18 ms·

How food powers the body's metabolism

221 points by gautamsomani 4y ago

keepquestioning 4y ago
How do I avoid getting fat on my torso/face!
- ddorian43 4y ago
  You can't target fat loss. You should just lose fat.
- algoatecorn 4y ago
  The only answer to this is lowering overall bodyfat percentage. Each individual is predisposed to store fat in different areas across their body.
  - maksimur 4y ago
    And if that's not enough, increasing muscle mass to balance it out.
- InCityDreams 4y ago
  Eat less, do more exercise. Then you'll start to eat more. Just keep up with the exercise part.
- astura 4y ago
  You can't control where your body stores fat. Some people just have more rounder faces. My friend is extremely skinny, but if you saw a photo of just her face you'd think she was a little chubby.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  There's no such thing as spot reduction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_reduction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_reduction That being said, there are a bunch of liposuction and fat freezing/vibrating/electocuting etc. methods for body/face sculpting.
  - keepquestioning 4y ago
    That's a myth Coolsculpting is spot reduction.
johnnypangs 4y ago
Here’s a link without the paywall https://web.archive.org/web/20221028111149/https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/how-food-powers-your-body-metabolism-calories https://web.archive.org/web/20221028111149/https://www.newyo...
- quickthrower2 4y ago
  also https://archive.ph/M2VZR https://archive.ph/M2VZR
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
- greggeter 4y ago
twawaaay 4y ago
I have slowly gained 30kgs over 20 years. That's 1.5kg a year, or about 4g per day. 4g per day is almost insignificant amount and yet it is enough to make you fat over long periods of time. I challenge anybody to accurately measure their daily calories intage to within 4g of a target (forgetting for a moment that the target can't be measured accurately either). This suggests that while I was technically overeating -- by just couple of grams per day -- the problem lies entirely somewhere else -- in our ability to self regulate.
- k__ 4y ago
  Get a fitness tracker. Seriously. People always use these online calories calculators. And they can be off my more than 500kcal a day. That's more than the recommended calorie deficit.
  - 0xcde4c3db 4y ago
    Fitness trackers, while sometimes useful, are considerably overhyped IMO. They're mostly about gamification and the UX inspiring (often inflated) confidence in the results they report, not about yielding fundamentally higher-quality information than online calculators or your bathroom scale or how well your pants fit. Also, people put too much stock in the 500 kcal/day thing. It's more an example that makes the math work out neatly than it is necessarily something any given person should adopt as a target.
- bigDinosaur 4y ago
  But that's an average. You may have gained much more in one year vs the others. Plus you don't need to notice 4g a day even if that is the level, once you have gained about 1Kg then you know that on average you need to decrease.
- adamgordonbell 4y ago
  I found trendweight.com super helpful. It would be able to show you the trend overtime. It does something like a moving average overtime of your weight and calls it 'actual weight' whereas day to day fluctuations it treats a bit like noise it's extracting a signal from.
thanatos519 4y ago
An incredible story! Somewhere in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQmTKxI4Wn4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQmTKxI4Wn4 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkYEYjintqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkYEYjintqU the narrator casually says "... and this is why we breathe oxygen ..."
pchristensen 4y ago
I really enjoyed “A Journey to the Center of Our Cells” by the same author. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/07/a-journey-to-the-center-of-our-cells https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/07/a-journey-to-t...
- oxfeed65261 4y ago
  Thanks for the reference. Also at https://archive.ph/zZYNR https://archive.ph/zZYNR.
jeffhwang 4y ago
The author profiled in the piece, Nick Lane, wrote a really thought-provoking earlier book called The Vital Question. Addresses some similar points, esp the aspect where biologists have (understandably!) focused a lot on information theory since 1953 DNA discovery. But that they have neglected integrating understanding of energy. By integrating both perspectives, Lane and his collaborators have generated fascinating (and testable) hypotheses about how/where life began in the ocean as well as the sequence of steps that led to eukaryotes and eventually multicellular organisms. Plus has implications for why sex, aging, and death might have evolved! Highly recommend it. Although a pretty good HS or early college foundation in redox chemistry is pretty needed to get the most out of the book.
- cpach 4y ago
  Did you read/enjoy TVQ? I have it on my book shelf but so far I haven’t picked it up (:
  - jeffhwang 4y ago
    The Vital Question is the only book I've read cover to cover. I got through about 15% my first attempt and decided I had forgotten too much chemistry to truly appreciate it. A few years later I undertook an intensive chemistry self-study for reasons unrelated to Lane. After that, I was ready to tackle TVQ again; this attempt went a lot better. Truly loved it and got me thinking and reading related peer-reviewed papers. I've been thinking about which of his other books to try next but I've gotten to a point where I actually prefer to do problem sets in early/intermediate college-level organic chemistry! Will check back in with Lane in a year or two.
  - qvrjuec 4y ago
