Body Fuel – Fat or Glucose? What is the Difference?
One of the most important things we can do for our bodies is fuel it with foods that fill us up and keep us running all day long at our most optimal state. It is critical to STOP worrying about eating less calories, cutting out carbs + never adding fats.
Did you know your brain requires 20% of your caloric intake to function in its best state? And that your body can actually only burn two types of fuel. That it can also only burn one of those two types at any one given time? It can either burn Fat as fuel or it can burn Glucose as fuel. When your body runs out of Glucose it starts to access your stored body fat.
Our bodies are highly complex and extremely responsive to the ways in which we choose to support it. So let’s support our bodies by consuming nutrient dense foods that nourish our minds + bodies.
Our first fuel up is Glucose it is a sugar molecule and it is the bodies preferred fuel source because its easy to break down and easily absorbed it gives us instant energy. It’s a carbohydrate that is naturally found in starchy vegetables and grains. The body uses it to produce ATP through a process called glycolysis, which creates the molecular produce of pyruvate via the Krebs cycle.
When the body uses fat as fuel it burns fatty acids in the Krebs cycle which is a process called lipolysis. This leads to beta-oxidation where fatty acids are broken down into a ketone body called acetoacetate. This is converted further into 2 energy molecules beta-hyrdoxybutyrate and acetone. These ketone bodies can be produced by the liver when glucose has run out. They can also be derived from your dietary fat intake.
So in short one works with Fat and the other works with Sugar. Your amazing body can use both and generate different results depending on your goals.
Both types enter the Krebs cycle but they have very different outcomes once processed in the body. When you are burning fat as fuel (ketones) the body creates 2 completely different molecules. Beta-Hydroxybutyrate and acetate can produce 25% more energy than pyruvate. Which means a longer more sustainable energy.
The body can only store about 2000 calories from glucose at any one time and when it runs out you feel it – you get that sugar crash and experience the shakes and may even feel a little faint . With fat let’s say you have only 7% body fat (I know ridiculous) that’s 20,000 calories of fat fuel available to your body for energy – Imagine you have 28% body fat thats like 80,000 calories WHAT!
So the skinny is this if you want to start burning off your stored body fats stop filling it with the foods that are generating the insulin spikes. which you will find in my program HERE! #youcanthankmelater xo
