![\"Simplified](\"https:\/\/tailwind-coaching.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/metabolism1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/h1>\nWe simply\u00a0think of this trial as a\u00a0scientific\u00a0experiment. \u00a0With a little knowledge about the\u00a0biochemical pathways involved in producing energy in the cell, we can make good choices about our nutrition\u00a0by\u00a0looking at the compounds involved in energy production pathways in order to augment them through some creative supplementation.<\/p>\n
That's how we “hack” the mitochondria, which is the cell's powerhouse,\u00a0for improved performance.<\/p>\n
I'll cover the basics of cellular energy\u00a0after the jump (fair warning, this is a lot of science. \u00a0I'll try to make it as simple as possible.):<\/p>\n
If you look closely at the diagram, two ATP are invested early on in the cycle, which turns them from ATP to ADP (Adenosine DiPhosphate) and the energy is used to change the form of the glucose molecule. \u00a0This is necessary in order to cleave the molecule into two parts.<\/p>\n Further down the line, you'll note that 2\u00a0dinucleotide coenzymes<\/em> called NAD+<\/span> (Nicotinamide Adnine Dinucleotide) are necessary to again change the form of the now 3 carbon molecules. \u00a0This sets us up to extract 2 ATP from each of the 3 carbon molecules before they are turned into the pyruvate that will be fed into citric acid cycle (TCA cycle), next step\u00a0of the energy production cycle.<\/p>\n The net yield of energy for glycolysis is 2\u00a0ATP. \u00a0That's not exactly efficient. In the mitochondrial matrix, the goal of \u03b2-oxidation is to cleave the long carbon fatty acid into smaller parts, called acetyl CoA. \u00a0Acetyl CoA is the point at which fat, carbohydrate and even some protein enters the TCA\u00a0cycle. \u00a0In the case of fat, we follow the following steps:<\/p>\n This process repeats until there are only 4 carbons left in the chain, and the final run of the cycle creates a pair of acetyl CoA molecules.<\/p>\n *In the case of odd numbered carbon chains the final products are an acetyl CoA and a proprionyl CoA. \u00a0The proprionyl CoA is carboxylated, isomerized and then molecularly rearranged to create succinyl CoA, which enters the TCA\u00a0cycle at a different point than the acetyl CoA.<\/p>\n The net yield of energy from 1 molecule of palmitate fatty acid is basically not realized until the acetyl CoA is fed through\u00a0the rest of the process (the TCA cycle\u00a0and Electron Transport Chain or ETC) but for the purposes of completeness, each \u03b2-oxidation step creates an FADH2 and NADH, which are fed into the ETC\u00a0directly (bypassing the TCA\u00a0cycle). \u00a0There are 7 \u03b2-oxidation sites on palmitate, producing one FADH2 and one NADH at each, yielding 2 and 3 ATP each, respectively. \u00a0That means 7 sites, times 5 ATP per site for 35 ATP out of \u03b2-oxidation itself. \u00a0It does cost 1 ATP to start the ball rolling on \u03b2-oxidation, so the net gain is 34 ATP. \u00a0That's a lot better than the 2 out of glycolysis.<\/p>\n But the byproducts of glycolysis and\u00a0\u03b2-oxidation are what gives us a lot of energy, as you'll read below.<\/p>\n Proteins can be broken down into amino acids that can also be utilized as energy. \u00a0There are between 20 and 22 (depending on the text you follow) amino acids that can be introduced into the citric acid cycle as energy dense molecules. \u00a0To go through where each and every amino acid enters the TCA cycle would be more tedious than it would be useful, but if you're truly curious you can read about it here<\/a>. \u00a0Suffice to say, since we're trying to hack our metabolism using things that are pretty readily available, I'll include a couple of them in my notes below. I'm just going to put this image here. \u00a0Feel free to refer back to it in the following discussion:<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\nGlycolysis<\/h2>\n
<\/a>One of the basic energy pathways that our body produces energy is a process called\u00a0glycolysis.<\/em> This pathway (shown at right) breaks down a 6 carbon molecule known as glucose into a pair of three carbon sugars called pyruvate. \u00a0Those pyruvate molecules will become very important down the chain, as you'll see in just a moment, but the take home message here is that we get energy out of this, and we end up with products that will give us even more energy a little bit later.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>To keep\u00a0the biochemistry discussion simple, we'll refer to energy as ATP (Adenosine TriPhosphate), even though there are other chemical compounds that release energy when\u00a0hydrolized (or broken apart.)<\/p>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\nBeta Oxidation of Fat<\/h2>\n
<\/a>It's been written by more brilliant men than myself that the body is a fat burning machine, and they are entirely correct. \u00a0We are built with a system to turn fat into huge amounts of energy. \u00a0To explore that pathway,\u00a0let's take the 16\u00a0carbon palmitic acid, or palmitate as an example.<\/p>\n\n
Protein Metabolism<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe Citric Acid Cycle<\/h2>\n