Uncovering the Body’s Fat-Burning Strategy

New research by a professor at the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University (NYITCOM-Arkansas) reveals that our bodies are far smarter about using fat for energy than we might expect—a finding that could reshape scientific understanding of fat metabolism.

As reported in the journal BBA Advances, a new study by Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of Educational Research Natarajan Ganesan, Ph.D., suggests that the body doesn’t burn fat at random. Instead, it selectively chooses certain types of fat that produce the most usable energy while consuming the least oxygen. The findings shed new light on the body’s metabolic processes and may lay the groundwork for improving understanding of obesity-linked diseases and weight management strategies.

“If you had to take a long trip with only a small tank of gas, you wouldn’t choose the gas-guzzling car—you’d choose a more fuel-efficient option. Your cells do the same thing by selecting fats that give them the biggest energy return for oxygen available,” says Ganesan. “What I observed using calculations, derivations, and examining thermodynamics is that our body runs on what I call an ‘oxygen economy.’ When oxygen is rate limited, which is basically all the time, our cells preferentially burn fatty acids that give them the most ATP [adenosine triphosphate] (the fuel cells use for energy) per oxygen molecule consumed.”