It’s thrown around so much, it’s almost nutritional scripture: a calorie is just a calorie. And so our focus goes to calorie intake. Keep calories in check, and your physique pursuits are taken care of. Right? Is calorie control enough? Is a calorie really just a calorie? Or are you holding your gains hostage with this [...]
It's thrown around so much, it's almost nutritional scripture: a calorie is just a calorie. And so our focus goes to calorie intake. Keep calories in check, and your physique pursuits are taken care of. Right?
Is calorie control enough? Is a calorie really just a calorie? Or are you holding your gains hostage with this mindset?
As I type this, caffeine is coursing through my corpse. As I wrote about in 9 Things You Should Know Before Intermittent Fasting, it's sort of a guilty pleasure of mine. Reducing my intake was my own little new years resolution. Drinking five cups per day wasn't something I wanted to do over the long haul.
That's kind of the deal with caffeine and coffee though. One cup becomes two. Three. Four. Five…
Your body desensitizes itself to the drug with frequent exposure. That's the deal with any drug, really.
One cup of coffee with 200mg of caffeine does good work at first. But not for long. Then you need 300mg. 400mg….
While it's true that 200mg is caffeine is “created equally” and that 200mg of caffeine is really just 200mg of caffeine, that 200mg can have a different effect depending on your history with the drug. Doesn't this make you think about a calorie not really being just a calorie?
All nutrients provoke responses inside of the body.
What does that mean for us in the world of physical training looking to add muscle without gaining fat?
Click below to play the video and find out nutrition knowledge everyone should think about.
From my experience, gaining muscle without body fat is all about optimizing the signaling effects nutrients have. In other words, how can you get the most out of the calories you take in so you don't have to chronically overconsume?
Instead of upping caffeine intake linearly over time — one cup, two cups, three cups, four cups — it's about rotating through amounts in order to get the desired effect from less. And then really hammering it when you need it most.
If you abuse a certain amount of food — say 3000 kcals worth of carbs and protein — what kind of dimished response will you have? And what if you sensitize yourself to the point of getting the same kind of response out of 2500kcals?
Less calories.
Same response.
Powerful signal for muscle gain.
No left over energy floating around the body.
What do you think? Is a calorie really just a calorie? Reply in the comments section.
———-
Browse similar posts:
Clean Bulk Fail #1 You're Creating Training Noise
Clean Bulk Fail #2 You're Tuned Into the Wrong Station
Clean Bulk Fail #3 You Don't Have Cojones
———-
Want someone else to think about whether or not a calorie is a calorie?
Share this post to your friends with the icons below.