Hello BBM and thanks for making me feel ignorant about things,
To my understanding, the ease with which macronutrients are stored as bodyfat follows the order of 1) Fat 2) Carbs and Protein (I’m guessing it’s Carbs before Protein and that Protein shoudn’t even be on this list),
and the order in which the body prefers to consume energy from macros is 1) Carbs 2) Fat and Protein
…and Protein being last in line for sources of chemical energy that are stored as bodyfat, is, as I implied, a mere formality, since it’s virtually impossible for the body to store excess energy from protein as fat, since the energy cost of conversion outweighs that which is left after.
Is the Calories In Calories Out model therefore bunk?
Like, if Johnny’s calorie need for maintaining bodyweight is 3000kcal, and he eats that, I’m guessing that he’d maintain weight.
If he eats 3500kcal however, will he store ca 500kcal worth of fat, or will it depend entirely on his macros? If he eats 1000kcal worth of fat and 1000kcal worth of carbs, and the rest from protein, will his body use the fat and carbs as energy first, then 1000kcal from protein, and then just convert the excess 500kcal from protein to heat? What if he instead eats OVER 3000kcal worth of fat and/or carbs, is it only then that he will begin to store fat?
So, is it the case that:
Eating below / equal to maintenance calories from fat and carbs, while total calories are equal to / above maintenance (the rest from protein) … results in bodyweight maintenance?
Eating below maintenance calories from fat and carbs, while total calories also remain below equal … results in weight loss?
I mean, it seems as if the only way to gain bodyfat is to eat above one’s maintenance level of calories FROM fat (and maybe carbs), and as if the only way to burn fat is indeed to be in a calorie deficit … but that it’s, again, eating calories above maintenance from fat and or carbs that results in fat gain. Then again, it’s not like all of one’s daily calories are ingested at the same instant, so the fuel systems are working non-stop, and maybe it takes a while for the body to begin storing fat after a long period of calorie maintenance.
I just don’t get the math here. Is CICO bunk? Protein cannot be converted into bodyfat. Carbs are hard to convert into bodyfat. Someone said that if one eats excess calories, the fat calories are stored as body fat first (obvious, since no conversion is required), BUT, does that mean that the body prefers to use calories from protein before calories from fat as fuel? Because if not, there’d be no fat calories to store after the hypothetical 3000kcal had been used, there’d only be protein calories to store, and they ofc can’t be stored, and in that case one wouldn’t gain weight even in a calorie surplus… I don’t get it.
Thank you!