Body Comp Basics
this is Part 2 of Body Comp Basics, an attempt to explain the mysteries of body composition and uncover the first principles of fat loss and muscle growth
PRE
as seen in Part 1, both body fat and muscle mass are tied to the Energy Balance Equation, which says the relationship between energy supply and energy demand affects energy reserves.
- supply > demand = ↑ reserves
- demand > supply = ↓ reserves
the information you can extract from the Energy Balance Equation is limited because it’s superficial, like a low-resolution picture extracted from a full-color movie. for instance, you have multiple types of energy reserves (internal substances capable of repairing your energy-producing firecrackers). the Energy Balance Equation doesn’t distinguish between them. not good.
and so, even though energy balance has a heavy hand in how your body composition came to be and what your body composition will become, it doesn’t contain enough color to paint a complete picture of the situation. understanding survival-based signaling will add some reds and blues to the superficial snapshot.
according to the Energy Balance Equation, your body uses energy reserves when there’s an energy deficit.
when energy demand is greater than energy supply (within a discrete window of time), energy reserves are used to glue the gap between supply and demand. unfortunately, as mentioned, “energy reserves” is a category, not a singular entity.
body fat is an energy reserve. muscle tissue is also an energy reserve (albeit a reluctant one). this means a favorable energetic environment for fat loss is also a favorable energetic environment for muscle loss. (queue the tears.)
fortunately, body fat is the frontline energy reserve, the substance your body sacrifices first during an energy deficit. in other words, you will almost always lose some body fat during an energy deficit. you’d never lose muscle tissue and only muscle tissue. similarly, when there’s a surplus of energetic material, you’ll almost always store some as body fat.
muscle tissue’s relationship with energy balance isn’t as predictable. it can be broken down and used for energy-recycling purposes, but this isn’t its primary function. muscle tissue helps you run, jump, scratch, and kick. without it, you’d be soup. you wouldn’t be able to hunt, scavenge, or defend yourself. these are important skills. from an evolutionary lens, you wouldn’t have a long life expectancy without them.
to understand why your body would “sacrifice” muscle tissue (for energetic purposes) and become a weaker (less able-bodied) organism, an analogy helps:
your body handles energy similar to how a smart accountant (not the one employed by MC Hammer) handles money.
- energy = money
- supply = income
- demand = expenses
- body fat = savings
- reserves = other stashes of money and anything you own that can be transformed into money
when expenses are larger than income, you need to find money to pay your bills (or else the mafia will murder you and your entire family). one way to get money is by reaching into your savings account. you put money away in safe storage for this exact purpose: to stay afloat when income is lackluster. you can pay your bills for a little while without having to change your lifestyle; there’s no immediate panic.
pulling from savings keeps you alive, but there’s a catch: your savings are finite. and once you run out of savings, you die. your body doesn’t want to die. sucking your savings dry like a gambling addict is a short-term band-aid (in response to an energy deficit), not a viable long-term solution.
your body doesn’t know the difference between getting six-pack shredded and struggling to find food.
your body doesn’t know you won’t let yourself starve to death. so when an energy deficit is chronic, your body has no reason to assume the energy crisis will resolve in the near future. and so, to stave off starvation, your body uses alternative methods to settle (or try to settle) its debts.
one “alternative method” is to chop down muscle tissue and use it for energy-recycling purposes. this does two things:
first, it spares body fat stores. you’ll pull money from two accounts instead of one, which will prolong the length of time it’ll take for either to run out. in other words, you’ll live longer.
second, it makes you more energy efficient. muscle makes you a bigger creature. bigger creatures require more energy. with less muscle, your daily energy demand (cost of living) will decrease and you won’t burn through energy reserves as quickly as you otherwise would.
the upsides of sacrificing muscle tissue outweigh the downsides; it’s the smart thing to do to survive the energy crisis… sometimes.
no matter how scrawny you are, your body probably has some semblance of muscle mass. if you break your wrist tomorrow, a doc will put your arm in plaster. two months later, when the doc cuts your cast off, your arm will be less muscular.
as mentioned, muscle has a metabolic cost. your body doesn’t like wasting resources. if you don’t use your arm muscles, your body assumes they aren’t needed. no reason to waste resources keeping them around. why pay $12 every month for a Netflix subscription you never use? (i ask myself this every month. good thing my body isn’t as dumb as i am.)