    I did. I loved it, and I am only superficially familiar with the chemistry being discussed in the book. It's quite eye opening!
  - pchristensen 4y ago
    It's phenomenal. There were dozens of thought provoking discoveries and conclusions drawn from what I had previously thought was an esoteric subject. Nick Lane has also been on some good podcast interviews: - Long and in depth on Lex Fridman, plus it was funny because he is about the only guest that didn't play along with Lex's goofy off the dome ideas - https://lexfridman.com/nick-lane/ - Sean Carroll - a more serious discussion - https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2022/05/23/198-nick-lane-on-powering-biology/
ra 4y ago
That's an incredibly well written article. What an educator.
photochemsyn 4y ago
This is a great writeup and Lane's book looks pretty interesting. One thing I'd add is that knowledge of the Krebs cycle (aka, 'tricarboxylic acid cycle') helps people understand why some dieting approaches seem a bit unwise to biochemists. A simple explanation of the Krebs cycle is that it is a kind of engine that sits at the center of metabolism, but metabolism is not just the breakdown of molecules for energy, it's also the construction of molecules for various cellular needs. Take this quote as a beginning point: > "...we were told the monstrous names of its component parts—succinate, pyruvate, Acetyl-CoA, cytochrome c—while, on the blackboard, we counted NAD+s and FADH2s, and followed “redox” reactions as they “oxidized” or “reduced” elements." From a biochemist's point of view, there are about three classes of foodstuffs - carbohydrates (which break down to simple sugars), proteins (which break down to amino acids), and fats and oils (which break down to fatty acds). All those breakdown products are fed in one way or the other into the Krebs cycle (for amino acids, the nitrogen is stripped off and excreted as urea). These energy-producing (i.e. NADH / ATP generating) reactions are grouped under the heading of catabolism. If you entirely exclude any of these three classes of foods, such as by ingesting only protein, the Krebs cycle and affiliated metabolism starts doing some funny stuff. This is the basis of 'eat a balanced diet' advice. Note that the Krebs cycle also sits at the center of your body's biosynthetic system, which is continually manufacturing the non-essential amino acids, as well as sugar and lipid synthesis, which then form the basis of hormone and neurotransmitter synthesis. The molecules in the above quote are, in various cells, exported out of the Krebs cycle and into these biosynthetic pathways. Unbalancing the Krebs cycle by depriving it of essential feedstocks can thus throw a lot of your body's fundamental systems out of whack. Since the Krebs cycle is highly regulated and somewhat malleable, it can respond in various ways to account for this, but problems can arise over time. Hence, the best dieting approach for losing (adipose, i.e. fatty tissue) weight is most likely intermittent fasting with a carefully balanced (carbs/proteins/fats) diet, just less food overall. Under such fasting conditions, the fatty tissues get converted to things like ketone bodies and hence to glucose (the brain's primary fuel). Here's a collection of abstracts on how this works in intermittent fasting (it's also related to diabetic issues): https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/ketone-bodies https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biolog... Note that regular exercise is also good for your health, but that's not necessarily 'burning fat' so much as it is improving your circulatory system, and flushing your lungs with plenty of air, as well as improving muscle tone.
mizzao 4y ago
It's such a stark contrast to compare the boring memorization of high school biology, to the amazing efficiency of our metabolic and respiratory systems and how they sustain us on so little energy. Why don't they teach this stuff in context?
- oifjsidjf 4y ago
  Because modern education is trash. This article truly is briliant, the opposite of how 99% of modern teachers teach.
hazrmard 4y ago
I loved reading the article! How the body breaks down food into energy. Looking at life as energetic electrons finding a place to rest. I got goosebumps reading about mitochondrial membranes producing electric fields akin to lightning waiting to strike. The clockwork machinations of the human body as it breaks down complex organic matter into protons and electrons restless for a reunion, and then into a common currency of energy. I have a disinterested high-schooler's understanding of biology. My field is electricity and physics and computers. So seeing this complex process explained thus was very, very engaging. Very well done! Also, using metabolism to explain cancer was very enlightening.
- FollowingTheDao 4y ago
  "mitochondrial membranes producing electric fields akin to lightning waiting to strike." Just leaving this here for anyone who is interested; EMFs and their effects on the Mitochondria. This includes ELF-EMF from household wiring. Manmade Electromagnetic Fields and Oxidative Stress—Biological Effects and Consequences for Health https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/7/3772 https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/7/3772 DNMT1 and miRNAs: possible epigenetics footprints in electromagnetic fields utilization in oncology https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12032-021-01574-y https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12032-021-01574-y Cellular stress response to extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF): An explanation for controversial effects of ELF-EMF on apoptosis https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cpr.13154 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cpr.13154 Involvement of mitochondrial activity in mediating ELF-EMF stimulatory effect on human sperm motility https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.20602 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.20602 Role of Mitochondria in the Oxidative Stress Induced by Electromagnetic Fields: Focus on Reproductive Systems https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2018/5076271/ https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2018/5076271/ Extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields affect proliferation and mitochondrial activity of human cancer cell lines https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09553002.2015.1101648 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09553002.2015.11...
