# Glycogen

Category: Metabolism

Also known as: liver glycogen, glycogen storage

Glycogen is the stored form of glucose, primarily held in the liver, and its adequate storage is a central marker of metabolic health in Ray Peat's framework. Peat argued that a healthy liver, supported by proper thyroid function, should store enough glycogen to sustain the…

8 passages · 3 authors · 2009–2022 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/glycogen

## Synthesis

**Glycogen** is the stored form of glucose, primarily held in the liver, and its adequate storage is a central marker of metabolic health in Ray Peat's framework. [Source 1, 3] Peat argued that a healthy liver, supported by proper thyroid function, should store enough glycogen to sustain the body for at least eight hours, allowing a person to sleep through the night without activating stress hormones. [Source 3] He noted that **hypothyroidism** and elevated **estrogen** severely impair the liver's capacity to store glycogen, leading to a rapid depletion of this reserve. [Source 1, 3] This impairment creates a natural craving for sugar, as the body struggles to maintain blood glucose, a symptom Peat personally experienced until he began taking thyroid hormone. [Source 1]

The physiological consequence of depleted glycogen is a cascade of stress responses. When liver glycogen runs out, the body first releases **adrenaline** to mobilize any remaining glucose, causing symptoms like shakiness and coldness. [Source 3] If this fails, the body shifts to a more destructive mode, secreting **cortisol**, which breaks down the body's own tissues—starting with the *thymus gland* and progressing to muscles and skin—to convert protein into sugar. [Source 3, 5] Peat emphasized that this *catabolic* state is the essence of harmful stress, whereas a person with full glycogen stores can easily go 12 to 18 hours without food and without triggering this tissue-wasting process. [Source 5, 6] The brain is the primary consumer of glucose at rest, making a steady supply from glycogen critical for cognitive function and preventing the neurological symptoms of hypoglycemia. [Source 5]

The liver's capacity for glycogen is substantial but finite. Dinkov and Roddy have cited research indicating that the liver can store approximately **500 grams** (about one pound) of glycogen, and that *de novo lipogenesis*—the conversion of carbohydrate to fat—does not become a significant pathway until these stores are chronically saturated through massive overfeeding. [Source 4, 7] Fructose is particularly effective at refilling hepatic glycogen, with one infusion study showing it produced about 360% more glycogen than a glucose infusion. [Source 4] This rapid storage is cytoprotective, as fructose has been shown to continue supplying ATP to cells even when oxidative metabolism is poisoned. [Source 4] The frequent nighttime waking that plagues many people is interpreted as a direct sign of poor liver function, indicating that glycogen stores have been exhausted during the night, forcing a stress response that disrupts sleep. [Source 7]

Several factors are known to degrade the liver's ability to store and manage glycogen. **Endotoxin** from intestinal bacteria places a great burden on the liver, and a fatty liver, whether from alcoholism or non-alcoholic sources, physically impedes glycogen storage. [Source 2, 7] A deficiency in nutrients like **choline** and vitamin A can promote the accumulation of fat in the liver, further compromising its function. [Source 8] To restore optimal glycogen storage, Peat and Dinkov have recommended substances that support liver health and reduce fat accumulation, including **niacinamide** (in doses under 500mg), aspirin, vitamin E, vitamin K, gelatin, glycine, and taurine. [Source 7] Coffee and thyroid correction are also cited as key interventions that help a person go longer without food stress by supporting the underlying metabolic rate that governs glycogen synthesis. [Source 6]

## People also ask

### How does low thyroid function affect glycogen storage?

Peat argued that hypothyroidism severely impairs the liver's capacity to store glycogen, leading to rapid depletion of this reserve and creating a natural craving for sugar as the body struggles to maintain blood glucose.

### What happens in the body when liver glycogen runs out?

The corpus describes a stress cascade where the body first releases adrenaline to mobilize remaining glucose, and if that fails, it secretes cortisol to break down the body's own tissues like muscle and skin to convert protein into sugar.

### Why is fructose considered effective for refilling liver glycogen?

The entry notes that fructose is particularly effective at refilling hepatic glycogen, with one infusion study showing it produced about 360% more glycogen than a glucose infusion, and this rapid storage is cytoprotective.

