BIOENERGETICS

Dr. Tabish Fahim

Associate Professor,
SOP, MGMIHS, Aurangabad
 Bioenergetics
• The chemical process of converting food into energy is termed
bioenergetics, or metabolism.

• Metabolism = the sum of all chemical reactions that take place in a

cell or organism.

• Bioenergetics = the quantitative study of the energy

transductions that occur in in living cells and the nature and
function of the chemical processes underlying these
transductions.
 Principles of Bioenergetics
A thorough understanding of bioenergetics is necessary to
understand

• how the human body meets its energy needs at rest and during
physical activity,

• why some foods are preferentially used in metabolism during

various physical tasks,

• what are some of the causes of fatigue during a physical task.

• long-term body weight control and

• why it is possible to gain body fat by eating too much of any

type of food.
 Energy Sources

• Light from the sun is the ultimate source of

all energy on earth.

• Plants using the process of photosynthesis

utilize light energy to perform chemical
reactions that produce carbohydrates in the
form of simple sugars.

• Human beings and animals eat plants and other

animals to obtain food and the energy needed to
maintain bodily functions.

• If it were not possible to convert one form

of energy to another, the conversion of food into
useful bodily energy could not take place.
 Nutrients: Building blocks of Energy
• Nutrients are organized into 6 different classes: carbs, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals and
water.

• The first 3 –Carbs, fats and proteins – are energy-yielding nutrients constitute a major portion
of most foods

• The last 3 nutrients – vitamins, minerals, and water- do not provide the body with energy but they are
necessary to assist the body in utilizing the energy from fats, carb and proteins.

• Carb and proteins are polymers, which means that they consist of many identical or similar single
units, with each unit (monomer) being a smaller molecule. Each monomer can be combined with
other monomers to form a large polymer.

• Polymers are important in exercise physiology because the energy-yielding nutrients are often
stored in the body as polymers.

• Polymers are also added to sport drinks and power bars to help improve exercise performance.
 Energy-yielding nutrients: Carbohydrates
• Carbohydrates stored within the body provide a rapid and readily available source of energy.

• These carbohydrates are found in three forms: monosaccharides, disaccharides, and

polysaccharides.

• Monosaccharides are simple sugars such as glucose, fructose (fruit sugar), and galactose (milk
sugar).

• All simple sugars contain six carbon, 12 hydrogens and 6 oxygens in a ring structure.

• For metabolic purposes, glucose is the most important simple sugar and is the only form of
carbohydrate that can be directly metabolized to obtain energy.

• Although the digestive tract can absorb monosaccharides after absorption, other simple sugars
are converted by the liver into glucose.

• The term “blood sugar” refers to glucose.

Energy-yielding nutrients: Carbohydrates
 Energy-yielding nutrients: Carbohydrates
• Disaccharides are made up of two monosaccharides.
• For example,
• two glucose molecules can combine to form maltose, or
• glucose and fructose can combine to form sucrose

• Although disaccharides are consumed in the foods we eat, they must be

broken down into monosaccharides in the digestive tract before being
absorbed into the bloodstream.
 Energy-yielding nutrients: Carbohydrates
• Polysaccharides are complex carbohydrates made up of three to many hundreds
of monosaccharides.

• Two of the most common plant polysaccharides are starch and cellulose.

• Starch, which is found in grains and many other common plant foods, is digestible
by humans, whereas cellulose is not digestible by humans and makes up part of the
dietary fiber that is excreted as fecal matter.

• Because it is digestible, starch is absorbed by the digestive tract in the form of

monosaccharides and can be used immediately for energy or stored in the form of
glycogen.
 Energy-yielding nutrients: Carbohydrates
• Glycogen is not found in plants and is the polysaccharide form in which
animals store carbohydrate.
•
• Glycogen is composed of hundreds to thousands of glucose molecules bound
together.

• Glucose and glycogen are the carbohydrates important for

metabolism at rest and during exercise.

• During exercise, muscle cells can obtain glucose by absorbing it

from the bloodstream or by glycogenolysis from intramuscular
glycogen stores.

• In addition, glycogenolysis in the liver can maintain blood glucose levels

during exercise and at times of rest between meals.

