If the body fails to find fuel to meet a calorie deficit, it will likely use lean tissue before fat (particularly if the calorie deficit becomes more prolonged). Lean tissue requires three times more calories than fat just to maintain itself, (“resting metabolic rates of skeletal muscle 13 kcal/kg per day and adipose tissue 4.5 kcal/kg per day”)[52] so the body needs to ‘dump’ the part of it that needs the most energy. This has a direct impact on our basal metabolic rate (need for fuel), which is counterproductive for weight loss.
