Can carbohydrates turn into fat?

Is it true that large amounts of carbohydrates consumed during the day can be stored as fat?

This point of view exists and is very widespread.

Many people notice that even when consuming a small amount of fat, replacing them with a significant amount of carbohydrates, they not only cannot lose weight and burn fat reserves, often the arrow on the scale even creeps up.

Let's try to understand why this happens, what is the mechanism for increasing body weight when replacing fats in the diet with carbohydrates, and whether the latter can really be deposited on our sides.

Chemistry of the process

As you know, if our diet contains a significant proportion of fat, and physical activity is insufficient to burn it, it is deposited in the form of fat under the skin, as well as on organs.

At the same time, carbohydrates can also be stored by the body. They are stored primarily in the form of glycogen, which is sometimes called “animal starch” due to the similarity in the structure of the molecule.

So can carbohydrates be converted to fat instead of becoming glycogen?

Research conducted by the Swiss University of Lausanne shows that they still can, but under certain conditions and in very small quantities.

According to the data obtained, to start this process, two conditions must be met:

fat in the diet should not be more than 10%;
the proportion of carbohydrates should be very significant - a figure that would more than cover a person’s daily energy needs.

Research also mentions that the energy efficiency of this process is very low: to convert carbohydrates into fat, the body needs to spend a large number of calories. In other words, you won’t get a lot of fat from carbohydrates!

How food turns into fat: no, carbohydrates and sugar do not go into fat - 6 myths

Have you ever thought about how we get fat?
Well, that is, it’s clear - eat a lot, wider your waist. But how does the body convert food into fat? People are much less interested in this process than in the opposite process - the breakdown of fat, and in vain - because without understanding the other side of the coin, it is difficult to get it.

We decided to talk about this amazing transformation in simple, understandable words and give a couple of important tips that will help you better understand your body and make it easier (yes, we veiled the word “lose weight”).

This article will be especially helpful for those who believe that specific macronutrients (such as fat or carbohydrates), foods, and meals are to blame for their weight gain.

So, let's go.

The first thing that is important and needs to be accepted: any macronutrients in large quantities contribute to fat gain . Yes, even protein, if you eat more of it than you need, i.e. Get more calories in a certain period of time than you can spend on energy needs.

The key to storing fat is not what you eat, but how much. Many continue to stubbornly not believe in this, citing some arguments about the glycemic index or insulin. We would like to once again remind you of the important points (briefly):

The glycemic index does not affect weight loss, it only affects blood sugar levels. If you eat a product with a high GI, this only means that after eating it, your blood sugar level will rise faster than if you eat equal portions of other carbohydrate foods.
This does not mean that all the calories from it will inevitably go to fat, it only means what is written above. Only those people who have problems with this, such as diabetes, insulin resistance, etc., need to monitor their GI.