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
garganzol 4y ago
This article has a huge flaw: it only talks about glucose metabolism but completely ignores the fat metabolism. For reference: fat metabolism is equally important, or maybe even more important than the glucose part of it. It should not be ignored, it should be taught. Otherwise a reader may get a wrong impression that glucose is _the_ energy and then will go to a shop to grab the usual candy, thinking that sugar + oxygen is what makes cellular ATP. But this is only one half of the story. The full formula is: sugar + fat + oxygen = energy But there is a trick. Sugar suppresses fat metabolism and vice versa. This suggests that eating sugar + fat is a bad idea, and it is. But what the average Joe does not know is that: fat + oxygen = even more energy For example, 1 molecule of glucose leads to production of 32 ATP molecules, while one fatty acid molecule produces 48 ATP molecules. ATP is the energy currency in our bodies, so the more we have it the more healthy and energetic we can be. The catch with fats is that they are slow to get going. Glucose action is instant while the fats need tens of minutes to be engaged in energy production. Another catch is that fats can be relatively easily damaged rendering them unhealthy. For example, the production of refined vegetable oils uses high temperatures to "squeeze" the oil out of the seeds. This process inevitably damages long chain fatty acids breaking them into shorter pieces and oxidizing them along the way. Such trans fats cannot be consumed by our bodies: their chains are too short to be correctly processed and are too big to pass the mitochondrial membranes. This will gradually lead to a metabolic dysfunction while filling the cells with unprocessable "junk". But if you consume high-quality fats as a part of a daily low-carbohydrate diet it makes miracles: no belly, better cognition and you don't need so much food anymore. For example, the following products are considered as the sources of high-quality fats: avocado, fatty fish, extra virgin oils, nuts, European round cheese. The thing is that people don't know this until they hit a health condition that makes them vulnerable and sensitive. We live our lives eating tons of sugar and thinking that this is the right diet because "sugar = energy", but it is not. Articles like this fuel this wrong impression. As the result, we gradually loose our metabolic flexibility and may become seriously sick at some point of our life.
- germinalphrase 4y ago
  “European round cheese” This is… vague. What are the qualities of a cheese that make it shift into the ‘high quality fats’ category?
igtztorrero 4y ago
Continues Glucose Monitor (CGM) are nowadays the best option to take care of your weight, just like Blood Pressure Monitor are to keep your brain out of strokes !!! Understand the importance of glucose in our body !
- jbigelow76 4y ago
  The cost on CGMs is what is keeping them out of the mainstream (at least in the US.) If you are non-diabetic and want to use a CGM you're looking at about $10/day out of pocket cost. If Dexcom or Abbott can get a CGM down to $1/day out of pocket they should be insta-buys for everyone over age 25.
mikotodomo 4y ago
> An atom is like a little solar system, with a nucleus at its center. What if each atom was a little solar system?
jcims 4y ago
I don't know what part he plays but Drew Berry is credited in some of the most compelling videos on molecular biology that I've ever seen. They really bring the machinery of biology to life. Most of them are at the WEHIMovies channel on youtube. Here's one on ATP synthesis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT5AXGS1aL8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT5AXGS1aL8 Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/WEHImovies https://www.youtube.com/user/WEHImovies If I would have had access to these in high school back in the 90's I probably would have lived an entirely different adult life. It's an incredible aspect of nature that we've somehow just become accustomed to.
stall84 4y ago
I've recently had the most frustrating and confusing time of my life diet-exercise-wise, so this article is very welcomed/interesting. I work out maybe 5 out of 7 days.. and I'm talking a minimum of 30 minutes of intense cardio, bpm's above 150.. 3 days i'm going to hour-long 'core-sculpt-yoga' which at 93 degrees inside is some of the most intense exercise i've ever done.. and end up leaving near palpitations every time.. On top of all of that work, I *hardly eat anything at all* .. I might take in 2000 calories in a day, but it's typically far less.. a lot of it is also in liquid form, which I know isn't great. The point is, I've actually gained weight in the past couple of years. Sure, my muscle mass has increased slightly with all of the exercise.. but fat around my midsection has stayed and/or slightly increased. AND IT HAS CONFOUNDED ME TO NO END .. How does someone hardly eat anything at all (but potentially eats poorly, not fatly, but poorly when he does) and who works out more than regularly .. manage to gain weight and maintain or gain fat ?? So I am trying now to eat regularly throughout the day, and we'll see what happens.. Drinking protein shakes every few hours, etc.. to really test this theory on myself.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  My usual response to a claim like this would be -- log it. Accurately, with a good scale. Defying physics is hard, and everyone I've ever met who claims to eat a low calorie diet without losing weight is usually undercounting, and usually by a lot.
