How does fat go out of the body?
We’ve heard it many times, phrases like “burn your fat” and “melt your fat.”
Does this mean that we burn fat to ashes or melt it to a liquid form?
If so where does the end product of this action go?
strong woman lifting weights
Does it convert to muscle? OR… Does it get excreted during your regular morning routine?
There’s a lot of misinformation about what happens when your body loses fat. This causes misconceptions about weight loss and leads to fad diets.
Today, I’ll share with you some science behind fat loss, so you understand why you do what you do for weight loss!
You breathe out lost fat!
Yes, that’s the end product of fat burning or fat metabolism in our bodies.
Fat is a combination of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen.
So, when you break down fat, the molecules arrange themselves as:
Carbon dioxide – CO2 (one carbon with two oxygen atoms)
Water – H2O (Two hydrogens and one Oxygen atom)
A researcher from the University of New South Wales and a Physicists had the answers. They published their findings as an article in British Medical Journal.
According to the findings:
To oxidize ten kilos (22 pounds) of fat you need to inhale 29 kilos (64 pounds) of oxygen. This produces 28 kilos (62 pounds) of carbon dioxide and 11 kilos (24 pounds) of water.
Woman running breathing on beach.
This means, at a resting state when you breathe at a normal pace, you consume less oxygen. When performing exercises like running, pushups, or brisk walking, you inhale more oxygen. This makes you breathe out more carbon dioxide.
So, if you exercise daily you tend to lose fat.
The water that is also one of the end products of burning fat goes out as urine and sweat.
That is why you need to exercise for weight loss!
Now you know why staying active is so important.
The more carbon dioxide you breathe out, the more body fat you lose.
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So, at a resting state, a person weighing 70 kg (154 LBS) exhales about 200 ml carbon dioxide per minute. This is the basal or resting metabolic rate of a person.
When you replace an hour of rest with exercise the metabolic rate shoots up to 7 times that of the resting rate!
Researchers quote in their article,
“Losing weight requires unlocking the carbon stored in fat cells,”
How to make sure you breathe more oxygen in and carbon dioxide out?
Breathe well: Maintain a steady breathing pattern while exercising. This ensures your muscles are getting enough oxygen.
Always breathe through your nose and not through your mouth. This makes a huge difference in oxygen intake.
Try aerobic exercises: Aerobic exercises makes you inhale more oxygen than Anaerobic exercises. Such exercises are intense and you need to generate energy faster to meet the demands of the exercise.
Does that mean you need to spend hours on the treadmill or elliptical machine? Absolutely not! Short bursts of aerobic exercise are what I recommend.
HIIT running up stairs outside
My go-to is a good H.I.I.T workout (high-intensity interval training).
In one study, participants who engaged in HIIT lost six times the amount of fat as those who performed steady-state aerobics.
You get the message! Keep your body moving and stay active for a healthier body weight.