A wide variety of information on the topic of weight loss makes getting weight loss facts relatively easy. You may already know that for each pound you want to lose, you need to either reduce your calorie intake by 3, 500 calories, or increase your level of physical activity to burn the equivalent of 3,500 calories. Less frequently discussed, however, is the process of burning body fat, commonly known as fat metabolism.
Identification
During food digestion, your body converts calories it does not need for immediate energy into chemicals called triglycerides. These triglycerides travel through your bloodstream to adipose tissue where your body stores them within already present fat cells. When your body requires additional energy, a hormone-regulated process begins releasing triglycerides from fat cells so they may again be available for use as energy.
Fat Breakdown Process
When you create an energy deficit by consuming fewer calories than your body requires or by raising your level of physical activity to a point your body cannot meet with already available energy, your body looks to triglycerides stored within fat cells. Fat breakdown begins inside fat cell mitochondria in a process called catabolism, the second, or destructive, stage of metabolism. First, each triglyceride breaks down into one glycerol and three fatty acid molecules. The glycerol molecule undergoes further conversion to become glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate or GAP, and then enters glycolysis to become an energy source. The fatty acid molecules undergo a process called beta-oxidation, which produces molecules of acetyl-CoA that enter the Kreb's, or Citric Acid Cycle.
Conversion to Energy
Glycolysis is a 10-step, largely anerobic process that starts with glucose and results in adenosine triphosphare, or ATP, a source of energy your body can use. Each step of this conversion makes small changes to the glucose molecule and leads to the formation of an intermediary, which supplies the base for the next step. Beta-oxidation is an aerobic process, meaning it requires oxygen to complete. Beta-oxidation is a more indirect way of creating usable energy and the steps it requires depend on the length of the fatty acid chain it is dissolving. This process starts with an enzyme called coenzyme A in addition to oxygen and each step removes two carbons from the fatty acid chain until the result is two-carbon chain called acetyl-CoA. This molecule then enters the Citric Acid Cycle to produce both ATP energy and two molecules of carbon dioxide your body eliminates through respiration.
Effects of Quick Weight Loss
Although cutting calories is necessary for weight loss, cutting too many can cause its own set of problems. The more often your body must look to fat stores as a source of energy, the greater the level of ketones, or acidic chemical by-products of fat metabolism, that will build up in your blood, increasing blood acidity. Over time, increased blood acidity can result in serious kidney and liver damage.
References
- American Heart Association: Triglycerides
- Georgia State University Department of Physics: Mitochondria
- Community College of Baltimore County: Fat Catabolism
- Gonzaga University Biochemistry Dictionary: Glycolysis
- University of California Davis Department of Chemistry and Biology: Beta-Oxidation
- Elmhurst College: Citric Acid Cycle Reactions
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