  - quickthrower2 4y ago
    Measuring body mass doesn’t tell you how much water, muscle, bone too. Could be they are now better hydrated because they are doing a fitness regime.
- sushisource 4y ago
  You should consider reducing the intensity and increasing the length of your cardio. You burn more fat at lower intensities. At high intensity, you burn exclusively carbs. Check out https://uesca.com/carbohydrate-vs-fat-burning-a-comprehensive-yet-simply-explained-review/ https://uesca.com/carbohydrate-vs-fat-burning-a-comprehensiv... It's not quite that simple, obviously, but if your goal isn't to increase your running pace but rather just to stay in shape, I'd definitely consider running slower. If you run regularly, 150bpm indicates a moderate-high level of intensity (assuming you're not super young), rather than an easier pace which would consume more fat.
mudil 4y ago
This whole discussion missed the central role of oxygen molecule as the ultimate energy source. Why we need oxygen: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.9b03352 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.9b03352 https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00333 https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00333
canucker2016 4y ago
After watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbSic4Oo8ME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbSic4Oo8ME , I think fructose metabolism is more important these days wrt weight gain. Consuming a high concentrated dose of fructose, say a large amount of non-diet carbonated soda, results in your body switching from burning fat to storing fat like bears preparing for hibernation or birds before they migrate south for the winter. Even if you avoid foods with high amounts of fructose, you have to be careful because under the right conditions, eating a sufficient amount of sodium, your body will convert glucose into fructose and your body could then switch from burning fat to storing fat.
lob_it 4y ago
I think calorie quality and lifestyle routines calibrate the metabolism just as much as having an active lifestyle. Enjoying zero calorie beverages (coffee, tea, celery water, etc) goes a long way in optimizing metabolism. In 2022, there are at least 3 basics that trash any metabolic gains. 1) Steroid/antibiotic infused proteins. There were articles about childhood rectal/colon cancers gaining with the same childhood obesity studies. The links seem obvious. Their body never develops healthy metabolic processes. 2) GMO/herbicide/pesticide infused organics. Again, once introduced into a [growing] body, even the immune system takes a dive, as well as the metabolism. There are certain carbs that make my metabolism crash exactly 24 hours after eating. I just don't buy the product(s) again. They obviously lab rat the masses with several of the food stuff product gimmicks. 3) Microbeads/nanoplastics in the water system. Kind of like CFC's, as the microbeads breakdown in the water systems, the human body is not going to mature like generations past with all the contaminants in the digestive system. Even the sunscreen/beauty products with nanoparticles that embed in the epidermis that melt under UV/sunlight or toxify the body are their own problem. They are already plentiful in the water systems. These are retail consumer products, just as CFC's were. Can you say junk science? Especially with calorie quality, if you did not adapt to 21st century lifestyles, there should be no expectations of a healthy metabolism. If diet, exercise and nutrition are healthy, the conversation on metabolism is much different. I'm personally 5% to 7% BMI with decades of zero calorie bevs and an active lifestyle. Never an ounce of extra fat and notice if any meals make changes to my body. Everybody has to grow old with their own body. I think the junkie paraphernalia with insulin and popping HBP pills was already suss decades ago.
cecilpl2 4y ago
> In hibernating bears and newborn humans, the turbines generate heat, which is stored in fat. More commonly, though, each turn of the wheel assembles a molecule of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP—the energy currency of our cells. Interestingly, there is a (very effective!) weight-loss drug called DNP whose mechanism of action is to interfere with ATP generation in this manner. Essentially it makes it so that some non-trivial percentage of these "proton turbines" do not actually generate ATP. This means you burn a lot more calories at rest to generate the same amount of ATP, and also generate a lot of excess heat. The risk is that if you take too much your core temperature increases too much and you can cook yourself to death. There's no treatment and overdoses are invariable fatal.
- csours 4y ago
  DNP doesn't make you healthy and it doesn't reduce hunger. The hard part of reducing body fat and keeping it off is managing hunger.
  - fredophile 4y ago
    I don't think you'll find anyone suggesting that DNP is a good idea for weight maintenance or improved health. However, it will definitely help with short term weight loss if it doesn't kill you.
- quickthrower2 4y ago
  Drug? Or poison?
csours 4y ago
Khan Academy MCAT overview of Metabolism. Don't be discouraged by the fact that it's for MCAT prep - it's pretty clear. https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/biomolecules#overview-metabolism https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/biomolecules#over...