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## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — Sugar Myths Part 2

Ray Peat · Interview · 2011

> **Ray Peat:** There's a natural tendency of people who have some hormone imbalance, especially hypothyroidism, which makes your liver unable to store glycogen effectively, it causes a natural craving for sugar.
>
> **Herb Doctor:** Glycogen, just so you know, is a storage form of sugar.
>
> **Caller:** Aha?
>
> **Herb Doctor:** You take in dietary sugars and then that gets converted into glycogen, as to where the body stores it up for later on.
>
> **Caller:** Aha.
>
> **Ray Peat:** I was always extremely craving sugar, [HD: So was I!] and generally eating a lot until I took thyroid. I was probably about 40 years old when I first took thyroid and I suddenly had no more sugar cravings, I could go 8 hours without getting terribly hungry or shaky or thinking about sweet things.
>
> **Caller:** Well, that's good to know. I'll just have to tell him he's got to ask his Dr, he says he's been tested for diabetes and he doesn't have it but you know, it's unhealthy what he's doing, pouring sugar into coffee and I don't know if that's to irritate me or you know, I don't know, but he doesn't care, and he thinks it's cool. And then still he's had kidney stones, aren't those influenced by sugar?

### Source 2 — The Thermo Diet Podcast Episode 78 - Life, Liver Health, & More with Danny Roddy

Danny Roddy · Interview · Apr 25, 2021 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo4LvSaq_9Q

> **Danny Roddy:** glycogenesis, like a storage of sugar in the liver. And that's like apparently very difficult or impossible when the thyroid is low. So that like the thyroid is regulating the storage of sugar in the liver. So yeah. So I would think if the person's temperature and pulse were low, that would just mean their liver was under functioning. And that could, again, just like screw up every, like make a person very sick.

### Source 3 — Ask the Herb Doctor: Sugar I

Ray Peat · Interview · Sep 17, 2010 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgnzAR_a2MI

> ## Glycogen Storage and Stress Hormones
>
> **Andrew Murray:** I think it's important to expand on the liver as a storage organ for glycogen. How much glycogen is the liver able to store? How long can people go with just eating proteins or not eating before their liver runs out?
>
> **Ray Peat:** If your thyroid and other hormones are in the right concentration, your liver should be able to store at least eight hours of glycogen. Everyone should be able to get through the night on the amount of glycogen in their liver without resorting to other sources of energy. However, when your thyroid is a little low, or if your estrogen is too high, your liver sometimes can hardly store any glycogen. Typically, when your glycogen runs out, you send out a surge of adrenaline, which will squeeze the last little bit of glucose out of your liver. When your liver can't respond to the adrenaline anymore—the first sign of depleted glucose is feeling shaky and cold from the high adrenaline—you then resort to increased cortisol. Cortisol begins breaking down your tissues, turning protein into fat and carbohydrate for energy. Under that extreme condition, when you've been out of glycogen long enough to run on cortisol for about a day, your thymus will be dissolved just in a few hours. When the quickly dissolved tissues such as the thymus are gone, your muscles will atrophy. People who fast for a week or two will usually lose more muscle weight than fat because of the very rapid conversion of protein into fuel under the influence of cortisol.

### Source 4 — [3/4] The Male Pattern Baldness Myth - Nutrition and Diagnostics

Danny Roddy · Interview · Aug 3, 2015 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysn_lq2coPw

> **Danny Roddy:** Getting a little more technical, cells get their energy from the flow of electrons from sugar and fat, which act as reductants, losing their electrons ultimately to oxygen, the ultimate electron acceptor. When a cell isn't getting everything it needs and oxidation fails or electrons cannot be donated to oxygen, the cell becomes overly reduced or too many electrons, which can lead to the generation of free radicals. However, the redox balance or the organization of the cell can be supported by fructose. Dr. Lustig and others have often called fructose a dose-dependent toxin. However, in an experiment, fructose was able to continue supplying ATP to liver cells poisoned by cyanide. The researchers suggested that fructose was cytoprotective or cell protective. Another common argument against fructose is that it's shunted directly to the liver where it is converted to fat, setting the stage for fatty liver disease, diabetes, and obesity. While it is true that the liver rapidly uses fructose, it does so primarily to refill hepatic glycogen or liver glycogen. In one study, an infusion of fructose resulted in about 360% more glycogen than a glucose infusion. The liver's capacity for glycogen is very large. One study suggested that de novo lipogenesis or DNL is not an important pathway in humans and that chronic overfeeding on carbohydrate increased glycogen stores of about 500 grams before DNL became significant. To clarify, only with chronic overfeeding and saturated glycogen stores does the conversion of carbs to fat become significant. While often talked about in the context of athleticism, adequate liver glycogen can help guard against low blood sugar and the subsequent release of the counter regulatory hormones. So let's talk about dietary fat.

