Converting food vs. fat to fuel...question

lporter229

For those in the know, is there a difference in how many calories the body uses digesting food and converting it to fuel vs. converting stored fat to fuel? I understand that a pound of fat provides 3500 calories, but is there a difference between eating 1 lb of fat and using 1 lb of stored fat as fuel in terms of energy expenditure. It seems to me that the processes by which that fat becomes fuel for the body would be very different. So are they equal? Hope this makes sense...

ilovegreg05

Doesn't make much sense eating 1lb of pure fat. But your body doesn't really just say "Hey, store this as fat or use this as fuel". It's a bit more complicated than that.

What I would do is don't sweat the ins and outs. Set a goal macro-nutrient intake for your daily diet and hit those numbers, make sure your eating at deficit and that's when the magic happens..(weight loss)

lporter229

Thanks for the reply. It was more of a curiosity thing than anything. Here's what made me think about it: When I go on a long run, I always make sure I have eaten something before hand or I find that I hit a wall sooner. This made me wonder, does my body react differently whether it is getting its fuel from digested food or stored fat? Does it take more energy to get that fuel from the fat reserves and that's why I zonk earlier if I haven't eaten enough? Like I said, I was just wondering more than anything. It's not really going to alter how I eat.