Insulin is not the “fat gain hormone,” as it has been dubbed on the Internet. Insulin resistance is based on a) physical inactivity (little amount of movement in life, which, by the way, more dangerous than smoking), b) stable overeating, c) heredity.
As you can see, both factors depend only on you. We ourselves create a vicious circle for the body: we eat a lot of food, the body releases a lot of insulin. A lot of insulin + low activity = low responsiveness of cells to it. Low cell responsiveness to it = high insulin resistance. High insulin resistance = diabetes and other troubles.
We discussed the whole process in detail in the article about insulin , don’t be lazy to study it.
Protein is not directly stored in fat, but it makes you fatter. If you eat a lot of protein (it is generally accepted that by “a lot of protein” they mean more than 2 grams of protein for every kg of body), you will spend less fat and carbohydrates.
Read also: How to gain weight if you are underweight
Here we will quote Lyle MacDonald, known to everyone who loses weight and exercises, he clearly explained these processes:
“The protein will not be converted into fat and stored. But if you eat a lot of protein, the body will use it for energy (rather than carbs and fats). Which means other nutrients will go into reserves.
Which means that overeating protein will make you fat, just not directly, but due to the fact that all the fat you eat goes under the skin.
Of course, protein has the highest thermic effect; more incoming calories will be used to digest food. So too much protein is less likely to make you fat anyway, but if the balance is exceeded, you will get fatter.
But not through direct conversion of protein into fat, but through a decrease in the number of other nutrients burned.
Sugar doesn't go straight into fat. A lot of people (you can’t even imagine how many people believe this) think that if you eat sugar, you’ll never lose weight, no matter what.
Of course, otherwise it would be very sweet (yes, irony) and simple: well, just don’t eat this and you are guaranteed to lose weight. But is that really what happens? Scientists asked themselves this question and conducted a 6-week study of 2 low-calorie diets.
The first diet consisted of sugars at 43% of total calories. The second is only 4%. There were no significant differences in body weight or subcutaneous fat loss between the two diets .
Everything again comes down to the notorious calories, so let them go!
Carbohydrates also do not go directly to fat.. And again, Lyle's quote:
An excess of carbohydrates still affects your fat reserves, preventing you from burning the fat you eat during the day. This is why exceeding your daily caloric intake by 500 calories of fat or 500 calories of carbohydrates makes you fat, they just do it for different reasons and in different ways.
An additional 500 calories of fat are simply deposited under the skin, 500 calories of carbohydrates make it so that all the fat eaten during the day will go into reserves, because carbohydrates will be oxidized, not fats.
However all of the above does not mean that any fat eaten goes into fat. More precisely, not quite so: every day, all dietary fat is deposited in fat cells after eating - it does not remain floating in the blood and is not burned immediately after eating.
But if you are on a diet, then fat is taken from reserves to provide the body with the missing energy. But an excess of dietary fat is directly stored in reserves.
We need to eat fat, we really, really need it for the production of cholesterol , bile, cell membranes, etc.

So, imagine you ate something tasty and healthy. What will happen in your body after this? The teeth thoroughly grind the food, and saliva moistens it - this is necessary for convenient passage through the gastrointestinal tract and further breakdown.

Saliva, by the way, contains enzymes (enzymes) that break down complex food components into simpler ones. Next, the bolus of food is sent to the stomach, which begins to contract in order to grind the food even more and mix it with gastric juice.

Pepsin, an enzyme that breaks down proteins into molecules that consist of two or more amino acids - peptides, and hydrochloric acid help break down food, turning it into a liquid or semi-liquid substance called chyme.

It enters the initial part of the small intestine or the so-called duodenum (the place where the gallbladder secretes bile). In order for fats to be more easily absorbed by the body, bile dissolves them in water.

Enzymes from the pancreas enter the duodenum and then break down sugars, fats and proteins. Now that everything has dissolved and is in liquid form, absorption occurs through the mucous membrane of the small intestine.

After all, all nutrients are distributed throughout the body. What happens to former carbohydrates?

So, the resulting glucose enters the bloodstream, from where it goes either to glycogen (in the liver and muscles), or to the necessary needs of the body.

Fat also goes into the bloodstream, but then goes to the liver. Not all lipids are absorbed by the body; for example, fats from peanuts are not absorbed. The liver uses some fats to synthesize other important substances (such as cholesterol), and sends the rest to fat cells, where they remain until needed.

Proteins break down first into peptides, then into simple amino acids, which are absorbed through the mucous membrane of the small intestine and enter the bloodstream. From here, some stored amino acids are used for the construction of various tissues necessary for the body.

It is quite difficult to achieve an excess of protein in the body (protein reserves in the body are about 10-15 kg, and even if you eat 200-300 grams per day, this is much less than what the body can store) and in any case, there will be no protein processed into fat and stored.

“Excess” protein is not excreted from the body and does not rot in the kidneys, it’s all nonsense. The body simply begins to use protein as energy, and other nutrients (fat and carbon) will go into reserves.

The important point that you need to take away from all this for your successful and wonderful weight loss:

If you eat more calories, no matter which macronutrients, than you need, you will gain weight.
If you eat a lot of carbs and little fat, you will burn a lot of carbs and little fat. Better eat less carbohydrates (40-60% of your diet) and you will burn less carbohydrates and more fat.
A lot of protein does not equal weight loss. If you eat a lot of protein, you burn a lot of protein and little fat and carbohydrates); eat less protein and you'll burn less protein (and therefore more carbs and fat).
Fat is deposited and consumed every day, regardless of the caloric content of the diet, this is a constant. We only get fat if we store more fat than we burn. We lose weight if the body uses more fat than it has time to store. And this is determined by the overall calorie deficit during the day.

