Research
Macro partitioning
In normal, non-overfed humans, de novo hepatic lipogenesis (the conversion of carbohydrate to fat) is a quantitatively minor pathway, contributing less than 2% of circulating VLDL fatty acids even under high carbohydrate refeeding conditions.
You do not need to fear carbohydrates turning into body fat. In healthy individuals, even with high carbohydrate intake, the body converts less than 2% of those carbs into fat. Focus on total calorie balance and overall diet quality rather than avoiding carbs to prevent fat gain.
StrongRefutesVERY_HIGH confidence
The fraction of VLDL-palmitate derived from de novo lipogenesis was only 0.91±0.27% (fasted) and 1.64-1.97% (fed)... Thus, de novo hepatic lipogenesis is a quantitatively minor pathway, consistent with gas exchange estimates
Why this rating
Direct measurement using stable isotopes and xenobiotic probes in controlled clinical settings.
Source
Measurement of de novo hepatic lipogenesis in humans using stable isotopes.
Marc K. Hellerstein et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 1991
DOI 10.1172/jci115206
mechanism_only · n=11Cited 364×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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