Why do we get fat ? Reasons and mistakes

Why do we get fat ? If there is a war that is still going on and the end is not in sight, it is the war on macronutrients. The fight between carbs and fats has been going on for decades, and its protein also carries it from time to time. In this article you will learn that:

  • carbohydrates are not our biggest enemy;
  • we fill equally with both carbohydrates and fats;
  • protein can be a powerful weapon if used properly; and more.

On the Internet you will find a variety of statements. In general, carbohydrates are considered the greatest evil because they raise insulin, and insulin leads to fat storage. Large amounts of carbohydrates are also converted into and stored as fat. Such claims are the basis of “magical” low-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets. Long after its creation, the Atkins diet, which almost completely excludes carbohydrates from the menu, was popularized as a diet that allows you to eat as much as you want without fear of gaining weight. Of course, this is not the case at all.

Until 5-10 years ago, the World Health Organization recommended that carbohydrates make up at least half of the daily menu, mostly because of misleading and incorrect scientific information about fats. Over the years, an epidemic of overweight and obesity has begun to grow with predominant carbohydrates – something we still struggle with today. All this has left a bad mark both in the information space and in people’s beliefs. To this day, most people believe that carbohydrates make us fat, and if you aim for a slimmer figure, you should part with them and automatically switch to restrictive regimens such as low-carb.

And yet, who is to blame for being overweight? Do we gain the most fat from carbohydrates? What about fats, why doesn’t anyone talk about them? Maybe the protein is the black sheep? We will try to answer these questions below, but before we continue, we need to clarify some important things. Below we will look at the effects of carbohydrates, fats and protein on overeating, because in order to talk about gaining weight, we need to look at situations of excess calories. With a calorie balance or calorie deficit, it doesn’t really matter if we eat a little or a lot of carbs or fat.

We pay attention to something else, also very important. Whatever the ratio of fat, carbohydrates and protein in one’s diet can depend on a number of factors. Health status, type and frequency of training, individual intolerance to certain foods are examples of such factors. Do not interpret this material as determining the best, for all people, in any situation. Here we will consider only the change in weight and body composition due to overeating and eating a different ratio of essential nutrients.

Do carbs make us fat and how?

There is certainly no denying that we can gain weight if we overeat with carbohydrates. Our body has the ability to convert carbohydrates into fat. This process is called de novo lipogenesis (DNL) and it is quite possible that it will cause additional storage of excess fat.

In fact, it is one of the main arguments against carbohydrates by supporters of a low-carb diet. What is not mentioned, intentionally or out of ignorance, is that stored fat as a result of DNL, ​​in general, even in relatively severe overeating, represents a very, very small part of the total weight gain and the total amount of newly stored excess fat. De novo lipogenesis is not an on / off switch and in principle always a small portion of carbohydrates are converted into fat (up to ~ 5%), even if we do not overeat.

The conversion of carbohydrates into fat by DNL is directly proportional to the amount of excess carbohydrates and calories consumed. That is, the more carbohydrates and food we eat in general, the more DNL will generate fat, but in order for these levels to become problematic, you need to eat extremely, extremely high carbohydrates and food for days and weeks. In a single overeating of carbohydrates, most are stored as glycogen and another large part is oxidized (used for energy).

K. J. Acheson and his team make healthy men eat 479 grams of carbohydrates in the form of bread, jam and fruit juice at a time and monitor what happens to them for the next 10 hours. 133 grams of carbohydrates are used for energy, and the remaining 346 were stored as glycogen. In his next study, Achenson concluded that the human body can store about 15 grams of glycogen per pound of body weight and must replenish at least 500 grams before overeating carbohydrates can lead to significant fat synthesis by DNL.

Most scientific papers conclude that massive overeating of carbohydrates, DNL leads to the synthesis of about 5 grams of fat per day. DN In some studies DNL reaches about 10 g of fat per day  ⁠, but in others it is only 1 gram.

