re: It's the carbs bruh

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Ok, back to my example. Would one maintain/lose weight if eating 2k calories of twinkies a day? What about 2k calories of beef a day?

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Metabolic health and processes complicate the answer. You’re correct in that 2000 calories of beef would lead to better weight management than 2000 calories of Twinkies.

For one, the body uses more energy to burn protein than it does to burn carbohydrates. Something like 2-3 times as much. So you’re not technically using/storing 2000 calories of beef as you would 2000 calories of Twinkies.

Secondly, protein is essential for building or maintaining lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass increases your BMR, meaning your 2000 calories is burned at a faster rate. Twinkies have little to no protein meaning you lose lean muscle mass thus lowering your BMR. You would have to burn calories with more work to process and burn all of the 2000 calories of Twinkies.

BUT, before you jump for victory, keep in mind that people have different caloric needs based on body composition, different BMRs influenced by genetics and lean muscle mass, different NEATs, and different experiences with physical exercise. Claiming that 2000 calories of beef will always win doesn’t tell the whole story. If someone needs 1800 calories to maintain weight, then they will gain weight on that protocol.

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Would one maintain/lose weight if eating 2k calories of twinkies a day? What about 2k calories of beef a day?

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well that would depend on the persons BMR and TDEE but if you are asking if the two things are equal....


no, because thermic effect of food aka dietary induced thermogensis.


the protein in the beef is going to take about 20% of those calories just to digest.

not need to know if that is over tdee and fat content of the meat as Fat is by far the easiest macro to store as fat

also would matter if the person is doing resistance training to use the protein as fuel to build muscle

etc etc

so its really hard to say as you can see. But in the end the beef will prolly cause more because protein can not be equated.

and weight does not equal body fat btw.