Catabolic vs Anabolic: Why Undereating Stores Fat After 40

Nikkiey: Hey everyone, Nikkiey here with WarriorBabe. In this video I am going to explain why intermittent fasting and fasting, or not eating prior to strength training workouts, with the ultimate goal of building muscle and toning up is not only terrible for females but also completely counterproductive to the goal of building muscle and toning up.

So if you are somebody who currently does IF or doesn't eat before strength training workouts and you're spinning your wheels as to why you aren't seeing results, by the end of this video you'll gain perspective on what you need to do to get on the right path towards building that muscle and toning up.

What I'll cover today is what we teach inside of our WarriorBabe programs. I'm linking them below for you guys to check out. Before I dive into this, if you guys are excited to learn and to get answers, do me a favor and smash that like button right now. It will help this video get more views, and those views are other women, other people getting the answers that they need as well. I appreciate you guys doing that so much. Let's dive into it.

Really quick, I need you to know that our metabolism is what changes food into energy. The number one way to make it faster is to build more muscle. Also, in my previous YouTube video, I talked about body weight not showing you the big picture and to not worry about that scale. These points are heavily correlated to the topic I'm going to talk about today.

Right now, I'm going to turn it over to catabolism and anabolism, which are processes of our metabolism. These processes affect your body weight and they affect your results. In short, being in a catabolic state is where you break down muscle and store body fat. Being in an anabolic state is where you build and maintain muscle and burn away body fat. Does that make sense?

Do me a favor right now and comment below if you think that you've lived in the catabolic state the majority of the time while you've been on your fitness journey. For example, you're not eating enough. You're doing cardio-based workouts. You're not eating and fueling your body pre- and post-workout. And most importantly, you're not seeing results that last. Comment below this video right now.

So I want you to think of it like this. Catabolism is how much energy your body produces. Then subtract anabolism, which is how much energy your body uses. If you produce more than you use, you may pack on pounds, as that energy gets stored away as body fat. If you use more than you produce, then the opposite may happen.

Now, real quick, keep in mind there are exceptions. If you have underlying medical conditions that affect your hormones, this may apply differently to you. Catabolism involves different hormones than anabolism does, and those are a topic for another day.

Anyway, an example. If you have adapted your body to endurance-style workouts, aka cardio, boot camps, etc., and you're not fueling your body with the proper nutrition it needs, you will live in a catabolic state. If you intermittent fast or you don't eat prior to a lifting session, you are in a catabolic state. Your body will break down muscle and store body fat for the production of energy to get you through that workout, especially if you do it over a duration of days, plus weeks, plus months.

Guys, this is a counterproductive effect to have going on internally if your goal is to build muscle, to tone up and to burn away body fat. Is this all making sense? Smash that like button for me right now.

If you do anabolic workouts, you'll tend to shed fat and to maintain or even gain muscle. Muscle is more dense than fat, so your body weight and body mass index may stay higher despite having a leaner physique. Catabolic workouts, on the other hand, will help you shed pounds by working off both fat and muscle. Yes, you'll have weight loss, you'll weigh less, but you'll also have far less muscle mass.

If you want to build muscle, being in a catabolic state for too long can work against you. It can decrease your muscle mass and your overall health. Preventing catabolism is all about keeping a good balance between your nutrition, training and, most importantly, your recovery.

So let me segue this into nutrition real quick. You can tell just from talking about this that nutrition is a huge key to it all. Nutrition is a building block to a happy internal metabolism working properly. So pre- and post-workout nutrition is so vitally important to your results of building muscle, getting toned and decreasing body fat. The 24 hours following a workout are considered the recovery and building phase. And again, at this point, nutrition is so vitally important to your results of building muscle, getting toned and decreasing body fat.

So to recap really quick: being in a catabolic state is where you break down muscle and you store body fat. Things such as not eating prior to lifting or doing way too much cardio can put your body in this specific state. Being in an anabolic state is where you build and maintain muscle and you burn away body fat. This is where you want to be. Things such as eating prior to lifting and doing strength training workouts can put your body into this specific state.

If you want help making sure that you are doing the right prescribed nutrition, macro and workout plan for your individual needs, and to be able to keep your results forever, be sure to check out the WarriorBabe programs. We offer the link in the description below this video.

Guys, I hope this helped. Thanks so much for tuning in to today's video. I hope that it brought you tons of value and tons of aha moments. Remember, you want to be in that anabolic state. To be sure that you know when I drop more videos like this, hit the subscribe button right now, and I will see you guys next time.