Eli5: I recently realized fat is stored energy. If thats the case, then how do bodybuilders manage if they’ve got a lot of muscle and hardly any fat.
In: Biology
First, There are many sources of energy in your body and “metabolic pathways” or ways your body takes something that isn’t usable and turns it into a usable fuel source.
1) Sugars – These are the easiest to break down. The body uses these first.
2) Fats – These are harder to burn than sugars but easier than protein so your body tries to use these second. Burning fat instead of sugar is called ketosis and is the idea behind the keto diet. That’s a whole other discussion.
3) Protein – The body can break down protein for energy but it takes more work so it’s generally the last thing to be used. Eventually the body will break down muscles, this is very bad but better than dying.
Second, The body is going to burn what’s in the digestive tract first. If they’re consuming enough calories in a given period of time their fat reserves will remain largely untouched.
Third, a body builder will at no time be “fat” but they fluctuate. At competitions they might get down to 2-5% body fat but outside of intentionally reducing their body fat percentage for the competition they generally have more fat. There’s multiple reasons, one being the energy factors you mention and another being that it’s really unhealthy to run in low single digits for body fat.
To summarize, they eat enough, there’s other places they get energy than fat if they don’t eat enough, and they’re generally still at a low but reasonable body fat percentage.
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