When you burn calories do u burn carbs too?

Question

Just wonderin....

Answer 1

You do not burn carbs.

Energy in Carbohydrates is turned into energy and stored in special molecules called ATP (Adenosine Tri-Phosphate) through a process called cellular respiration in all cells. It just so happens that foods with carbs carry more enery that will be turned into ATP. The ATP is then stored for future use. Fatty tissue stores an especially large amount of the energy.

Addition:

What true warrior said is correct
I forgot that we make glycogen. I thought only plants make that compounds.

darn

The calorie is a measure of energy. When you are burning calories, your body is really to break up ATP and release the chemically stored energy. When you exercise a lot, you body has to create ATP on the spot or borrow it from storage spaces (fatty tissue) Therefore you do not burn carbs as they have alreasy been converted into energy in the form of ATP.

Answer 2

ya. different exercise intensities will burn different ratios of carbs/fats

Addition: What sriramve said is only partially true. First your body doesn't store ATP. When you eat carbs your body doesn't just convert it to ATP right away. It can be broken down into lactic acid, which is what we burn for the first 30 seconds of aerobic exercise. Or it gets stored in our body first as glycogen, and then when that is full it stores the excess as fatty acids. When you do quick exercises you primarily burn your glycogen stores, which is derived from carbs. It is the breaking down of glycogen into ATP that is then used for cellular energy and thus providing energy for your exercise. So we break down the stored carbs in our body for energy. But on aerobic exercise longer than 25-30 minutes the primary source that our body relies on for energy is fat. It then breaks down fatty acids into ATP for energy, thus burning fat stores in our body. Thats is why the elite marathon runners are always so thin with little body fat. So while ATP is our bodies "energy currency" it is carbs and fats that primarily fuel our activities. Proteins can too but that is a whole other conversation...

Answer 3

when doing cardio the first 20-30min you burn carbs and only then start burning fat

Answer 4

No