Health
Related: About this forum"...when you lose weight, you exhale your fat."
Last edited Thu Dec 18, 2014, 12:45 AM - Edit history (1)
I figured this out for myself a few years ago, when I set out to lose 85 lbs. I realized that most of the weight I wanted to lose was going to have to be exhaled away. It's great to see an article like this to back me up.
In one way it was a daunting thought, but it was also helpful for making me feel like all the heavy breathing during intense exercise was really doing something.
The necessary physics of the weight loss process are very important to keep in mind when you evaluate diet and exercise programs. Fat doesn't just disappear, it doesn't "melt" away. "Turned into energy" is NOT a way that mass goes away to any significant degree in anything but nuclear reactions.
You have to literally, not figuratively, burn fat away. The burning doesn't produce a flame, but it's a form of burning nevertheless. Fat is a hydrocarbon. Hydrocarbons + O₂ -> CO₂ + H₂O + heat. The carbon part of your fat is the heaviest part of your fat, and that can only escape your body as CO₂ via exhalation. Even part of the weight you lose in the form of the hydrogen in water goes out through your lungs too, as moisture in your breath.
Full article: http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/where-does-your-fat-go-when-you-lose-weight
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Fascinating.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Eat Less, Exercise More
Skinner
(63,645 posts)Didn't realize you posted it until I just searched for it. Very cool.
Silent3
(15,221 posts)I only vaguely remembered bringing up the idea before, I'd totally forgotten about that post myself.
tridim
(45,358 posts)Apparently a 4-count for the inhale, a 7-count for the pause and an 8-count for the exhale is the most efficient and helps relieve stress.
I've been practicing daily, but breathing is a tough habit to change.
mike_c
(36,281 posts)Reduced carbon in biomass is oxidized back to CO2 and water. But don't forget protein catabolism, too. Got to get rid of the excess nitrogen, usually as urea or similar compounds.
Silent3
(15,221 posts)There's only so much of your weight you can piss away.
Silent3
(15,221 posts)It's very hard not to lose a little muscle when losing weight, but it's only bad diet plans that cause high muscle loss. Since stored body fat (what you're really trying to lose when you lose weight, if you're smart) is just carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, any nitrogen compounds you shed while losing weight are either from the food you're eating on your diet (totally normal) or from losing muscle (a little of that is normal too, but you don't want it to be too much).