How can a person burn more calories per day than consumed? Where did the extra energy come from if food not equivalent to that amount was consumed?

Question

How can a person burn more calories per day than consumed? Where did the extra energy come from if food not equivalent to that amount was consumed?

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Answer 1

Here’s the order of operations.

1. You eat. The food you eat is broken down into water, stuff you use for construction (proteins), stuff you use for fuel that day (sugars and fats), stuff you save up for fuel for another day (sugars and fats, but STORED as “body fat”, not burned), and stuff you can’t transform (fibre). It’s not perfect, but that’s the general process.
2. If you don’t eat enough, your body grabs some of the “stuff you use for fuel that day” from the previous “stuff you saved up for fuel for another day”. So if you’re dieting, you’re going to dip into some of your body fat.
3. If you don’t eat enough AND you don’t have any body fat, your body then starts dipping into your already-built construction. It starts burning muscle tissue, because that’s all it has to keep operating. (This is why people look like sticks during famines).

So, yeah, body fat’s the answer.