Topic
Metabolism & Diabetes
How the body shifts among glucose, glycogen, fat, and ketones, and what happens when insulin regulation fails.
Start Here
- Metabolic Fuel Use“Carb burning” and “fat burning” are useful shorthand.
- Blood Glucose RegulationBlood glucose homeostasis is a control system centered on the pancreas and liver, with muscle and fat acting as major fuel users/stores.
Go Deeper
- From Food to ATP: How Cells Release EnergyFood energy does not jump directly from a molecule of fat or glucose into a moving muscle.
- Fat vs Glycogen: Energy Density and Storage TradeoffsIf biology cared only about storing the most food energy in the least mass, fat would appear to win easily.
- Fuel by Tissue: Brain, Muscle, Heart, Liver and Red Blood CellsThe bloodstream can contain glucose, fatty acids, lactate, amino acids and ketone bodies at the same time.
- GluconeogenesisGluconeogenesis literally means making new glucose. It keeps glucose available when dietary carbohydrate and liver glycogen are insufficient.
- Fasting MetabolismFasting metabolism is a continuous shift in proportions, not a clock that suddenly switches from glucose to fat at hour 12.
- KetonesKetone bodies are a way for the liver to package energy derived from fat into watersoluble molecules that can circulate to tissues especially the brain when carbohydrate availability and insulin signaling are low.
- Nutritional Ketosis vs Diabetic KetoacidosisNutritional ketosis and diabetic ketoacidosis both involve ketone production, but they are different regulatory states.
- Type 1 vs Type 2 DiabetesBoth Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes can produce high blood glucose, but the failure occurs in different places.
- From ATP to Force: How Muscle Lifts a WeightSuppose you lift a 100pound weight through one vertical metre.
- How Plants Store and Spend EnergyAnimals have an obvious energystorage problem: