This seems counterintuitive. I mean, if my bills exceed my income, *but* I have a million dollars in the bank, I can still buy new stuff.
I can spend the energy from fat reserves on any amount of exercise, after all – so why can’t I spend it on building muscle? Why does *that* energy have to come from a caloric surplus?
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The body doesn’t treat this as just one big pool of energy. It treats different types of energy differently. Fat is long term storage. It doesn’t want to spend this if it doesn’t have to, and building muscle beyond a certain level required for basic function isn’t perceived by cells as a good use of stored energy. At a calorie deficit, the body is in longevity mode, not growth mode. It wants to keep you alive for as long as possible so it’s going to spend less energy on other things.
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