Why fat-burning slows down in obesity
Effect of insulin on oxidative and nonoxidative pathways of free fatty acid metabolism in human obesity.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When insulin goes up, it normally tells fat cells to stop releasing fat. In obese people, more fat is released at rest, and insulin doesn’t stop it as well — but that’s because they have more fat, not because their fat cells are broken.
Surprising Findings
Insulin suppresses FFA oxidation just as well in obese people as in lean people.
Most people assume insulin resistance means fat cells ignore insulin completely. But this study shows insulin still shuts down blood fat burning normally—only total fat burning and re-storage are affected.
Practical Takeaways
Focus on reducing total fat mass rather than trying to ‘fix’ insulin resistance in fat cells.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When insulin goes up, it normally tells fat cells to stop releasing fat. In obese people, more fat is released at rest, and insulin doesn’t stop it as well — but that’s because they have more fat, not because their fat cells are broken.
Surprising Findings
Insulin suppresses FFA oxidation just as well in obese people as in lean people.
Most people assume insulin resistance means fat cells ignore insulin completely. But this study shows insulin still shuts down blood fat burning normally—only total fat burning and re-storage are affected.
Practical Takeaways
Focus on reducing total fat mass rather than trying to ‘fix’ insulin resistance in fat cells.
Publication
Journal
The American journal of physiology
Year
1992
Authors
L. Groop, R. Bonadonna, D. Simonson, A. S. Petrides, M. Shank, R. DeFronzo
Related Content
Claims (6)
Obese people re-store more fat inside their cells at rest, and insulin doesn’t slow this process down as much as it does in lean people.
In people with obesity who don’t have diabetes, fat cells still respond normally to insulin — the high fat levels are just because they have more fat tissue, not because their fat cells are broken.
People with obesity have more fat circulating in their blood at rest, and their bodies are breaking down and re-storing fat at a faster rate than people without obesity.
In people with obesity, insulin doesn’t reduce fat release from fat tissue as well as it does in lean people — but if you account for how much fat they have, insulin works just as well.
Insulin reduces fat burning in the blood the same way in obese and lean people, but obese people still burn more fat overall because their bodies are burning fat stored inside cells — not just from the blood.