Originally Posted by
HawkOwl
Thanks to another thread and some research it seems likely that fat can be converted to glucose, reducing fat and increasing available body fuel. Question is what happens next. It seems to be creating an opportunity. Is a person more likely to use the fuel to do the exercise that will result in better fitness? Or, will they just lie around and get fat again?
Will they "think thin" and start being more active? Or, will they just pop the pill and go on as before? Or, with less fat will they become like NY Models and join the "skinny fat" crowd?
An opportunity? But not a certainty?
Sure it can, if you're a plant. Mammals don't have the required enzymes, which may be fortunate since the glyoxylate intermediate is a bit toxic.
If you meant to say that fat can be used as an energy source and thus allow one to fuel one's activities with less glucose, a sparing effect, then you would have been correct.
If you are talking about making transgenic people by adding the missing two enzymes to human liver cells, that's a bit on the risky side (and it would make for a testing nightmare for endurance sports) and should not be even contemplated without some extreme and redundant inducible directed cytotoxic bailouts. I actually considered doing some proof of concept work on this, but none of my colleagues could come up with an adequate safety system for the inevitable liver tumors that would result. We decided to leave that stone unturned in spite of its promise as a treatment for type 2 diabetes since it wouldn't likely be any better than dietary control.