### Source 5 — Ray Peat Stress Interview - Eluv - Part 1

Ray Peat · Interview · 2009

> **Ray Peat:** If you're really healthy then you can meet challenges without experiencing something that Hans Selye would have called stress, for example if you are not very healthy, just skipping a meal can put you in really serious stress, but a healthy person stores something like 7 or 8 ounces of glucose in the form of glycogen in the liver and the muscles and brain, and since at rest the muscles can burn primarily fatty acids, your brain is the main thing that consumes glucose. If you're inactive and relaxed you can easily go 12-15 hours without eating or any stress at all, but if you're not able to store that much glycogen, for example low thyroid people or people with a history of a lot of sever stress aren't able to store much glycogen, and so when you run out of sugar, whether it's from going all day without eating or because your liver isn't very efficient, your body tries to increase the available glucose, normally being awake makes enough adrenaline to mobilise as much glucose from your stores as you need, but when you run out of that stored sugar, your brain still require sugar to function properly, instead of increasing adrenaline more and more, when it reaches a certain level and can't get the blood sugar up from storage, then you turn on the cortisol and that' the classes stress that can be harmful, because the cortisol dissolves first the tissues like the Thymus which is very fragile, that starts turning to sugar immediately when you run out of stored glycogen, and when the thymus is gone in just a few hours of intense stress, that happens to be one of the reasons they think adults don't have thymus glands, because by the time they're dead and are analysed, the thymus has been eaten up by stress - they may have had a perfectly normal thymus until death. After the thymus is consumed and turned to sugar, the cortisol starts breaking down your muscles, then your skin.

### Source 6 — One Radio Network: Health of the Human Body

Ray Peat · Interview · Mar 19, 2019

> ## Intermittent Fasting
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** Is there a benefit to intermittent fasting?
>
> **Ray Peat:** A healthy liver can store glycogen, so a healthy person can go 12 to 18 hours without eating. But if you have too much PUFA in your body, as soon as blood sugar dips, you pull PUFA into circulation and start damaging tissues.
>
> **Patrick Timpone:** Does coffee help?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yes. Coffee, aspirin, and correcting thyroid help you go longer without food stress.

### Source 7 — Serotonin Industry Lies & Fraud

Georgi Dinkov · Interview · Nov 11, 2022

> **Georgi Dinkov:** So estrogen is preventing that, but through a very bad mechanism, by shifting your metabolism towards the oxidation of fat. So what really you should be doing is basically doing things that stimulate the liver and helping it get rid of its fats, such as niacinamide in doses under 500 milligrams daily, aspirin, vitamin E, vitamin K, gelatin, and or glycine. Like the taurine is another amino acid that's also very good. So all of these things over time will help your liver recover. And then the liver should, a healthy liver should be able to store about 500 grams, about a pound of glycogen. And that is enough to prevent hypoglycemia episodes even at night. You know, let's say like you have a good meal or actually you don't eat at night, but you go to sleep. And then that's actually one of the best signs of whether your liver is working properly or not is how often at night you wake up. The more often you wake up, the poorer your liver function is because it means you have ran out of glycogen and you have to wake up like several times at night to kind of refeed yourself because you're getting into these hypoglycemia episodes.

### Source 8 — #08: Mitochondria, Low-Carb Advocates, Metabolic Stress, and Gilbert Ling with Kyle Mamounis

Danny Roddy · Interview · Aug 16, 2019 · https://open.spotify.com/episode/6mXcU4jilQVGWrvJr1eJI6

> **Kyle Mamounis:** Okay. So... I don't remember all the enzymes in the whole like glycogen storage pathway, but I believe that the most normal, so there's a ton of things like people can genetically not be able to store glycogen in their liver and they have to take, or actually there's a common condition. I forget what it's called, but they can store glycogen, but they can't release it. So they have to like go to sleep drinking like starch or else they'll like become hypoglycemic in their sleep because they won't you know what i mean their body won't um but normal people the thing that will mess with your any any liver function and definitely glycogen storage and glycogen release so they're both important because you know you have to be able to get to them is uh when you start to get inflammation and and fatty liver uh the things that lead up to that which would be you know medically speaking people would say like alcoholism but non-alcoholic fatty liver. I think if you have, let's see, what are the different nutrients? I know Chris Masterjohn for a while was talking about choline deficiency. But of course, choline deficiency or a deficiency in the ability to use choline to make phosphatidylcholine with fatty acids instead of triglycerides, that'll push... all the fatty acids that your liver is taking up into triglycerides, some of which will be packaged into VLDL and sent out, and some of which will be stored. And if that process gets pushed in that way enough, then you have a problem. So let's see, choline, probably vitamin A, sufficient vitamin A, really like everything in eggs. I think like every nutrient in an egg addresses liver function.
>
> **Danny Roddy:** Sweet. Do you want to do calls or keep going on questions? And then we can pull the plug relatively soon.

_Generated 2026-07-20 from the Bioenergetic Oracle corpus._