Our body uses either sugar or fat as its energy source. Sugar is a great immediate fuel source when it’s needed in an emergency. However, it is not the best nor cleanest fuel source. ATP is the energy molecule the body uses for every function. The body generates 36 molecules of ATP from sugar or glucose, and over 400 ATP from body fat or triglycerides, which explains feeling more energetic when you start losing fat.
High carbohydrate and sugary foods also increase inflammation and oxidation. When sugar molecules bind with proteins they cause glycation. Sugar also damages the mitochondria—the fat burning factories in your cells—and that leads to less fat burning.
When your diet consists of foods that could be quickly converted into sugar, such as starchy foods and foods that contain any kind of sugar, you train your body to use sugar as its main source of energy and it never taps into the fat cells.
Under certain circumstances, such as stress, exercise and lack of sleep, your metabolism will go to the extent of breaking down your own muscle and organ tissues to convert them into sugar, even when you have plenty of body fat available to use.
Sugar is your fat burning and weight loss enemy. Sugar disrupts the hormonal balance and keeps insulin constantly elevated, preventing other hormones and growth factors such as IGF-1 from repairing and maintaining your body. It disrupts the communication between leptin—your fat cells’ fuel gauge—and the brain which causes the brain to think you are starving and sends signals to eat more and slow down your metabolism. Even though you may have cut back on your caloric intake, the “lower calories” are still perceived as extra and are stored as fat.
