Question

Why are fatty acids better than glycogen for storing large amounts of chemical energy?

Short answer

Fatty acids are better than glycogen for storing a large amount of energy as they contain more chemical bonds and hence the breaking of more chemical bonds in fatty acids generates more energy. Also, fatty acids occupy very less storage space than glycogen.

Step-by-step solution

Metabolism

The fatty acid metabolism generates more energy in the form of ATP molecules, as compared to glycogen metabolism. The fatty acids have the string energy of approximately 9kcal/gram as compared to the glycogen with only 4.3kcal/gram.

Size

Glycogen is a very big molecule in size as compared to fatty acids and hence fatty acids are easy to be stored as a chemical source of energy as compared to glycogen.