Where does the fat go when you lose it?

cmfruin2012

A wonderful study published yesterday about where the fat goes (no, the fat fairy doesn't take it!)

"Our calculations show that the lungs are the primary excretory organ for fat. Losing weight requires unlocking the carbon stored in fat cells, thus reinforcing that often heard refrain of 'eat less, move more.' We recommend these concepts be included in secondary school science curriculums and university biochemistry courses to correct widespread misconceptions about weight loss." The complete news story can be read here.

If you want to read the underlying study, click here.

neanderthin

Body fat is stored energy. Who would have thunk it.

TimothyFish

When you think about it, it seems obvious that you breathe it out as carbon dioxide, and yet, I can see why people wouldn't realize that, because we don't really think about the mass of carbon dioxide we're breathing out.

Unknown

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kgeyser

Chicken fat?

mykaylis

that's actually really neat. i would not have put the lungs at the top of my list, i was under the impression that the breakdown of fats into smaller molecular components produced heat energy and then was released that way, with byproducts released via the liver and kidneys.

learn something new every day!

fancy34668

look at your poop. youll start to see it floating. that means its fatty. if it sinks theres no fat.

TimothyFish

fancyfarmsquailunlimited wrote: »

look at your poop. youll start to see it floating. that means its fatty. if it sinks theres no fat.

Nice theory, but the buoyancy of poop has more to do with how much gas is in it.

Back to what this thread is really about: It raises the question, how much does one breath of air weigh? And how many times must one exhale to lose a pound of fat?