So I know that if your body needs to it can use excess fat to provide itself with energy, and I’ve read that this fat is processed by the liver. But what I don’t understand is how this fat gets from your legs or arm for example to your liver.
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Fat is released form fat cells in response to glucagon, an enzyme released by the pancreas. It enters the blood and is is taken up by organs anywhere in the body that need energy, including the liver, but also skeletal muscles and the heart. The function of the liver is to convert the fat into other forms that can sustain the brain and to produce heat, but it is not the only consumer of energy. The enzyme also circulates around the body and can’t target fat in a particular region.
Fat cells are located all over your body. When your body senses that it’s low on energy, it produces a hormone into your blood stream that causes fat cells to excrete a little bit of their contents. That fat travels throughout the bloodstream until it’s broken down, same as any other nutrient.
This lecture details the rationale behind dietary restriction and fasting and the changes it produces in your body which initiate either the burning or storing of fat, as well as many other valuable processes. Interesting, entertaining, and easy to understand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuOvn4UqznU
Fat is burned in the mitochondria of the cells, and the vast majority of cells have mitochondria and therefore can burn fat directly. There are two exceptions:
Red blood cells don’t have mitochondria, so they can’t burn fat…
There is something known as the blood/brain barrier that prevents most fats from getting to brain cells. If there’s not enough glucose to run the brain, the liver converts fats to ketones which are small enough to get to the brain cells.
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