Intracellular components must be recycled for cells to maintain energy and ensure quality control of proteins and organelles. Autophagy is a highly conserved recycling process that involves degradation of cellular constituents in lysosomes. Although autophagy regulates a number of cell functions, it was first found to maintain energy balance in liver cells. As our understanding of autophagy has increased, we have found its connections to energy regulation in liver cells to be tight and complex. We review 3 mechanisms by which hepatic autophagy monitors and regulates cellular metabolism.