Type 2 Low Carb - What does the body do with calories?

[BeanieRob]

Today I had a bag of pork scratchings.

I'm a bit overweight, and as I was tucking in reading the nutritional information I was dismayed to discover the horrifying number of calories each bag contains... though admittedly not dismayed enough to stop eating them.

I've splashed out for a month's trial of a continuous blood glucose monitor to see how different foods affect me, and after the scratchings, my BGL didn't really rise much.

So when I put a bag-load of fat in my stomach, what happens to it? I assumed that my body just converts it to blood glucose that is then (inefficiently) used by my body, with the excess stored in my less-than-athletic figure. Is this not right?

How does our body's handling of fat or protein differ from its handling of carbohydrate? Have all those pork scratching calories gone straight to the for'ard storage tank?

Many thanks,
Beanie

 

[xfieldok]

Ignore calories. Count carbs. Sounds daft, but it is not.

 

[Antje77]

So when I put a bag-load of fat in my stomach, what happens to it? I assumed that my body just converts it to blood glucose

Very good question!

For starters, it definitely doesn't get converted to glucose, or I would have to inject for it
As for the follow up, I do have some vague half-knowledge, but definitely not enough to satisfy even myself now I've read the question

So I'm reading along out of curiousity

 

[Vicstick]

If I remember my biology the liver converts them so they can be stored as different fat in the muscles / liver etc which can then be converted to glucose if needed eg when you run out of carbs!

 

[bulkbiker]

Today I had a bag of pork scratchings.

I'm a bit overweight, and as I was tucking in reading the nutritional information I was dismayed to discover the horrifying number of calories each bag contains... though admittedly not dismayed enough to stop eating them.

I've splashed out for a month's trial of a continuous blood glucose monitor to see how different foods affect me, and after the scratchings, my BGL didn't really rise much.

So when I put a bag-load of fat in my stomach, what happens to it? I assumed that my body just converts it to blood glucose that is then (inefficiently) used by my body, with the excess stored in my less-than-athletic figure. Is this not right?

How does our body's handling of fat or protein differ from its handling of carbohydrate? Have all those pork scratching calories gone straight to the for'ard storage tank?

Many thanks,
Beanie

Once you become fat adapted (by eating very low carb for long enough) the fat is used as fuel.
The majority of it, in the short term, probably comes out the other end..
What it doesn't seem to do, for many of us, is make us any fatter.. in fact the complete opposite.

 

[Daibell]

You have discovered that following Calories is pointless as each food group is handled differently by the body and fat is not readily stored by the body as fat compared with Carbs. Fat can be excreted and the body uses energy in metabolising it. Pork scratchings are fine for us.

 

[Oldvatr]

You have discovered that following Calories is pointless as each food group is handled differently by the body, and fat is not readily stored by the body as fat compared with Carbs. Fat can be excreted and the body uses energy in metabolising it. Pork scratchings are fine for us.

Indeed. Our bodies are quite clever and generally only produce and store fat that is needed. Excess fat is either ignored by the body turning off the digestive enzymes that take it from the intestine during digestion. Any excess in the lipid supply that is not needed for energy storage gets filtered out through the gall bladder into the bile duct, which feeds it directly into the lower bowel where it provides lubrication for the fibrous matter to speed it on its merry way. Edit to add the amount excreted in this way is quite low. Fat burning is the only sensible way.

Provided you can keep blood glucose levels low (using low carb or keto or medication) then over time we burn off the fat stores (shivering uses up a lot) so it does not become a problem. The problem comes if you have a high sugar count that stops fat burning and high insulin levels that force excess lipids into storage. So, exercise, and /or good bgl control is the goal to aim for.

 

[mymuk]

Pork scratchings are fine for us.

Which is why I made a load of them this evening (with black pepper, fennel seed and rosemary)
.