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> fat and muscle cells take in calories,

They can only do so acutely until the blood sugar drops. It will not matter in the long run if there is a calorie deficit. I like to summarize it like 24 hour calorie balance is far more important than short term acute effects.

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I think that's right, but it's worth noting that "until the blood sugar drops" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. That varies a lot by person. E.g. I wear a CGM, as does a friend. We can eat the same thing, and my friend's CGM reading drops back to his baseline in less than an hour while mine stays elevated for several hours.

I eat low-carb foods and intermittently fast to compensate, but if I ate a "mainstream heatlhy" diet (3 meals a day, grain bowls, etc), my blood sugar would be moderately elevated for most of the time.

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