221 points by gautamsomani 4y ago

keepquestioning 4y ago

How do I avoid getting fat on my torso/face!

ddorian43 4y ago
You can't target fat loss. You should just lose fat.
algoatecorn 4y ago
The only answer to this is lowering overall bodyfat percentage. Each individual is predisposed to store fat in different areas across their body.
- maksimur 4y ago
  And if that's not enough, increasing muscle mass to balance it out.
InCityDreams 4y ago
Eat less, do more exercise. Then you'll start to eat more. Just keep up with the exercise part.
astura 4y ago
You can't control where your body stores fat. Some people just have more rounder faces. My friend is extremely skinny, but if you saw a photo of just her face you'd think she was a little chubby.
pessimizer 4y ago
There's no such thing as spot reduction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_reduction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_reduction That being said, there are a bunch of liposuction and fat freezing/vibrating/electocuting etc. methods for body/face sculpting.
- keepquestioning 4y ago
  That's a myth Coolsculpting is spot reduction.

johnnypangs 4y ago

Here’s a link without the paywall https://web.archive.org/web/20221028111149/https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/how-food-powers-your-body-metabolism-calories https://web.archive.org/web/20221028111149/https://www.newyo...

quickthrower2 4y ago
also https://archive.ph/M2VZR https://archive.ph/M2VZR

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

greggeter 4y ago

twawaaay 4y ago

I have slowly gained 30kgs over 20 years. That's 1.5kg a year, or about 4g per day. 4g per day is almost insignificant amount and yet it is enough to make you fat over long periods of time. I challenge anybody to accurately measure their daily calories intage to within 4g of a target (forgetting for a moment that the target can't be measured accurately either). This suggests that while I was technically overeating -- by just couple of grams per day -- the problem lies entirely somewhere else -- in our ability to self regulate.

k__ 4y ago
Get a fitness tracker. Seriously. People always use these online calories calculators. And they can be off my more than 500kcal a day. That's more than the recommended calorie deficit.
- 0xcde4c3db 4y ago
  Fitness trackers, while sometimes useful, are considerably overhyped IMO. They're mostly about gamification and the UX inspiring (often inflated) confidence in the results they report, not about yielding fundamentally higher-quality information than online calculators or your bathroom scale or how well your pants fit. Also, people put too much stock in the 500 kcal/day thing. It's more an example that makes the math work out neatly than it is necessarily something any given person should adopt as a target.
bigDinosaur 4y ago
But that's an average. You may have gained much more in one year vs the others. Plus you don't need to notice 4g a day even if that is the level, once you have gained about 1Kg then you know that on average you need to decrease.
adamgordonbell 4y ago
I found trendweight.com super helpful. It would be able to show you the trend overtime. It does something like a moving average overtime of your weight and calls it 'actual weight' whereas day to day fluctuations it treats a bit like noise it's extracting a signal from.

thanatos519 4y ago

An incredible story! Somewhere in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQmTKxI4Wn4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQmTKxI4Wn4 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkYEYjintqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkYEYjintqU the narrator casually says "... and this is why we breathe oxygen ..."

pchristensen 4y ago

I really enjoyed “A Journey to the Center of Our Cells” by the same author. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/07/a-journey-to-the-center-of-our-cells https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/07/a-journey-to-t...

oxfeed65261 4y ago
Thanks for the reference. Also at https://archive.ph/zZYNR https://archive.ph/zZYNR.

jeffhwang 4y ago

The author profiled in the piece, Nick Lane, wrote a really thought-provoking earlier book called The Vital Question. Addresses some similar points, esp the aspect where biologists have (understandably!) focused a lot on information theory since 1953 DNA discovery. But that they have neglected integrating understanding of energy. By integrating both perspectives, Lane and his collaborators have generated fascinating (and testable) hypotheses about how/where life began in the ocean as well as the sequence of steps that led to eukaryotes and eventually multicellular organisms. Plus has implications for why sex, aging, and death might have evolved! Highly recommend it. Although a pretty good HS or early college foundation in redox chemistry is pretty needed to get the most out of the book.

