Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Lose Weight, and Stay Healthy

by Herman Pontzer

The liver breaks apart unused chylomicrons and stores the fat or repackages it into other lipoprotein containers (including the low-density lipoproteins, or LDLs, and the high-density lipoproteins, or HDLs, in your cholesterol report). The liver is the main site of gluconeogenesis, converting fats and amino acids to glucose when needed, and turning the nitrogen-bearing head of amino acids into urea to excrete in the urine. The liver is also the primary site of ketogenesis. Oh, and it breaks down a wide range of toxins, from alcohol to arsenic (but you should still definitely do that grapefruit and maple syrup cleanse . . .). All this ceaseless metabolic work burns about 300 kcal per day, 20 percent of BMR.