assuming you’re sedentary, you built the muscle you have without trying thanks to gravity. gravity is easy to ignore. like water to a fish according to what Princess Ruto told me inside of Jabu-Jabu’s belly. to avoid further ignorance, let’s give gravity a face. one that doesn’t spit three-dimensional floor tiles at us. (i’m looking at you, Andross.)
you go in a zero gravity chamber. you’re weightless, suspended in spacetime. people wearing white lab coats enter the chamber. they puncture holes in every one of your bones. they thread ropes through each hole, and then they attach the ropes to the floor. they give each rope a specific downward pull that corresponds with its connecting bone’s mass: less mass, less aggressive pull; more mass, more aggressive pull. (in case you flunked physics, “weight” is mass multiplied by Earth’s gravity.)
this staples you to the ground; you’re no longer floating. you’re like a marionette doll, only with the strings going in the opposite direction. in order to move, you have to overcome the resistance of the rope(s) tying each particular body part to the floor. this requires muscle tissue.
you’re lifting “weights” every time you move because certain parts of your body have to maneuver other parts of your body through Earth’s gravity.
for example, when you raise your hand in the air, your shoulder girdle has to lift the weight of your upper arm, forearm, hand, and fingers. or when you do a bodyweight squat, your legs have to lift the weight of your torso, head, upper arm, forearm, hands, and fingers.
you’ve been lifting “weights” ever since you were born. this is how you built muscle without trying. talk about an ouroboros: by regularly governing the weight of your anatomy, your body assumes governing the weight of its anatomy is important for survival, and thus your body gives you what you need (muscles) to govern the weight of your anatomy.
if you stopped governing the weight of your anatomy tomorrow, your body would get rid of its muscle tissue. astronauts spend six months in a zero-gravity world and their bodies melt like fondue.
governing the weight of your anatomy signals the need for some muscle, not infinite muscle because there are bottlenecks in both directions. Earth’s gravity doesn’t change, and neither does the mass of your body parts (to a significant degree once you reach adulthood). and so, your body builds enough muscle to comfortably move the weight of its anatomy in ways it believes are essential.
this is why you don’t look like the Hulk: gargantuan muscles would be a waste of energy… unless your body regularly overcomes an ever-increasing amount of mass.
unfortunately, there are no Popo-piloted hyperbolic time chambers. you can’t enter a supergravity world. you have to create supergravity scenarios by manipulating your muscles’ mass-lifting responsibilities. there are two ways to do this.
first, make your muscles maneuver more anatomy than they’re currently accustomed to. your (sedentary) shoulder girdle is primarily responsible for lifting the weight of your arm, thanks to you regularly waving your arm through the air for various tasks. want to maneuver more anatomy? do push-ups and force your shoulder girdle to lift more weight (the weight of your torso).
second, add external mass to a movement. your (sedentary) shoulder girdle is primarily responsible for lifting the weight of your arm, thanks to you regularly waving your arm through the air for various tasks. want to maneuver more anatomy? hold a dumbbell and force your shoulder girdle to lift more weight (the weight of the dumbbell).
this is an oversimplified example of what supergravity scenarios entail, but it will suffice for now…
a certain flavor of supergravity stimulation sends a specific signal to the body: “we need more muscle tissue.”
whether or not your body follows these orders is another story. the human body is a complex beast with multiple answers to the riddles it receives. still, regularly overcoming an ever-increasing amount of mass makes muscle tissue more important than it otherwise would be and will make your body less likely to “sacrifice” it during an energy deficit.
when your body uses muscle tissue for energy-recycling purposes, it’s a calculated decision based on perceived need. on one hand, without as much muscle, you won’t be able to move as well (or as comfortably) as you once did. on the other hand, without as much muscle, you’ll be more energy-efficient and better able to survive in a world with less energy.
this decision isn’t made in a vacuum; your body doesn’t pull an answer from a hat. if your body thinks muscle tissue is important and necessary for survival, it won’t be as quick to get rid of it. this is why supergravity stimulation is important regardless of your objective and why building muscle and losing fat are more similar than they are different.
supergravity stimulation is a constant need if you care about having well-developed muscles at a low body-fat percentage.
for muscle growth, you need supergravity stimulation; if you don’t smack yourself in the face with supergravity stress, your body has no reason to build more muscle tissue.
for fat loss, supergravity stimulation isn’t necessary, but it’s beneficial. especially if you care about losing fat more than you care about losing weight. at worst, you’ll better retain the muscle you have. at best, you’ll build muscle.
unfortunately, building muscle and losing fat at the same time isn’t likely. it’s possible, but it’s not practical. the blame for this falls on the shoulders of supply.