Fat catabolism, also known as lipid catabolism, is the process of lipids or phospholips being broken down by lipases. The opposite of this is fat anabolism which involves the storage of energy, and the building of cell walls. The process for lipid catabolism is quite simple, three molecules are water are used, and the fatty acid chains are removed from the glycerol chain. This results in three fatty acid chains, and a glycerol molecule.