cpach 4y ago
Did you read/enjoy TVQ? I have it on my book shelf but so far I haven’t picked it up (:
- jeffhwang 4y ago
  The Vital Question is the only book I've read cover to cover. I got through about 15% my first attempt and decided I had forgotten too much chemistry to truly appreciate it. A few years later I undertook an intensive chemistry self-study for reasons unrelated to Lane. After that, I was ready to tackle TVQ again; this attempt went a lot better. Truly loved it and got me thinking and reading related peer-reviewed papers. I've been thinking about which of his other books to try next but I've gotten to a point where I actually prefer to do problem sets in early/intermediate college-level organic chemistry! Will check back in with Lane in a year or two.
- qvrjuec 4y ago
  I did. I loved it, and I am only superficially familiar with the chemistry being discussed in the book. It's quite eye opening!
- pchristensen 4y ago
  It's phenomenal. There were dozens of thought provoking discoveries and conclusions drawn from what I had previously thought was an esoteric subject. Nick Lane has also been on some good podcast interviews: - Long and in depth on Lex Fridman, plus it was funny because he is about the only guest that didn't play along with Lex's goofy off the dome ideas - https://lexfridman.com/nick-lane/ - Sean Carroll - a more serious discussion - https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2022/05/23/198-nick-lane-on-powering-biology/

ra 4y ago

That's an incredibly well written article. What an educator.

photochemsyn 4y ago

This is a great writeup and Lane's book looks pretty interesting. One thing I'd add is that knowledge of the Krebs cycle (aka, 'tricarboxylic acid cycle') helps people understand why some dieting approaches seem a bit unwise to biochemists. A simple explanation of the Krebs cycle is that it is a kind of engine that sits at the center of metabolism, but metabolism is not just the breakdown of molecules for energy, it's also the construction of molecules for various cellular needs. Take this quote as a beginning point: > "...we were told the monstrous names of its component parts—succinate, pyruvate, Acetyl-CoA, cytochrome c—while, on the blackboard, we counted NAD+s and FADH2s, and followed “redox” reactions as they “oxidized” or “reduced” elements." From a biochemist's point of view, there are about three classes of foodstuffs - carbohydrates (which break down to simple sugars), proteins (which break down to amino acids), and fats and oils (which break down to fatty acds). All those breakdown products are fed in one way or the other into the Krebs cycle (for amino acids, the nitrogen is stripped off and excreted as urea). These energy-producing (i.e. NADH / ATP generating) reactions are grouped under the heading of catabolism. If you entirely exclude any of these three classes of foods, such as by ingesting only protein, the Krebs cycle and affiliated metabolism starts doing some funny stuff. This is the basis of 'eat a balanced diet' advice. Note that the Krebs cycle also sits at the center of your body's biosynthetic system, which is continually manufacturing the non-essential amino acids, as well as sugar and lipid synthesis, which then form the basis of hormone and neurotransmitter synthesis. The molecules in the above quote are, in various cells, exported out of the Krebs cycle and into these biosynthetic pathways. Unbalancing the Krebs cycle by depriving it of essential feedstocks can thus throw a lot of your body's fundamental systems out of whack. Since the Krebs cycle is highly regulated and somewhat malleable, it can respond in various ways to account for this, but problems can arise over time. Hence, the best dieting approach for losing (adipose, i.e. fatty tissue) weight is most likely intermittent fasting with a carefully balanced (carbs/proteins/fats) diet, just less food overall. Under such fasting conditions, the fatty tissues get converted to things like ketone bodies and hence to glucose (the brain's primary fuel). Here's a collection of abstracts on how this works in intermittent fasting (it's also related to diabetic issues): https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/ketone-bodies https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biolog... Note that regular exercise is also good for your health, but that's not necessarily 'burning fat' so much as it is improving your circulatory system, and flushing your lungs with plenty of air, as well as improving muscle tone.

mizzao 4y ago

It's such a stark contrast to compare the boring memorization of high school biology, to the amazing efficiency of our metabolic and respiratory systems and how they sustain us on so little energy. Why don't they teach this stuff in context?

oifjsidjf 4y ago
Because modern education is trash. This article truly is briliant, the opposite of how 99% of modern teachers teach.

hazrmard 4y ago

I loved reading the article! How the body breaks down food into energy. Looking at life as energetic electrons finding a place to rest. I got goosebumps reading about mitochondrial membranes producing electric fields akin to lightning waiting to strike. The clockwork machinations of the human body as it breaks down complex organic matter into protons and electrons restless for a reunion, and then into a common currency of energy. I have a disinterested high-schooler's understanding of biology. My field is electricity and physics and computers. So seeing this complex process explained thus was very, very engaging. Very well done! Also, using metabolism to explain cancer was very enlightening.

