Every night while the little people rebuild the woods and the fairies sprinkle angel-dust over sleeping infants, our bodies are doing their own amazing and magical "stuff" too. Roundabout 6-hours into our sleep, our bodies begin to break down glycogen -- the same which stores energy used by our brain, muscles and red blood cells. Think of glycogen as our human fuel source and just like fuel keeps a motor engine running, so glycogen keeps us running.
Once this glycogen is used up our bodies start getting hungry again i.e. they need further energy sources to keep up the good work. Over time though, if no such energy source is forthcoming, we naturally head towards ketosis i.e. your body begins to starve (definitely uncool) thus the only way for it to survive is to start breaking down your fat stores for energy (which sounds pretty cool) but it will also be munching on our muscles too.
...so what the fuck is glycogen?
Glycogen is a polysaccharide of glucose. Glucose functions as one of our two main energy sources -- the other being body fat (i.e. our triglyceride stores) -- which yours and my bodies require to function. Notice my use of the word "function". Most carbohydrates we eat (read the Nutrition basics article for an example of carb-heavy foods) are converted into glucose or simply put, sugar, which in turn provides us energy to move, breathe and live.
Y'know, function.
Any unused glucose is stored as a future energy source aka glycogen.
With me so far? No? Sweet. Read on for further confusion and obfuscation.
Glycogen is so important that even at rest our bodies require it to fuel essential activities like, oh, breathing. It's estimated 80% of glycogen is stored in muscles, some 14% stored in the liver (feeding the brain and spinal cord primarily) and the remaining 6% stored as glucose in our blood. Give or take. How much actual glycogen we have depends on our activity levels, how much energy we burn at rest, the foods we consume, whether we bleach our anus etc.
...no, no that last part isn't true. Welcome to the word "humour", kemosabe.
When we've eaten carbohydrates our blood glucose (the amount of glucose in the blood) levels rise. This is normal. This in turn triggers the pancreas to ramp up insulin production. Why? Because insulin is like a gold miner and glucose the gold: insulin "mines" glucose from the blood for energy. This energy both powers and feeds our bodies, remember? It also means you may crash afterwards once energy spikes.
CHOLESTEROL IS AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT IN THE MAJORITY OF ALL HUMAN CELLS. IF WE WERE TO REMOVE CHOLESTEROL FROM OUR BODIES RIGHT NOW WE WOULD DIE IMMEDIATELY. I MENTION THIS TO STOP FEAR-MONGERING. STAY STICKY
So getting back to a state of ketosis and our bodies devouring our fat supplies when running out of glycogen -- which I hope I've explained -- when these events occur our bodies do their thing and have this fat broken down into fatty acids. But. Our brain can't use these for fuel. Oh no. Instead, it turns to ketone bodies for energy which alas, only works for a while because ketone bodies can't replace glucose either. What is this you ask?
Our livers produce ketone bodies from fatty acids, known as gluconeogenesis aka the production of glucose from non-carbohydrate sources. There are a lot of people who actively go out and pursue this place of existence. Why? Because they figure that getting their body to use more fat for energy is an easier way to reduce fat than hard dieting and exercise...which may be true. If you've heard of "ketogenic diets" you should be able to figure out by now such diets simply reduce carbs so that your body has to search out alternative means to provide itself with glycogen.
Does it work? I've read enough feedback to say it does for some. That's about all I'm prepared to say about keto; you'll have to do your own research if it interests you. It does not interest me. What should be pretty clear by now is the body will automatically go through a shit-load of natural processes to find, make and use glycogen but guess what? If you decided to go on a fast, after 24-hours of fasting all glycogen within the body is used. So. The presence of ketone bodies in our blood (called ketosis) is indicative of the fact that our glycogen stores have hit the wall.
I don't personally think being in that place is such a good thing.
I have doubts, kemosabe.
Now after three days of fasting your brain starts to break down your bodies protein to provide itself with amino acids. Why you ask? Because these can be converted into glucose too, thus giving your body what it needs. But again, only for awhile. Still, I think we're all beginning to see how important glycogen is to the human body: pretty fucking very. After three days without food your body will start cannibalizing itself by "eating" muscles and will keep doing so until an external glycogen-source is introduced into its digestive system.
Take home note: our bodies need glycogen. Our number-1 source for glycogen is carbohydrates. Eat carbohydrates.
Lastly, did you know that actual fat consists of oxygen, carbon and hydrogen? Exercise like cardio and strength-training increase our heart-rate and cause us to breath in much larger amounts of oxygen, which in turn split this little trinity into carbon and water. That's right: the molecular structure of the fat cell itself changes. The more oxygen your body uses, the more fat you'll burn, hence why exercise leads to fat loss: sucking in larger amounts of air → split fat cells → expel the actual fat component as carbon. That's right folks, we don't "burn" fat, we breathe it out. Write it down, tell a friend.
Kia ora whanau.
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