How does extra Calories turn into Fat ?

Transformation of Extra Calories into Fat is making people take them seriously as obesity is becoming a serious problem for most of us. We know it that if we eat more than required then the extra calories in our diet will get stored in our body as fat, but what we don't know is how it happens. Here we will put some light on this. We will also try to find how we an run this process in reverse, means how we can burn that extra fat.

Is it actually Calories that turn into fat ?
Calories are actually a unit of energy. In real life our body carry glucose, glycogen or sugar (whatever we say it), as an instant source of energy. When we eat something, our body starts to digest it and extract the minerals, vitamins, proteins and carbohydrate from it, which are needed for different body functions. But for instant energy our body turns carbohydrate and sugar in out diet into glucose. Glucose is instant source of energy. So its actually extra glucose in our body that turns into fat, not calories. We just say it Calories just to make people understand it in a better way.

How does extra Calories turn into Fat ?
Answer to this question is Insulin, the hormone that is responsible for sugar level in our body. When we eat something, our sugar level increases. To control this extra sugar our body pumps out insulin hormone. Insulin will make sugar (glucose) to go into the muscles. But if there is extra sugar, which is not absorbed by muscles then insulin starts taking care of it. Presence of insulin in blood turns the extra sugar into fat and starts depositing in fat deposits of our body.

Why do our body converts the extra Calories/sugar into Fat?
Our body need a standard level of sugar in our body. If the level of sugar goes above that standard, our body releases insulin hormone to control it. If our body don't release this hormone then it will cause excess oxidation activity, which can harm some important organs by destroying the nerves. Thats why our body converts the extra sugar into fat. Our body can manage with extra fat upto some level, but extra sugar in blood stream is dangerous.

How much time does our body take to convert extra Calories into Fat ?
The duration of this process depends on the extra calories/sugar and amount of insulin, which can vary from person to person. But still this complete process just takes a few minutes. If you have eaten potatoes then it will turn into fat even before you getup from your dining table. Extra sugar in bloodstream is very harmful, so our body controls it within minutes

How does our muscles store the Calories/sugar from our Bloodstream ?
Our muscle have glycogen stores. When we work and use our muscles the glycogen stores are emptied. As soon as we eat something and our blood stream get filled with sugar/glucose. Our muscle's glycogen stores starts filling them with the help of Insulin released by our body.

Where does our body deposits the fat ?
Initially our body deposits fat in fat cells (adipocytes), which are meant to deposit it for later use. These adipocytes are available all around your body under the skin. These are most prominent in abdominal region. Our body have two types of fat deposits : Visceral fat and Subcutaneous fat. To know more about these fat deposit type read out next article.

We hope that this information helped you in understanding how our body works with extra calories in your diet. Our main motive is to tell you how you can keep the fat level in control. Read our next article to know how you can control the process of turning the calories into fat.