The study provides information only on the fat resulting from DNL, ​​but does not provide information on the total amount of newly accumulated excess fat. However, this can be seen from the study of K. Minehira and team. After 4 days of overeating with carbohydrates (75% calorie excess and 71% carbohydrates), participants gained about 1.6-1.8 kg, of which only 300-400 grams were adipose tissue.  In any case, the amount of fat due to DNL is negligible. It is a serious excess of energy – about and over 50% excess calories and between 400 and 700 grams of carbohydrates per day. And all this leads to only a few grams of synthesized fat per day through DNL? What then happens to the other carbohydrates?

One of the fates of carbohydrates, which we have already mentioned, is their storage as glycogen. The other way is that of oxidation, which is actually the production of energy as a result of chemical reactions. One of the specific properties of carbohydrates is that in excess the body adapts, changes the ratio of fuel used and increases its energy expenditure.

The study by T.J. Horton and team is a great example of this. After a 14-day intake of 50% more calories, mostly from carbohydrates or mostly from fat, when overeating with carbohydrates between 75 and 85% of the energy consumed was stored, while when overeating with fat was stored 90-95%. The oxidation of carbohydrates in this study is doubled, and in the study of J. M. Schwarz and team, the oxidation of carbohydrates is increased 6 times. 

The oxidation not only of carbohydrates but also of fats and proteins is part of the so-called thermal effect of food (TEF / DIT). It represents the amount of energy expended by the body that was needed to process a nutrient. Keep in mind that the data for TEF are mainly in a standard, relatively balanced diet, in calorie balance, and not in overeating and dominance of a macronutrient, so the numbers may differ and be lower than those in overeating. For carbohydrates TEF is in the range of 5-10%. That is, if you eat carbohydrates with a caloric value of 100 kcal, the body will use about 5-10 kcal to process them.

If most of the carbohydrates are used for energy, another large part is stored as glycogen, and only a small part is converted directly into fat, then why fill them? In excess, carbohydrates have the ability to affect the ratio of fuel used by the body and the more carbohydrates we eat, the more they oxidize, but while the oxidation of carbohydrates can jump several times, it almost completely stops the oxidation of fats. One is at the expense of the other.

In this case, in the presence of at least a little fat in our daily menu, most of them are stored directly, because our body uses very little of them for energy.

Are we fat from the fats?

So, after all, carbohydrates are a bad choice when we are in excess calories. If carbs aren’t okay, fat should be our friend, right? Unfortunately no. The exclusion method here does not work properly and this is how many people are misled. With the same caloric intake and excess, most fats would make you as full as if you ate carbs in their place. Maybe even a little more.

Two main things can happen to the fats that enter the body – they can either be used for energy or stored directly. Unlike carbohydrates, fats have almost no effect on the ratio of fuel used by the body and their TEF is in the range of 0-3%. (8) ⁠ This makes the storage of surplus even easier and more efficient. You can cram in bursts of fat, but their oxidation remains almost unchanged and those that are not used for energy, the body stores directly. Both fats and carbohydrates make us equally fat if we overeat. The mechanisms are different, but the end result is practically the same.

What if we overeat with protein?

Most people focus entirely on fats and carbohydrates. Protein is often ignored, but there are definitely people who are worried about it. Including when it comes to protein in the form of a dietary supplement. You may have come across statements like “I don’t drink protein because I make it greasy” or “This protein is complete rubbish, I greased a lot of it and lost my relief.” In almost all cases, it is an additional intake of 30-40 grams of protein, and not a serious overeating, which further puts such claims in serious question.

In general, the rule is that any thing that has a caloric value can make us fuller, as long as we take a large enough amount of it. Protein is no exception. The body has pathways for protein to be converted into carbohydrates and even fat, but it is a little more special. First of all, protein has a much higher TEF than carbohydrates and fats – between 20 and 30%.

Secondly, our body does not have a storehouse to store excess protein. We can develop some theories about how our muscle mass is a large storehouse of protein, but this does not mean that if you overeat with protein, you will gain 5 kg of muscle mass, because the excess protein needed storage space. Yes, part of it can be stored as lean mass, as you will see below, but new muscle tissue is hardly built in significant quantities. Otherwise, we would all be crammed with protein and look (almost) like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his youth.

Excess protein taken with food can be used for various purposes, especially building and transport, and what remains unused is either used for energy or excreted from the body. In the last few years, Jose Antonio has published some really great scientific publications that look at the effect of taking very high doses of protein daily.