FollowingTheDao 4y ago
"mitochondrial membranes producing electric fields akin to lightning waiting to strike." Just leaving this here for anyone who is interested; EMFs and their effects on the Mitochondria. This includes ELF-EMF from household wiring. Manmade Electromagnetic Fields and Oxidative Stress—Biological Effects and Consequences for Health https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/7/3772 https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/7/3772 DNMT1 and miRNAs: possible epigenetics footprints in electromagnetic fields utilization in oncology https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12032-021-01574-y https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12032-021-01574-y Cellular stress response to extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF): An explanation for controversial effects of ELF-EMF on apoptosis https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cpr.13154 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cpr.13154 Involvement of mitochondrial activity in mediating ELF-EMF stimulatory effect on human sperm motility https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.20602 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.20602 Role of Mitochondria in the Oxidative Stress Induced by Electromagnetic Fields: Focus on Reproductive Systems https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2018/5076271/ https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2018/5076271/ Extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields affect proliferation and mitochondrial activity of human cancer cell lines https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09553002.2015.1101648 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09553002.2015.11...
- deleted 4y ago
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garganzol 4y ago

This article has a huge flaw: it only talks about glucose metabolism but completely ignores the fat metabolism. For reference: fat metabolism is equally important, or maybe even more important than the glucose part of it. It should not be ignored, it should be taught. Otherwise a reader may get a wrong impression that glucose is _the_ energy and then will go to a shop to grab the usual candy, thinking that sugar + oxygen is what makes cellular ATP. But this is only one half of the story. The full formula is: sugar + fat + oxygen = energy But there is a trick. Sugar suppresses fat metabolism and vice versa. This suggests that eating sugar + fat is a bad idea, and it is. But what the average Joe does not know is that: fat + oxygen = even more energy For example, 1 molecule of glucose leads to production of 32 ATP molecules, while one fatty acid molecule produces 48 ATP molecules. ATP is the energy currency in our bodies, so the more we have it the more healthy and energetic we can be. The catch with fats is that they are slow to get going. Glucose action is instant while the fats need tens of minutes to be engaged in energy production. Another catch is that fats can be relatively easily damaged rendering them unhealthy. For example, the production of refined vegetable oils uses high temperatures to "squeeze" the oil out of the seeds. This process inevitably damages long chain fatty acids breaking them into shorter pieces and oxidizing them along the way. Such trans fats cannot be consumed by our bodies: their chains are too short to be correctly processed and are too big to pass the mitochondrial membranes. This will gradually lead to a metabolic dysfunction while filling the cells with unprocessable "junk". But if you consume high-quality fats as a part of a daily low-carbohydrate diet it makes miracles: no belly, better cognition and you don't need so much food anymore. For example, the following products are considered as the sources of high-quality fats: avocado, fatty fish, extra virgin oils, nuts, European round cheese. The thing is that people don't know this until they hit a health condition that makes them vulnerable and sensitive. We live our lives eating tons of sugar and thinking that this is the right diet because "sugar = energy", but it is not. Articles like this fuel this wrong impression. As the result, we gradually loose our metabolic flexibility and may become seriously sick at some point of our life.

germinalphrase 4y ago
“European round cheese” This is… vague. What are the qualities of a cheese that make it shift into the ‘high quality fats’ category?

igtztorrero 4y ago

Continues Glucose Monitor (CGM) are nowadays the best option to take care of your weight, just like Blood Pressure Monitor are to keep your brain out of strokes !!! Understand the importance of glucose in our body !

jbigelow76 4y ago
The cost on CGMs is what is keeping them out of the mainstream (at least in the US.) If you are non-diabetic and want to use a CGM you're looking at about $10/day out of pocket cost. If Dexcom or Abbott can get a CGM down to $1/day out of pocket they should be insta-buys for everyone over age 25.

mikotodomo 4y ago

> An atom is like a little solar system, with a nucleus at its center. What if each atom was a little solar system?

jcims 4y ago

I don't know what part he plays but Drew Berry is credited in some of the most compelling videos on molecular biology that I've ever seen. They really bring the machinery of biology to life. Most of them are at the WEHIMovies channel on youtube. Here's one on ATP synthesis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT5AXGS1aL8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT5AXGS1aL8 Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/WEHImovies https://www.youtube.com/user/WEHImovies If I would have had access to these in high school back in the 90's I probably would have lived an entirely different adult life. It's an incredible aspect of nature that we've somehow just become accustomed to.

stall84 4y ago

I've recently had the most frustrating and confusing time of my life diet-exercise-wise, so this article is very welcomed/interesting. I work out maybe 5 out of 7 days.. and I'm talking a minimum of 30 minutes of intense cardio, bpm's above 150.. 3 days i'm going to hour-long 'core-sculpt-yoga' which at 93 degrees inside is some of the most intense exercise i've ever done.. and end up leaving near palpitations every time.. On top of all of that work, I *hardly eat anything at all* .. I might take in 2000 calories in a day, but it's typically far less.. a lot of it is also in liquid form, which I know isn't great. The point is, I've actually gained weight in the past couple of years. Sure, my muscle mass has increased slightly with all of the exercise.. but fat around my midsection has stayed and/or slightly increased. AND IT HAS CONFOUNDED ME TO NO END .. How does someone hardly eat anything at all (but potentially eats poorly, not fatly, but poorly when he does) and who works out more than regularly .. manage to gain weight and maintain or gain fat ?? So I am trying now to eat regularly throughout the day, and we'll see what happens.. Drinking protein shakes every few hours, etc.. to really test this theory on myself.

