Metabolic Water

Desert-adapted animals like camels and kangaroo rats can sustain themselves largely on metabolic water generated from fat stores. A study on desert-crossing migratory birds found that the dry-fasting group generated six times more metabolic water than the group that was actively drinking water. When fat is oxidized with oxygen from the air, the biochemical reaction produces metabolic water as a byproduct. The more fat the body burns, the more water it generates internally. Eight to ten percent of the body's water is manufactured internally by the mitochondria during fat oxidation, not consumed from external sources. Continuous external water intake suppresses the physiological signal to activate internal metabolic water production. Metabolic water travels from inside cells outward carrying intracellular waste products — an inside-out flushing process that externally consumed water cannot replicate.