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Fat is actually one of the last things the body burns during starvation. Your muscles usually go first.

by atarian 7y ago

heavyset_go 7y ago
Yep, and the process is hard on the kidneys.
- kaffeemitsahne 7y ago
  Which one, muscle or fat burning?
  - heavyset_go 7y ago
    Breakdown of muscle tissue releases proteins that are damaging to the kidneys. It's called rhabdomyolysis. Excessive exertion, infections and starvation can cause it.
    - blaser-waffle 7y ago
      Rhabdo is no joke people. Drink your water, pace yourself when working out, an don't let any heavy objects fall on you.
mrfusion 7y ago
You do have a source? I d heard the opposite.
thorwasdfasdf 7y ago
I'm pretty sure Fat goes first. You mostly loose fat when fasting. It's not till much much later that you loose muscle (BMI has to reach a really low level for that to happen)
- radicalbyte 7y ago
  Talk to any bodybuilder and they'll tell you that for every 4kg of fat you lose you'll also drop 1kg of muscle. So yes it is mainly fat but some muscles will be lost at the same time, especially if you have a high muscle mass.
  - ljm 7y ago
    are we all bodybuilders here? I don’t think you can compare.
  - craftinator 7y ago
    As a Marine who has gone through many, many building and leaning cycles, I call BS on this. When you drop that fat, you aren't actually losing muscular tissue (at least not much). I've gotten down to Olympian levels of body fat, 9-10%, and what you are losing besides the fat is water weight. Your muscles shrink because they hold in less blood; your body regulates this to keep blood pressure normalized with all the decrease in fatty tissues. At less that 8% (on average, for men at least), most bodies will start to break down and metabolize muscle tissues (started happening to me around 9%, and was NOT a fun experience).
    - radicalbyte 7y ago
      I've always been a fat-ass (somewhere from 15-25% BF) so I've also never experienced considerable loss of muscle tissue (at least as far as the scales tell me) - however the body-builder club are at 6% body fat when cut and at what, 12-15% when bulking? They are absolutely going to metabolize muscle tissue when cutting.
    - remarkEon 7y ago
      Yeah, came here to say this (was in the Army). My experience is the same. When it started to happen you could actually smell it (smells like ammonia ... like cat urine, almost).
      - eecc 7y ago
        That’s ketosis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis
liamcardenas 7y ago
This makes no sense. Why would the body prefer to break down a functional store of energy when has access to a non-functional one?
- BoiledCabbage 7y ago
  Because the functional store requires energy to maintain? Getting rid of it reduces the daily caloric need. Pure speculation
  - 0x8BADF00D 7y ago
    It depends on which variant of PPARG you have.
- matt-attack 7y ago
  Pretty sure that’s exactly the purpose (evolutionarily speaking) of fat. It’s an intermittent store of energy to fill in the gaps between the sporadic meals we evolved eating. It just makes so much sense that when food is plentiful (peak season) you want to be able to pack on the fat in order to get you through the cold season when food is scarce.
  - Fnoord 7y ago
    It also makes sense that we eat more heavy, carb-wise, in the winter and lighter foods in the summer, with spring and autumn being the transitional periods. Its to sustain our body fat, or move it into the direction of the next season. A lot of body in the summer makes it hotter (undesired; already hot), not much body fat in the winter makes it colder (undesired; already cold). And it isn't only that. Squirrels even harvest so they got food in winter. We've also learned to maintain foods, such as sushi with rice, or with salt or acid so it wouldn't go rancid. Plus, like I said, there's "winter vegetables" which are high on carbs, low on water.
al_chemist 7y ago
Not true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation_response https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation_response > the body burns fat after first exhausting the contents of the digestive tract along with glycogen reserves stored in liver cells and after significant protein loss.[2] After prolonged periods of starvation, the body uses the proteins within muscle tissue as a fuel source.
stuartc842 7y ago
i've read that your earlobes are the first to go

Fat is actually one of the last things the body burns during starvation. Your muscles usually go first.

heavyset_go 7y ago

Yep, and the process is hard on the kidneys.

kaffeemitsahne 7y ago
Which one, muscle or fat burning?
- heavyset_go 7y ago
  Breakdown of muscle tissue releases proteins that are damaging to the kidneys. It's called rhabdomyolysis. Excessive exertion, infections and starvation can cause it.
  - blaser-waffle 7y ago
    Rhabdo is no joke people. Drink your water, pace yourself when working out, an don't let any heavy objects fall on you.

mrfusion 7y ago

You do have a source? I d heard the opposite.

thorwasdfasdf 7y ago

I'm pretty sure Fat goes first. You mostly loose fat when fasting. It's not till much much later that you loose muscle (BMI has to reach a really low level for that to happen)

radicalbyte 7y ago
Talk to any bodybuilder and they'll tell you that for every 4kg of fat you lose you'll also drop 1kg of muscle. So yes it is mainly fat but some muscles will be lost at the same time, especially if you have a high muscle mass.
- ljm 7y ago
  are we all bodybuilders here? I don’t think you can compare.
- craftinator 7y ago
  As a Marine who has gone through many, many building and leaning cycles, I call BS on this. When you drop that fat, you aren't actually losing muscular tissue (at least not much). I've gotten down to Olympian levels of body fat, 9-10%, and what you are losing besides the fat is water weight. Your muscles shrink because they hold in less blood; your body regulates this to keep blood pressure normalized with all the decrease in fatty tissues. At less that 8% (on average, for men at least), most bodies will start to break down and metabolize muscle tissues (started happening to me around 9%, and was NOT a fun experience).
  - radicalbyte 7y ago
    I've always been a fat-ass (somewhere from 15-25% BF) so I've also never experienced considerable loss of muscle tissue (at least as far as the scales tell me) - however the body-builder club are at 6% body fat when cut and at what, 12-15% when bulking? They are absolutely going to metabolize muscle tissue when cutting.
  - remarkEon 7y ago
    Yeah, came here to say this (was in the Army). My experience is the same. When it started to happen you could actually smell it (smells like ammonia ... like cat urine, almost).
    - eecc 7y ago
      That’s ketosis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis

liamcardenas 7y ago

This makes no sense. Why would the body prefer to break down a functional store of energy when has access to a non-functional one?

BoiledCabbage 7y ago
Because the functional store requires energy to maintain? Getting rid of it reduces the daily caloric need. Pure speculation
- 0x8BADF00D 7y ago
  It depends on which variant of PPARG you have.
matt-attack 7y ago
Pretty sure that’s exactly the purpose (evolutionarily speaking) of fat. It’s an intermittent store of energy to fill in the gaps between the sporadic meals we evolved eating. It just makes so much sense that when food is plentiful (peak season) you want to be able to pack on the fat in order to get you through the cold season when food is scarce.
- Fnoord 7y ago
  It also makes sense that we eat more heavy, carb-wise, in the winter and lighter foods in the summer, with spring and autumn being the transitional periods. Its to sustain our body fat, or move it into the direction of the next season. A lot of body in the summer makes it hotter (undesired; already hot), not much body fat in the winter makes it colder (undesired; already cold). And it isn't only that. Squirrels even harvest so they got food in winter. We've also learned to maintain foods, such as sushi with rice, or with salt or acid so it wouldn't go rancid. Plus, like I said, there's "winter vegetables" which are high on carbs, low on water.

al_chemist 7y ago

Not true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation_response https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation_response > the body burns fat after first exhausting the contents of the digestive tract along with glycogen reserves stored in liver cells and after significant protein loss.[2] After prolonged periods of starvation, the body uses the proteins within muscle tissue as a fuel source.

stuartc842 7y ago

i've read that your earlobes are the first to go