rootusrootus 4y ago
My usual response to a claim like this would be -- log it. Accurately, with a good scale. Defying physics is hard, and everyone I've ever met who claims to eat a low calorie diet without losing weight is usually undercounting, and usually by a lot.
- quickthrower2 4y ago
  Measuring body mass doesn’t tell you how much water, muscle, bone too. Could be they are now better hydrated because they are doing a fitness regime.
sushisource 4y ago
You should consider reducing the intensity and increasing the length of your cardio. You burn more fat at lower intensities. At high intensity, you burn exclusively carbs. Check out https://uesca.com/carbohydrate-vs-fat-burning-a-comprehensive-yet-simply-explained-review/ https://uesca.com/carbohydrate-vs-fat-burning-a-comprehensiv... It's not quite that simple, obviously, but if your goal isn't to increase your running pace but rather just to stay in shape, I'd definitely consider running slower. If you run regularly, 150bpm indicates a moderate-high level of intensity (assuming you're not super young), rather than an easier pace which would consume more fat.

mudil 4y ago

This whole discussion missed the central role of oxygen molecule as the ultimate energy source. Why we need oxygen: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.9b03352 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.9b03352 https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00333 https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00333

canucker2016 4y ago

After watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbSic4Oo8ME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbSic4Oo8ME , I think fructose metabolism is more important these days wrt weight gain. Consuming a high concentrated dose of fructose, say a large amount of non-diet carbonated soda, results in your body switching from burning fat to storing fat like bears preparing for hibernation or birds before they migrate south for the winter. Even if you avoid foods with high amounts of fructose, you have to be careful because under the right conditions, eating a sufficient amount of sodium, your body will convert glucose into fructose and your body could then switch from burning fat to storing fat.

lob_it 4y ago

I think calorie quality and lifestyle routines calibrate the metabolism just as much as having an active lifestyle. Enjoying zero calorie beverages (coffee, tea, celery water, etc) goes a long way in optimizing metabolism. In 2022, there are at least 3 basics that trash any metabolic gains. 1) Steroid/antibiotic infused proteins. There were articles about childhood rectal/colon cancers gaining with the same childhood obesity studies. The links seem obvious. Their body never develops healthy metabolic processes. 2) GMO/herbicide/pesticide infused organics. Again, once introduced into a [growing] body, even the immune system takes a dive, as well as the metabolism. There are certain carbs that make my metabolism crash exactly 24 hours after eating. I just don't buy the product(s) again. They obviously lab rat the masses with several of the food stuff product gimmicks. 3) Microbeads/nanoplastics in the water system. Kind of like CFC's, as the microbeads breakdown in the water systems, the human body is not going to mature like generations past with all the contaminants in the digestive system. Even the sunscreen/beauty products with nanoparticles that embed in the epidermis that melt under UV/sunlight or toxify the body are their own problem. They are already plentiful in the water systems. These are retail consumer products, just as CFC's were. Can you say junk science? Especially with calorie quality, if you did not adapt to 21st century lifestyles, there should be no expectations of a healthy metabolism. If diet, exercise and nutrition are healthy, the conversation on metabolism is much different. I'm personally 5% to 7% BMI with decades of zero calorie bevs and an active lifestyle. Never an ounce of extra fat and notice if any meals make changes to my body. Everybody has to grow old with their own body. I think the junkie paraphernalia with insulin and popping HBP pills was already suss decades ago.

cecilpl2 4y ago

> In hibernating bears and newborn humans, the turbines generate heat, which is stored in fat. More commonly, though, each turn of the wheel assembles a molecule of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP—the energy currency of our cells. Interestingly, there is a (very effective!) weight-loss drug called DNP whose mechanism of action is to interfere with ATP generation in this manner. Essentially it makes it so that some non-trivial percentage of these "proton turbines" do not actually generate ATP. This means you burn a lot more calories at rest to generate the same amount of ATP, and also generate a lot of excess heat. The risk is that if you take too much your core temperature increases too much and you can cook yourself to death. There's no treatment and overdoses are invariable fatal.

csours 4y ago
DNP doesn't make you healthy and it doesn't reduce hunger. The hard part of reducing body fat and keeping it off is managing hunger.
- fredophile 4y ago
  I don't think you'll find anyone suggesting that DNP is a good idea for weight maintenance or improved health. However, it will definitely help with short term weight loss if it doesn't kill you.
quickthrower2 4y ago
Drug? Or poison?

csours 4y ago

Khan Academy MCAT overview of Metabolism. Don't be discouraged by the fact that it's for MCAT prep - it's pretty clear. https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/biomolecules#overview-metabolism https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/biomolecules#over...