The law of conservation of energy states that energy can never be created or destroyed, it can only change from one form to another. The process of metabolism involves the conversion of energy through catabolizing or anabolizing reactions.
You can truly enjoy your biscuits or some sweets, but remember one thing: That energy will either be released or stored inside you! And storage is in the form of fats.
One of the biggest tricks in the conversion of energy is the cellular respiration. It is the way we derive energy from the food we eat.
How is energy converted, and where is it converted?
Catabolic Stage of converting energy
It depends on when you have eaten your last meal. There are two nutritional states absorptive or fed state (during or after eating) post-absorptive or fasting state (when the Gastro-Intestinal Tract (GIT) is empty and the body is running out of stored supplies)
So, let guess that you have just finished with your meal and you are still in the absorptive state, feeling the stomach bloated and waiting for the GIT to make the glucose molecules pass into your bloodstream. The first bit of glucose gets delivered throughout the body and is tapped to generate ATP on the spot, through cellular respiration. But if the meal was big, then there’s more glucose floating than your cells need at that particular moment. So, all of the extra glucose will be stored as fat or glycogen. This is the starting point of how you will start gaining weight.
One of the greatest influences about how much energy will be stored depends on your basal metabolic rate, which is the number of daily calories that are needed to your body to do usual activities during the day. Basal metabolic rate depends on your age, your sex, your physical activities, body size and etc. A young bodybuilder burns more calories on a daily basis compared to an old grandma. But, even if the bodybuilder absorbs more nutrients than burning, he will potentially gain more weight.
Glucose is the fastest source of food for the cells when it comes to immediate fuel. The normal value of glucose in our blood (before a meal) is 70-100 mg/dl. But, if you had an outstanding big meal then the value of glucose in our blood will increase. This means that too much sugar is floating around in your blood, and be sure that your body isn’t really excited and happy about it.
If the blood sugar levels get too high, it can cause damage to the blood vessels, especially to the ones in the nervous system, kidneys, and eyes. This is the main reason why diabetes is associated with the highest risk of heart and kidney disease, foot amputation and loss of vision.
But here is the moment when insulin gets on stage. Insulin is moving glucose out of the blood and into storage. It shifted from catabolic to anabolic reactions. Activates lipogenesis, puts stop to glycogenolysis. A similar thing happens with the extra fatty acids that you got from the eggs and bacon that aren’t immediately needed for energy.
These fats are transported in the blood through lipoproteins: LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), HDL (good cholesterol). Specialised proteins made by the liver allow them to move into the bloodstream as an emulsion.
What happens when you starve for two days?
Your body will launch into gluconeogenesis, and converts fats and amino acids into glucose, and ATP synthesis will be continued in the brain cells. This system helps to prevent damage to the brain from the low blood sugar level.
To sum up, whether you are diabetic or not, it is important to respect your blood sugar levels and, of course, to continue eating properly. For most of us, this is a change that would come by changing the size of our plates, and choosing to walk to the stores, to our friends and between building, rather than calling Taxify, Uber or Little Cabs!
Remember to spend some time eating whole foods, or at least order foods from restaurants that care about your health too, not just your money!
