Carbohydrates present the macronutrient with the strongest ability to promote lipogenesis via the hormone insulin. Before being stored in our body, they first need to be converted into their simple form – sugars. In that form, they can be either stored as blood sugar i.e. glucose, combined into glycogen (chain of glucose molecules) or converted to other molecules like the triglycerides and lactate which later continue to go through further metabolic processing.

To understand the mechanism of storing and burning body fat, we first need to get familiar with the basics of fat metabolism. The anabolic process is called lipogenesis, while the catabolic process is called lipolysis. In general, lipogenesis is activated by eating, while its reverse, lipolysis, is activated by fasting or physical activity. Most of the time, these two processes are in balance, but in the case when lipogenesis is active longer than lipolysis, fat accumulation occurs (and vice versa).