Hey Margo! I was speaking for everyone. What you basically did is took advantage of G-Flux. Look it up. Basically eat more burn more is more effective than eat less exercise less.

What is happening is still through an energy deficit. It's just that in the former case, fat mobilization and metabolism is higher.

And yes, you are absolutely right about the hormones. Kindly check out the "Edit-1" section of this article. I've expanded on it

Thanks for reading and responding!