, so for any chemistry majors out there, bear with me, this is for the layman and I don't want to bog it down with too much technicality. I feel that practice with no knowledge is useless, and if we know the why and how of it, eating right becomes easier to do and understand. It removes the frustration level with your body, knowing why you are or aren't losing weight is as important as doing it.

3 main categories:

intake/digestion:
The food we eat breaks down (categorically) into 3 main groups; fats, protein, and carbohydrates. There is a fourth that is fiber, but fiber is in-digestable (mostly); still good for you as it passes through the system, but it causes the food in your stomach to take longer to process (which is good).

All 3 of these categories are important, protein can either be used directly as a building block for muscle and lean tissue, fats are important for brain health and breakdown for use in building cell membranes and help with cardiovacular health(heart), carbs are the energy your whole body uses.
It's important to note that all three types can be broken down for energy, carbs are just the easiest for your body to break down so usually used or converted to fat first. The body will digest food, use what ever energy and proteins/fats it needs immediately, then put some into the blood stream as free energy (cholesterol, which is a mix of fat and sugars), and store the rest as adipose (body) fat.
Also note that while all three types can be broken down for energy if needed, protein and fat are broken down in the organs, which produces side products which, if over indulged, can have averse effects (hardening of the liver, kidney stones...etc)

energy usage:
Once your body starts digesting, the 3 main intakes are broken down into composite parts, proteins (amino acids) are delivered to the liver or directly to places that need them, the liver will break them down. Fats are turned into cholestorol, or delivered right to places that need them, and carbs are broken down into simple sugars for immediate energy, or recombined into adipose (body) fat and stored for leaner times. The less complex the carbs, the faster the body breaks them down. The body can only use a certain amount of energy at any given time (metabolism), all extra is stored as fat or free sugars in the blood. This is why simple carbs are bad for you, they are very fast to metabolize and thus much of it is stored.

stored energy usage:
If there isn't enough energy, the body will use the EASIEST available stored energy. In people with excess fat, that is usually what is used. In people with less fat, or "old" fat, sometimes, protein and lean tissue are easier to break down. This is why large deficits are not good for people near a healthy weight, because even though protein breakdown is more complex then fat breakdown, if the fat is too far from a viable transport (the blood stream) it will not be used primarily, or there isn't enough fat to cover the need, and higher levels of lean tissue are used.

Conclusion:
I wrote this to clarify WHY we eat what we eat. The body is a perpetual motion machine, everything is a gray area for the body, nothing is done 100% or 0%. If you are trying to burn fat, you will always burn a little lean tissue, if you are eating complex carbs, some will almost always be stored as fat. Etc. be aware of this as you make choices, know where you are as far as weight health, if you're not overweight, then eating very low calorie diets, or eliminating one of the 3 main food types can be harmful, know that "old" fat will take a long time to remove, and while doing so, you will burn some muscle as well (which is why exercise is important along with diet, you want to build muscle while eating a caloric deficit)

I tried to keep this simple, I realize it's a complex process, and I've left out a lot to make it half way understandable, but feel free to ask if this is still confusing.

NOTE: I'm not a doctor, I just do lots of nerdy research. If you have specific questions about your own body, you might consider having a session with a certified dietician or at least a doctor (although I have less confidence in doctors because, while they are usually very good at General health, specifics like food, aren't their speciality. It's akin to asking an electrician about the insides of a DVD player, he may know the basics, but not as much as the engineer who works on them every day)

Hope this helps

-Banks

Banks, you scored another hit. Maybe only us nerds with some science background care, I don't know, but I think it is great! kudos :drinker:

PS: I haven't been around real regularly, so don't know if you have mentioned this, but how is the baseball season going?

Why thank you my lady! I try.

Baseball, well so far so good. We are 6-3, double header yesterday, and we WON both. I pitched game 2, complete game, 3 earned runs (which isn't my best, but still ok), but there was only 2 solid hits, the 3 runs all came in one inning where it went, K, dribbler to second for a hit (didn't make it out of the grass), bloop to center (literally 10 feet behind 2nd base), dribbler to 3rd with a man on 3rd, should have been out 2 but our 3rd baseman decided to try to tag the man on 3rd and didn't get him, then a solid double. ARG!!!! 1 good hit, and 3 runs. That is monumentally frustrating. But anyway. Oh, and in the first game, it was tied in the last inning. I made it to first, stole second, went to 3rd on a fielders choice, and on a ground out to the shortstop (with the infield in for the play at home) I scored on a close play at the plate and we won. They took a picture of me right after I slid in, I'm a giant dirt ball, it's funny. I'll see if I can get it and post it on here.
And I'm 4 - 1 pitching with 4 complete games and a 1.3 Earned Run Average

gonna bump this one last time, if nobody cares after that, I'll let it die.

Thanks for the post Banks,

Body builders have their mass building phase and there cutting phase.

From Men's Health magazine, you need 500 extra calories a day to gain one lb. of muscle a week.

I've wondered about trying to gain muscle at the same time as trying to lose fat and consequently being on a below maintenance diet.

Is it possible to gain muscle while dieting?

Is it possible to gain muscle while dieting for a 'hard gainer'?

Hi frank,
Yes it is possible to gain muscle well dieting. It's harder, no question, because you are also replacing muscle that is being consumed, but not impossible. The big thing is, people who are trying to lose weight, are usually doing cardio, which isn't really condusive to building bulk. If you are looking to strengthen and tone muscle, cardio mixed with weight training and some type of plyometric type exercises is good, but if you want to bulk up (increase your muscle volume, as opposed to density) then you really need to go a little easier on the cardio. There are others on here that might be more help with weight training, Songbyrdsweetie is into weight training, although I don't see her on that much anymore, you can email her, I'm sure she would be more then happy to help, she's very good with that stuff.

ahh, you guys are all very welcome. I'm just glad I helped in some small way. I just wish I knew some secret that I could share to make it easier. Stick with it folks. It may not be easy, but when you get there in the end, you will feel a HUGE sense of accomplishment! Go get em all!!!!!

:glasses:

-Banks