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Who would die first of starvation – a fat or a thin person? (www.sciencefocus.com)

submitted 1 year ago by oce@jlai.lu to c/interestingasfuck@lemmy.world

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[–] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I am still wondering if having more muscles could also make you starve faster because your basic metabolism would require more energy?

A recent video by Kurtzgesagt has lead me to believe that having lots of muscle doesn't increase your basal metabolic rate very much. It's a myth. It's using your muscles that burns more energy. Simply maintaining extra muscle doesn't burn all that many extra calories.

I would venture that having extra muscle would mean it would take longer for you to starve.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Muscles require nutrients to exist, and without it they atrophy. So being more muscular means you need additional calories to stay muscular. Whenever I stop working out for a while, I usually stop force feeding myself too, and my muscles disappear pretty rapidly. If I continue eating a ton then the muscles stick around longer, but I also get fatter, since I'm not burning the excess.

[–] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes, and I said as much. All I said is I watched a video that says the amount of extra calories burned per additional unit of muscle mass is not as much as everyone seems to think. The video was backed by science and your anecdote is not. I edited my original comment to add a link to the video.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The point I was trying to make is that even if it doesn't increase your metabolism, it increases your minimum caloric need. So, you can eat more without getting fat, or you can lose fat without eating less. It's not even "can", you must eat more to meet your kcal minimum. That's well documented scientifically as well. So ultimately the effect is the same, it's easier to lose fat when you have more muscles.

[–] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Watch the video. Or don't. I don't care. Everything you said is strictly true, but unless you look like a body builder, it's not as big of a calorie drain as many people think.