THE ENERGY BALANCE PARADOX
De novo lipogenesis is the term used for making fat from other nutrients such as carbohydrate and alcohol. De novo lipogenesis is not thought to have a significant role in humans under normal physiological (day-to-day living) conditions.
• Unlike carbohydrate and protein, fat is not finely balanced in the body.
• Fat (from the diet and adipose tissue) is the energy buffer for the body—it makes up the difference between what the body obtains from non-fat calories and what it needs.
• Energy balance and fat balance are essentially equivalent.
An anecdotal survey of people living in the modem world reveals an interesting paradox in energy balance. On the one hand, it seems that the body has an excellent, in-built energy balancing system which for some people keeps them at the same body mass, or at least within a variance of about 1 per cent, over decades. This is a remarkable feat if one considers that over a
10-year period the body can balance about 10 million kcal in, with 10 million kcal out, without the individual having to consciously count a single one! On the other hand, for some people, this system seems to go very wrong as they gain fat over time, despite their best conscious efforts not to. Has the system broken down in these people? This seems unlikely and the probable resolution of the apparent paradox is that the body has excellent balancing mechanisms for all types of calories except one—fat. So high-fat diets and low fat burning can result in fat gain without the usual energy balancing systems detecting it, because they are not designed to detect it.
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