03 - Saving calories - why this doesn't work.

This was not initially planned as my 3rd article in my series however, due to the enormous response I got on facebook on my personal profile with this topic, I realised it was necessary to write a more in depth article to explain exactly why "saving calories" throughout the day for a big dinner/night/event later actually does not work. It's all well and good to say it doesn't work - but why exactly does it not work? In theory, it sounds promising, right? Eat a salad, skip breakfast so you can eat to your hearts desire at that buffet dinner at night, maybe with a few drinks too? Create a calorie deficit during the day so that you have more calories to play with at night? This all sounds like it makes sense, but unfortunately, your body is not a bank. It cannot document deficits NOW to make up in the future. It cannot be bombarded with massive influx in one go without it creating some disharmony. Remember, everything in your body works on equilibrium. Your body's systems are very delicate and fine tuned. Balance is key to keeping everything running smoothly.

So, why does saving calories not work?


To understand this, we really need to look at metabolism, and specifically metabolic pathways. Lets look at carbohydrate metabolism first.

Lets use pasta as an example. Pasta is a carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are made up of sugars. Pasta is made up of starch with the formula:

(C6H10O5)n 

n is the number of sugar residues that make up the molecule of carbohydrate, C being carbon, H being hydrogen and O being oxygen. Starch is called a "complex" carbohydrate as it is made up of lots of sugar molecules to make it one big chemical structure. It is made of amylose and amylopectin, which are both complex structures of glucose molecules linked together in different ways as seen below:

When the pasta is metabolized by the body, this structure is broken down into its simple form: glucose

Glucose molecule

Glucose now enters carbohydrate metabolism, specifically, the glycolytic pathway

Pyruvate now enters another pathway called: the Krebs cycle/Citric acid cycle/Tricarboxylic acid cycle

http://science.jrank.org/pages/16356/Krebs-cycle-(citric-acid-cycle-tricarboxylic-acid-cycle-TCA-cycle).html

It is this cycle that generates NADH, GTP and FADH2 that are all used to generate ENERGY.

We use this energy to keep us going, keep our hearts beating, brain's functioning and for all the other processes that go on in our body's - including giving us energy for all our daily tasks like exercise.

If the body cannot use all the energy it is making at the time of ingestion, it has to store it, and it is often stored as fat. 

When you overeat at 1 meal, your body has to metabolize all of the glucose to pyruvate, but because it doesn't need anymore energy, it now turns to a different pathway. Pyruvate is still converted to acetyl CoA, but acetyl CoA is the 1st molecule needed to make fat.

The hormone INSULIN is very strongly linked to fat synthesis. When you eat, this hormone is secreted to signal to your body to break down the food to provide sugar to maintain blood sugar levels. The more you eat at one time, the more hormone is secreted.

Now instead of acetyl CoA producing more energy, insulin activates the enzyme citrate lyase. Citrate lyase converts citrate that has been transported out of the mitochondrion into the cytosol into oxaloacetate and acetyl CoA. Only acetyl CoA in the cytosol can be converted into malonyl CoA and finally cholesterol and fat. 

So, sadly, at the end of the day, you cannot "trick" your body into thinking you have "saved" calories and you now have 1000 calories to play with at 1 meal. 2 alcoholic drinks (200 calories), 1 dessert (500 calories), "restaurant dinner" (400-800 calories) - you can already see how all these excess calories are pumping insulin into your body to deal with the heavy calorie load - basically steam-charging ahead with fat production.

This is why it is SO important to eat small meals often! Prevent insulin spiking, prevent overeating and prevent fat production. 

The other thing to remember is, if you starve yourself, eat less during the day to compensate for a big night later, you are making your metabolism sluggish and slow - which then makes it even WORSE when you do binge. 

Now that you know better, you can do better and be better. Perhaps this is why you wonder why you battle to lose weight? Saving calories is a sad theory that we would love to be true, but, realistically it is not. 

My best advice is eat normally during the day of a big event - this will provide you with all the nutrients you require and you will then be less likely to crave more sugary and fatty foods later. Secondly, it will make you feel more full (as opposed to having starved all day) and you will be less likely to binge excessively.

When you do go for this big event, enjoy yourself, but listen to your body when it has had enough :)

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