From Caloric Excess to Redox Imbalance: A New Conceptual Model of Obesity Rooted in Reductive Stress

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.