What are the by-products of the metabolism of stored body fat?

Factual Questions
1

I’m on a diet at the moment (just general reduced calories plus exercise) and it is working well; some of my more conspicuous body fat reserves are starting to shrink, but I was wondering what happens to the by products of that fat being burnt (i.e. how they are leaving my body); What are the ultimate waste products of the metabolism of stored body fat?

2

If I remember my college physiology class at least one of the by-products of buring fat is WATER, which is expelled from the body (if not needed at that moment) in the normal way.

3

One of the other big ones is free fatty acids, which can be used as a fuel source, or put back into storage.

4

Fatty acids get converted into acetyl-CoA. The Krebs cycle converts that acetyl-CoA into CO[sub]2[/sub]. Thus most of the carbon from your love handles is excreted through your nose.

5

Thanks; that’s what I suspected - mostly water and CO[sub]2[/sub]. On a side note, isn’t this spare water part of the reason that camels can last so long in the desert?

6

Perhaps, but the main adaptation of the camel (and other desert animals) is a very long Loop of Henle, along with an enlarged renal medulla. This allows production of urine approaching concentrations of 22X body osmolality. This allows for efficient waste elimination while conserving water.

7

Thanks; I didn’t know that.

Another (sort of related) question: are there any animals (other than social insects*) that store carbohydrates as their energy reserves within their body?
Also excluding hamster pouches and similar - I’m looking for something that actually lays down substantial reserves in tissues.

*If you consider the colony to be the organism, then honey bees do it, otherwise, those weird ants that have a caste of bulbous sugar-filled repletes.

8

Animals (as opposed to plants and some bacteria) lack any means of converting fatty acids to sugars, so they have to store both fat and carbohydrates, in the form of glycogen, in order to meet metabolic needs. Glycogen is stored mainly in the liver and muscles. Here’s more than you likely want to to know about glycogen.