An important point: if you do not eat fats, then carbohydrates turn into fat through de novo lipogenesis. This occurs when calories from fat fall below 10% of your total daily calorie intake. For example, when on a 2500 diet we eat less than 250 calories from fat (less than 27 grams of fat).

In short, you will not deceive weight loss and your body. You need to eat all your macronutrients, distributing them so that you end up with a calorie deficit of 10-20%. Absorbing one of the macronutrients (protein, fat or carbohydrates) will not give you extra points.

If a person eats more than his norm, he gets fat, regardless of cheating with macronutrients. We very, very strongly recommend that you read the book “ Dietary Nonsense ,” which will help you get rid of the false myths that poison your life.

View the book
What is the point of observing all these stupid but strict restrictions, doing what you don’t want, if it doesn’t work and this has been proven a long time ago ?! After all, losing weight is very easy - you just need to listen to yourself, know how the body works, eat right and exercise for your pleasure.

But everything unnatural - carbohydrate-free diets, protein meal replacements, fasting - these are typical dietary nonsense, which usually lead to serious disorders in the body, including anorexia, bulimia, colitis, gastritis, etc. And it’s not at all possible to lose weight help.

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Bone Wide

This article was reviewed by a certified nutritionist who has a bachelor's degree in nutrition and dietetics, D. G. Veremeev.

Articles are for informational and educational purposes only and are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician with any questions you may have about a medical condition.

Why do we get fat from carbohydrates?

A logical question, the answer to which, in fact, lies on the surface.

When there is an excess of carbohydrates in the diet, they begin to be stored in the form of glycogen, forming a reserve for further consumption during a calorie deficit.

And, as you know, carbohydrates can not only be stored on their own, they also bind water - for each unit of carbohydrate there is three times more water stored with it.

In addition, increasing the percentage of carbohydrates in the diet forces the body to burn them first, without touching fat reserves that have already been deposited. It is simply easier for our body to obtain energy from sugars than from fat, which is much more difficult to convert into energy.

Thus, an increase in body weight due to excessive consumption of carbohydrates at the expense of fats has two reasons: glycogen deposition (mainly in liver and muscle cells), and preventing the burning of accumulated fat reserves.

It is worth noting that a similar story occurs with increased protein consumption - the body begins to draw energy from it, leaving lipid potential intact.

Protein Digestion Requirements

Before we move on to the liver and trace the further path of amino acid metabolism, let me touch on one more common statement. Which many of you may have heard goes something like this:

“The average person can only absorb 30 grams of protein in one sitting. Anything above this value will accumulate in the body as fat.”

Unlike the statement at the beginning of the article, this opinion offers no justification at all. Moreover, this is a completely stupid expression based on nothing. Although it sounds like a straw man argument that doesn't stand up to scrutiny, this "pearl of wisdom" can even be found in many articles written by professional nutritionists.

For example, let's take someone who eats not thirty, but all forty grams of protein "in one sitting" (whatever that "term" means). If we assume that only 30 grams can be absorbed “at one time,” then we can say with confidence that the “extra” 10 grams will simply leave the body naturally, i.e. with feces. Because in order to be “stored as fat”, they must first be assimilated and processed, right?

The ability of the intestines to absorb protein is around 95% (i.e. only ~2 grams will not be absorbed, in our food example). However, based on this popular claim, how are you supposed to "distill" 10 grams of "excess protein" into fat if you can't even (supposedly) metabolize it to begin with? Most people do not understand the difference between consumption and absorption, and make this mistake.

Let us repeat again: in order to store or process nutrients, they must first be absorbed by the body.

The point is that your body itself will determine the amount of protein it needs at the moment, regardless of any mythical “norms”. And this meaning will differ from case to case. After all, 30 grams is just an arbitrary number that has become entrenched in “folklore” and has no roots in scientific evidence.

Well, now let's return to the original statement that the excess protein that is already absorbed, provided there is sufficient energy and carbohydrates, will preferentially be converted into fatty acids and stored as fat.