• However, there are relatively small amounts of glycogen stored within the
liver and other cells of the body compared to skeletal muscle stores.
 Energy-yielding nutrients: Fats
• Fats are contained in both plant and animal tissues.

• The two fats important for metabolism are fatty acids and
Ttriglycerides

• Fats found in the form of triglycerides are quite plentiful within the
body and can be metabolized for energy production.

• A fatty acid contains an even number of 4-24 carbon atoms bound

together in a chain.

• Fatty acids can be classified as saturated or unsaturated, and

unsaturated fats can be further categorized as monounsaturated or
polyunsaturated.
Energy-yielding nutrients: Fats
 Energy-yielding nutrients: Fats
• A saturated fatty acid is a fatty acid containing the maximal
number of hydrogen atoms and no double bonds, whereas an
unsaturated fatty acid does not contain the maximal no. of
hydrogen atoms and has at least one double bond between
carbon molecules.
 Energy-yielding nutrients: Fats

• Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids contain at least

one and more than one, respectively, double bonds between
carbon molecules and thus do not contain the maximal number
of hydrogen atoms.

• Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids compose a

relatively large amount of the fats contained within vegetable
oils, such as olive oil;

• numerous health benefits such as lowering total blood

cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood clotting factors have been
attributed to these types of fatty acids within the diet.
 Energy-yielding nutrients: Triglycerides
• Within the body, fatty acids are stored as triglycerides.

• A triglyceride is composed of a glycerol molecule plus

three
attached fatty acids.

• Triglycerides are stored primarily in fat cells but can also be stored
in other types of tissue, such as skeletal muscle.

• If needed for energy, triglycerides are broken apart into their

component fatty acids and glycerol molecule, a process known as
lipolysis.
 Energy-yielding nutrients: Triglycerides

• The fatty acids can then be metabolized to release usable energy.

• Glycerol cannot be metabolized by skeletal muscle directly; however, the

liver can use glycerol to synthesize glucose, which can then be metabolized
to provide energy.

• Fat stores are quite abundant, even in very lean individuals.

• Therefore, depletion of fat as an energy source during physical activity, even

during long-term endurance events, does not occur, preventing fat depletion as
a cause of fatigue.
 Energy-yielding nutrients: Proteins
• Protein can be found in both animals and plants.

• Amino acids are the molecules that compose all proteins.

• The basic structure of all amino acids is similar, consisting of a

central carbon molecule that has bonds with a hydrogen
molecule, an amino group (NH), an acid group (COOH), and a
side chain unique to each particular amino acid.

• It is the side chain that distinguishes the approximately 20

amino acids from each other.
 Energy-yielding nutrients: Proteins
• Essential amino acids are those
nine that must be ingested in the
foods that we eat because they
cannot be synthesized by the
human body.

• Nonessential amino acids, which

make up more than half of the
amino acids, are those that the
body can synthesize.

• Typically, only a small amount of

protein or amino acids are
metabolized to provide energy,
largely due to nitrogen, which is
not found in fat or carbohydrate.
 Role of Enzymes
• Enzymes are protein molecules that facilitate a chemical
reaction, including metabolic ones, by lowering the energy
(energy of activation) needed for the reaction to take place.

• Note that the enzyme does not cause the reaction to take place
but facilitates and increases the speed at which it takes place and,
therefore, increases the rate at which the products resulting from
the chemical reaction are produced.
 Role of Enzymes
• Similar to all molecules, an enzyme has a unique,
three-dimensional shape.

• The unique shape allows the molecule(s) or

substrate(s) involved in the chemical reaction to adhere
to the enzyme, in a fashion similar to a lock and its
key.

• The substrates fit into the indentations of an enzyme,

forming an enzyme-substrate complex, which lowers
the Energy of activation so that the reaction can take
place at a faster rate.

• After the reaction is completed, the product of the reaction disassociates from the
enzyme.
 Role of Enzymes
• Some enzymes can participate in either a catabolic reaction, in which a
substrate is broken apart into two product molecules thus releasing energy,
or an anabolic reaction, in which one product molecule is formed from
two substrate molecules, which requires energy.

• Mass action effect is one of the major physiological factors

responsible for controlling the metabolic reaction