How Do Calories End Up As Body Fat?

Glucose is what the body burns for fuel. The body has an amazingly complex system for both storing this fuel, and releasing it as the body needs it. If it weren’t for this ability, you would have to constantly consume food in order to supply your body with energy.

Your diet is successful when you take in fewer calories than your body burns. When you do this, you force your body to eventually turn to its long-term energy storage units: your fat cells.

However, before your body turns to its fat cells as an energy source, it first uses up its short-term energy storage: starch. Starch is like clusters of glucose units that the body breaks down for use, once the glucose in the blood gets used up. If you continue not eating, then once the starch molecules are all used up, then the fat cells are resorted to.

The healthiest way to eat is to have several small snacks throughout your day, supplying your body with fuel, as it needs it. Most of us, however, eat three meals a day, usually including snacks in between meals, and even before bedtime. Unless you have a high metabolism or are physically active, those extra, unnecessary calories often end up being stored as body fat.

As I mentioned above, the body carefully manages the amount of glucose, or “blood sugar,” that is present in the blood. There are glands that monitor this amount. After a meal, the amount of sugar in the blood spikes. The body responds to this saturation by storing the excess glucose into starch. When your blood sugar runs low, a different gland is called into action, and commands enzymes to break down starch into glucose.

The brain operates on a very specific blood glucose level. If the glucose level is low enough or high enough, you can pass out and even become comatose. The optimum level is pretty precise, with little room for long-term deviation.

But not all people are fortunate enough to have a healthy blood glucose level. A flaw in one’s genetic code can cause the sugar level in one’s blood to stay abnormally high (diabetes) or abnormally low (hypoglycemia).

By: John Arnast

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