Fat doesn't just get oxidised. It goes through a production line, and every station is regulated. ① Mobilise. Triglyceride in the fat cell is split into fatty acids. Insulin brakes it; adrenaline accelerates it. (Glucagon's role here is smaller and far more contested than it's usually made out to be; more on that in Post 9.) ② Transport. Fatty acids aren't water-soluble, so they ride through the blood bound to albumin. Fat from around your organs drains into the portal vein and hits the liver before anything else sees it. ③ The gate. A long-chain fatty acid physically cannot enter the mitochondrion on its own. It has to be handed through by an enzyme called CPT1. This is the narrowest point in the entire line. ④ β-oxidation. Inside, it's cut two carbons at a time. ⑤ Disposal. The pieces enter the Krebs cycle and become ATP. Or, if there's a surplus, ketones. Here's the part worth sitting with. Almost everything the fitness industry sells you targets station ①. Fat-loss pills. Stimulants. Cold plunges. Fasted cardio protocols. All of them push harder on the station that was never the problem. Fat mobilised with no deficit to oxidise it goes back to the store. (R§23) Which of these five had you actually heard of before?

Contents - thoughts? This is a constantly revised document as of 17 09 2026 PART I: The fat 1 · White, brown, beige 2 · Chain length: medium-chain fat bypasses the gate 3 · Saturation: oxidise or store 4 · Essential fatty acids at a 30 g floor 5 · EPA and DHA 6 · The glycerol 7 · How fat oxidation is measured PART II: What sets the rate 8 · The deficit sets how much 9 · There is no daily disposal ceiling 10 · Where the rise is smaller 11 · The cap is a policy 12 · What is left of "throughput" 12b · Three ways to count a fat loss: the summary PART III: The machinery, station by station 13 · ① Mobilisation 14 · ② Transport 15 · ③ The CPT1 gate 16 · ④ β-oxidation 17 · ⑤ Terminal disposal PART IV: The liver's export door 18 · The measured plateau 18b · The export figure this reference rejects 19 · What the door caps 20 · Who this matters for PART V: The closed loop 21 · No leak at the gut 22 · The bile objection 23 · No leak at the store 24 · How fat leaves 25 · Which is used first PART VI: Eating fat does not train you to oxidise fat 26 · Falsified twice 27 · The isocaloric ketogenic diet, measured 27b · Where the "70–80% fat" figure comes from 28 · Ketones and lipolysis 29 · Adaptation takes days to weeks PART VII: Same machinery, different buffers 30 · The personal fat threshold 31 · Line A and Line B 31b · Insulin resistance, station by station 31c · Which line a member is on: markers a practitioner can use 32 · Modifiers 32b · Two damage signatures PART VIII: What raises fat oxidation, and what does not 33 · The rate per minute 34 · Training raises it 35 · Fasted cardio 36 · Cold and heat 37 · Supplements 37b · The road-block map 37b · The road-block map 37c · Subtract before you add 37d · The single most useful step PART IX: THE 4-HOUR DIET PART X: The evidence behind the plan's numbers 38 · The floors 39 · The cap and the minimum 39b · The day-cost multiplier: 1.3 and 1.49, both stated 40 · The throttle and the blocks 41 · What the machinery says about the plan

Am I wrong if I claim that most of the members here are old farts trying to fix things they have done in the past? Nothing wrong with that, in fact, that is 99% better than accepting to become older and kind of give up because of it?!

This is my current limit, and I am pretty pleased with it. How much can you press, and does it even matter in the end? I will be 57 yo soon and I still want to be able to have some strength.

This comes from the CICO post that @Stuie Bee added and @Gary Le Rosbifs mentioned. Question: Would you prefer to ask specific questions as Gary posted, or would you prefer a multi-page breakdown split into sections, like the 8 posts on fuel and energy?