ABSTRACT
Research by Kelley et al. (2000) has shown an altered metabolic pattern in obese individuals that they call ‘metabolic inflexibility’. In metabolic inflexibility (MI) fatty acid metabolism is not suppressed by rising insulin levels and it is not increased as expected in the basal or fasting state. Thus, the relative substrate flows appear ‘inflexible’ to changing metabolic conditions. This same observation was madebyCaprio (1999)onobese adolescent females.An increased accumulationof intramuscular triglyceride appears to disrupt normal insulin signaling and results in insulin resistance for affected myocytes (Kelley et al., 2000). The normal capacity to switch between carbohydrate and free fatty acid fuels based on availability and metabolic context is diminished – metabolic inflexibility.