In one of them two groups are compared – control and high protein. The control maintains a normal caloric intake and protein of 1.8 g / kg. The high-protein group increased their caloric intake from 2,000 to 2,800 kcal and their protein intake from 2.3 to 4.4 g / kg. The duration of the experiment is 8 weeks and the results at the end are impressive. The high-protein group gained 1.7 kg, but all the weight was in the form of lean mass and even reduced their excess fat by 0.2 kg.  It is amazing to see that while maintaining a 40% caloric excess consisting mainly of protein for 8 weeks, there is no increase in excess fat.

And this is not an isolated case, but is confirmed by other studies. It is important to note that in Jose Antonio’s research, participants are weightlifters. His research also has some serious shortcomings, such as questionable sponsorship and self-reporting of food intake. Some research has seen slightly different results in people who do not train with weights during the experiment. George A. Bray and his team overeat ~ 950 kcal (40% energy surplus) for 8 weeks, 3 groups of people:

  • low in protein – 5% of total calories for the day
  • with normal protein – 15% of total calories for the day
  • with high protein – 25% of total calories for the day

At the end of the experiment, the groups gained weight as follows:

  • low protein: 3.16 kg total (3.66 kg fat and -0.70 kg pure)
  • normal protein: 6.05 kg total (3.45 kg fat and 2.87 kg pure)
  • high protein: 6.51 kg total (3.44 kg fat and 3.18 kg pure)

Virtually all of them “stick” the same amount of excess fat, but with increasing protein, net weight increases. ⁠ In other words, unlike weight trainers, overeating with protein in non-trainers also leads to an increase in excess fat. There is one small feature in this study that can be seen in a closer look at the design of the experiment. While during overeating the amount of carbohydrates in weight remains almost unchanged (-5%), along with protein, the amount of fat in the diet increases, and significantly – by 80%. In Jose Antonio’s experiments, excess calories come solely from protein.

Mike Spillane and team, where again after overeating with the same caloric value in weightlifters, the group eating higher protein again increases the same amount of excess fat and a little more lean weight, but again, a closer look at the methodology shows that in addition to additional protein, the high-protein group also consumes significantly higher amounts of carbohydrates and fats. In this case, we can make a pure assumption that perhaps the protein is not to blame for the increase in excess fat in non-training and training people, but the additional fats and / or carbohydrates that they take to it. Of course, this is just speculation, but it is food for thought.

Unfortunately, the data are highly contradictory and we cannot say anything for sure, but there is no denying that compared to carbohydrates and fats, protein carries the least risk of being stored as adipose tissue. Before you rush in and start eating insane amounts of protein, take a deep breath, read the article, and pay special attention to the next few lines. From the above you can conclude that if you have to overeat, especially for days / weeks, protein is the safest option to do it, especially if you exercise regularly and with weights.

However, it would be extremely wrong to restructure your diet and get 80% of your calories from protein. Not only is protein (almost) not stored as excess fat, it is also hardly used to generate energy. This role is assigned to carbohydrates and fats, and protein performs a number of other important functions. If you dramatically increase your protein intake and minimize both carbohydrates and fats, sooner or later, depending on how much subcutaneous fat you have in store, your energy levels and athletic performance will begin to suffer significantly. It’s not a bad idea to eat more protein, just don’t overdo it.

Conclusions

Overeating is overeating and in almost all cases will lead to negative consequences, especially if it happens regularly and “qualitatively”. Overeating in most people is unconscious and they do not always have and choose exactly what the excess energy they consume consists of. However, if you can choose and your body composition is your priority, protein should be your first choice. It is not guaranteed that you will not get any other excess fat, but the risk is much lower.

In second place in terms of “safety from overeating” are definitely carbohydrates. Yes, they will make you almost as full as fat, but if you exercise regularly, the extra amount of stored glycogen will certainly be useful and you have just set a new personal achievement. In third place we put the fat. Unfortunately, overeating with them is no plus for your body composition or your training. Of course, in reality we can hardly overeat with only one particular nutrient, but more or less we can tilt the scales in one direction or another.

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