Are There Advantages to Storing Energy as Fat?

Storing excess energy as fat rather than as protein or carbohydrate has great advantages. First, we are able to store more than twice the amount of energy in 1 gram of fat (9 calories) as we can in 1 gram of carbohydrate or protein (4 calories). Second, stored fat will have a lot less water associated with it than would be stored in carbohydrate and protein. The net effect of storing excess diet energy as fat versus carbohydrate or protein is that our body weight and volume are minimized. Said differently, it allows the human body to be lighter and smaller despite significant energy stores.

Storing energy as fat, versus carbohydrate or protein, allows our body to remain smaller and lighter.