A conceptual manuscript proposing that obesity is driven not only by caloric excess or insulin-mediated fuel partitioning, but by chronic reductive stress—an electron-backlog state where NADH/NAD++ and related redox couples become persistently over‑reduced because mitochondrial electron disposal is constrained. The paper integrates evidence on impaired Complex I/OXPHOS flux, metabolic inflexibility, and intermediate “spillover” (e.g., lactate, acylcarnitines), and outlines testable biomarkers and intervention predictions aimed at restoring mitochondrial throughput and redox balance.
Yunus Emre Zahiroğlu (Wed,) studied this question.