CI/CO, Graphically

[Philociraptor]

In an attempt to understand how your body uses macronutrients, I drew up a little chart:

For people way smarter in biology than me, how can I make this more accurate? What I drew is my current understanding. If we can make it more accurate (but still simple), we could even direct people to it when they have a question on macronutrients.

[joeyb]

ATP is the usable energy. Here is a good graph that I just found that takes out a lot of the nitty gritty details and shows the real details that you are trying to get to.

http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/images/590metabolism.gif

Basically, all sugars are turned into glucose. Glucose is stored as glycogen, but has to be converted back to glucose in order to generate real ATP. Fats never get converted to glucose. Protein is only used as a fuel when your body is running low because it's not very efficient. BCAAs are used by the lean gains group because they can enter the krebs cycle at several points if the body needs it and goes toward rebuilding muscles immediately after working out if it doesn't. In the end, what you see is that there is this huge process for creating energy, which is used to turn ADP into ATP. Your body then turns ATP back into ADP while using the energy that is released.

Also, alcohol in its consumed form is poison, however, your body breaks it down into sugars. IIRC, those sugars become first in line to be burned off, leaving even more excess glucose and fats in the system.

What your graph doesn't illustrate is how some of these foods affect your metabolic functions, e.g. insulin affecting fat storage and metabolic functions. Or, how exercise can affect the ratios of how different nutrients are used, e.g. strength training requiring more protein to be used for muscles.

[bigm141414]

What your graph doesn't illustrate is how some of these foods affect your metabolic functions, e.g. insulin affecting fat storage and metabolic functions. Or, how exercise can affect the ratios of how different nutrients are used, e.g. strength training requiring more protein to be used for muscles.

I would also add something about glucose/fructose metabolism as well. Glucose is mainly process in the blood stream and small intestine. Fructose is processed solely in the liver accounting for higher triglyceride production and increase in VLDL. It is a big distinction which often gets over looked in the sugar is sugar debate.

[aj_rock]

For the excess glucose turning to fat, you may as well erase the link. You have to overconsumer carbs to the tune of a few thousand extra calories to get any reliable lipogenesis.

Ingested protein has half go to structural, half to glucose. Regardless of other bodily requirements, that's just how the liver handles incoming protein. Too lazy to prove right now.

I'd recommend leaving the cold therapy part out. Last thing we want is some poor sap on a hypocaloric diet to sit in a fridge and catch pneumonia.

Glycogen is the storage form of glucose/fructose, so its not really the useable form of energy.

Also, blood glucose and glycogen levels do NOT need to be lowered to use fat as a fuel. On an adequate calorie, balanced diet, your body will roughly use the same percentages you put in as fuel.

So, including protein metabolism, if your diet was 40% fat, 40% carb, 20% protein, your body will expend slightly more carbs than fat. On a low carb diet, fat burning will increase. Low fat, carb burning increases.

Either way, I disagree about the hormone thing, at least if you want to keep your representation to a single page. Not only that, but if your BF% puts you into overweight/obese territory, plain old caloric restriction, regardless of fat vs carb, gluc vs fruc, etc... has been shown many many times to improve hormone response and sensitivity regardless (assuming you DONT make silly food choices... getting all your carbs from table sugar will end well for no one)

[Philociraptor]

Closer? Still trying to keep it simple, so leaving out intermediate phases if I can.

[aj_rock]

Well fat CAN bypass storage and go straight to burnination in the country side, but now that's just nitpicking

[Zorch]

In an attempt to understand how your body uses macronutrients, I drew up a little chart:

For people way smarter in biology than me, how can I make this more accurate? What I drew is my current understanding. If we can make it more accurate (but still simple), we could even direct people to it when they have a question on macronutrients.

A couple things:

1) Split carbs into Starches(become glucose) and simple sugars(glucose and/or fructose) Starches/Glucose basically do what you said. However, Fructose basically gets turned directly into glycogen in the liver, or can encourage fat storage if glycogen stores are low.

2) Glycogen stores are in the muscles as well as the liver. Liver glycogen can go pretty much anywhere, but muscle glycogen really only gets used on-site.

3) Fat doesn't get converted to glycogen, it gets burned directly. It's also my understanding that muscles have a small amount of local fat reserves in addition to the large fat reserves in adipose tissue. And Glycogen itself is converted to glucose before it is burned in the tissues.

4) There is some amount of "protein store" that can be converted to glucose when blood glucose is low(though otherwise what you have for dietary protein is mostly correct)

You could also add a level prior to this looking at nutrient absorption, but we're already pushing the limits of what can fit on one piece of paper.

[jdanger]

Besides the occasional dietary philosophy debates I don't post much on nutrition stuff for specific reasons but on behalf of the healthy fat is good for you lobby I'm going to recommend everyone investigate all the wonderful things fat actually does for you besides going to quote "fat stores" and being burned as energy. I leave the chart alterations as an exercise for the group.

[aj_rock]

On that note, glucose can be pretty darn wonderful too. Your brain uses a lot of it for one...

[Leimanu]

I like your graph, Philociraptor (dude, your name is hard to spell!!). I think it basically shows how the body uses the macronutrients we eat. Body functions are hardly easy to explain because so many things affect it, but when somebody is learning how to eat healthy or wants to go extreme like no carbs or no fat, this is a good way to show why one needs a balance, and that food is fuel and not the enemy. There's a reason we eat and here's what the body does with it, including excess. And shoot, I was surprised at how most of what I eat needs to go to energy! Look at that glucose-makin'.